Well, I got my Delacorte Yearling rejection in the mail yesterday. Though I expected it, I'm still bummed about it. It feels like I've done all I can with my gnome story. *sigh*
Guess I'll make Christmas candy to cheer myself up.
Showing posts with label Delacorte. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Delacorte. Show all posts
7/1/09
SIGH . . .
MISSING: One Garden Gnome is in the mail, trucking it's way across the country to Delacorte Press in New York to be judged in the Delacorte Yearling contest for Middle-Grade Readers.
A few interesting stats about the contest:
--This is the 18th year for this contest, and was formerly known as the Marguerite de Angeli contest
--Award: $1500 cash prize and $7500 advance, plus bragging rights.
--since 1992 only 7 winners have been declared in those 17 years. Many years the award has gone unawarded
--Since 2000, only two books have won the award: 2004 Prizefighter en Mi Casa by e. E. Charlton-Trujillo, and in, 2007 Born to Fly by M. J. Ferrari
--Odds of my winning are virtually none
A few interesting stats about me in relation to this contest:
--I can meet a looming deadline: Granted, there was some freakage going on, but I DID IT!
--I think I finally found 'my' genre to write in
--I can write tremendous amounts of wordage in a two week period (> 30,000 words), puking it onto the page without an outline and only a loose idea where I was going with it.
--It is better to know your POV going into the story than to dick around with it during the story
--I can envision the cover of this novel: white background with Travelocity gnome statue centered on the page with Rory Leafhopper leaning against it with his arms and legs crossed. Never happened before.
--Puking out the story gave me 38K words. Second draft: 46K Third/polished draft: 47K Though tweaking will continue, I think I'm virtually finished with this story
--Idea conceived in late February 2009, some writing but mainly thinking accomplished in March and April 2009, with the majority of writing in May 2009, editing in June 2009
--If you have major POV changes it is better to rewrite it instead of trying to fix it, even if it is only a paragraph at a time.
--I still have problems writing emotion into the intense scenes, as I tend to rattle off what happens without digging deep.
--any additional edits will most likely involve deepening the emotional impact.
#1 thing I learned:
--don't say you can't do something until you really put your heart in it and try!
Write on!
--and I will be as I hammer out a synopsis and a query letter!
A few interesting stats about the contest:
--This is the 18th year for this contest, and was formerly known as the Marguerite de Angeli contest
--Award: $1500 cash prize and $7500 advance, plus bragging rights.
--since 1992 only 7 winners have been declared in those 17 years. Many years the award has gone unawarded
--Since 2000, only two books have won the award: 2004 Prizefighter en Mi Casa by e. E. Charlton-Trujillo, and in, 2007 Born to Fly by M. J. Ferrari
--Odds of my winning are virtually none
A few interesting stats about me in relation to this contest:
--I can meet a looming deadline: Granted, there was some freakage going on, but I DID IT!
--I think I finally found 'my' genre to write in
--I can write tremendous amounts of wordage in a two week period (> 30,000 words), puking it onto the page without an outline and only a loose idea where I was going with it.
--It is better to know your POV going into the story than to dick around with it during the story
--I can envision the cover of this novel: white background with Travelocity gnome statue centered on the page with Rory Leafhopper leaning against it with his arms and legs crossed. Never happened before.
--Puking out the story gave me 38K words. Second draft: 46K Third/polished draft: 47K Though tweaking will continue, I think I'm virtually finished with this story
--Idea conceived in late February 2009, some writing but mainly thinking accomplished in March and April 2009, with the majority of writing in May 2009, editing in June 2009
--If you have major POV changes it is better to rewrite it instead of trying to fix it, even if it is only a paragraph at a time.
--I still have problems writing emotion into the intense scenes, as I tend to rattle off what happens without digging deep.
--any additional edits will most likely involve deepening the emotional impact.
#1 thing I learned:
--don't say you can't do something until you really put your heart in it and try!
Write on!
--and I will be as I hammer out a synopsis and a query letter!
2/23/09
Delacorte Yearling contest
I've been racking my brains for a decent plot for the Delacorte Yearling contest I mentioned last Friday. My kiddo is just starting books that would be considered MG (middle grade, ages 8-12) and I'm fairly familiar with the books available. I've read many of them, BUT the contest stipulates 96-160 typewritten pages, 12-point font. Of course, I can manipulate the font to reach the minimum or maximum requirement by simply changing it from courier to Times. And by my rough calculations that runs around 25K-40K words. Not a problem. If I could come up with a story in the next week or two, I could feasibly write this amount by the deadline of June 30, 2009.
The problem arises because . . . I GOT NOTHING by the way of plot!
This is driving me crazy!! Usually, I have too much plot, but now, I can't think of anything! AARRGGHH!! The really good MG stories have the main plot and a subplot or something that can link it into a series.
...and there are A LOT of good series all ready invented! The Magic Tree house books come to mind, though they are far less than the required word count. I need to come up with a story that is either contemporary or historical. They don't specifically say NO FANTASY, but I'm guessing the fantasy had better be a subplot or not at all if you look at the list of previous winners.
I'll take any, and all suggestions for a story plot. Oh, and my daughter says there has to be a sad part near the end (black moment, anyone?) because all chapter books have them. ;-)
Halp!
And Write On!
The problem arises because . . . I GOT NOTHING by the way of plot!
This is driving me crazy!! Usually, I have too much plot, but now, I can't think of anything! AARRGGHH!! The really good MG stories have the main plot and a subplot or something that can link it into a series.
...and there are A LOT of good series all ready invented! The Magic Tree house books come to mind, though they are far less than the required word count. I need to come up with a story that is either contemporary or historical. They don't specifically say NO FANTASY, but I'm guessing the fantasy had better be a subplot or not at all if you look at the list of previous winners.
I'll take any, and all suggestions for a story plot. Oh, and my daughter says there has to be a sad part near the end (black moment, anyone?) because all chapter books have them. ;-)
Halp!
And Write On!
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