So, it’s time for Pitch Wars again!

Pitch Wars is this awesome writing contest hosted by Brenda Drake, and it helps aspiring authors like me make connections with agents, and agented writers, and *gasp* actual, real-live published authors…

Did I mention I’m really into tumblr now, for my Prince Hans fanfiction needs, so I’m starting to experiment with this animated gif thing? Anyway…

So, last year, my incredible friend and fellow writer Gayleen suggested I enter Pitch Wars. She’d been selected as an alternate before, which was huge. I didn’t think my chances would be that great – I mean, I love my stuff but I wasn’t sure about the query, and that was part of the entry. But I figured the worst thing that could happen would be not getting chosen. So I entered the query and opening for THE LAST LETTERBOXES.

And then I spent A TON of time working on CANDID DATES to keep my mind off things. (And also obsessively following the mentors I’d submitted to on twitter, trying to determine which, if any, tweets were about me.)

Amazingly enough (I still have a hard time believing it), I was picked as an alternate by the wonderful Evelyn Ehrlich. I got to work with her, along with Laurie Flynn and Emily Martin, and it was a fantastic, perfect experience from beginning to end. These ladies are seriously, seriously awesome, and I’m honored to even be included in their super-cool circle.

THE LAST LETTERBOXES ended up getting SEVEN manuscript requests from agents in the alternates’ showcase. One of the agents who read it said she read my book through in one setting and cried twice, although she felt it might work better for a friend of hers, who she passed it on to. Another hasn’t gotten to it yet…so it’s still out there. It’s all good.

Plus, I got to meet a lot of incredible people through this. As an introverted writer, finding other writers to relate to has been nothing short of stellar. I get to see their successes…Evelyn had a beautiful story published in a literary magazine, Laurie and Emily both got amazing agents, and Emily’s debut novel has been sold and is coming out in 2016!

And…I’m still…waiting. And writing. Always writing. And I’m so FREAKING HAPPY for my #TeamEvelyn sisters but ugh the WAITING.

So I totally wasn’t sure if I should enter again. I mean, I was selected last year, but the competition is so stiff. Could lightning strike twice? And…should I even enter again? Maybe it would be better to leave it to the rest of the writing community. Maybe it would be weird to do it again. I didn’t know what to do.

But Evelyn encouraged me to give it another shot, since I had another polished manuscript. And I do so love CANDID DATES. Sharing it makes me really happy. Anyway…just like last time, what’s the worst that can happen? Not getting picked? I can live with that.

So. I studied all the mentor bios. I narrowed it down to the ones that accepted Young Adult. Then the ones who were looking for contemporary. Then…I just had to pick four and live with my choices. I did that last year and it worked out spectacularly!

So now it’s back to stalking the #pitchwars tag on twitter. Good thing I have Frozen fanfiction to write and my new novel to work on. Oh, and a house to run and kids to teach and all that. Riiiight.

Yeah. Mostly just waiting for that dream to come true.

Just pretend this turned out better than it did. I always do.