Here's part 2 of my interview with my sister C.J. Read Part 1 here.Why did you enter the Operation First Novel contest?
I entered out of desperation, really. I was getting so discouraged. I’d been submitting my novel to publishers and receiving nothing but rejection. I was days away from putting it in a drawer and focusing on other projects. But I was prompted to enter the contest late one night. I was hoping to place as a semi-finalist just to give my confidence a much-needed boost. I never expected to win!
How did you find out about the contest?
I first heard about it in Writer’s Digest magazine. The Christian Writers Guild had an ad for their very first Operation First Novel contest. That put it on my radar, and I’ve been following the Guild ever since.
How many entries were there?
I believe this year there were 132 entries.
How long did it take you to write Thicker than Blood?
From initial idea to contracted book? Almost fifteen years. But I didn’t work on it every day by any means. However, the characters were always with me. I made a commitment to get serious with my writing when I was eighteen. I finished Thicker Than Blood when I was 24. So really the majority of the work happened during that time.
What did the judging process look like?
You know, I’m really not sure. I know they selected nine semi-finalists and four finalists. I don’t know for sure who all was involved in that selection. But I do know the four finalists were sent to the Tyndale fiction acquisition team who made the final decision on the winner.
Read Part 4
Read Part 3
Read Part 1
3 comments:
Great interview! I'm glad to know I'm not the only person who has had a novel idea for a long time and isn't quite working on it everyday. (I started when I was 11 and I'm almost 17 now.) ^_^ But I do want to work on it more though. :P
Congratulations on your new blog, Tracy! I just signed up to follow you. I think! Not sure if I did it correctly...
Fun, fun! Love you both :)
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