Accomplishment? Finalist in contest

Hi all,
I wasn't sure if I should post this here or not. I mentioned it in the Romance thread.

I just found out this morning that my co-author and I made finalists in the Romance Grand Beginnings Contest sponsored by the Northwest Indiana RWA Chapter 89.

We were only allowed to send the first five pages of the manuscript and finalists will be judged by editor Kelly Harms, Avon publishing.

This is my first attempt at a romance, first attempt with a writing partner, and first attempt at a contest.

We're pretty excited.

Joanne

LOL Rose,

Thanks. I feel honored to be a finalist. The story behind how we became writing partners is a book itself.

Joanne

Thanks, everyone.

Oh, I am thrilled, and I just received an email this morning announcing that there were only 5 finalists.

I can't tell you how thrilled I am. I'm still myself; checking to see if it's a dream. LOL

Joanne

Thanks, Wendy,

Writing with a partner is not always easy, especially since one partner has written and published for more than thirty years and the other considers herself a newbie with no bylines.

We laugh about writing the story of how our partnership began. To make a long story short; we met online in a romance writing class, our writing was of similar style so we im'd each other now and then. She lives in NC. I live in PA. She wrote a short paragraph, im'd it to me, and asked me what I thought, I sent it back with the next paragraph and a hook. We liked it so well, we kept writing and plotted out the entire book. We had this book written and part of the sequel before we ever met in person.

Partnership can be fun and exhausting. It is a great opportunity to toss ideas back and forth in our other writing endeavors as well.

I'm looking forward to completing the final edit and finishing the sequel. I enjoy writing romance, and have a few other plots of my own in this genre. I must admit, though, I'm much more in tune to mystery, suspense and horror. LOL

Joanne