Last month I wrote a blog about feeling confident lately, and referenced “something I’m trying to do.”
The something was that I submitted a novel to Pitch Wars! I’m still kind of surprised that I did that, put myself out there like that. I believe in my writing, that’s true, but if I’m being totally honest, entering Pitch Wars wasn’t something that I planned a long time in advance or agonized over. I did it the way I do lots of things — I had the idea, thought it was good, and just went for it. I submitted “These Familiar Walls,” the horror novel I’ve been working on, just a handful of hours before the Pitch Wars submission window closed.
And my first pick of mentors, Rochelle Karina, picked my novel!
I saw the announcement on Twitter and the 2020 Pitch Wars Mentee welcome email in my inbox at about 2 in the morning on Saturday the 7th, when I got up out of bed to use the restroom and noticed on my way back that my phone’s notifications were blowing up. And my first thought was that I was misinterpreting those things somehow, until I went to Pitch Wars blog and saw my name on the list.
So that was just over a week ago. I’ve gotten SO much out of this experience already. Rochelle is going above and beyond as a mentor, and I’m unbelievably excited and lucky to have her help. In between working on my novel and taking care of life stuff, I keep slipping into this wandering sort of disbelief. I can’t believe I’ve been picked. And the stuff that I’m learning as I go is going to improve my writing going forward, not just on this novel but in general.
I’m so excited. I’ll probably post about it more when I get too jazzed and don’t want to spam Twitter, haha.
And now I’d better get back to work!