A few months ago, I decided to enter my newest novel into a writing contest (my first writing contest ever, eek). I followed the instructions diligently, polished up my chapter, then submitted it along with a blurb, and clicked, "Send."
Then I forgot about it.
Well, today I received news that I actually won second place for Contemporary Romance. Really?!?
What made this particularly satisfying is that I wrote this novel last semester, on every "free" Saturday I had (I'm a teacher and a "free" day isn't very common, ha). On top of that, it had been a requested novel--a major publisher had asked me to write something geared toward its new imprint. So, I did, ecstatic. And I submitted the first three chapters. And I waited and waited and waited. And finally, I got a response. Rejection. *sigh* I knew it was certainly possibility, a rejection--there was no guarantee they would publish it--but still, I was hopeful. And then I was crushed.
So fast forward all these months later, to this unexpected "win" of that same rejected book. And I don't feel quite so crushed anymore... :-)
