Doing the Snoopy Dance

Okay, here's the long version of my happy news. It starts with some of this.

Disappointment. Noon rolled around. Arrows flew over at Cupid's Literary Connection, but none landed on SENDEK. My biggest question as always was WHY? These contests are great opportunities, but only if you "win". It can be frustrating when you don't know why you're not getting bites.

Is it because the idea is bad? Or the writing just not there? Or simply that your story doesn't fit into an easily labeled shelf? My other thought, after reading the entries being picked, was that 1. not YA, and 2. I'm just out to tell a story--not make a statement or change the world.

Anyway, I wandered around my house for twenty minutes telling myself it was okay. Then I saw the tweet that the ABNA list was out. 

"Well," I said, "let's get all the dissapointment over at once."

I took my kindle upstairs and pulled up the ABNA list of second round entrants for General fiction. Scrolling down the list I came to a Bradford. It wasn't me. I almost closed the page and then I realized it was alphabetical by first name, not last. I scrolled down one more page, and...

I made it past the first round!!! 

I have to admit I cried just a bit. Chances are nothing will come of it, but it's an improvement over last year. It gave me just enough hope to keep me going. Now I have to wait another month to see if I make it past another round. So, a little more patience please.

Did you enter? Did you make it?

Here are a few of the names I noticed:
Jessica Bell--GF (general fiction)
Michael Di Gesu--YA
Theressa Milstein--YA
Roland Yeomans--YA
Hart Johnson--YA
Misty Waters--GF
Johanna Garth--YA
Karen Hoover--YA