Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest

Last month I submitted my entry into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest. I was hopeful – why else would you enter in a contest unless you hope to win – but didn’t want to obsess about it. Thankfully, the following weeks after were crazy busy for me and I didn’t have time to dwell on it at all. In all honesty, I forgot about it because I was so preoccupied with all my other various commitments and activities. Then I got an email from them saying the entrants who were moving on to the next round were posted. I clicked on the link. Eventually, I got to the pdf that contained the writers who moved on. It was in alphabetical order – by first name. At first, I started scrolling down. Then I thought, this will take me forever to scroll to the “S”s. I had to suck it up and do a search for my name. So, I hit -F and typed in my first name. I’d know instantly if there were any Shirleys in the second round once I hit return. No hits would mean I didn’t make it. Any hits could mean it was me, but then again, it wouldn’t necessarily be me. One was found. It was me! I was so excited and relieved. I had to share the news… with my class. I happened to see the email when I had just assigned my class a practice problem to try on their own. I wound up interrupting that independent thinking time to share my news because I couldn’t contain myself. I saw it as a life lesson… you never know unless you try!