Tuesday, I stalked Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award webpage like a 13 year old with a crush. Finally at 11:30 a.m., they quarterfinalists were announced….
This time I remembered K comes after J and I took a deep breath. Preparing mentally to not see my name. It’s okay. You did you best.
Then I started scanning. And what did I see? My name. OMG. The air forgot to enter my lungs. My brain knocked into my skull.
I placed in the quarterfinals. I’m one of the 250 out of 5000. Wow.
This round they (Amazon Editors and Amazon Top Reviewers) judged an excerpt (3-5K words) on overall strength, prose/style, plot/hook, originality of idea.
That is major affirmation. Thank you so much Amazon reviewers. It means so very much to know you thought my excerpt deserved to move on to the next round.
Now onto the super cool part. I have an Amazon page. Yup.
But there’s some tech issues right now. My pitch and excerpt have formatting errors (random symbols for quotation marks and apostrophes as well as missing emdashes). Amazon is aware of the issues and working hard to rectify them. So I’m not linking to it because I think you would get a headache trying to read my excerpt.
As soon as the problem is corrected, I’ll provide the link in case anyone wants to read my pitch or my excerpt. You can also rate and comment on them too.
This means my entire manuscript gets read by PW and they will give me feedback. Wow.
I’m so excited!
Woo hooo!! How awesome! 🙂
Thanks! I’m still not quite believing it. 🙂
Oh, Kourtney, this is wonderful news! *applause* *throws confetti in the air*. Keep us posted. Squeee!!!
Thanks Jenny! My mom’s gonna make me vacuum up the confetti, but it’s so worth it. 😛
Very well done!!!! Enjoy the moment, hope there is a lot more to come! 🙂
Thanks! Me too. I do love the round component of this competition that allows you a month to bask in making it this far. 🙂
Well done, Kourtney!
Thanks Andy! Appreciate you stopping by. 🙂
Wow, congratulations! Great news. I can’t wait to read your excerpt when Amazon gets around to fixing the formatting problem!
Thanks Lyra! I had to check the list twice to be sure that was my name. 🙂 Thanks–I’m so excited to have fellow writers read my excerpt and let me know what they think. Fingers crossed Amazon fixes the formatting glitches soon. 🙂
Congrats Kourtney! Wonderful news… can’t wait for the link to be up 🙂
Thanks Samir! Amazon has been very responsive to our emails and said it should have the problem fixed today. Fingers crossed. 🙂
Congratulations Kourtney!
This has to mean a lot to you as a writer. I know I would freak and feel so blessed in terms of support and writing skill that you made it this far. You’re so awesome.
And for being so amazingly awesome as a blogger, you’re receiving today’s MadGayMan award… picture to be sent via Twitter… and post about your amazingness to be aired on my blog later today!
You so deserve it!
Thanks so much! It really does. The first round was judged on the pitch, so I learned my pitch is pretty good. This round was a writing critique of my first 15 pages. Advancing meant I did something right enough there. 🙂 I could barely work on Tuesday, I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve. So excited. Aw, thank you! Your support means so much.
WOW. This is like the best week ever. Thank you for this super cool blog award! I will Tweet you a picture. 🙂
A hundred thank yous!!!!
Oh I’m sorry! I meant I would send you MGM award photo via Twitter. you don’t have to send a photo. Sorry!
LOL. I’m sorry! I think it was the blonde roots coming in again. 🙂 Thank you so much for the MGM award! That is the nicest, coolest thing anyone has ever written about me! You rock!
http://diaryofamadgayman.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/mgm-award-kourtney-heintz/
Woo Hoo!
Well done, you must be thrilled. Link the links into the comments here and I’ll get it and come and vote.
Thrilled for you!
Thanks CC! I’m so happy! As soon as Amazon’s fixed the glitches I’ll put the link in the comments here and also post it on the blog. Really appreciate your support!
Yeah Kourtney! I’m so happy and excited for you! Awesome news! 😀
Thanks Traci! I’m thrilled because I’ve been querying this book a couple months and started to wonder if it’s the concept or the writing or just a book that might not be marketable. This gives me hope that eventually I can find an agent for it!
Excellent, Kourtney, excellent. HF
Thanks Harper. It was so cool to scroll through the list and see my name. 🙂
Wow. Great news! Let us know as soon as the page is up.
Thanks Janet! Will make sure to post the link as soon as things are readable. 🙂
Holy crap, Kourtney! Congratulations! Fingers crossed you make it all the way!
That was my response too, AmyMarie! My mom looked at me and hushed her voice, “I never thought you’d make it this far. I’m sorry for doubting you.” I laughed, “I never thought I’d make it this far either.” Fingers and toes are crossed. Hoping to keep going, but really happy to have made it here. 🙂
Yeah!!!!!! Go, girl!
Thanks Lisa! I was pretty surprised to make it this far. I’ve never done well in a contest before. 🙂
Congratulations!! Looking forward to checking out your link.
Thanks so much! I will be providing it as soon as the formatting glitches are fixed. Right now there are weird characters that would give you a headache to read it. 🙂
CONGRATS —————————
AND I LOVE THE FLOWER ……
FLOWER POWER MISS K
ENJOY EACH MOMENT XO C
Thanks Catherine! The flower is from a trip to Portland in the summer of 2009. They have gorgeous summers and amazing gardens there. 😉
🙂 🙂 🙂
ME LOVE FLOWERS :)))))))))))HERE IS ONE FOR YOU TO WISH YOU MORE LUCK —-
AS IF YOU NEED IT 🙂 LOL XO
http://catforsley.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/push-up-flower-cat-forsley-c2a9.jpg
Thanks so much Catherine! That’s a very cool flower. 🙂
🙂 ENJOY 🙂 INJOY 🙂
Will do 🙂
🙂 🙂 🙂 XX
Congrats yay!!!
Thanks Victoria! 🙂
Very exciting! Congratulations!
Thanks! Best March ever. 😉
That is so fantastic, Kourtney! All of your hard work is paying off. And by the looks of the number of comments you received, there are lots of us rooting for you! Oh, Grandma H must be so proud!!
Thanks! I hope so. 🙂 I’ve got some wonderful bloggers on my side (including you)! LOL. Well, it was better than when I won the first round. I got in the car 5 minutes after getting the email that I made it to round 2. I’m super thrilled. I tell Grandma H. She says, “Well that’s a step. A small step, but not a small small step. It’s something I suppose.”
I say, “Thanks for peeing on my parade.”
She looks at me, “I don’t want you getting your hopes up.”
I say, “I just found out 5 minutes ago. I get to be hopeful for a day.”
Grandma H says, “Oh, well that’s fine.”
This time I called her and said, “You have to be upbeat and positive about this.”
“Okay,” she says.
Then I tell her my news about the quarterfinals.
“Well that is something, huh? Good job,” she says.
“Thanks.”
Oh, I love your Grandma! She keeps things real, no?
So real. 🙂 But I love her. And I know she’s proud of me. She just worries about me getting my hopes up, but what’s the alternative? Getting my hopes down? That’s not fun.
Huzzar!
Thanks! 🙂
Congrats, Kourtney! So excited for you. 🙂
Thanks August! 🙂 I’m super excited. This is so unexpected.
Congratulations!
Thanks so much! 🙂
Congratulations, that’s fantastic. I’m not surprised you’re over the moon, so happy for you, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Thanks Sally! I keep pinching myself. I feel like I’m orbiting Venus right now. 😉
Sooooo stoked for you! How utterly exciting! I read this and got tingly. I can’t imagine how pumped you are! Bask, revel, and rejoice, my friend!
Thanks Emmie! I can’t quite believe it. Aw, it’s so great to have you in my corner. 🙂 I have to admit, I love the way Amazon staggered the rounds out so you get a month of enjoying moving up in the contest before you find out if you made the next cut. You really get to savor each win.
Wow, Kourtney, yea that’s great. It’s nice to see someone push through the netting!
Thanks! It’s been a long road. I won several charity auctions and submitted the partial of this manuscript to several editors, agents, and published authors for feedback. I revised based on their comments. It helped tremendously. BTW, this is the first contest I ever advanced a round in. So it pays to keep trying and take every no in stride.
Yahoo! Kourtney, that is such awesome news. How amazing you must feel! Don’t forget, walking happens on the floor, not the air. 🙂 That is, when you come down from this high! Wooo!
Thanks Kathryn! I was floating along for a couple days. I think my feet grazed the floor today or maybe that was someone’s head! 🙂
I loved your description of feeling like a 13-year-old with a crush. Ah, to have those days back—and now you do!
Thanks Audrey! I really appreciated the email you sent to alert me about the contest result too. 🙂 I was refreshing that page so much. I totally felt like a teenager watching the status update on a guy I crushed on. Waiting for it to say single again. 😛
Congratulations again, Kourtney! Can’t wait for the link so I can read what you’ve done! Obviously it’s going to be good! 🙂
Thanks JM! Amazon is still working on the excerpts. The paragraphing is still wonky as are the apostrophes and emdashes. Hope it is resolved by next week. I hope so. 😉
Amazing!!!! Congrats. You deserve it. When can we read it.
You go girl.
Thanks! Very excited about it. 🙂
Um, well, that date is still undetermined. There was a programming glitch so Amazon has to fix everyone’s excerpts. That might take a couple days. 🙂
WOW well deserved! Fingers crossed! Keep us updated. YEA YOU!
Thanks! I’m super excited. Hope PW likes the entire manuscript. 🙂 Will keep you informed and as soon as Amazon has clean versions up, I’ll link to the excerpt. 🙂
Ahhhhhhhh CONGRATULATIONS!!!! I can’t wait to read your book 🙂
Thanks Laura! There will be a 15 page excerpt on Amazon. I’ll paste a link as soon as the formatting issues they had are resolved. 😉
Awesome! Way to go, Kourtney!
Thanks Simon! It was so cool to advance through two rounds. Fingers crossed I make it another one. 🙂
Congratulations and all the best!:)
Thanks so much!
🙂
Well done, Kourtney. Best wishes for the next round.
Thanks Pete! I’m thrilled to make it to the top 5%. I’d love to make it to the semifinals too, but right now I’m just loving being here. 🙂
Tremendous! Congratulations!
Thanks! It is still settling in weeks later. 🙂 I can’t believe something I wrote made it this far in a contest!
One day, very soon, I expect we’ll see a post of yours titled, “I WON!”
Till then, all the best of luck!
Aw thanks so very much! There’s three more rounds until a winner is announced. But I find out if I made it to the semi-finals on April 24th. 🙂