Friday, February 24, 2012

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

14 comments:

  1. That's awesome! Congrats! It's an accomplishment to make it that far.

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  2. Congrats on making the second round! Just goes to show that persistence pays off.

    Jai

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  3. How wonderful! YAYAYAYAAY!!!! I have to say that hearing wonderful news from other authors fills me with little bubbles of joy! YAYAY!

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  4. Congrats.
    Just remember, only the persistent writer gets published.

    Stay the course. Keep learning your craft. Never quit. Never give up.
    Your Writing Journey has a destination.
    It is "Charity Bradford,Published Author".

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  5. Congratulations! Wow, I know almost everyone on that list as well. Do the Snoopy dance, Charity.

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  6. Yay Charity! I think that as writers we seem to get one good thing and one bad thing. I'm so glad your good thing was advancing on to the next level (with me)!!

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  7. Wooo! Happy Snoooopy dance to you! Nice to have that balance the first disappointment. Never give up, cuz stuff like that happens. And I recognize most of the writers on that list to--congrats to them too. :)

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  8. Charity, this is incredible news. You need to celebrate. I hope you win. Sendek is an awesome story and as you cross over more and more finish lines, people will see it for the work of genius that it is.

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  9. Congratulations and just curious, what is GA?

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  10. I got word that another online buddy of mine made it through to the second round. I'm so excited for you all!!!

    Yippeeeee!

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  11. Hey, congrats!!!!
    BTW, I just awarded you a Versatile Blog award and TAGGED you in a fun, short writing game. Pop over to my blog to check it out! Catherine
    http://catherinestine.blogspot.com

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  12. Congratulations on ABNA. I hope you go all the way.

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  13. Congratulations, Charity! I'm so happy for you. I'm going to post about this on Monday. Your name will be on my list too.

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  14. Oh, Charity! You totally deserve this. You've worked so hard on this story. I have all my body parts crossed for you (though I may have to uncross them at brief intervals to do Geometry).

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