Saturday, April 10, 2010

Writing News

I've been itching to share this news for quite a while, but I was specifically asked not to blog, tweet or facebook about it until today.

The opening chapter of my middle grade mystery BETRAYED won the middle grade/young adult category in the Hook 'em contest at the Dallas/Ft. Worth Writers Conference. My prize - a ten-minute pitch session with agent/contest judge Laurie McLean from the Larsen-Pomada Literary Agency. I was pretty excited about this because unlike most pitch sessions where the agent has no idea whether you can write, Ms. McLean had already seen my writing and liked it. She also already knew what the story is about.
This took a lot of pressure off, since I didn't have to give a perfect pitch. It also allowed me to use my ten minutes to find out more about Ms. McLean - that she is an editorial agent who likes to represent clients for their whole career. She asked to see more of my manuscript and said we were "beginning a dialogue."

My meeting with her was first thing this morning - and an excellent way to celebrate my birthday.

I also picked up this very cool T-shirt at the conference from Angela Whitehead. Her company is Youniquely Yours.
Just for clarification, it says "Writer's Block: When your imaginary friends won't talk to you." Pretty cool, huh?