Contests, Submissions and Writing - Oh My!

Wow, all these contests. It's enough to make a romance writer get her work polished and ready to submit!

With all the new (and old) contests that are showing up, the supposedly western historical romance genre comeback (oh please, please, please let this be true) and all the previously "closed for submission" publishers opening up, I'd better get Dangerous Desires finished, polished and ready to go.

The competition is fierce in the romance writing industry and you'd better be up for the game if you want to play.

A lot of authors and x-chapter members that started out writing about the same time I did are published authors now. Had I not come down ill and forced to set my writing aside, I bet I would be as well.

If my work was finished you can bet your sweet *%@ I'd be entering every contest I could. Just as soon as I heard that Samhain Publishing was open for submissions I'd of had my work in the mail pronto. My entry for Gathers First Chapters Contest would have already been posted to the site and ready for votes. That doesn't even count the contest submissions I'd have out. But Dangerous Desires is not completed, so, all I can do at the moment is get it finished and polished and do what I have to do while that's happening. In the meantime, I plan to enter RWA's Oklahoma chapter FAB contest (Finally a Bride). What's good about this contest is, in order to enter, you have to have finaled, but not won, in a previous RWA sponsored contest. Which I did. In 2003 I entered my first and only RWA contest and, to my surprise, finaled fourth in the historical category! I cannot begin to tell you the excitement I felt when I opened and read that email. I actually thought my eyes were playing tricks on me and I had to re-read the email four or five times. I can't even imagine what will happen when/if I ever get "the call." I won't have to worry about that though, if I don't get my butt in gear. Wish me luck!