My contesting days are coming to an end.

I received notification that RWA received both Murphy’s Law and The Reluctant Amazon for the Golden Heart contest. Those will be my last contest entries. I put in a year of hitting what I considered to be good contests, but I am ready to move on.

Part of the problem is that I’ve had some bad experiences with contests. Maybe it’s just bad luck, or maybe it’s that some contests aren’t organized well. But I have had some very odd things happen to some of my entries.

The very first time I received a call to tell me I was a finalist was for Free Falling. I waited for the website to post my name, absolutely thrilled that I’d finaled in the first contest I’d entered. Nada. When they finally listed the names on the website, mine wasn’t among them. An email to the contest chair was answered with a message that a mistake had been made. I’d missed the cut by one entry. The only apology offered was to invite me to enter the contest this year for free. As if… Luckily, I received a phone call the following weekend that Murphy’s Law was in the Heart of the Rockies final. Took some of the sting out of the whole thing.

Another interesting anecdote… In a recent contest, The Reluctant Amazon was listed as a finalist. I was thrilled because it was two for two in contests. But it was listed as a Single Title. Um, excuse me… Paranormal here. An email to the chair had it placed in the right category. The silver lining here was that she told me the score was high enough to final in either category. My fragile ego loved that.

There have been a few contests where I missed the cut by a single point. There have been a couple where I had a judge who was downright cruel in her critique. There have been some that have given me excellent feedback. But I think it’s time to pass on my contest diva crown. So the 2008 Golden Hearts are my swan song.

It’s been… fun.