… did not win. Sad face.
Despite my hopes for an imminent victory, I did see this coming. Literary contests are generally intended for literary fiction, and Imminent Danger is a bit too fun and light-hearted to be considered “serious literature”. And by a “bit”, I mean it is mind-bogglingly at the opposite end of the literary fiction spectrum. I might have had a better chance if I’d entered it into the Sci-fi or Humour category or something, but … ah well.
The winning books in the Young Adult category were extremely literary (see how I’m desperately trying to rationalize my loss?). Gold winner: Girl whose family dies and has to struggle to survive without them. Silver/Bronze: Gay teens struggling with their sexuality. A lot of struggling going on there. I like to think the judges secretly wanted to pick my book, but were worried it would reflect badly on their literary taste and they wouldn’t be asked back next year. Keep dreaming, right?
So … no shiny gold medal for Imminent Danger. Alas! If anyone feels like sharing their literary failures in the comments below to make me feel better, please do!
Unrelated media of the day:
Source: http://i.imgur.com/dnpOI5i.jpg
Michelle Proulx - Author 
POLAR PUPPY!
I have no literary failings to share, but only because I’m not as brave as you and never put anything out there. Jeez, dude, write something depressing next time, will you?! We don’t need more light-hearted, super fun, exciting books with fascinating characters and…
Wait. That’s exactly what we need. Carry on.
I think I just wanted to put shiny stickers on my books, lol. Maybe I should design my own shiny stickers and use those instead. I could invent a book contest and declare myself the winner. That’s not cheating, right?
Nobody can stop you from putting shiny stickers on your books! Maybe making up a contest is cheating, though… “SUPER AWESOME FUN TIMES” is, however, totally legit.
Or something official sounding but totally ridiculous, like “Official Tetrarchy Seal of Approval”. And then I could design a Tetrarchy logo and it would look super official and legit.
Yes!!!
Reblogged this on M2wa2 DigiTech..
Literary failings? Um, I actually “won” NaNoWriMo in 2012…and then never wrote another word of the book after that.
You finished a whole book, so you’re awesome! 😀 (Also, those judges clearly have no sense of fun or whimsy.)
But you won NaNo! That counts as a win, not a fail!!!
I’ve had many literary failures, but the one that stung the most: After religiously reading the stories on a particular site, I just KNEW mine had a shot at being featured. Maybe I was cocky. Maybe my taste isn’t the same as the editors of that site. Maybe they just get so many submissions that mine fell through the cracks. But for whatever reason, I didn’t get featured. It was a real shot to my pride…but I keep trying!
It really sucks when you think you have something in the bag and the bag ends up having a big hole in it that you fall straight through, doesn’t it? But you’re absolutely right. Keep calm and carry on 🙂
Hi Michelle,
Sorry to hear about your disappointment.
By way of a small consolation prize, I’d love to see your Book ‘Imminent Danger’ being promoted on my blog NEWSFLASH page.
Call over and check the possibilities out for yourself (clue – hover your cursor over NEWSFLASH and you will see one book promo already in place, click on it to see the full post about it, then, if you would like to have your book promoted (for free) go to the main NEWSFLASH page and see how.
Hope to hear from you soon:)
That’s an EXCELLENT consolation prize! I shall follow the NEWSFLASH instructions just as soon as I finish working.
Great, looking forward to seeing it 🙂
My failure list is too long to count (much longer than my list of published books!) You keep writing the humor in that work, sister! I am absolutely convinced the world could use more of it than less! Full speed ahead!
I don’t think I’m capable of writing a book without humour, lol. I just wouldn’t be interested in what I was writing, and that would not exactly be conducive to finishing the manuscript. That being said, I’m sorely tempted to write a story about a bi-racial, gender confused, sexually confused couple who just go around and have horrible, awful things happen to them the whole book, and then at least one of them ends up dying. Think that would net me a gold medal? 😀
Sounds like fantasy and science-fiction movies at the Oscars. They never get the big awards. On the plus side, you got into the competition and I’m betting you gave the winners a run for their money.
Hopefully! Maybe I got 4th place and they just didn’t tell me 😀
In the words of Jay from “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”:
[expletive deleted] those [deragatory adjective] [derogatory plural noun]!!!!
I’ve noticed that satire does not align well with literary masturbation. Congratulations on not winning.
Lol thanks 😀 Clearly I need to watch Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back …
Hey, I’ve said it before…rely on your readers. Kirkus review gave me a gawd awful review,
yet the other two review houses gave raving reviews. Oh, and last week I received my, ” sorry to inform you” letter from Vera Merideth Productions. Dern, and I had my dream cast all picked out already. Boo.
Um, didn’t the Kirkus review use the wrong book title in your review?
Oh, and then there was that! Oye vay. It’s not always roses in the publishing world. And, NO, they never fixed it.
Well, you went in with the metaphorical cards stacked against you, but at least you gave it a go. 🙂 And I think those were all legitimate reasons to make yourself feel better, ah ha! I think you totally would have crushed in scifi or humor, and you would have OWNED the Scifi/Humor category! ^^ Just keep doin’ what you’re doin’, Immin Dang is awesome.
If only there actually was a sci-fi/humor category!!! Alas. Also, a strange gray object just fluttered onto my leg. It resembles a moth wing. I am now slightly alarmed …
I was sitting on the couch the other day on the computer when something smacked me in the forehead. I looked and realized some kind of nasty worm-maggot thing had fallen on me. Talk about grossed out. xD
Ack! I think you win the creepy gray falling object battle, lol.
xDD Yeah, it was kind of gnarly. I hate when things do that, ’cause then I get all paranoid…
You’re right about the ;struggle’ Michelle – there seems to be a lot of that going on in the literary world at the moment 😯
My literary failure was coming second in a national award to a woman who wrote about the positive effects Harry Potter books have on children. Yes – I felt ripped off because the winner had ripped off JK Rowling to write a book of her own.
There’s always next year…
I guess there were some mixed feelings there, right? Yay, second place! But wait … WHAT came in first? SERIOUSLY?
Aww, sucks that you didn’t win. =[ It really seems as if all awards these days go to books with characters undergoing some sort of trauma.
I like your positive attitude though!
Clearly I need to put my characters through more trauma, if I’m ever to make it as a “real” author 😀 I think in the next book I shall chop off my protagonist’s arm. Worked for Star Wars — why shouldn’t it work for me? 😀
Awards and competitions of all sorts are very very random and even sometimes rigged ;).
Rigged? I could definitely see that being the case, but … what’s the motive? I mean, with the IPPY awards, all you get is recognition, no cash prizes or anything. Unless you mean these judges are getting their friends’ books to win to help along their careers … dum dum dummmmmmmmmm …
Ya never know! I’ve found that a lot of times judges aren’t as good at what they do as their credentials make it look.
Aw contests and awards can be tough. Sometimes there are lots of terrific entries so some have to get overlooked. I was a semifinalist in the ABNA awards last year. The three finalists were all top notch but you can’t help wondering why not you. 🙂
Well, first of all, awesome job on the ABNA awards! Semifinalist is pretty dang fantastic 😀 Why not you indeed. I wish judges would send you a personalized letter explaining what about the book made them not select you. I remember entering a contest like that a few years back — the judges actually read and reviewed the first chapter and gave notes about how to improve. That was for manuscripts, though, not published books, so I guess the contests work differently.
Be proud of what you’ve accomplished so far ~ don’t stress about any shiny metal! It’s just like the Academy Awards, the movies I really enjoy never win. 🙂
That is so true! I remember the year the first Lord of the Rings came out, and it barely won anything (or possibly nothing at all?) And that was clearly the best movie of the three. Harumph!
Commiserations. I’ve only entered a couple of competitions with short stories and have won ab so lute ly nothing. There loss 🙂
Meant THEIR loss, obviously 🙂
Oh, totally. -_-
Ahhh that sucks. According to one of the other commenters, contests are all rigged, so it’s indeed their loss 🙂
I have had too many literary failures to be worried about it. Cheer up – anyone who completes a novel is a hero regardless of how many people get to read it. Getting it out there and noticed is hard so don’t be sad.
Words of wisdom 🙂