A Golden (Heart) Ticket

You know how Charlie felt when he found the fifth golden ticket?

That's the kind of joy I felt today.

Midnight Promises is a 2009 RWA Golden Heart finalist.

I checked voicemail while I was at school. Got a little thrill when I heard there was a message. Prayed it wasn't the usual recording asking if I wanted to extend the warranty on my minivan. It wasn't! It was one of my favorite historical romance authors--who happens to be on the RWA Board of Directors--calling with the good news.

Congrats to all the finalists and to all who finished a manuscript and entered this year. Thanks for the warm wishes I've already received.

I want to jump up and down and scream, "I'm going to Hollywood, baby!" (Except Nationals is in DC this year.) Hmm, I feel an eBay shopping spree coming on. More later . . .

Happy Birthday to my Blog

I'm feeling a bit sentimental today because my baby--this blog--is officially one year old. In honor of the occasion, I thought I'd answer the questions that are surely on your mind.

• Who the heck reads this blog? I started counting website hits on January 1st. Since then, I’ve had 229 visitors. This may seem pathetic, but it’s actually worse than you might think, because a good chunk of those “visitors” are probably automated web crawlers. On the other hand, some of the visitors are real, honest-to-goodness people . . . who come here by accident. (More on that later.) Visitors have come from 29 different countries--as far north as Norway, and as far south as Argentina.


• How do all those people end up here? Two ways. The first, and most obvious, is my mom sends them. The second is that the poor souls just get lost while they’re looking for something else. The most common search engine phrase that leads people here is “pride vs. vanity,” or some variation thereof. Imagine the surprise of bleary-eyed college students seeking a coherent thought on this topic--or at the very least a reputable web site to list in their term paper bibliographies--when, instead all they get is my narcissistic ramblings. The second most common search engine phrase that brings people here is “Anne Barton.”


• So then, there must be at least some people interested in you and your writing? Um, about that. There happens to be another Anne Barton, and as luck would have it, she’s a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. From what I can gather, she's a published Shakespearean scholar. My credentials are, er, slightly less impressive. Hopefully, none of her colleagues have ever surfed the web hoping to find Professor Barton’s meticulous research and mistakenly ended up here.


• What are the weirdest search engine phrases that have led people here? One of my favorites is “witch spells for snow days.” Another is “robert downey ouija.” Just a disclaimer--I do not, nor have I ever, practiced witchcraft. But I did prepare a killer presentation on the subject in fifth grade. Getting back to strange search engine phrases though . . . my all-time favorite is “wife cheating in kitchen.”


• With these kinds of stats, why even bother? Well, as you might have noticed, sometimes I don’t bother for weeks on end. But when I have the time, it’s fun--I love to hear from people who leave comments. Plus, all my hard work has been recognized . . . I had the honor of receiving an award for my blog.


• You’re kidding. No, I really did. It's called the "Your Blog is Fabulous!" Award. It was from my critique partner, Keli, and it totally counts. :)
  
  Thanks for helping me celebrate. If you’re not a web crawler, leave a comment to prove it. :)

Making Sense of Contest Results

Ever feel bewildered after getting your scores back from a writing contest? You're not alone! Please stop by Romance Writers on the Journey, where we're making sense of contest results. At least we're doing our best.

--Anne

Coming Up this Month . . .

On March 5th I'm visiting with Keli Gwyn, my friend and critique partner extraordinaire, at Romance Writers on the Journey. My article, "Making Sense of Contest Results," explains how to interpret those bewildering contest score sheets by breaking down the numbers. Remember the required statistics course that screwed up everyone's college GPA? I promise it won't be anything like that.

Then on March 8th, please come back here to help me celebrate . . . the one year anniversary of this blog! I'm not going to a lot of trouble--just cocktails and a few hors d'oeuvres. It'll be casual, so you can come in your writing pants if you like. :) I'll share interesting facts about my blog, including some of the weirdest Google searches that have led people here. Prepare to be amazed--and perhaps disturbed!