Totally Epic WINNERS!!!

 


Before I announce the winners of Roni and Julie's Totally Epic Summer Contest, I want to thank each and every one of you who entered and pimped this thing all over the internet.  Y'all were awesome!  I hope that beyond the prizes, you all enjoyed the interviews as well.  And speaking of interviews, thanks again to all the publishing professionals who granted us interviews and generously offered prizes.  And thanks to Julie for sharing the contest with me!

 

And just to remind you guys, here's what was up for grabs...

 

  • Hannah Moskowitz's Break

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  • Lisa Desrocher's Personal Demons (ARC)

    •  

  • A query or first five pages critique from Fine Print Lit's intern, Gemma Cooper

    •  

  • A query or first five pages critique from Janet Reid's assistant, Meredith Barnes

    •  

  • A query or first five pages critique from agent Suzie Townsend

    •  

  • A query or first five pages critique from editor Brendan Deneen

    •  

    For those wanting to know the details of how winners were selected.   Here you go:  There were 991 entries (164 people, but each did a number of things to earn unique entries.)  Each entry was assigned a number, then I fed the numbers into random.org, which gave me the winners:
    Random Integer Generator

     

    Here are your random integers, generated without replacement:

     
     
     

    869
    223
    166
    717
    333
    500

    Timestamp: 2010-08-09 12:46:56 UTC

     

    And who were the lucky owners of each of those numbers????

     


    Congratulations to the winners!  I will be emailing you over the next few days so that you can select your prize.

     

    Also, because we were so grateful for all the promoting you guys did, we tossed the names of the people who earned ten points or more during the contest into a drawing for a honorable mention prize--a query or 5 pg. crit from me or Julie.  The winners of the "Best Pimp" prizes are:

     

    • Julie Ann Lindsey
    • Jessica Brooks


    Alright, that's all I've got for you today!  Join me in congratulating the winners and be sure to stop by tomorrow.  I'll be starting a series of blogs on the workshops and things I learned at RWA Nationals!

     

     

    **Today's Theme Song**
    "We Are the Champions" - Queen
    (player in sidebar, take a listen)


     

    Happy to Be Nominated, but Winning Doesn't Suck!

     

    Saturday. Was.  Awesome.

     

    I attended the North Texas Two-Step writer's conference, where I learned all kinds of terrific information (more on that this week) and where they announced the results to the Great Expectations contest.

    I've been waiting with bated breath for a month to know where I placed.  In the initial round I had ended up second with my scores, but once the finalists are sent to the editor for final judging, then your scores are erased and you start fresh, so you can end up anywhere.  I kept telling myself that I was just happy to final, that the worse that could happen would be honorable mention (4th place) which would still be a victory.  But my perfectionistic/competitive side held out hope for more.

    So when Angi Morgan went to the microphone to announce the results, my heart was pounding and I was preparing my I'm-so-happy-no-matter-where-I-placed face.  And of course, my category was the last one read, which was tortuous.  But then Angi called me up to the podium and started reading out the names in my category.  And guess what?

    I placed FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Woo-hoo!   The editor picked Wanderlust as the best in the Series Contemporary Romance category!  She gave me perfect scores on almost every checkpoint AND she requested a partial & synopsis to be sent to the Senior Editor at Harlequin Blaze using her name (the editor of Harlequin Superromance) as a reference.  *wide grin*  There's nothing like having a publishing professional say "hey, you're actually good at this."  So I'm over the moon.

    To top it all off, I got a small check for the win, which is officially the first money I've ever made for my writing.

    Days like Saturday are ones I need to file away in the memory bank so that when I'm having the I'm a Total Hack Days, I can remember these victories and keep going.

    Now, don't miss the rest of this week here at the blog.  Beyond the normal Beta Club days, I'll be sharing some of what I learned at the conference, including info from an agent/editor panel.

     
     
     

    *Today's Theme Song**
    "Beautiful Day" - U2
    (player in sidebar--go ahead, take a listen)