So I’ve gone and entered the Book In A Nutshell contest hosted by The Knight Agency. The deadline was yesterday, by the way, and they’ll announce the 20 winners on May 1.

Hence the reason why I’m trying so damned hard to finish the revision by then. I’m on page 147 of 275, by the way, in case you’re keeping score at home. And I’m still a ways from finishing. With less than two weeks to go, I’m starting to feel the pinch.

So the gist of the contest was to write three compelling sentences, 150 words max, to describe your book. Get it? In a nutshell? Do you know how hard it is to write THREE sentences only about the story? Okay, it was for me. I struggled with it. Until, one day, the three sentences literally popped into my head.

Here is what I submitted:

Elena is a slave, forced to participate in The Games as a hardened gladiator. Cassius is an assassin hired by an underground secret order to kill the Emperor. When their love affair is discovered, they are pitted against each other in the Grand Arena in a fight to the death.

Compelling enough, you think? Will it garner me a much coveted position in the 20? I don’t know. That, of course, is not ALL the book is about. There’s murder, revenge, conspiracy, deceit, hot sex. It’s a lot of fun to write.

With less than two weeks left until the Big Announcement, I’m feeling a bit… queasy. Okay, I felt that way the second I hit send on that email. I guess you could say I have Hopeful Fear. I want to make it into the 20, I really do. But a little part of me is terrified. I have a lot of confidence in this book, but it’s the fear of the unknown I think.

So I tell myself this: To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.

It’s my new mantra. And if I don’t make the cut, it won’t be the end of the world. I will get my query polished up and start submitting it to the world. Because by then, I’ll have a full manuscript ready and waiting. And that’s just grand!

Tags: Book In A Nutshell, contest, editing, revision, The Knight Agency, writing

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Dusty Tome, Writerly Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.