Sunday, April 19, 2009

The Contest -- AKA the Outing of the "Typo Queen"

So, last week I got an email from the divine sistas, Lila, who encouraged me to enter the Miss Snark First Pages Contest. Now, I am not a contest gal myself, but I thought it sounded fun, and Lila said it was more than fun and they had learned a lot.

So, after tormenting them with one hundred email questions, I sent in my little ol' page for all the world to read, and Holy Moly! Suddenly, people were pointing out typos of all things! YIKES!

What professional writer sends an entry in with typos?! Surely not me!

Yes, dangit. I did. And plenty of people noticed them, including the "Secret Agent!" BUT, the peeps loved it anyway, and thank goodness for copy editors. Whew!

So without further ado... Here is my first page.

The winners will be announced Monday. (My fingers are crossed.) But what a GREAT experience! Y'all should totally do it! And seriously, this contest was one of those things that made me proud to be a member of this little writing community online. Everyone is so talented and all of the comments have been insightful, considerate, and extremely helpful. Thank you Authoress! I had a wonderful time! And thanks Lila!

P.S. I bet I have a dang typo in this very blog entry. Ya see any? Because I need to be alerted. I might need to take a proofreading or grammar class or something.

7 comments:

lisa and laura said...

Great job on the contest! And if it makes you feel any better I had to read your entry like 100 times before I saw the typo. Guess I wouldn't make a very good copy editor either!

You've gotten some fantastic feedback I hope you're glad that you participated...Hey, at least now you know your first 250 are perfect, right?

Anne Spollen said...

Everybody has typos -- everybody. Hoping you win tomorrow! I'm going over to read some now.

Go to my blog -- you guys got an award!

PurpleClover said...

It's awesome! Too bad you let a typo slip but good grief...was that the only one?? I wasn't looking hard but only noticed that one (one I do all the time mostly out of laziness than missing it).

I'm constantly screwing up on grammar because I'm in a hurry. But it still surprised me that the agent even mentioned it.

Little Ms J said...

Yay! Great job! I love the awkwardness of the first kiss and to have it be during spin the bottle with a zit-faced boy that licked his lips first? Hysterical.

Side note - I played my first ever game of Spin The Bottle at a house party in San Diego when I was 26. It was one of those, "Well, I've never done it, so I can't die without having experienced it." A zit-faced boy with a snaggle tooth happened to kiss me and I bid adieu to STB while I looked for a corner to rock myself in...

Hardygirl said...

Great comments! Good for you for putting yourself out there.

I can't wait to see who the "secret agent" is!!

sf

Sherrie Petersen said...

Great opening, Katie! The typo was no big deal. The story was good. I want to read more!

Katie Anderson said...

aawww thanks guys! I am, of course, up early to check both contests. I forgot to tell about the logline one I entered on the same day. It's been a frenzy of web watching over here :-)

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