Holy Moly!

Can you imagine my surprise when I logged on this morning and noticed I've gone over the 300 hits mark for this website? To say I'm pleased as punch would be an understatement! Thankyou to Eleni who comes back every week and leaves me an encouraging comment and to everyone else for taking an interest in my journey =)

So I can't remember if I posted last time that I'd made it into the second round of RWAus's Emerald awards. My category Blaze went onto the next round where the full manuscript would have been judged by readers. Unfortunately with so many things going on at the time and my MS not perfect, I decided to pull out of the contest. I'm not sure if I'll regret it later but right now, I believe I made the right decision. I'm still happy dancing over finally making it past round 1 of a competition. I received my feedback two days ago and I was absolutely floored. I got a perfect 40, a 39 and a 32 out of 40. The comments had me once again smiling like an idiot as I stared at the paper in my hands. This means I'm that much closer to my goal and it gives me the encouragement I need to keep going, to refine and to perfect.

Yesterday, while I cruised the blogs I came across a RWA interview with Margie Lawson and found out quite a few new techniques about deep edits. Straight away I hopped over to her website and bought one of her lecture packets. I really want to send the best work I can to Blaze. In this game, once your book gets rejected, it could be years, if at all, that you can sub the same book to the same publisher so I need to nail it the first time.

Another thing I keep noticing lately is that with every book I write, I get better and better. The old adage that I remind my kids of every day, practice makes perfect, really does apply to me. I define my voice with every new page and I learn more and more the deeper involved I get. It's fantastic! It's like this secret world of correct English and grammar and a bucket load of other stuff is being revealed to me as I open my eyes wider. Needless to say, I've booked my flight to the conference in Sydney this year already even though it's not till August and seats are limited. I'm just so excited about the opportunities to hone my craft.

Anyway, can you tell I'm tired? I always ramble a fair bit when I need sleep. I'm off to read a lecture packet and then to take another looks at my subs so I can send them off! Wish me luck =)