Kristian Mercer

To Blog or Not to Blog...

...But that's not really the question anymore. Today you have to put yourself out there, somewhere, on the 'Net if you want to be taken seriously. So here's my first attempt.

I've been working on my novel, The Changeling Bride, for longer than I want to admit. Far, FAR longer than my fantastic critique partner, Lacey Kaye, whose blog you can read here. But this past April I entered the first 30 pages of my manuscript in the Long Historical division of the Beau Monde's Royal Ascot contest. And then I promptly put the whole thing out of my mind.

Well, until the end of May, when the contest results were due to be announced. I started haunting the Beau Monde's website, wondering about the winners...and then I received a phone call. Not THE call, but a pretty significant call nonetheless. I was a finalist! I wept into the phone, I wept on my husband...suffice it to say, I was pretty darn excited.

The winners were announced at the Beau Monde Soiree at the RWA Nationals (more on that in a future blog), and I placed third. I was so pleased, especially when I learned that my manuscript had been read by Laura Cifelli, one of the editors at Signet. And my husband was so proud, he decided to throw a party for me.

Last night - only a little after the fact - we gathered our friends and family and celebrated. We drank wine and ate chocolate cake. I read the "Legend," so that folks would have some idea of what my book was about. And as you can see, I proudly wore my "Everyone Loves a Regency Girl" t-shirt.

Well, who doesn't?