I Placed In The Lone Star Finals!

I have to say yesterday was a roller coaster ride in emotions for me. I entered the Lone Star writing contest back in June and thought by the time the announcements were made I would have forgotten I even entered.

Boy, I couldn’t have been more wrong. As August 20th drew near I found myself checking the calendar more often and calculating the days I would get word back from the chapter. The day finely arrived; I was reluctant to check my e-mail--strange I know. But for me it's like having a lottery ticket, for a brief moment your dreams of being a millionaire are still plausible, it's only when you check your numbers that your dreamy bubble bursts.

With the prompting of my mother I checked my e-mail and with a single glance I knew my romantic suspense didn't make the cut. Disheartened I read through the judge's comments which really weren't so bad, the scores were high but not high enough to get me into the finals.

As I wrote out my thank you notes to the judges, there was a long distance phone call. Our immediate thought was that it was a telemarketer. You can imagine my surprise when Karen Hankins informed me that my historical romance placed in the Lone Star finals. Talk about a pick-me-up!

I entered two entries; the story concepts couldn't have been more different from the other. I’m so happy I entered the two--the later, was a great chaser to end all writers’ blues. Talk about a day from lows to highs!

Now the wait begins for October 24th when the winners will be announced. Good luck to all entries.

Even if I don't win I’m grateful that I made it this far.

Writer’s Meltdown

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I write with Word Perfect 8, a program that’s out of date and for me I finally realized should be put out to pasture. The reason I say this is, is that more rules for contests open with Microsoft Office Word. I have my sights set on a contest that I can enter electronically but it has to be in rich text format. I Wikipedia rtf (not knowing exactly what it means, computer illiterate that I am) and it says; it’s a format developed by Microsoft.

So to make a long story short, I transferred the required pages of my manuscripts onto Microsoft Office Word (it’s a great program) and in so doing I decided to transfer the remainder of my story onto it as well.

I’ll most likely transfer my other manuscripts, but I’m not looking forwards to it. I’m eager to go forward and dread the thought of transferring hundreds of pages onto another program.

I guess I’ll just have to chalk it up to another hiccup in my journey to being published.