I’m thrilled to announce that my novel made it to the semi-final round in the Young Adult category of the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Genesis Contest for unpublished writers. I can’t name the novel because judges are working on whittling down the list of finalists. Check out the semi-finalists in all categories here.
My heart is so full. Someone likes my work! Please know how much I appreciate all the family and friends who have encouraged me over the years. Thanks, also, to my critique partners. Your honesty and support have been invaluable.
I started tinkering with the storyline in 2013 when my kids were in high school. Over Christmas break, I visited a couple of bookstores in search of some clean reads for them. Everything I found focused on vampires, magic and romance. Changing strategy, I checked out a Christian bookstore. Still nothing. Lots of middle school fiction, but few young adult books.
I thought, I’ve been a writer all my life, so I can churn out some quality fiction in no time. Boy, was I wrong! Fiction writing is very different from newspaper, magazine and website writing. My speech and script writing skills offered zero help. I became discouraged and shelved the project for a couple years.
When my youngest graduated high school, I revisited the story and roughed out a first draft. It took almost two years to complete. I carried it to a writer’s conference where I received lots of feedback . . . most of it directed to a total rewrite. Sigh.
After pushing self-doubt to the farthest corner of my mind, I took a bunch of online writing classes, studied books on writing and devoured dozens of novels in the YA genre. A year later, I rewrote and submitted the first 15 pages to the 2018 Genesis Contest. The judges were not impressed. Ugh!
I prayed and polished the entire manuscript. In March, I resubmitted those updated 15 pages to this year’s Genesis Contest. Last night, a very nice contest coordinator left the exciting message on my voice mail that I was one of the semi-finalists. I cried. It’s been such a long journey.
If you’re an aspiring writer, I encourage you to keep plugging. God has a plan for you. It may not be on your timeline but, I promise, He’s always working for your good.
Have you ever been in the dumps about your writing journey? How did you climb out?
Mega Congratulations to my friend and critique partner!! Woot! Woot!
Your story is awesome and so much fun to read!
Kudos!
Mega thanks for sharing your critique skills!