The roses Superman bought me on Monday.

Wow! Well, that was a crazy coupla’ days. … Crazy week, really.

After finding out I was a finalist in RWA’s Golden Heart competition, I quickly found out what exactly that meant — I had no idea what a wild ride I was going to be on.

There were a gazillion emails, tweets, Facebook updates, loops to join, secret societies to join, and handshakes to learn (okay … kidding on those last two). There were beta readers to contact (and thank), critique and writing partners to reach, and friends and family members who’d been so supportive that I wanted to write to and thank each personally. There were champagne glasses to toast, roses from Superman to put in a vase, a celebratory dinner with my parents, and lovely congrats to acknowledge. There are pictures to take (haircuts to get beforehand!), photos to mail in, registrations to fill out, a gown to buy (egads!), tickets to purchase, and more. There were more than 1,000 messages to keep up with on a new 2012 Finalist loop alone, other previous-finalist loops to be part of, blogs to join, special memberships to join, plus open calls from agents for GH finalist submissions, and even personal emails from agents asking us if we had representation, and — if not — would we like to submit?

It has — to say the least — been wild.

In the middle of it all, I had a vacation already planned — just a long weekend, really — but it felt weird to unplug and take off when I knew another 1,000 emails were going to pile up. … But I did. (And I’m glad I did!)

Now I’m back in town, though, and ready to get back to work on this finalist thing.

First steps:

1. Catch up on ridiculous amount of email. (Working on it.)
2. Join RWA. (Did that at lunch today.)
3. Get a haircut. (Old-lady hairdos are threatening.)
4. Get a picture taken, quick! 🙂
5. Find an agent.
6. Join my local OC chapter.
7. Register for Nationals.
8. Fill out the paperwork that’s due Monday (addresses of local newspapers to contact, etc.)

Wish me luck with all this planning! I’ll keep you updated on the process, if you want the play-by-play on how all this goes. …