It was exciting to be nominated, but I have to admit, it is WAY more exciting to WIN!
I am the Winner of the Romance Category of the Writers' League of Texas Manuscript Contest.
What's that? I was mumbling? Okay, let me try that again.
I AM THE WINNER OF THE ROMANCE CATEGORY OF THE WRITERS' LEAGUE OF TEXAS MANUSCRIPT CONTEST!
I had been haunting the website beginning Friday, June 26th, hoping for news, since I knew the conference started on that date. I also knew they would be announcing the winners at the conference, but I was unable to attend, since I was neck deep in moving from New York to Massachusetts. After wearing out the Refresh key on Internet Explorer all day Friday, and getting no news, I realized right before drifting off to sleep the awards ceremony wasn't until Saturday.
D'oh!
So I spent all day Saturday -- well, in between packing and moving and complaining about how it was too hot to pack and move and holy CRAP how were we ever going to get all this done -- you guessed it: refreshing the website every 2.5 seconds. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.
Nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing.
I decided to call the Writers' League on Monday morning to find out, once and for all who the winners were, but instead I found out their office was CLOSED until Wednesday.
Aaaaugh!
So I was forced to concentrate on packing, and moving, and trying not to think about the agonizing wait. My best friend and I were getting ready to go to dinner Wednesday night, and I decided to check, one last time.
The winners had been posted! I scrolled down, steeling myself for bad news, since my category was a ways down the page. . .
The shock nearly killed me.
"Ohmygod, I won," I croaked out.
My best friend came from the other room, wondering what I'd managed to choke on, since we'd pretty much packed up everything by then.
"I won!"
We both started squealing, and I tried to show her the webpage, so I could be sure I wasn't hallucinating it, but she was squeezing me in a congratulatory hug.
We added champagne to the dinner, and every once in a while a wave of glee bubbled up, and I could feel myself grinning like a madwoman.
That was definitely one of my favorite days. Even if the waiting darn near killed me.
