I'm a PiBoIdMo 2010 Manuscript Critique Winner!

I'm one of the PiBoIdMo 2010 Manuscript Critique winners! I'm so happy I'm literally doing back-flips. Literally. Which isn't easy when you're sitting in a recliner, a computer betwixt your pretzeled legs.

Inner Critic: Oh no you did-n't!


Oh yesss I d-i-hd! :P

Inner Critic: To receive help and advice from a professional author of this caliber is priceless.

I know, right? I KNOW! :o

Inner Critic: You don't deserve it.

Oh, stick it in your higama jigama. What does that have to do with anything? And maybe I do. Maybe I do deserve it. Did you ever think about that?

Inner Critic: Your manuscript is way too long for today's market.

What are you talking about? It's well under 500 words.

Inner Critic: Your participles are dangling. And so are your boobs.


Irrelevant. Are you trying to ruin this moment for me?

Inner Critic: The author who reads your manuscript will laugh at your incompetence.

Oh come on. I'm not that bad. In fact, I rather like my manuscript. Sure it needs some work, but...

Inner Critic: A BIT? Try a ground floor re-write.

What the heck is a ground floor re-write? Did you just make that up? Your analogy is flawed. And are you smoking a miniature cigar? What the...?

Inner Critic: Are you sure?

About which thing? And why am I even talking to you when I should be enjoying the moment? Consider yourself banished to the murky depths of my subconscious for the remainder of the day. Hazaa!

Congratulations to the rest of the manuscript critique winners, especially Leslie Zampetti who is in my critique group. Enjoy your win! You most certainly deserve it! Congratulations to all the PiBoIdMo participants and contest winners! Thanks again to Tara Lazar and the participating authors, illustrators and agents.

Ain't it cool? 8)

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PiBoIdMo Grand Prize Winners! (I'm so jealous I might just put your hands in water while you are sleeping. Just kidding! No, really. Not really!)

PiBoIdMo Picture Book Winners! (Congratulations Christie Wild!)

PiBoIdMo Simon & Schuster Picture Book Winners (Congratulations Angela Peña Dahle and Romelle Broas!)

PiBoIdMo Jewelry, Greeting Card and Mug Winners (Congratulations Corey Schwartz! How funny is that mug?)

I'm a PiBoIdMo 2010 Winner!

I did it! I am an official PiBoIdMo 2010 SINNER! Oops, I mean WINNER!


Inner Critic: Yeah, you and hundreds of others. Nice Freudian slip there, by the way.


Hundreds of other kindred souls!

Inner Critic: Hundreds of others who are either (a) already published or (b) will certainly be published before the likes of you.

Stop that! Firsly, people don't actually use the phrase "the likes of you" in conversation. Only in pulp fiction. Secondly, suuure, technically we may be in competition, but to be honest I don't think of it that way. Picture Book Authors, be they published or aspiring like myself are a rare, sweet, and nutty breed. We go ga-ga over wordplay. Silly over alliteration. We share a love of children, a fascination with human emotions and we live together in the land of imagination. We care. We're also at least 50% off our rockers, and we like it that way!

Inner Critic: No forced rhyme!

Agh! What does rhyme have to do with anything? Was I talking about rhyme? Don't you have someplace to be?!

Thanks to PiBoIdMo hostess Tara Lazar, her amazing guest posters (Wow!), the fantastic line-up of rock star agents (Ammi-Joan Paquette of Erin Murphy Literary Agency, Kelly Sonnack of Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Inc., and Joanna Volpe of Nancy Coffey Literary and Media Representation) who will be offering their thoughts in the form of three grand prizes to be announced in a few days - fingers crossed.

To my fellow Picture Book peeps, specifically fellow PiBoIdMo 2010 winners, CONGRATULATIONS! Let's continue to support, encourage and elevate each other with our successes, be they minor or earth-shakingly major, well into 2011 and beyond! :D