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Wowsa… everyone check out The Adventures of Vanessa Virtue, my dear friend Marley’s blog in the character of her Boston e-culture maven, Vanessa Virtue. Vanessa’ musing on the packed “Soylent Green” line of the T was quoted today in the Boston Globe online column about Boston-related blogs. How cool! Here’s to pop culture cult stardom, Vanessa! May it lead you to lucrative book contracts! I only got two of my three entries back today, and, not that I give a levitating lech (all things considered), but WTF?!?!?!?!? These are by far the weirdest set of Golden Heart scores I’ve ever received, and that includes the year that my Maggie-winning Meltdown got a ONE and a NOT A ROMANCE marking. Meltdown is the set I haven’t received yet, and I’m sure they’ll be interesting if these others are anything to go by. I’ve heard from several of my writing friends now that their Golden Heart scores were shocking. My CP, a GH finalist from 2004, whose scores last year on her NON-finaling manuscript were 9,9,9,9 and 5, received an average of 6 and change on the manuscript, with only one 9, a few 7s, a 5, and a 3. Her previously-finalling manuscript did even worse. The people on the eHarlequin contest thread have been pretty quiet, but poor Cece posted hers with the heding of “I quit,” which I suppose means that she’s quitting contest entering (like I did in January) — because if it’s anything else, I’m flying out to wherever “in the middle” she lives and kicking her ass. Okay, so without further ado: Night Visions: Final score 33.50 (full point BELOW cut off for lower 50%) Okay. This manuscript has finalled in three contests, in the Single Title category. It has WON the Molly Award. It has garnered three full agent requests. It is NOT a lower 50% manuscript in the Golden Heart. And it is a freaking Single Title Romance, Judge 3! (I’m betting she’s pissed it wasn’t in paranormal). and: Lost Girls Final Score 36.9 (highest score in the second quarter, down from last year) This manuscript doesn’t do half so well in contests. People either love it or hate it, which appears to be what happened here, but hey, I was up against all that chick lit, and this book is NOT that. I’ll post the Meltdown scores when I get them. This was (obviously) my last Golden Heart turn, but once again I’d like to urge RWA to reconsider their scoring techniques. I feel that judges should be held accountable to their scores and not just assign arbitrary numbers. What are we, Olympic Ice Skating? This is the contest equivalent of a form rejection. And, to all the Cece’s and CPs out there who are mystified, let me point out that my GH scores sucked. But guess what? I sold two books on Thursday. Nyah, nyah, judge three! Repeat after me: Finalling in a contest means something. NOT finalling means nothing. My arms are all black and blue, but I’m still sitting here, looking at the Publisher’s Marketplace announcement, getting congratulatory emails from people I’ve never met (or even weirder, friends I went to college with and haven’t seen in three years who now work at Hollywood production companies…), coughing up a lung because I somehow contracted some sort of annoying phlegmy cold thing in the past twenty-four hours… none of this stuff has vanished (and honestly, if this dream comes complete with a cold, I’ll buy stock in Kleenex). As Amy would say, I have three options: 1) Start pinching other body parts. It helps that my story has now been corroborated at the Knight Agency’s Blog. So I know that if I’m nuts, some chick down in Georgia is, too. Saw this one coming a mile away! I am this girl.
And here’s the news. I sold a two-book deal yesterday evening to Bantam Dell. I’m so thrilled I don’t know if I can breathe, which is probably a bad thing since I hear lack of oxygen to the brain does horrific things to the creative process. From Publisher’s Marketplace Deal Page Fiction Debut: Yale grad Diana Peterfreund’s CONFESSIONS OF A (SECRET) SOCIETY GIRL, following the irreverent and intrigue-filled adventures of an average college student who just happens to be a member of one of the most notorious secret societies in the world, to Kerri Buckley at Bantam Dell, in a significant deal, at auction, by Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency (NA). Film rights are with Matthew Snyder at CAA. __________________ I am so so so grateful to everyone who brought me to this point – my mentors, my parents, Sailor Boy, my brothers, my friends, my Genius!Agent ™. My dreams last night were full of sugar plums and pink ribbons. When I *did* sleep, which, admittedly, wasn’t much. I’m so excited. My friend Marianne just got her very first copies of her very first book! (Rumor is, she slept with it last night.) Go congratulate her. Is it me, or is there a lot more hubbub surrounding the upcoming RWA conference than usual? I don’t know if there are more newbies taking part in it, more hype about the anniversary, more internet activity in general, or I’m just being a cynical old hag since I’ve been to two of them and am remembering wrong, but the number of questions and freakouts seem to be several times greater than every year I’ve been in RWA combined. Of course, the Golden Heart Contest sold out this year, so maybe there is more hype. Now, of course, some of these worries are perfectly justified. I remember being disappointed when I saw the initial list of editors and agents taking appointments last year. I didn’t know that in a month or so, when it was acutally time to sign up for appointments, double the number of editors and agents would have turned in their appointment preferences. And I do understand people’s excitement about the schedule of events, etc. But everyone seems to be scurrying around, analyzing their wardrobes, looking for coffee pots, spending sleepless nights worrying about how they’re going to pitch their Golden Heart finalist manuscript to an editor. (sayeth I: “Hi. My name is Mary Wonder Writer and this book is a Golden Heart finalist in the BLANK category.”) The most mystifying are the folks who are clamoring for details about the chick lit party. At this time last year, we barely had a chick lit chapter yet. The party will come together, no problem (on WEDNESDAY), but it’s only April and the conference is not until the end of July. The appetizers would be so stale by then! Anyway, I invite everyone to take a deep breath and think about all the things you’re going to do before the end of July. Three months (and change). You could write another manuscript. You could send out several dozen queries. You could sell a book. You never know. Regarding my own national conference experience, I’m not sure what this one will bring me. My first conference was the 2003 one in New York. I was an utter newbie. I spent one sleepless night right before my editor appointment (notice it was RIGHT before, not three and a half months prior). In fact, I was so nervous at my editor appointment that the editor in question (Cindy Hwang of Berkley) actually had to pat my hand and tell me to stop shaking. Now, you all know I’m not the shyest chick on the block, so this is saying something. But I was still laboring under the delusion that certain factions who troll around on the RWA loops and the eHarlequin boards like to drum into newbies that editors are demigods that exist upon this earth solely to make writers into pathetic creatures and occasionally favor them with snippets of attention. (I know, I know, but I was young and naive, and really, they do their darndest to convince you of it!) Now I know better. I’m still nervous when I’m pitching, but I don’t actively tie my tongue in knots every time Brenda Chin (Harlequin) waves hello. At the 2003 conference in New York City, I went to a lot of craft workshops. I was convinced that I would learn “the secret” there. I came away with a ton of great tips. No “secret.” I skipped all the industry workshops, because i didn’t think they were important. WHo needs to know what the different houses publish? I htought. They have guidelines on their websites for that. The Dallas conference (2004) was a whole different ballgame. I was older, and a world-traveler (snerk). I’d already gotten half a dozen rejections. I was on my fourth manuscript. I’d finaled in a bunch of contests, made a bunch of friends in the community, and was far more familiar with the industry and the players. I was very confident in my craft, and knew that the problem was not so much with my manuscripts, as with finding the right person to love them at the right time, etc. etc. To that end, I skipped most of the craft seminars, and went to the industry ones. Publisher spotlights, “What Agents Want” — stuff like that. I pitched and got two requests, I hung out with publishers int eh bar, met an agent for drinks, partied like a rock star, introduced myself to Nora Roberts. I came away absolutely sure I had what it took. I sent out queries. I got 18 rejections. In the next few months, I was on a roller coaster. I can do this! No, I can’t! I want this! No, I don’t. I’m a Maggie Award winner! Who cares? Of course, it didn’t help that I was also dealing with some issues in my personal and other professional life as well. This year, I have an agent, and time will only tell to see if I get a publisher as well. I’ll be wearing my industry hat in Reno as well, (though now that I’m on the other side of the table, I don’t know what all the fuss is about. We’re as clueless as the next person.) I think I’m going to party at Reno. I’m going to celebrate this path I’ve chosen. I’ll learn some things, meet some people, and look forward to riding the roller coaster for another year. I’ve been a really lazy blogger recently. I think it’s due to three factors: 1) The things I really want to post about I’m not allowed to I’d planned to post pictures of the apartment unpacking-in-process, but that’s not really happening because: 1) I can’t find my camera in the boxes. Actually, that’s not entirely true. We’ve been slowly unpacking. So far, we’ve done the kitchen and the bed. Last night I made a half-hearted attempt to do something with the bathroom. We haven’t even put together all the cabinets, let alone unpacked them. This weekend, I swear that I will paint the dining room and my “office” as part of the set up. However, I know I’m basically useless to do anything else until at least Friday afternoon, and maybe not even then. And I’ll find my camera.
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