Monday, December 12, 2011

I'm a semi-finalist!

Woot! I'm a semi-finalist in Brenda Drake's Guess My Character's Age contest! I'm so excited. Entrants had to post the first 250 words of a WIP, from which the main character's age had to be correctly guessed from voice.

You can see my excerpt in the previous post. The final one I actually emailed in was altered a bit from the original one I posted in reflection of some of the insightful comments it received. So that may have helped, I'm not sure. Either way, I'm very excited.


This was especially good news this morning, since moments before I discovered I didn't get a p/t holiday job I applied for--I kind of didn't want it (working overnight? For retail? Ah, that sort of consumer madness pisses me off, to be frank, which may have seeped through in the interview, lol) but my little ego was still stung to not get it.

Then I check Brenda's blog and discover I'm a semi-finalist. Which to me reinforced the idea that I'm meant to be writing! :)

Here's the final version I sent in to the contest. I'm still keeping the genre and age of the character under wraps for now, but I'll post it when the contest is over.


I wake up with a very small, very ticked off firedrake sitting on my chest.


“Aw, crud,” I mutter. Sunlight stabs through the light curtains jigging in the breeze. I've overslept, big time.


Sassy hisses in displeasure and taps me with an indignant foot. Luckily, her claws are as tiny as the rest of her, so I barely feel it. Her red-gold hide is sort of pale, like a washed-out version of her usually bright self. She's hungry. Which means all the others are, too.


“Maddie!” calls a voice.


“Okay, okay. Sorry!” Flinging back the light blanket still twisted around me, I sort of stumble-roll out of bed and promptly fall down with all the grace of a linebacker learning to dance en pointe. Sassy instinctively flies off but still manages to land upside-down next tome on the floor. Her claws scrabble at my bare legs as we both struggle to right ourselves and assess the damage.


“Dammit.”


Sassy hisses at me again. This time she sounds suspiciously like my mother, whose approval rating of swear words hovers somewhere around a Disney cartoon.


What the hell (sorry, Mom) did I fall over? Looking down, I discover a furry golden tail left over from my dreams. It's snarled around my legs and twitching a bit.


Sassy jumps back when she notices my tail. A questioning chirp comes from her cute little beaked mouth. We both stare at my tail, and I try like crazy to grab the rapidly escaping dream.

If anyone wants to post critiques on this snippet, feel free, but you can also do so on my post on Brenda Drake's site as well. Whee!

4 comments:

SF said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
SF said...

Congrats on being a semi-finalist!!

Looking back, I wish I had done what you did and sent Brenda my entry AFTER getting some feedback. But oh well, we learn from these things, right?

Jesi O'Connell said...

Thanks so much! I was really thrilled.

And you know, I only decided to send mine in after some post-comment tweaking after I read on some of the blogs that others were doing that too. It did seem to help, though. :)

Jesi O'Connell said...

Oh, now that the winners have been announced, I will reveal my character's age: she's 16, but her 17th birthday is the day after the scene takes place. (The birthday is of course going to be momentous for various magical-type reasons).

And it's a paranormal; hence the references to linebackers and Disney. Taking place in our world, but with a twist.

I'm having fun fleshing out Maddie's world, and will continue to do so...after I get the novellas in my shifter series written first. :)