What a roller-coaster week . . .

I do have some writing-related news to share, but first I want to express my deepest condolences and heartfelt prayers to the families and friends of the slain, the students, faculty and staff of Virginia Tech, and everyone else who has been affected by this tragic event. My farm lies only about 50 miles from the university, and my son Jon went to high school with the gunman -- though Jon was a year behind Cho and didn't know him. Fortunately, Jon attends college elsewhere in Virginia, but some of his friends have been affected, including HS football teammates Sean Glennon and Eddie Royal, who are two of VT's starting offensive players. In keeping with the sentiment of a drawing that has been doubtless circling the globe this week, "Today we are all Hokies."

My writing-related news is that LIBERTY has finaled in another contest, the Write Touch Readers Award, sponsored by the Wisconsin Romance Writers! That telephone call came this evening, obviously sending my emotional roller-coaster to a much-needed high point. In this contest I entered LIBERTY in the Romantic Elements category, so apparently my intuition was right on target. :)

~Kim "Kimberly Iverson" Headlee

I got The Call!

Okay, not THE Call . . . i.e., that blessed moment of finding out an editor wishes to acquire one of your manuscripts. But, I did receive news via telephone this morning that LIBERTY has finaled in the Historical category of the 2007 HOLT Medallion contest, sponsored by the Virginia Romance Writers!

The HOLT Medallion, as I understand it, is one of the most prestigious romance writing awards for published novels after the RITA . . . and shortlisting this year with LIBERTY is particularly rewarding for me, for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, according to the contest coordinator, it's the first year the committee decided to combine Long Historicals and Short Historicals into a single entry category, so the competition, including international entrants, was twice as stiff--and LIBERTY had to overcome the additional hurdle of my unwittingly having sent in printer-flawed copies (whew!).

And second, as I shared with the coordinator, when DAWNFLIGHT was published in late 1999, and I was busily entering it into as many contests as existed in those days, somehow I missed hearing about the HOLT Medallion contest until after the submission deadline -- and since I was residing in northern Virginia at the time (VRW is based in Richmond), I really had no excuse! She & I shared a good laugh over that rather sheepish admission of mine. :) The other nice thing is that Richmond is only about a 4-hour drive from my farm, and there is a high likelihood that I will be able to attend the award announcement, which will be held in conjunction with VRW's June meeting.

All of this, while literally in the midst of packing for a quick jaunt from my farm in southwestern Virginia to Knoxville for the Smoky Mountain Romance Writers' 10th annual Mountain Laurel conference, where I will be rooming tonight with our very own Deborah Brent!

And, omygosh, it's time to sign off & hit the road...Happy Easter to everyone and I'll catch up with y'all next week!