Tag: grant

Good News

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

My romance novel made it to the second round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards Contest!  In the first round they read my pitch and liked it so now I’m advancing with 399 others to the second round.

The second round reviewers will read my excerpt (and the other 399 excerpts) and the top 100 will be moved to the next round.  I’ll know more on March 12.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed.  I think my romance novel is really good. 

The GRAND prize is $50,000 plus a publishing contract.  Some other finalists may receive publishing contracts too.  First Prize winners get a publishing contract and $15,000.  There are a whole bunch of other prizes too.  I’d love to get either the grand prize or a first prize.  The money would be awesome to say the least but the exposure would also be incredible. 

Realistically, I’m not holding my breath but I am hopeful.

I finish writing my grant proposal and submitted that.  Now it is a wait and see as I don’t believe they notify until the end of the year. 

The new editor from a publication contacted me and asked for articles.  It is nice to have this happen as it shows an appreciation for my writing even though they don’t pay.  I sent her a few articles. 

In the mail yesterday I got my copy of the calendar from lulu.com (Scars Publishing) that has one of my poems in it.  Every time I see my poetry published somewhere it surprises me – in a great way.

Now I just wait for the rejection letters… “If you aren’t being rejected regularly, maybe you’re not trying hard enough.” Kathy Ireland.

Not Quite Done

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

Today is going to be a busy day.  I have homework to finish and need to help Vicki prep for Super Bowl food as we have Kelly and Dominic coming over to watch.  I also want to finish off my grant, work on crocheting, and a few other things. 

Yesterday was a bust.  I was in the middle of working on my grant when Ken said the tv channel he was watching went out.  This led to an all day affair with the cable / internet provider.  It eventually got fixed but it literally took until about 8:00 pm last night before we have tv services back.  I get glitches but I don’t get when they totally screw up.  I got the run around to begin with but had all the information and finally got someone who was willing to listen and work with me.  Now the service is correct – next I’ll just have to watch the billing to make sure they get that straight.  I’m sure my frustration and annoyance level will go through the roof as I try to get that fixed.

I did get some of the editing done on the grant but now I’m second guessing myself on what writing sample I should send in.  This is what my grant will be judged on for the most part so it is extremely important.  I want them to see my writing style and understand the story I’m trying to tell.  I also want it to be a well edited piece of writing.  Here is where the dilemma comes in – I have 25 pages which are well edited and start the story but aren’t the meat of the story (prologue and back story).  I have the beginning of the story which hasn’t been edited at all.  The prologue and back story has been edited by several people and I’ve had input from a variety of sources.  This means my edits have been thoughtful and constructive.  I’m not sure if I jump ahead if I have as good a quality of writing as the other part.  However, the beginning of the story is more action filled and jumps right in to the main characters and their quest but it isn’t edited.  I’ve had little feedback on it at all.  I’ve done little work on it myself as I’ve been working on editing the first part and writing at the tail end of the story.  I need to make the choice today especially if I’m going to start with the beginning because I will have to get the 25 pages I’m going to submit edited. 

This morning I was going to get up and work on my homework.  I’ve not touched it yet.  I’ve spent the last hour working on editing other people’s stuff and sorting through emails.  My last lab for this section is the next thing I’m going to work on and then I want to go back and review the ones where I got answers wrong.  The material is definitely getting more difficult and I need to have as many points as possible as I move forward.  Yes, I know two of my labs I only missed one and that is acceptable but I still am going to need the points.  Also, I have no idea at this point if I have homework for the other class as the professor has not posted anything and I wasn’t in class on Thursday.  This is particularly frustrating to me because I could have spent yesterday working on it but she hadn’t posted anything yet or answered my email.  I know my faculty told me to give her 48 hours (business hours) but at the same time it causes me stress because I can’t just stay home from work because she hands out a ton of homework.  Here is where I have to do what I can and let the rest go – obviously I’m working on that. 

I’m going to try to spend the next two hours very productively and then this afternoon I’ll be assistant chef to Vicki and have fun during the Super Bowl (who ever thought those words would come out of my mouth?)

My to-do lists got some attention but not enough…