This has been an incredibly crazy week for me. Allow me to explain:

Monday
I finally finished my current manuscript, Deflowered, a twist on Beauty and the Beast, after taking a couple wrong turns and rewriting the ending three times. When I sent out an email to my brainstorming group saying it was done, I had tears in my eyes.

Tuesday
My phone rang at 9:30 or so, and I thought it was the roofing company that was coming to work on my house the next day. It wasn't. A lovely woman from the Romance Writers of America® called to let me know that the manuscript I'd entered, Camp Awakening, was a 2013 Golden Heart® finalist in the Young Adult category.

I started to cry on the phone. I couldn't conjugate verbs. I mean, I entered, but I didn't expect to be a finalist. For those of you not affiliated with RWA, the Golden Heart is kind of like the Oscars for unpublished romance manuscripts.

I don't remember much else from the conversation except the overwhelming urge to scream, throw up and jump for joy simultaneously.

As soon as I hung up the phone I called my main motivator and BFF, Michelle Rowen, but all I could do was sob. I think she thought I might have been in some sort of diabetic situation until I said, "They called."

Then we both freaked out.

Wednesday
Still in a daze, I received approximately a gazillion emails while roofers worked on my house and cause my internet connection to be spotty at best. Somehow this does not take the smile off my face.

Thursday
Even without the whole being a finalist thing, I knew this was going to be an awesome week because I had tickets to see The Price is Right LIVE -- a stage show that brings the PiR experience to, you guessed it, the stage.

Four of us went. I was the only one who put my name into the draw to be a contestant and was rewarded with my very own price-tag shaped name tag. I still have it!

Despite crossing my fingers, toes, eyes and bra straps, my name wasn't called. But that was okay, I was still a 2013 Golden Heart finalist!

What's next?
Let's see. Lose ten pounds. Find just the right outfit to wear for the awards ceremony, which takes place at the RWA National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on July 20. And maybe, just maybe, get some more writing done!

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