Winners!

Oh, how I wish we could have picked more than five. Do you know how unbelievably difficult it was to choose finalists from such an amazing line-up of entries for our Blog Hop Contest?

Of course you don't. Unless you took the time to read all of the entries, in which case...of course you do!

So many fantabulous writers, so few prizes.....

But we DO have five amazing finalists -- at last!!! Here is the full roster, with their magnificent prizes:

1st PLACE:  Ruth Long ~ "Between the Lines" ~ 50 pg edit from Lillie McFerrin

2nd PLACE:  Donna McNicol ~ "Forest Flowers" ~ 25 pg edit from Angie Richmond

3rd PLACE: Jo Ann Teal ~ "Out of the Dark" ~ 15 pg edit from ME!!!!!!!!

4th PLACE:  Brewed Bohemian ~ "A Beautiful Place to Die" ~ 10 pg edit from Daniel Swensen

5th PLACE:  Gwen Tolios ~ "Extinguishing Souls" ~ a copy of Stephen King's On Writing

Aren't you splendiferously proud of all these writers? You should be! Drop by their blogs and tell them so! 

Follow them on Twitter! And then join their blogs. And read their contest entries. 

And encourage them to write MORE.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Congratulations to all our winners!

Thanks also to Lillie, Angie and Daniel for hosting the blog hop and making all this possible.

Melty Brains

No, this is not a zombie post. Although I feel like a zombie right now.

A good kind of zombie (if there is such a thing).

   

This has been a big month for me. First I had the honor of winning the "first line" contest at the WriMosFTW! website, and THEN - on Saturday night - I won NaNoWriMo four days ahead of schedule, with a grand total of 51,044 words.

I am SO very pleased...and exhausted. Hence the melty brains reference.

Of course, my NaNo draft is nowhere near finished, let alone in a condition for anyone else to look at. I employed several messy techniques to allow me to stifle my inner editor and push through, so I could get the greatest amount of narrative down during the time allotted to me. Those messy techniques included (but were not limited to):

     * Highlighting "fluff" passages to delete (or heavily edit) later in olive green

     * Highlighting substance that ought to stay, but needs serious reworking, in violent yellow

     * Line breaks between scenes that I wanted to write, but whose transitions just eluded me

All of this will probably be expanded into later blog posts of some sort, but for the moment it's sufficient to say that I am thrilled to be across the 50K finish line, and deeply thankful for all the wonderful writers who encouraged me and entered word wars wtih me, and so helped me win my NaNoWriMo certificate.

Below are the main cohorts who helped me cross that finish line. I've listed their Twitter names so you can find them there. Where possible, I've included links to their blogs. This is my online writing community, and they are all AWESOME.

@emholbert4                           @JamieOehring                         @JennyAdams
@ashviper                                @LillieMcFerrin                      @Redhed_Stepkid
@Love_Kenzie_                       @9inchsnails                            @placesense
@annaavenhoward                 @surlymuse                              @write_me_happy
@jbirchwriter                          @beccajcampbell                      @BettisiTheThird
@wrimosftw                            @LynMidnight                          @jennifergracen
@Jon_Stoffel                          @JasonRunnels                         @raineerose
@writenowcoach                     @MarkLanden                           @saraleggz
@AdrienneDorais                   @SpartaGus                               @zencherry
@lindseyEarcher                     @courtcan                                  @ColleenWrites2
@BerryKitsune                       @WordyWags                            @notashamed87

Thanks to everyone who helped spur me across the NaNoWriMo finish line! 

I hope all of you were equally successful in your writing projects, 

and I hope to see all your hard-won tales in print very soon!

While I Was Gone...

I'm back from my road trip!!!!! Thanks so much to everyone who continued to check my blog and leave feedback and encouragement during my absence. You guys are wonderful.

As you can imagine, I'm pretty wiped out. Driving 1200 miles in 4 days, plus keeping up with 30 students between the ages of 12 and 17 as we scamper from one historical site to another really puts a girl through her paces. But we got to see some amazing things, had loads of fun, and learned a LOT --- and what more could you want out of a school field trip?

HOWEVER....tired or not, travel-brained or not, I would count myself as no real human being if I didn't take a moment to say a couple of very important things....

First of all - THANK YOU to everyone who voted, and THANK YOU to the marvelous Lyn Midnight and her judges over at the WriMosFTW! website; because guess what - I won first place in the first line contest!!!

This is amazing to me because I never win anything. EVER. Not even the "gag gift" door prize of the 50 lb bag of dog food at the company Christmas party. (Put this in context:  I don't have a dog.) So it was a huge honor to be included in the top 12, let alone to get the most votes overall. Not really sure how that happened, actually....there were some stellar entries!!

Congratulations also goes out to the fantabulous Jenny Adams and the magnificent Regina Grey, who both scored some pretty sweet prizes. Hit them up on Twitter if you haven't discovered them already!!

As for my own prize - it makes me the proud owner of Rochelle Melander's book Write-a-Thon, which is itself an amazing tool for taking my NaNoWriMo project to the next level. I can't wait to get my hands on it! With two working rough drafts and a soon-to-be third, I know this volume of writer-ly insight is just what I need to help me with the next step in my quest to be published.

But the best part of all this?? I have made some amazing friends. These gals, and others I have met through NaNo (and especially through Twitter) have proven to be the most encouraging bunch of die-hard writers I've ever met. Go check out their websites, and find them on Twitter if you're in that corner of the social networking universe.

Now....to make tracks with my word count!! Have a great day and keep on writing!!!