Speed Dating with Deidre Knight -- Final Results Post!

UPDATE: Darcy Drake is the winner of the first chapter crit. Please email contests(at)knightagency.net by Tuesday, Dec. 28th to claim your prize. 

Thanks to all the commenters for your well wishes to Leigh and great ideas for our next big event. After all of your feedback, we're thinking a lottery is the way to go, and it will definitely take place later in the day. No 5am wake up call for west coasters. We pinky swear. We'll reveal the details of our new contest in early 2011, which is right around the corner. Thanks for all the great feedback, and if you still want to leave a suggestion -- please do so. We're always checking the comments. :-)

We wish you a fabulous and safe holiday!

It’s the BIG day! Please join us in congratulating the newest member of The Knight Agency family – Leigh Evans. Christmas came early for this urban fantasy writer who says she began working on the manuscript for HEDI’S BOOK OF RULES last November. “To be honest, I tried to write Hedi’s story before that, and had made it to 67K,” she recalls, “Then late one night -- after a particularly painful writing day --I heard Hedi, real loud, right in my ear. She didn't sound anything like the well-mannered woman I’d been wrestling with... I tossed the 67K over my shoulder, and started over the next day."

Leigh is a member of RWA’s Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Chapter, where she heard about our speed dating contest on the group’s eloop, as well as the Toronto Romance Writers. She claims to have won only two things in her life—a book and a guinea pig—and didn’t feel terribly optimistic about making it through the first round. Lucky for us, she decided to push her pessimism aside and brave the now infamous early morning blog traffic jam that yielded hundreds of hits in less than 5 minutes. When Deidre contacted her about representation, Leigh reports her hands were trembling as she clicked open the email. “Thing is, I love Hedi Peacock,” she says, “I feel a sense of obligation to get her story right. When I read that Deidre loved her too, my eyes got wet.”

Even though Leigh took home the crown, her fellow finalists Pat O’Dea Rosen and Sofie Couch were serious competition. Both Pat and Sofie are extremely talented and are certainly at the top of Deidre’s list of up-and-coming writers to watch. :-)

Deidre would love to do another contest in the near future, perhaps involving some of our other agents as well. We’ve been bouncing around the ideas of doing a lottery-type contest, video challenge or perhaps just repeating the speed dating contest. Another option is to rerun our “Book in a Nutshell Contest,” where entrants were only allowed to send in three compelling sentences about their project. Give us some feedback. Help design the next contest by leaving your thoughts on what new challenge or rules writers would have to follow to enter, or maybe even address what tweaks you would give to some of our past contests. We’re thinking that spring, a season of new beginnings, would be the perfect time for the next big event.

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED: Before you head off to the comment section, Deidre has one last present in her Santa bag. A first chapter critique for one lucky commenter. If you don’t have a first chapter handy, the prize is transferable. Wouldn’t that make a nice Christmas gift for a friend?

First Chapter Critique Rules:

1. The winner will be randomly drawn and announced tomorrow afternoon, December 21st.

2. The prize must be claimed within a week by Tuesday, December 28th.

3. The first chapter must be turned in by January 1st, 2011.

4. The critique will be returned in eight weeks or less.

5. The prize cannot be transferred more than once.