Thursday, January 24, 2013

I Have a Dream Contest: Top 3 Reveal!



WINNERS REVEALED BELOW!

Wow! What a response! We had over 50 entries in a mere three and a half days, and the overall quality was outstanding. This, of course, made it super-difficult to choose the top three for both Shannon and myself (Mike), but after a number of close reads and a lot of contemplation about which entries were good matches for our agents, we have our Top Three. The finalists are listed below, and each will be contacted via email within the hour by Mike and Shannon. For these finalists, we will be asking for a Word document of your first three chapters or the first 25 pages, whichever ends first. Then we will take the next week to choose the winner (one for each of us), and announce them next Thursday on the blog. That winner (for both of us) will be asked to send the full manuscript to us via email, and we will hand it off to our agents with a detailed endorsement. The other writers in the top three will receive either a critique of the opening pages by our very own Dianne Salerni, or a choice of either a query critique by Matt MacNish or a signed copy of Hilary Wagner’s NIGHTSHADE CITY. Cool stuff!

Okay, let’s get to it. Here are the results, in no particular order.


Mike’s Top Three (agent Alyssa Eisner Henkin):

Theresa Milstein, MURIEL AND THE MISFITS (by the way, she was the very first to submit)
Gail Nall, DON’T FALL DOWN
Monica Swanson Tesler, SPACE JUMPERS


Shannon’s Top Three (agent Terrie Wolf):

Linda Boyden, TWITCH
Elliah Terry, THE DELICIOUS TEARS OF EIRA STONE
Jennifer Maschari, MATT MULDOON AND THE CURSE BREAKERS

Again, thanks to all who submitted. With such fierce competition, it was very difficult to choose. There were some great entries not selected because, remember, it was about the quality and about which projects we thought were right for our agents. We urge all writers to feel free to submit to agents on their own (even ours, since we might be wrong). And good luck. For the three finalists, look for that email from us and send us those submissions. Then tune in next Thursday, 1/31, for the winners.

 

17 comments:

  1. Ooh. Very nice. I even know some of these peeps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Is there anyone you DON'T know, Matt?

      Delete
    2. Bahaha, this is totally my reaction too, Matt. :D

      Delete
    3. LOL! I was thinking the same thing!

      Delete
    4. Haha! It's a fair point. I'm quite popular.

      Delete
  2. Congrats to all the finalists! May your dreams come true.

    (And huge thanks to Mike and Shannon for their hard work and enthusiasm in putting this on.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can honestly say this was a blast. And so enlightening. Shannon was a pleasure to "work" with, and she might be doing her next blog post as a reflection of the experience, and I just might "work" with her again. ;)

      And thanks for all your tweets and such, M G-G. Appreciated!

      Delete
    2. Ditto on the tweet thanks, Michael! You rock!

      And Mike W., I'll "work" with you anytime!

      Delete
  3. I am so excited for Theresa! She is an amazing writer!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She is. You're not so bad yourself, Sharon.

      Delete
  4. Congrats writers. Thanks for putting this contest together.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you to everyone who put the thought and work into this contest. I'm so excited to be chosen in Mike’s Top Three (for agent Alyssa Eisner Henkin).

    Thanks, Sharon. I have to agree with Mike!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh my gosh! Congrats, winners! This is so exciting! YAY!!

    \o/

    ReplyDelete
  7. Congrats to all the finalists! I look forward to reading the runner ups, and I'll also mention that I do first page crits on my blog every month. Still have 1 spot left in February, by the way. If you didn't get selected and you want to spiff up your first page, swing by!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for adding to the mayhem!