Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Quarter Finals - Ouch!

I was up until 11 pm yesterday, biting my nails wondering what the results would be. I've been obsessed with ABNA from the first email I got about the contest.

This morning, low and behold, the results were in. The 'web elves' must have stayed up all night to get the pages put together and tested. I know what a pain in the tush it must have been to get all the files d/l'd, linked and tested.

Crikey, what a chore this must be.

So how did I do?

I got through the first cut to the 2000 entries that had their excerpts read. My excerpt got two 'Vine' reviews. I haven't seen them yet. I've got my work cut out for me. Need to take that First Chapter apart, paragraph by paragraph and rework it.

In the meantime -- "Swallow the Moon" is shaping up (which means I cut about 10k out of it.) I will need to go back in to work out some kinks and fill in some holes, but this one has 'matured' fast; five months, when "Besieged" took 8 years and 13 months of concerted effort.

Meanwhile, I have yet another novel cooking in the back of my mind: "Tempest in a Teapot." About a woman who opens a tea-house in Vine Grove, and the lengths she must go to keep her shop open while the economy falls around her. I don't have a hero yet, but I've got a plot, a protagonist and an antagonist. That's a great start.

2 comments:

Taire said...

Well done to get through the first cut and two Vine reviews! That is great news!

K. A. Jordan said...

Thanks, it was way cool to get that far, with all that competition.

I think I will use that pitch the next time I query out.

I've got a first chapter to rewrite. Besides the length of the chapter (22 pages) I've considered cutting a week out the story. It will screw up my timeline, but I think it may be the right thing to do.

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