SYTYCW-One of the 5 Finalists!

A little over a week ago, while sitting in a coffee shop, and refreshing my inbox for what had to be the tenth time in a matter of thirty minutes, an email actually came in.  And it wasn’t from a friend or spam..no, it was from Harlequin!

It was an email from the Senior Editor of Harlequin Romance, saying that I was one of the 5 finalists from the SYTYCW contest!

They loved my entry!  It really took me a few minutes to process, as I thought that ship had sailed.  SYTYCW wasn’t even on the radar for me anymore.  In fact, I thought the email had something to do with a question I had posted on the Harlequin forums for the Romance fast-track they were working on.  But as I re-read the email, the reality of it dawned on me:  In black and white, on their letterhead, they said that I was one of the 5 finalists and that they liked my voice, they liked my story.

It wasn’t an offer to publish…but they would like to work with me!  I now have an invitation to send them something new.  I will be speaking with or emailing Bryony Green at Harlequin Romance.  I have a few ideas of what I’d like to submit…and I also have a partial that’s almost ready to go that I think would work really well…and the partial that I’m really hoping they like, will take me back to France…

So now, I need to get some coherent thoughts down on paper in preparation for our conversation and polish/revise the partial that I’m hoping will interest them.  Just thinking about a phone conversation already has my stomach in knots!  How many ways can I possibly embarrass myself in a conversation?

Hmm…I guess I’d better get to work before the self-doubt takes over!