Tag Archives: butterfly swords

The Gateway to the Best Contest

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Ah, nostalgia…this time last year I was polishing Butterfly Swords and trying to enter it in contests in preparation for the Golden Heart®. The Golden Pen contest is closed for entries, but the Gateway has just opened!

I’m a little partial because:

1) MORWA is my home chapter and I’m coordinating the historical category

2) This was the very, very first contest where I finaled. It was with The Dragon and the Pearl (aka Silk and Shadows at the time) and not Butterfly Swords, though I did get great feedback on Butterfly.

3) This was the first time I received a request for a full manuscript off of pages — which means the first time an industry professional took notice!

Anyone who has their eye on the Golden Heart® or who wants to get good writing feedback, should enter the Gateway. There’s a half-off discount on multiple entries and MORWA as a chapter is very much into critique with the majority of the members also being active in the CORE critique group. Because of this, the comments tend to be very detailed on the entries. (No guarantees! But you have a much better chance, honestly!)

Here’s the bulletin below. More details about the significance of this contest to my writing journey will be revealed in an interview I’m doing with author Keli Gwyn on September 3rd on her blog: Romance Writers on the Journey

*****Permission to forward*****

Gateway to the Best contest is open! One of last year’s finalists, Jeannie
Lin, won a Golden Heart last month and sold her book. Two other
Gateway winners also finaled in the Golden Heart.

Entries consist of first twenty-five pages; no synopsis. Electronic entries
only.

Final judges are:
Historical -* Esi Sogah, Avon*
Contemporary Series -* Laura Barth, Harlequin*
Paranormal -* LaToya Smith,** Grand Central*
Single Title -* Katherine Pelz, Berkley*
Suspense -* Margo Lipschultz, Harlequin*

Deadline is Sept. 11 with payment via PayPal or check.

First entry is $30. Half price for multiple entries. No restriction on
number of entries in each category.

The first place winners will each receive a certificate, a one-year
membership to MORWA (e-newsletter only), a Gateway Arch charm, and an
electronic banner announcing the win for the author’s website. The second
place winners will each receive a certificate and a one-year membership to
MORWA (e-newsletter only). The third place winners will each receive a
certificate.

Grand prize winner receives $100 and a critique of full manuscript by one
major Published Author.

For more information, visit http://www.morwa.org/gateway.htm or contact me.
Nancy Litzau
Gateway coordinator

Missouri Romance Writers (MORWA)
nlitzau@sbcglobal. net

I'm dreaming…I'm dreaming

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first_flowers_blogI’m in one of my moods and when I get there, I always get introspective and there’s usually some blubbering.

Take a look at my flowers! My lovely chaptermates at MORWA gave them to me today to commemorate my first sale, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. They arranged for something better than the Golden Heart® and the contract put together. (Okay, maybe not better than the contract.)

Remember how I was gushing about meeting Jade Lee at Nationals? She shows up today at the Crestwood Barnes and Noble for the meeting. I guess that’s not too weird. She’s a romance author and the ladies at MORWA seem to know everybody. But when Kimberly Killion announces my sale, who comes up to present me my first flowers? Jade Lee…who also announces that she finished Butterfly Swords last night and is giving me a cover quote!!!

Let me go total fan girl for a moment. (I thought I played it pretty cool by not bawling all over Ms. Lee’s shoulder at the meeting) Four years ago, I found Hungry Tigress at a rest stop in Barstow. I had just started writing “Dragon Court”, just stumbling around trying to learn, and I wasn’t even setting it in Asia. I was going for a fantasy world based on China. But I read the rest of Jade Lee’s Tigress series and was so inspired, I committed to the Tang Dynasty.

Then I sought out more Jade Lee. I read Devil’s Bargain. I read The Concubine and brought it to Nationals to get it signed. You know the Crimson City series? I actually only read Seduced By Crimson and none of the others. What kind of nut only reads the middle book in a series?

I don’t know who in my chapter thought to do this for me, but I am simply overcome. Just to think, a year ago I had nothing to show but hope and now my freakin’ idol has read my book.

At this moment, I don’t care if Butterfly Swords only sells one copy to my mother. This is a dream come true and I’m so very happy.

This is a good moment.