Writing Contest

Hey, I'm back from Washington, DC, where I was up for a Golden Heart Award for best unpubbed YA manuscript. Big congrats to lovely Shoshana Brown, who won our category!

I'm still dreadfully jet-lagged and will some day blog about my experience o/s (hopefully before it gets lost in my sieve-like brain). But to prove the whole thing wasn't a dream, Joanne Lockyer sent me this photo taken on the awards night. (That's the brilliant Simone Elkeles on stage announcing my name.)



A new writing competition just opened for Australian writers. The prize is a book deal with Scribe Publications + $12,000. The catch/es - the entrant has to be 35 or over (refreshing!) and the book must not be under consideration by any other publishers or contests. An entry form and more info can be found here.

Gold Rush!

I am having a very shiny, golden birthday week. The lovely Trish Milburn phoned me at work this morning with the amazing news that I'm a Golden Heart finalist for best unpublished manuscript in the YA category. (Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!)

If you followed this post on my postal debacle, you'll understand how much this means to me. Without my dad backing me up, my entry might not have made it to the RWA office in time, so to be among the finalists after all that drama is surreal.

Congratulations to my fellow finalists in the YA field: Amanda Brice, Elizabeth C. Langston, Addison Fox and Shoshana Dawn Brown. I'm told we're all in for a golden ride until the awards ceremony in July. I'll be saving all my gold coins so I can make it to Washington, DC.

I'm also soooo happy that my good friends Christine Wells (Historical) and Tina Ferraro (YA) have finalled in the RITA Award for published authors. Both of these mega talents so deserve to be recognised.

What's your good news for the week?

The Little Things

Maybe I'm just easily pleased, but there's nothing like a few little wins to make your day. When I booked a haircut this morning, I learned my regular hairstylist is on holidays and that the only available appointment this Wednesday is with the salon's "art director." Which sounds fabulous and Hollywood-like, but it comes at a price. $95 to be exact. The receptionist rightfully took my hyperventilation fit as a sign of shock. She then said they're happy to charge what I usually pay. Yay! Now I'll be able to buy a couple of books with the savings and thus further stimulate the economy as well as my mind.

The second little win comes after yet another mail fail. I'd ordered moisturiser from online discount retailer activeskin.com.au. Surprise, surprise, the courier responsible for delivering the item lost said item. Amanda from Active Skin was very apologetic. On Christmas Eve, she arranged to send a few samples to tide me over until she could send what I originally ordered. A dozen samples arrived today and I think my parched skin will be fully hydrated for the next couple of weeks. Yay, Amanda!

Finally, the third "win" is a discovery that appeals not so much to my consumerism but more to my writing ambitions. The Australian Women's Weekly magazine, together with Penguin Group (Australia), has announced a short story competition. Stories must be between 3,000 and 5,000 words, and feature a woman as the central character. Contracted authors are ineligible. The winner will receive A$10,000 and a manuscript assessment if they've completed a novel. Entries close April 21, 2009. You must fill out an original entry form, which is available in the magazine. Full terms and conditions are supposed to be listed at www.aww.com.au/bookclub, but I must be blind 'cause I can't see them. There are great writing resources on this page, anyway.

And a not-so-little thing before I sign off: Big congrats to my CP Stephanie Kuehnert, who found a gorgeous engagement ring under the tree on Christmas Day! Very exciting! (She said yes to the accompanying big question, btw.)


see more pwn and owned pictures


see more pwn and owned pictures

Please, Mr Postman, Where Are My Golden Heart Entries?

The Golden Heart contest is one of the most important for unpublished romance writers. Each year, the organisers receive about 1,000 entries in 10 different categories. These are whittled down to 100 entries. Acquiring editors at publishing houses judge the finalists, and the winners are announced at a ceremony often dubbed the Oscars for romance writers. In this contest, though, winning isn't everything--many past finalists have gone on to publication as a result of the comp.

This year, I entered two YA manuscripts. I forked out over 200 bucks in entry, stationery and postage fees. ("I'm stimulating the economy," I assured myself.) I airmailed the mss from Australia to the US on November 15. Usually, it takes up to seven days for mail to reach its destination. Plenty of time, I thought, to meet the December 2 deadline. If entries don't make it to RWA's Texas office by then, they're disqualified.

But yesterday, day 14 after mailing, I realised it wasn't looking good for my entries. They still haven't made it. How can this be? Did they get chucked into the seamail postbox instead of the airmail one? Did the plane's pilot make a detour in Tahiti and decide to stay? Or maybe a disgruntled postal worker delivered the mail to the garbage dump.

Ironically, the same thing happened to me about a month ago, when I had to snail-mail my final-round entry for the Golden Pen Award. The preliminary round in that comp is judged by Golden Heart finalists/winners. Somewhere, somehow, my mail went astray.

Whatever the reason, I had to take action this time.

Or rather, my dad did.

He lives in America, so he told me to email my entries and he'd take care of the rest. Despite sore, arthritic fingers and crippling back pain, he stayed up till the early hours of this morning, printed out a whole pine tree's worth of manuscript pages, collated and bound them, burnt my full mss to disks, and sent them off by FedEx. Three cheers for Dad!

Now getting to the final round in the GH means more than ever. It's one way to pay Dad back for helping me out so readily.

Baby, You're a Star

The results came through for the SpacecoasT Authors of Romance 2007 Launching a Star contest yesterday. I'm happy to report a YA author, Susan Sipal, won overall (there were several categories). Hooray for Susan! As part of her prize, she'll have a star named in her honour.

Here are the results for the YA section, judged by Allison Brandau of Berkley/Jove and Elaine Spencer of The Knight Agency:

Winner
Southern Fried Wiccan Susan Sipal

Finalists
Denise Jaden
Vanessa Barneveld (Hey, that's me! Yay!)
Kimberly Duffy
Tanya T. Holmes

Congratulations to all the fabulous winners and finalists. And a special thank you to the judges.

The full list of winners will soon be posted here.