Got my scoresheet back from the Golden Heart contest today. Ouch. But I can look at it in several ways.
1. My writing sucks. My characters are flat. The plot is weak and tired. I should give up writing romances right now because I’ll continue to sucketh for the rest of my pitiful life.
or
2. My characters are interesting and the plot has merit, but this is my first completed novel and it shows. Now I should put it under the bed and keep working on my other stories.
or
3. My writing is fine. My characters are fine. The plot is fine. My story was just not what the romance industry is interested in.
I’m suspecting it’s more of the 2 and 3. I’m sure when I look back at the story after finishing another novel or two, I’ll wince a little. I also suspect, after reading Romancing the Blog and various other genre blogs, that I’m rather out of step with the mainstream romance community. The whole Tea and Crumpets thing that I got on my soapbox about a few months back.
Anyhoo, I got the book out there, which was my main goal. Now on to other writing projects.