I won!

I didn’t think it would ever happen…but it did! I won Writers of the Future! And first place even!

First thoughts?

Yay! I’m going to the workshop to learn from real pros!

Yay! I’ll get to meet and talk to people who are as geeky as me without them judging my love of genre fiction!

Yay! I’m going to be published in an already well-received anthology that will actually sit on bookshelves in actual bookstores!

Yay! I’m going to get up in front of a whole bunch of people to give an acceptance speech and sign books with super shaky hands!

…uh. *hides under desk*

Yeah, okay, those last two have me nervous as hell, but I’ve a year to prepare.  :)

Right now, I’m still in a state of shock. I kept expecting Joni to call me back and tell me ‘Oops, I totally tallied things up backwards and you actually were 8/8.’ As it was I had two loud children talking/crying next to me as I was trying to talk to her so she was probably grateful when she finally got off the phone with me. I’m not really sure I could do much about that so hopefully she’s the forgiving type.

My stats for the contest for any interested:

Total of 7 submission (8 if you count my Q2 2011 sub that just got pulled).

Q3 2009: Rejection

Q4 2009: HM

Q1 2010: HM

Q2 2010: Semi-Finalist

Q3 2010: Finalist

Q4 2010: HM

Q1 2011: 1st Place Winner

Q2 2011: Pulled

The two Finalists and the pulled story for Q2 were my attempts at writing to market. I owe a bunch to the Writers of the Future forum that I stalked for information. Goldmine there, if anyone is looking for tips. So thank you to all the peoples who asked questions so my shy, introverted self didn’t have to.  :)

Also, previous winner Brad Torgersen has a great write-up here about his thoughts on how to win the contest and I highly recommend anyone submitting to give it a look. It helped me out alot. I especially want to reiterate buying a recent copy of the anthology, picking out the stories you love and delving into them to discover why you loved them so you can apply those basic elements in your own stories. Stress on the ones you love.

No sure things, but the research I did helped me rise from an HM to Finalist, though I admit to being convinced it would take me at least 5 Finalists before I might actually win – 5 being a generic big number that felt far away and impossible. (Yes, bad me went back and reread my story and mentally rejected myself before I got the results back from Joni.)

Yes, I’m rambling. Yes, I’m excited. My honey is probably tired of listening to me talk about the workshop next year.  :)  I guess he has almost a year to suffer. :)