So this happened . . . a.k.a.. SQUEEEE!

Last May, on my (now largely ignored) photography/creativity blog, I spread the word about Lee & Low Books' New Voices Award.

I also blogged about my New Learning in writing a picture book.

And then on this blog, I wrote about my Sender's Remorse for sending in my manuscript to the Lee & Low New Voices Award.

So here's what happened: I won their Honor Award. Yep. I did. That manuscript that I doubted so much? Won their Honor Award, their second place. Out of 180 manuscripts they received, mine won second place.

I was, I'm pretty sure, screaming into the phone when I got the call. Pretty sure I was not professional at all. Pretty sure it was completely surreal and still is.

I feel validated. This definitely served to spur me to continue on this writing journey when I was feeling a little soggy about it. But I'm not losing my head. I do realize that my manuscript fit a certain niche at a certain time for a certain publisher and that I am very lucky to  have been chosen. Sure, I did a lot of hard work on that story, but I had a great beta reader (Alison DeLuca) and will need to do a lot more work on it so that it is publishable.

But my biggest take away? Finish your shit!* This was my first manuscript that I finished. (Don't read this, Lee & Low people. I'm really very professional and finish everything I start. Ahem.)  I have several unfinished starts, but yep, this was the first one I finished. BIG lesson. Finish your shit.*

SQUEEEEE!!




*from Chuck Wendig's terribleminds blog and book, The Kick-Ass Writer.

Do Something

A quick but meaningful snippet from Chuck Wendig's The Kick-Ass Writer that I have been pondering:

"Go Forth and Do Shit...Embrace authenticity. Writers do not gain a sense of authenticity by sitting at the computer all day popping out word-babies. Have something to write about. To do that, you must go out. Into the world..."

I have a tendency to nest. I am comfortable with my laptop, spitting out or reading other people's word-babies. I have my reasons, but whatever they are, the fact remains that experiences make up the bricks from which we build our written worlds.

Pondering can only get you so far. Time to go into the world and do some things.

Okay, maybe not this...