CONTEST

Yesterday, I discovered that the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest is back. Last time I looked for it, I couldn't find ANYTHING about it. Now, I have until March 2nd to completely re-edit my book. That's 350 pages of editing. And actually, I need to get it done by tomorrow. The sooner I enter, the better. They close the contest as soon as they have 10,000 entries and that happened nearly three days early last year (I very nearly had a panic attack at that point, what fun).

I would very much like to win the contest, the prizes are quiet enticing.

Grand Prize: $50,000 and a publishing contract. (Yes please, that sounds lovely.)

First Prize (there are four of these): $15,000 and a publishing contract. (That also sounds lovely)

No idea if there are other prizes after that. But if nothing else, I could get picked up by Amazon Publishing. At this point, I'm very ready to be done with querying agents.

I had to cut down my first two chapters to 5,000 words for the excerpt, which took most of the day. Actually, I did a lot more than that. I renamed the book (used to be Sevan, it's now Sedition), renamed the series, and did some actual research to make sure the names made sense. I have so much more editing to do though, I feel like I might go a little bit crazy.

My word count goal is going down the tubes, but at least I'm getting something done! I've had awful writer's block for the past two weeks. Editing is certainly better than nothing. Well, must go do productive things now.

I Need A Job

I seriously need a job, my cash stash is about to disappear. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of job opportunities here. So I've been applying for live-in nanny jobs, a lot in California, a few in the Denver area. Who knows if anything will come of it, but being a live-in nanny seems like a pretty good idea. Rent and food is taken care of, the money is pretty good, and I'd get experience a place besides this teeny tiny little town. Not that I don't like this town, there just aren't many opportunities here. So hopefully I'll be able to get out there and break my pattern of hiding out in my room with my computer.

I've also had three rejection letters from various agents in the past week or so. I really don't mind rejections, as long as I actually get a response of some sort. The only time get irritated is when I get no reply whatsoever. Looks like it's time for another round of queries. *sigh* I really think I should set a limit... maybe only query for another six months and then, if nothing is happening, move on to self publishing. Yeah... that sounds good to me.