Wending Wednesday: The Journey to Publication Part 2

When we left off, my mother-in-law had just passed away.  I was grieving with nothing but time on my hands.  I decided to write again, something I hadn't done since college.

Thing One and Thing Two were getting close to reading age, so I wanted to write something for them.  Something they could relate to and would love.  I started writing Dena Powers: Superhero?  I created characters named after my girls, who had their personalities and physical traits.  They were super excited.

It kind of started out as a hobby; I'd sit down and write between getting the kids to and from school, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping.  When everyone was at home, I'd put it aside.  But soon I was at 50 pages and I said to myself wow, this is turning into a real book.

So, I kept writing.  That 50 pages turned into 100, then 150, and about 50,000 words later, it was a novel, and I thought a pretty good one.

One day I left it at my dad's house accidentally.  He took a look and said, "This is pretty good stuff.  We should try to get you published."

So I edited.

A couple weeks later my dad emailed me: Have you seen this? 

It was an article about a new contest that was being put on by Amazon.com and Penguin.  It was called the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest.  ABNA for short.

We all, (me, my dad, my husband) decided that I should enter my little superhero novel, so I did.

Stay tuned next week for part three.

To read part one, click here.

Below is a video I made awhile back about why I started the journey.

Top four worst experiences in school: # 2 False Accusations and Strangulation

I think this took place in 4th grade, if I remember right. There was this weird boy, I'll go with the initials again, DD. He had a dirty mouth and was and egotistical bully. Well, one day, I'm walking down the halls at school with a friend, can't remember who now. We saw DD's leather jacket lying in the middle of the floor. Looking back, I'm sure it wasn't real leather, I'm sure it was fake leather. My friend suggested we toss the jacket in the girls bathroom. I would never have done this on my own, being a shy, timid girl who didn't like to get into trouble (stop laughing, it's true). However, the girl in my company was brazenly daring, so I went along with her. She picked up the jacket, shoved the bathroom door open, and threw it inside. Technically, I had no hand in this at all except for the fact that I happened to be there.

DD's jacket somehow ended up in one of the toilets (he apparently had many fans). Then came Toiletgate. A bunch of us were brought into the principal's office, there were about six of us. I have no idea how the others were involved outside me and the girl who threw it in the bathroom in the first place. We were asked a series of questions to determine our guilt or innocense. I must have passed, because I did not get in trouble for this, at least from the principal.

The day after, our class was in PE, and the teacher left the room for few minutes. DD starts yelling at me, saying how he knows I threw his jacket in the toilet. I told him I didn't, but that didn't satisfy. He grabbed me tightly by my hood (back then we all wore hoodies wth our last names on the back, of course, we didn't call them hoodies, we just called them sweatshirts), and shook me back and forth while screaming at me. My air flow was cut off by my sweatshirt. I couldn't breathe. Everyone just stood and watched, I'm assuming because, although he was a skinny kid, he towered about a foot above the rest of the 4th graders. Luckily, the PE teacher came back, putting an end to my premature death.

Not a good experience.

Thanks for reading.

Kisses :*

Megan

ABNA: Down to the Wire

So it seems that the "potential" finalists in the ABNA contest are going to be notified in a couple of days. I wonder what they mean by "potential". Does that mean that they are actually contacting more than three people, just in case someone is unable to attend the award ceremony or commit otherwise to being a finalist? Um, not to be too blunt or brash, but, what kind of idiot would get into this contest, just to drop out after becoming a finalist? (and if you have actually done this, I'm not trying to offend you, but, what were you thinking?)

Let me give you some insight about how these semi-finalists are feeling right now.

Everyday feels like forever. They consider sitting by the phone from May 6th to May 17th so they don't miss their call. Even when May 6th comes and goes, they wonder if the calls have been made, since Amazon states in the rules "on or about May 6th". They consider, although they did not receive their call, yet, they may still be in those finals. Only when they see the names of the top three on the ABNA home page will they believe they didn't make it in. Or maybe that's just me.

Yep. Been there, done that. I would say, don't get your hopes up, but from experience know that is virtually impossible. Just try not to be too disappointed if your name doesn't appear on that ABNA home page on the 17th. I have a couple I'm rooting for, so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for them.

Once this announcement is made, I urge everyone to go review your favorite excerpt. http://www.amazon.com/abna .

The winner receives a publishing contract from Penguin, a $25,000 advance, and all sorts of cool electronics. (jealous) If you're a writer, especially unpublished, you know how important this is.