In which I share great news and resemble a rooster

I feel like I'm "crowing", but I want to share some wonderful news with all of you, who have been such a huge encouragement to me in all my writing progress.
Earlier this week, the winners of Connecticut's Tassy Walden Awards for New Voices in Children's Literature were announced, and my historical fiction ms, THE WITHERING VINE, was given an honorable mention in the YA category!

I can't even say how thrilled I am about this...for months I've been collecting lovely rejection letters for this ms, in which agents essentially told me, "We'd love to see anything else you write, but...historical fiction? Medieval France? A vineyard? You do know that teens like vampires, right? You should try the adult market." I stubbornly kept sending it out as YA, convinced that the story is a coming of age story at its heart, but as I got more and more of the same response, my confidence was dwindling.
So receiving this honor in the "Tassies" was a huge, huge deal to me. For the majority of you who aren't from Connecticut, let me explain how this contest works (and how cool it is ;). It is designed to mirror the "real" submission process as much as possible; any unpublished CT writers may send in 25 pages and a synopsis of their book (or entire picture book, or illustrator's portfolio). First the mss are sorted into categories to send to different judges--and any mss which do not follow the proper guidelines (page numbers, margins, etc.) are thrown out. The remaining mss are sent to the first panel of judges--real (but anonymous) literary agents, who choose a few that they consider representation-worthy as finalists. These few are sent to the next panel--real (but anonymous) editors at major publishing houses. If there is a ms which they consider truly excellent, they may choose it as a winner (sometimes no winner is chosen, at the editor's discretion). And if there are two mss which are really really close, the editor may choose one as an honorable mention, to be distinguished from the remaining finalists.
I've been a finalist twice and won once (for different mss), but this is my first honorable mention, and I feel very grateful that THE WITHERING VINE was so honored. I have a lot of love for this story, and it was just the encouragement I needed to hear that at least one agent and editor loved it, too!
Now (obviously), winning or being honored in this competition doesn't guarantee publication, but I will mention that many of the past winners have gone on to very successful, award-winning writing or illustrating careers--Leslie Connor, Frank Dormer, and Stacy DeKeyser, to name a few, were first "discovered" by the Tassy Walden judges.
The BEST part about the results of this year's awards is that the real spotlight goes to my dear writing friend and critique partner, Betsy Devany, whose ms SAVANNAH'S MOUNTAIN was the winner of the MG category! Be sure to stop by her blog and offer her your congratulations!
But the WORST part is that the winners and honorable mentions have to read a chapter aloud at the award ceremony. Reading in public...yeah...not the thrill of my life, shall we say. But I guess I need to start practicing--keep your fingers crossed for me!