Thank you, Universe!

On the off chance, you couldn't hear me scream from Atlanta all the way to where you are, I figured a quick blog post was in order. So, slacker blogger that I am, I see my last post was from October as I was gearing up for NaNoWrimo. I did it. 50,000 words in 30 days and enough to get my WIP (work in progress) to the finish line. The first draft anyway. Working title is THE SODA FOUNTAIN SISTER AND THE FLOWER LADY. I still have loads of editing to do and have no clue if my agent will love it but at least I've got the bones of the story down. Then I did something on a whim. I'm very active in WFWA (Women Fiction Writer's Association). This is where I got my first big surprise ... winning the Rising Star Award in 2017. I've not been so active in Romance Writers of America (keep that freaking word AMERICA in mind. It's big!) because I don't write traditional romance. Well, it's December of last year and I get an email notice that the deadline for entering the Golden Heart contest is coming up. Golden Heart is like Rising Star because it's for unpublished authors. Yes, I'm lucky to have an agent, but I'm not published yet. Insert sad face here. ANYWAY, it was a perfect storm. Deadline. Last year for Golden Heart. Finished rough draft on my computer. So being the practical gal I am, I thought why not send in this not-quite-polished manuscript. What have I got to lose? I promptly forgot I entered. Fast foward to mid-March. Get email that GH finalists will announced March 21st. Didn't really make much of impression on me, except to think ... oh yeah ... I entered that didn't I? Thursday morning I'm driving to work and a call comes in (hands-free, of course!) from a number I don't know. The woman introduces herself as a board member of the RWA and she hopes she's about to make my day. I almost drove off the freaking road. My book was a finalist in the mainstream category. Apparently this is a big deal. All the other finalists are all online screaming. There's a live twitter feed announcing all our names. I can see my name on the RWA website. I'm in the "GH club" now. It's been crazy. There's a big conference and awards ceremony in NYC the end of July. It's not cheap either ... especially NYC but I'm mulling. It seems like a once-in-a-lifetime thing. And I'm so grateful that on this journey, when I start putting on my big ol' suit of self doubt, the universe sends me a little reminder that I'm on the right path. If I listen close enough, my heart tells me that every day.