I thought you were cool...

Carrots are gritty? Now I'm picturing Bugs Bunny as Sam Spade.

Aiee, contest entries.

Just got my entries back from that First Kiss contest. IOW, I didn't make the finals. Woe! But on the whole I got nice feedback, and since the scene from Anna's story is hardly past rough draft stage, I was happy that my judges A) found a lot to like about it, and B) agreed on what they thought needed work.

But I'm so annoyed by one of my Lucy judges I'm thinking of complaining to the coordinator. If I followed her line edit suggestions I wouldn't have a historical voice anymore, and Lucy and James would talk like a pair of 21st century business consultants. But that's not my actual complaint--she knocked off points for using first person, complained about my POV choice every chance she got on the comment sheet, and spent a whole page telling me I must rewrite or put the manuscript away, because editors and agents hate first person POV, and the only way it'd ever sell is if I were already a NYT bestseller.

Is first person a tough sell in today's romance market? Hells, yeah. But markets are funny. If someone writes a runaway bestseller first person historical romance, editors and agents will be falling all over each other to find more of them. And in general, while I think it's certainly valid for a contest judge to make a comment like, "You know your setting and/or topic and/or POV choice is a tough sell, right?", I don't think it's valid for them to deduct points for it. Let editors and agents decide what's marketable--judges are supposed to decide what's good.

Anyway, I think this judge allowed a personal bias to show inappropriately, but I'm letting myself cool down and asking advice from folks in my RWA chapter before I do anything.

I'm not sure about the gritty carrots...I just have a Bob likes Carrots compulsion in re the Simonverse. I can't even write "falling" cause I'm all "Ooh, David Simon wrote that you don't physically hit the ground after being shot. Your brain just thinks you should. Unless you're loaded, and don't know you've been hit." Literally. My first thought. Crime writers don't have fangirls! I need to stop it.

Okay, sorry, no more crit here. I have this big love/hate thing going on with it.

Susan, sounds she like definitely went overboard. Sorry about the not-winning. But you can be glad she's not one of the editors/agents you're targeting, right?

WDC, wrod. Part of me wishes I were better at it, and part of me thinks getting jazzed about what I read is one of my great strengths, and that some of the critics are kind of dispassionate.

Susan, sounds she like definitely went overboard. Sorry about the not-winning. But you can be glad she's not one of the editors/agents you're targeting, right?

Totally. And I think what I'll do is wait till Monday, and then send a politely worded note to the contest coordinator praising her hard work, talking about the great and helpful feedback I got from most of the judges, and then saying that while I don't want to raise a fuss or change the results or anything, I think she should know for next year's contest that Judge So-and-So is deducting inappropriately, IMO, and explain why.

Erika! Just popping in to add my congratulations! I haven't had a chance to read the article yet but plan to later tonight.

It's a great piece, Erika. Everything I read of yours makes me more impatient for that book.

Challenge #37: Falling

I’ve never been to Times Square on New Year’s Eve. I love New York otherwise—the energy, neon lights and voices and the rush of tires combining into a living pulse. But that many drunken people looking for excitement in one place frightens me.

On year, just uptown, I opened the windows to listen to the crowd cheering as the ball began to drop. I was watching it on TV, and counted down with them as the outrageous ball descended, brash and bright and too big, marking another year falling away with a rude good-bye. Quiet reflection comes with the hangover.