Face Myself Friday: Another win!

I suppose Face Myself Friday may be a recurring series because here it is again.

First, as always, housekeeping: I had an overwhelming amount of requests for blog critiques early in the series. Truthfully, I think most of them came from Matt McNish followers who followed on over when I critiqued his awesome blog (Love you all!). Speaking of whom, come back tomorrow to see some more Matt. Oh, now I'm off topic. Let me try again:

Next week, in order to kick out a bunch of those critiques, I will be featuring a critique everyday. That's right: FIVE DAYS of BLOG CRITIQUING AWESOMENESS! So get your blog critique thinking caps on a be ready for Monday. You won't want to miss some of the awesome blogs on the chopping block  line up.

Next little bit of housekeeping: You may have noticed (or not) that my blog is a little wider than it was previously. I added 80 pixels of width because every time I tried to make a picture extra large, it wandered over into my sidebar. After Wednesday's blog critique when Joe suggested to Gillian to make her pictures fill as much of the space as possible, I realized I needed to take that advice as well. I added the 80 pixels, and now the extra large pics fill the space without going over.

This is how winning makes me feel. (Even second place.)

And now, I have another win to share! I had completely forgotten that I entered Rachel McClellan's awesome Oktoberfest blog contest. Mostly I entered because I loved the idea of sharing my favorite scene from the novel that I am currently querying. After I sent Rachel my entry, I put the whole thing out of my mind because, duh, NaNo was upon me. In November, I completely abandoned blog visiting. I didn't even stop by Rachel's blog and leave comments on the other entries! Such a no no....

Anyway, Rachel emailed me this week to tell me I tied for second in a three way tie!!  Thank you so much, Rachel for the AMAZING OPPORTUNITY. The best part? Cedar Forts Acquisitions Editor, Angie Workman has requested a full manuscript from me!

I have dedicated myself to pursuing publication through an agent so an acquisitions editor requesting my book comes as a total surprise. How exciting to try another road. (And scary. I've been staring at the submissions form for over an hour now. I'm such a pussy...) Anyhoo, wish me luck!

Has your writing/querying taken an unexpected turn? Tell us about it in the comments.Le