Day Two: How I Arrived Here

Wow, what an incredible response from everyone! Day Two of my blog and it's nice to stop by and find notes from family and good friends.

Thanks to Trish, Diane, Kieran, Mary, Esri, Janet, Theresa and Lee for posting. And thanks to my hubby, Brian, for getting me started!

Esri, I'll try to figure out how to put your tip to good use (changing my blog title). Muchas gracias!

Kieran, dōmo arigatō (thank you in Japanese) for the post suggestion. Hence the title:

Day Two: How I Arrived Here

For those of you who already know this, please indulge me. I’m still giddy over how it all went down. :-)

Every year around March 25, Golden Heart calls go out around the world. Yes, the world. There are finalists from England, Canada and Australia this year! Usually, I do my best to try and forget that calls are being made. Some years I have better luck than others.

You see, as a wife, mother of three, volunteer for a radio station for the blind and other organizations, part-time Success Specialist at a local community college, and semi-clean house keeper, my life is busy and stressed. I try to focus on the things I can change. One of them not being writing contests. Once my entry is in the mail, there’s nothing else I can do about. They’ll either love it or hate it.

Stressing won’t get me a GH call. Well, it certainly hasn’t in the past.

So this year I avoided email loops, partly ‘cuz I’m busy (did I mention that already?), partly to avoid that terrible sense of impending doom I usually feel all day on GH call day. Knowing calls are being made, and no one’s trying to get in touch with me.

This past Tuesday, I actually succeeded in forgetting about it. I took one child to the doctor in the morning, then headed into work. I left work early to take another child to the allergist, hit Wal-mart for a few necessities, and arrived home around 5:30 pm. Loooong day.

When the phone rang shortly after, I frowned at the strange number on the caller id, but answered anyway. Nosy person that I am, I’m not good at screening calls. I wanna know who it is. Before the machine picks up.

My initial reaction to Maggie Landry’s announcement that I was a finalist? “Um, you’re not kidding me, are you?” Not the most eloquent of reactions.

She’d been trying to reach me all day, but hadn’t wanted to leave a message. (Not to self, list cell phone number on future contest entries or submissions to editors.)

My older two daughters came running when they heard my yelp of surprise. Then it was a rush of getting info from Maggie while trying to calm the shaking that started from deep inside and wouldn’t stop. Next thing I’m hanging up and being engulfed in hugs from my girls as I cried tears of relief and disbelief. (maybe I can write a good book after all—boy, self-doubt is a killer!!).

We ate dinner quickly and headed out to Chevy’s Mexican Restaurant with one of my girlfriends for a celebratory drink (dessert for my underage daughters ). If you haven’t tried Chevy’s strawberry and watermelon margarita, may I recommend it to you? :-)

Of course, I still had the dinner dishes to wash, and laundry to fold, and homework to check. But, my step was a little bit lighter along the way.

That’s pretty much how I arrived at being a GH finalist, or how I found out about being a finalist anyway. There was definitely a lot of writing and sweat put into my manuscript before I sent that puppy in. But that’s another story.

For now, I’d like to say thanks for joining me on my journey. The next three months will be packed with conference preparations, striving to finish my latest manuscript and trying to keep on top of my regular schedule. I’d love for you to chime in when you wanna comment on any post.

Enough about me, though… have you had any good news lately? I’d love to hear about it.

Or, maybe you’d just like to let us know: How You Arrived Here.