May #IWSG: Time for a Happy Dance

Come join Alex J. Cavanaugh and the Insecure Writer's Support Group. We discuss our fears, insecurities, ups and downs of the writing process and post the first Wednesday of every month! http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/p/the-insecure-writers-support-group.html

OPTIONAL IWSG Day Question: It's spring! Does this season inspire you to write more than others, or not?

Co-Hosts:
JQ Rose, C. Lee McKenzie, Raimey Gallant, & E.M.A Timar!

Spring brings out the editor in me. But as writers know, editing is re-writing. So, I guess I am writing! 

TIME FOR A HAPPY DANCE:

I spent the entirety of April editing my NaNo project. After ignoring my family for thirty days, I typed THE END. I finished just in time to enter my new middle-grade mystery into #RevPit. Revise and Resub is an online contest hosted by eleven professional editors who choose winners from about one hundred entrants each. The top winner gets to work with an editor for five weeks. The runner-up gets several critiques on a smaller scale. In a writer's world full of disappointment and rejection, it's nice to get good news!

Drum roll...

My new story staring a kick-butt, twelve-year-old girl solving a crime in Door County, Wisconsin, won RUNNER-UP!!! 

And that's all I can say about my book. The rest is top secret. I'd tell you, but, you know...

I don't usually talk about my submission journey. But I felt like shouting my latest victory to the world. Even small victories and accomplishments can push us to keep writing and moving forward. My shiny, new MG mystery is almost ready to sub to agents. My other middle-grade mystery Link Lakowski and the Dead House remains on sub with agents and a few editors from a different contest. But I am confident it will find its home very soon in the book world.

The submission phase is tedious, depressing, and not for everyone. Get yourself a CP or two. Read Story Genius, The First Five Pages, The Emotions Thesaurus, and EVERYTHING on K.M. Weiland's blog. Do it now. 

Fun Facts: 

I am a native of the great cheese state of Wisconsin--the setting for my new book.
My mystery is filled with more secrets than a teenage girl's diary.
My family didn't disown me this past month.

Anyone else enter #RevPit? Entering any contests this spring or summer?