Delacorte Press 29th Annual Contest for a First Young Adult Novel

There's nothing like a goal to get your butt in gear - or planted in a chair - like the goal to finish writing a book....

"August. By August my book will be done!" I proclaimed, back in June.

"August 1st isn't that far away," my friend commented. "You'll really have it done by then?"

I could hear the doubt in her voice. "The end of August!" I countered. "I never said August 1st...."

Well, August 31st has come and gone my friends, and I still haven't finished the final revisions on my middle-grade, sci-fi novel, Trevelyn's Shimmer. Ugh! Why is it so damn hard to just sit down and finish? Why did Suzanne Collins have to distract me for weeks with reading The Hunger Games series?! Why is it more fun to Facebook and Twitter!? Excuses, excuses.

But excuses no more. Because now I have a goal. December 31st - no, not the 1st - you have until the 31st. And that is when I will be entering my novel for consideration in the Delacorte Press 29th Annual Contest for a First Young Adult Novel. Yes, you heard it here first. I am going to enter. I probably won't win, but that's okay. I will finish my book and move on to the next one so that I can torture myself with new deadlines. And won't that be nice, for a change.