12th Place!!!!

Do you see it?

Right there, bottom half, the list of semi-finalists. Number 12.

Yeah, that's me!!

A long while back (last year) I entered a writing contest online with the first five pages of a Fantasy YA novel I am working on right now. I have gone back and forth on the title.

They said it was going to take a long time to decide, so I forgot about it. The main prize was the chance to submit a full manuscript to Regina Brooks, agent, and a ten-week writing course. The top five got a 15-minute consultation and written commentary by all the contest judges (from all over, you'll read it in the link) and, as far as I was concerned, everyone else got some consolation prize or another.

Well, half a year later I got this book by Regina Brooks, with an autograph by the author that read: To Núria, Keep writing, the YA audience needs you!" and her signature. I thought that was really nice of her and thought, in passing, that it must have taken her a long time to sign all those books to all the contest participants.

Fast-forward another few months, to last week to be precise, when I decided to do what's called a "vanity Google search" and google my name to see what comes up. This is something that we are encouraged to do often, because when someone becomes interested in your work the first thing they do is Google your name. That is also why they encourage us to start blogs, etc. This way we have a bit more control on what kind of content shows up first.

Anyway, I Googled my name and the first link that showed up was the one about this contest. I was curious to see where my name would have showed up. Well, turns out I got the autographed book because I was ranked #12 (out of 1700!)
Needless to say I have printed this web page and have placed it already in my "Go Me!" folder :)