Week 5 here at Celebrate the Small Things! If you are new to this blog hop, all you have to do is sign up on the linky below if you want to join! If you already have, then go around to each blog that signed up and congratulate or just say YAY to everyone and their accomplishments for this week! (Full instructions at our host Vikki’s post here!)

I have had one of the most WONDERFUL writing weeks ever. Seriously. And no, I didn’t finish my manuscript but it was still awesome. This week is all about appreciating the wonderful, giving, amazing, thoughtful people still left in this world. Because, believe it or not, they exist!

My first celebratory event happened on Monday and it is kind of a story but I think it is worth telling. I signed up in a contest to win a seat for the class Writing & Selling the Young Adult Novel. It was hosted at LitReactor and a REAL LIVE AGENT, Mandy Hubbard, was teaching it. This sounded like such an amazing opportunity but, alas, I am not at a point in my life where I could spend $400 on this month-long-class. So I entered the contest for the free seat and went about my day. The contest ended and I totally forgot about it, even though I tried to look to see who won. Must not just be my lucky day, I guess. Then, comes along a Tweet to ME from MANDY HUBBARD. I’m in all freak out mode now because in the Tweet it says I won a seat on the class and to hop over to LitReactor and sign up! WHAT!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!! So I start to thank Mandy like crazy WHOA …and she tells ME to thank Lauren Barnholdt. I wonder who this person is and why I should be thanking them? It turns out I DID NOT win the original contest I had signed up for. Lauren Barnholdt is another Young Adult novelist and told Mandy on the day the class was starting that she would donate the money as a scholarship for the last remaining seat in the class. So Mandy just picked another person from the pile from her original contest and it happened to be me. You don’t know how appreciative I was to hear that and know that someone out there was footing the bill for a complete stranger, just because they felt like it out of the goodness of their heart. I wanted to, like, send this girl flowers and a singing telegram and a huge teddy bear for this awesome opportunity. I was just blown away by some people’s generosity!

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Now I am going to promote her ruthlessly: Twitter: @LaurenBarnholdt / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Barnholdt.Lauren / Website: http://laurenbarnholdt.com

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The second story is a little shorter but not any less wonderful. As I started my writing class, my first assignment was to write the dreaded synopsis for my manuscript. I had a really rough, sketchy one that I had started but never finished so I got to work on that. It took me three whole nights of doing nothing else after work to complete it and I still didn’t know if it was even really that good or if I did what you are supposed to do in a synopsis. But I submitted it anyways and then – it hit me. I have never really let anyone see what my plot was about, what my ending consisted of – NOTHING. I wanted my CPs to read it like a first-time-reader so I have kept it all hidden. And now all these STRANGERS are going to read it and know?? OMG – hyperventilation mode ACTIVATED. But then something magical happened. A fellow student in my class posted a comment on my synopsis that I had just submitted. These were the opening lines to her comment:

First, I wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed your synopsis and would absolutely read the book. You have a strong concept and a unique plot line with unexpected twists.

Wait, WHAT? You liked it?? You would read it??? It might actually be good????? I don’t know why this came to such a shock to me but after all the time being the only one to talk to my characters in my head and only trying to explain my intricate ideas for the story to my husband as he is half asleep in bed, I wasn’t really sure how other people would respond to the story. And I know that is just one person. But one person was enough for me. It was almost like all those long nights and sitting staring at my screen for hours was really worth it because someone saw the potential and took the time to tell me. And THEN (no the story doesn’t end there) she went on to edit my entire synopsis (because let’s face it, I suck at grammar and editing) and gave me feedback on all my questions and problems with my synopsis that I had noted for Mandy to review in the class. Seriously, this probably took a chunk of time to do and I can’t even begin to describe how amazed I was that a fellow author (but still stranger) took that time out of there day to review my stuff for me. Blown away. Really. Needless to say, I showered her with thank-yous and I believe we will be CP-ing for each other in the future. But I just wanted to say thank you again and let her know that even though it was small, I am still celebrating it!

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Now to promote her ruthlessly: Twitter: @colleenmalbert / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cmalbertwrites /Website: http://www.colleenmalbert.com / Blog: http://cmalbert.blogspot.com/

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As far as non-related accomplishments go, my husband made me a 50 K Word Celebration Breakfast (see photo proof here) and we went out for a nice date for V-Day to dinner.

What did you celebrate this week? Let me know in the comments or join the hop and I will find out on your blog!

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