Happy news :)

Last I week I found out that my YA historical novel CIRQUE has been named a finalist in Connecticut's Tassy Walden Awards for New Voices in Children's Literature!

I'm a firm supporter of entering contests, for a few reasons: they make you focus on getting your work submission-ready, they train you to adjust to deadlines... For me, they've provided much-needed encouragement when all the rejections I was receiving said that "the market just isn't right for this now." I felt like an invisible hand had appeared out of nowhere to smack me upside the head and say, "Don't let the market make you feel like a bad writer! Keep working!"

But the "Tassys" are particularly great because they so closely mirror the real submissions process. The first round is judged by agents--so if you're a finalist, an agent out there thought your work stood out from the crowd. The next round is judged by editors, who--for the record--are quite strict about who they choose as winners and (close runner-up) honorable mentions. There have been many years where no winners were chosen in certain categories--so I'm particularly proud to say that I can count myself among the past winners. Again, every time that niggling "Why are you wasting your time?" voice gets into my head, there's the invisible smack: "Keep writing! Agents and editors liked your writing!"

If you live in the Connecticut area, I highly encourage you to attend the award ceremony this Wednesday (June 26th), at the Blackstone Memorial Library in Branford, at 7pm. You can hear the winners read their opening chapters, see art portfolios by the state's up-and-coming illustrators, toast to their success and soak up all the positive energy. :) Throughout the several years I have attended, I've learned so much from hearing the winning manuscripts and meeting all the people who work so hard to make the contest a success--the committee is made up of some of the most generous, amazing people in this entire state, and the agents I have met first awakened me to the fact that publishing professionals are real people with great senses of humor and passion for their work, who enjoy brownies and fresh strawberries as much as the rest of us. (Yes, there are often brownies and strawberries, too.)