In case you weren't aware, I love contests. Not just the "win a car with a box top from your Rice Krispies package" kind of contests (though I enter those ones, too). My ongoing love/hate relationship is with novel-writing contests, namely because sometimes I love them, and sometimes I don't. ;)

A good friend of mine (cough, Michelle, cough) had the audacity to suggest that I should spend more time writing than entering writing contests. I mean, really. Be productive with my time? But entering contests is productive! I get my hopes up, dashed, strengthened, beaten to a pulp and then raised again. Sometimes all in the same day.

If only exercising could be this much fun!

And it's the close calls that hurt the most. Like one contest this year where my manuscript came in fourth place in the first round, but only the top three went onto the finals. Sob!

Oh, put those tissues away, because, like a good romance novel, this post has a happy ending. ;)

My novel, MEGAN DELANEY: MYSTIC MISFIT, took FIRST PLACE in Young Adult category of the Toronto Romance Writer's Golden Opportunity Contest!

First place! Can you believe it? Megan and I are both thrilled with the news and plan on celebrating this win with some time plotting out the next book in the series (which will be written some time next year, if all goes well).

And this totally makes up for all the times when this novel didn't even come close to winning. At least all the judges I've had have given me some great feedback.

Enough about me. In case you're writing a Young Adult novel and are into entering contests, Mary Kole at Andrea Brown Agency is running a query contest!

Here's the link: http://kidlit.com/kidlit-contest

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