I had an amazing weekend at the Georgia Romance Writers Moonlight and Magnolias Conference in Atlanta.I had been planning not to go, because of the string of rejections I’ve gotten recently, but I cannot imagine how long I’d be kicking myself now if I hadn’t gone because I was in the mood to be pessimistic. It was such an incredible weekend, and though, after eight hours in the car, it was impossible to be on cloud nine, I was still firmly affixed to cloud eight and a half a week later.
I had been hoping and praying to *final* in the Maggie Contest, but I honestly never expected to win. My boyfriend says that he’s never before believed people who said that, but he believes it now, because he know that I had no expectations of winning. Meltdown has had too many people who just don’t get it.
The GRW chapter goes all out announcing the awards — big gala dinner, everyone in sparkly dresses, screens with out names flashing by — it’s like a mini RITA/Golden Heart awards ceremony. They make the announcements like a beauty pageant, starting with honorable mentions, then third place, then second, then the winner, so by the time they get to the second place announcement, everyone is already screaming. Short Contemporary unpublished was the first category announced. Most of the TARA girls were all sitting in the back. I was with Jeannie and Tara and Rocki and Anne Marie and her husband.
Like I said, I had absolutely ZERO expectations of winning, despite Jeannie London’s “good feelings” all weekend. I hadn’t prepared any kind of speech. And they start counting down. When they got through the two honorable mentions and my name wasn’t called, I was absolutely thrilled. I PLACED! And then they gave third place to Jaqueline Floyd, 2-time GH winner. And then they said, “Second place, Beth Watson,” and… well, I don’t remember much after that.
I know I covered my face with my hands. I know Tanya Michaels (Temptation and Flipside writer, and one of my preliminary judges, and, apparently, a huge fan of the story) jumped up, ran across the room and hugged me. I know everyone at the table was screaming their heads off (and, if I chanced to forget, all the GRW members remarked on it for the rest of the night and intermittently the following day). I know I managed to cross that ENTIRE banquet floor without tripping, receive my award and my pendant, and make a speech. I’m *told* that I said the following: “I want to thank GRW, my judges, Tanya, Jennifer [La Breque] and Wanda, my parents for believing in me, my boyfriend for going to Hong Kong so I could write the book, the wonderful people of TARA, I couldn’t do it wihout you, and that Golden Heart Judge who gave me a 1, for teaching me not to believe everything you read.”
And then I left. On the way off the stage, I hugged Beverly and Alesia, who were sitting with agent Jenny Bent of Trident Media (I pitched to her earlier that day), grabbed my arm and said, “You *are* going to send me that submission, aren’t you?” I think I nodded dumbly.
Then I went back to my seat, gulped down a glass of wine, and proceeded to shake for the next hour and a half. Then I called my parents (my mom cried), my boyfriend (who shouted in an entirely un-Quakerlike manner and said, “I’ve been praying for this all day!”), my friend Marley Gibson, my friend Colleen Gleason, and Cheryl (who wasn’t around). And then I shook some more. And then I got some champagne and proceeded to hold court — er, celebrate with my friends, until they were exhausted and went to sleep. And then I stayed up until I was sure I wouldn’t bounce off the hotel room walls, went back to my room, changed into my pajamas, and proceeded to lie awake all night with “I Could Have Danced All Night” from MY FAIR LADY whirling around in my head. Every time I dozed off, I was seized with a horror that this was a dream, and woke up and clutched my neck to make sure the pendant was still there. I felt like freaking Frodo with his ring.
And then this morning I bounced around like a tree frog until I thought people were going to look at me funny and then tried not to smile TOO widely. And then I called Julie, who already knew (Marley outed me everywhere in Christendom) and Cheryl, who mysteriously didn’t know, but now we have more matching jewelry.
And I’m *never* taking it off. It’s mine. My own. My precious….ahem. Right. It’s um, very nice.
And the rest of the conference was lovely. I loved Jenny Crusie’s keynote, Stpehanie Bond gave a fabulous talk on writers, Beverly talked about kickass heroines, Alesia about YA, Rocki about marketing (but only to the pubs, that snobby bedmate of mine
