Results

Okay, I'm blogging from the hotel after the awards banquet. While it was fun being a finalist and this is the farthest I've gotten in any contest, I did not make the top three. I don't know in which of the eight spots I placed exactly--only the first three are made known. But it doesn't really matter. It would have been great to hit one of the top spots, but as they kept telling all us finalists, this was a really tough contest, so just to be a finalist at all was a great achievement. PNWA is an old, prestigious conference, so I hope simply being one of the finalists for my category will give me a credit that potential publishers will find worthy of note.

As it happens, I was sitting in the hotel bar last night when an author in my genre invited me to join him and his two friends at his table. About halfway through the conversation, he suddenly revealed that the lady to my left was an editor--for my genre, or at least a related genre. You have to be careful at these conferences! You never know when you might be talking to an editor incognito while she's drinking a mojito. It was at least as good as the private party the winners are now having with the agents and editors. The universe has its ways of giving us what we need, as long as we're willing to keep making the effort. Plus, today I met at least four urban fantasy authors, so...like I say. As long as I make the contacts, it doesn't really matter whether I take home a fancy certificate.

I'm going to keep telling myself that for the rest of the evening...while I'm drinking champagne with one of my fellow non-winning finalists.