I finally figured out what it was about contests. Since I’m not getting any responses back from queries at the moment, this fills the void and pumps me full of adrenaline to keep going. The only thing is, I do pay dearly for my highs (and lows).
I’m still glowing from my last contest fix. I got my results back from the Suzannah contest, run by the NOLA Stars chapter of RWA. I didn’t final, but overall I did pretty well.
Let’s brag, shall we? Out of 230 points on the scorecard, I managed to get: 217,220, 226
The giddyness:
- The judge who raved the most about liking my entry, scored it the lowest. I’ll take that with open arms.
- The judge who scored it as a 220 commented that the setting initially put them off, but the writing drew them in. They wouldn’t “enthusiastically” recommend it, but they would recommend it. This reluctant reader made me the happiest of all. Am I just neurotically upbeat or what?
To improve:
- Mechanics. I suck at commas.
- My synopsis got rated down a couple of times. So I can either fix it or…enter contests without a synopsis requirement? hmmm….:)
- Modern voice
- Oh yeah, it absolutely is not historical fantasy. I get called out on that one over an over again. Guess it’s an “alternative history” because it’s not 100% historically accurate.
To get me through the winter (tentative dates):
- The Beacon Unpublished – Announces Dec. 15 – Results back, no final 🙁
- The Emily – Announces Dec. 31
- Hold Me, Thrill Me – Announces Jan. 15 – Finalled!
