A Week Full of Happy Dances
September 23, 2011

Over the past week and a half, I’ve been lucky to receive several pieces of good news.  Not three-book-six-figure-publishing-deal good news or even landing-my-dream-agent good news, but still things that made me feel like this:


 
 

Seriously, y’all, my appallingly out-of-shape self is starting to feel a little winded from all the happy dancing.  Despite being excited, I wasn’t sure if I should share all this in a post.  For one thing, it feels a bit too much like braggity brag brag, me ME ME!  And second, I’m also worried that Karma might read this and think, “Hmm… that’s an awful lot of good news for one person in one week – I best get around to balancing that out with some giant zits and food poisoning.”

However, good news feels even better when shared with friends (especially writer friends who understand how these small victories help us keep going when the process gets rough), and I’ve made so many new friends on the Campaign that I’ve decided to tempt fate and share my news. 

It all started with the Versatile blogger awards which I talked about in my previous post.  So thank you again to Stevie, Jessica, and K. T. for getting the good news ball rolling! 

Then I was awarded two Liebster blogger awards: one from Wendy Terrien and one from Bethany Lopez.  They are two more awesome ladies I’ve met on the Campaign, and I’m honored to get the Liebster from them.  The Liebster is intended to highlight deserving blogs with less than 200 followers, and since I am significantly under 200, I really appreciate the Liebster Blog Awardshout out from Wendy and Bethany – thank you!  Technically I’m supposed to pass it on to five more people, but as I mentioned here, I’m a crazy rule breaker.  And since all the blogs I was going to award it to already have it, I’m just going to end my acceptance speech here before the orchestra plays me off the stage. 

Next up I found out my short film Saying Goodbye was accepted into the Lady Filmmakers Film Festival where it will have its West Coast premiere.  Whoo hoo!

Then I was contacted out of the blue by the programmer at another film festival who saw our website and trailer and asked to see the film for possible inclusion in her festival.  It doesn’t mean it’ll get in, but it’s a welcome change from filling out applications and sending in hefty submission fees. 

Then my casting director told me that two of the actresses we really want for our new movie both really, really, really want to be in the film (that’s a sentence with a lot of ‘really’s).

So I was already feeling pretty high on life when I found out my first campaign challenge story won fifth place!   I had so much fun writing it, and I’m so thrilled people enjoyed it.  Thank you to Rach and the judges!  Also big thanks to the folks helping Rach organize things, as well as to all the people who donated prizes.  And thank you to everyone who stopped by to read my story.

There is one more piece of exciting news, but it’s not absolutely final yet, so I don’t want to talk about it and possibly jinx it.  I know I said I was tempting fate in this post, but I see no need to wave the red cape in front of the surly bull.

Thank you for indulging me while I got my brag on.  There is a lot of rejection in both the publishing world and the movie-making biz, so it’s nice to have a week where the stars seem to align in my favor.  Now if I could just figure out a way to freeze the stars in that particular configuration, I’d be good to go!

Do you have any exciting news to share?  Do you use your blog as a place to share good news with the world?  Do you worry that too many good things happening at one time means a really bad thing is lurking around the corner? 


 

Over the past week and a half, I’ve been lucky to receive several pieces of good news.  Not three-book-six-figure-publishing-deal good news or even landing-my-dream-agent good news, but still things that made me feel like this:


 
 

Seriously, y’all, my appallingly out-of-shape self is starting to feel a little winded from all the happy dancing.  Despite being excited, I wasn’t sure if I should share all this in a post.  For one thing, it feels a bit too much like braggity brag brag, me ME ME!  And second, I’m also worried that Karma might read this and think, “Hmm… that’s an awful lot of good news for one person in one week – I best get around to balancing that out with some giant zits and food poisoning.”

However, good news feels even better when shared with friends (especially writer friends who understand how these small victories help us keep going when the process gets rough), and I’ve made so many new friends on the Campaign that I’ve decided to tempt fate and share my news. 

It all started with the Versatile blogger awards which I talked about in my previous post.  So thank you again to Stevie, Jessica, and K. T. for getting the good news ball rolling! 

Then I was awarded two Liebster blogger awards: one from Wendy Terrien and one from Bethany Lopez.  They are two more awesome ladies I’ve met on the Campaign, and I’m honored to get the Liebster from them.  The Liebster is intended to highlight deserving blogs with less than 200 followers, and since I am significantly under 200, I really appreciate the Liebster Blog Awardshout out from Wendy and Bethany – thank you!  Technically I’m supposed to pass it on to five more people, but as I mentioned here, I’m a crazy rule breaker.  And since all the blogs I was going to award it to already have it, I’m just going to end my acceptance speech here before the orchestra plays me off the stage. 

Next up I found out my short film Saying Goodbye was accepted into the Lady Filmmakers Film Festival where it will have its West Coast premiere.  Whoo hoo!

Then I was contacted out of the blue by the programmer at another film festival who saw our website and trailer and asked to see the film for possible inclusion in her festival.  It doesn’t mean it’ll get in, but it’s a welcome change from filling out applications and sending in hefty submission fees. 

Then my casting director told me that two of the actresses we really want for our new movie both really, really, really want to be in the film (that’s a sentence with a lot of ‘really’s).

So I was already feeling pretty high on life when I found out my first campaign challenge story won fifth place!   I had so much fun writing it, and I’m so thrilled people enjoyed it.  Thank you to Rach and the judges!  Also big thanks to the folks helping Rach organize things, as well as to all the people who donated prizes.  And thank you to everyone who stopped by to read my story.

There is one more piece of exciting news, but it’s not absolutely final yet, so I don’t want to talk about it and possibly jinx it.  I know I said I was tempting fate in this post, but I see no need to wave the red cape in front of the surly bull.

Thank you for indulging me while I got my brag on.  There is a lot of rejection in both the publishing world and the movie-making biz, so it’s nice to have a week where the stars seem to align in my favor.  Now if I could just figure out a way to freeze the stars in that particular configuration, I’d be good to go!

Do you have any exciting news to share?  Do you use your blog as a place to share good news with the world?  Do you worry that too many good things happening at one time means a really bad thing is lurking around the corner? 


 

Jocelyn Rish

Jocelyn Rish is a writer and filmmaker who never imagined her cheeky sense of humor would lead to a book about animal butts. When she's not researching fanny facts, she tutors kids to help them discover the magic of reading. Jocelyn has won numerous awards for her short stories, screenplays, short films, and novels and lives in South Carolina with her booty-ful dogs.