I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: contests are invaluable to writers! First, it gives you deadlines to work by, and then it forces you to get your manuscript out there. I entered “A Long Way From Home,” my NaNoWriMo manuscript, into the Novel Journey’s “Out of the Slush Pile” contest that they are running all through 2010. I went online the moment I woke up on the day they were to announce the winners on the blog and was saddened to see that I was not the winner for the historical category. So, I get ready for work and trek into the office. Then, I pull up...