Wednesday, May 09, 2007

The Happy Dahnce

I had entered the Windy City's RWA contest, The Four Seasons back in March. It was my second contest for Brimstone and I really wanted to final as the final judge was both an editor and agent, most particularly an editor from Avon who I think would be a perfect fit for this series that Brimstone is part of.

The finalists were to be announced May 8th. Thankfully I had the retreat on the weekend to keep me occupied and away from home so I wasn't jumping every time the phone rang. Except the phone didn't ring. No messages when I came home, and nothing again on Monday. May 8th rolled around. I didn't see anything posted on their website so I decided not to give up hope. I had a good feeling in my gut that I wasn't ready to let go.

Yesterday I came home from work. There were messages on my machine. The library telling me I had four holds in, a couple of hang ups, then...then the voice I had been waiting for. Desire & Brimstone was a finalist in the historical category! Woo hoo!! Happy dancing ensued.

I called my parents and gave them the news, then forced myself to go for my walk before rushing down to the computer to let my chapter-mates and best friend know. I no sooner had the message posted to our loop when the phone rang again. It was the coordinator from the Four Seasons contest. I told her I had gotten the phone message and was thrilled. She told me that she was about to thrill me again with more good news - I was a double finalist!

The contest had a new category this year that all the submissions had a shot at - Hero Guaranteed to Blow You Away. Devlin made the cut. Double woo hoo!!! This category is being judged by an agent as well, so with one contest I get my work in front of an editor and two agents.

I am thrilled beyond belief and doing my happy dahnce!

19 comments:

Unknown said...

Congratulations once again Kelly. It sounds like Brimstone is already collecting fans.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Kelly, that is wonderful news!!! Christine

Unknown said...

Congratulations Kelly!

I wanted to let you know that I nominated you for the Thinking Blogger Award on my site. :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, that is GREAT news! You must be thrilled. Congrats!

Kelly Boyce said...

The Thinking Blogger, huh? Will I have to sound pithy and verbose? Suddenly I have a vision of me doing just that while wearing a smoking jacket and wielding a snifter of brandy...while watching Masterpiece Theatre.

Julia Phillips Smith said...

Kelly, here's me tipping my hat! Wow!! All I can say is, when your critique partners respond to your hero's entrance into the scene - a scene ending, no less - and both of our written responses was "Woo!" I think Devlin's nomination for "Hero Guaranteed to Blow You Away" is only fitting.

Anonymous said...

Oooh, tres cool, Kelly! Well done!

We're not worthy!
We're not worthy!

;)

Melissa Amateis said...

CONGRATULATIONS, Kelly! Awesome news!

Tess said...

Way cool, Kelly!!!!!!! I saw the announcement over at Pro-Org first and didn't really read closely enough, so actually thought you'd won. May my thought waves permeate those of the judges :)

Rene said...

Oh, how cool is that? That is so exciting. Hoping the best for you. AND, I tagged you.

Toni Anderson said...

Congratulations Kelly!!!

Kim said...

Very exciting! How many others are you competing against and when do you find out who the winners are? Of course, just getting your work before agents and publishers and getting into the finals sounds like you've already won quite a lot! Congrats!

Anonymous said...

Way to go, Kelly! That is wonderful news!! Three cheers!

Christine Wells said...

Fantastic, Kelly! Congratulations!!!!

Julie S said...

Double final. Awesome. Huge congrats to you!!!!!

MJFredrick said...

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Dixie Belle said...

Congratulations, Kelly!! I've got my fingers crossed for you!

sena said...

Hi, Kelly, I don't know if this is the 'right' thing to do, but my name is Sena Conway. I also, finaled in the Windy City, Four Seasons contest in both the "Hero" and in Paranormal. I was actually trying to find the website when I came across your blog. I'm so happy for you and since there's only four of us finaling in both categories, I think we're pretty special and wanted you to know, from a person that's living it, congrats. It seems you have a pretty big circle of support and I know how much that means. No matter what happens, I wish you the best of luck and don't let anybody tell you to give up your dream.

candnmasonry@aol.com

Sena

Kelly Boyce said...

Thanks Sena and good luck! If you are still looking for the website it's

http://www.windycityrwa.com/windycityrwa/fourseasons.html#contest