2011 Contest Postponed

Thank you for your interest in the 5th Annual CHASE THE DREAM contest. Unfortunately, due to personal obligations, we have postponed this year’s contest. Any contest news will be posted on this site, as it becomes available.

In the meantime, feel free to check out our books. THE MISTRESS’ HOUSE by Leigh Michaels will be out February 2011, JUST ONE SEASON IN LONDON by Leigh Michaels will be out in July 2011, and MEN ON FIRE by Rachelle Chase is still available.

And here’s a teaser for THE MISTRESS’ HOUSE … Number Five, Upper Seymour Street would be the perfect love nest, but this elegant townhouse has a way of making its residents fall in love instead. Anne — the perfect mistress for the rakish Earl of Hawthorne; Felicity — the perfect challenge for Richard, Lord Colford; and Georgiana — the perfect nightmare for Major Julian Hampton…the residents of Number Five, Upper Seymour Street. Check it out!

Wishing you all the best in 2011!

Rachelle Chase & Leigh Michaels

5th Annual “Chase the Dream” Contest

Rachelle Chase and Leigh Michaels are gearing up for the 5th annual CHASE THE DREAM contest!

So, polish up the first 1,000 words of an unpublished romance, chick lit, YA, or mainstream fiction with romantic elements novel/novella – and get ready to enter in 2011!

Past judges include editors from St. Martin’s, Grand Central, Avon, Pocket, Harlequin, Kensington, Avalon, Sourcebooks, Elloras Cave, and more – plus agents!

Past finalists have landed agents and book deals as a result of the contest. In 2011, it could be YOU!

Details will be posted later this year, so please check back. And we hope to receive your entry!

Happy writing!

And The Winners Are…

The 2010 CHASE THE DREAM contest has officially ended – but there’s still a great reason to come back next week. Alex Logan, Assistant Editor at Grand Central Publishing will be leaving her comments for all the finalists on 3/25. So make sure you check them out!

Speaking of the finalists, the votes have been tallied and the winners have been identified for this year’s contest. For the first time ever, we had a tie for second place. Here they are:

First Place – Week 6 Finalist – Hooves of Thunder, Hearts of Silk by Vicki Bendau (and don’t miss Vicki’s interview here)

Second Place – Week 2 Finalist – Still Sucking in San Francisco by Jessica McBrayer

Second Place – Week 4 Finalist – Dark Shadows by Kylie Griffin

Third Place – Week 7 Finalist – Inner Eye by Gwen Mitchell

Thank you to everyone who entered, commented, voted, and stopped by. Thank you to our wonderful agent/editor judges who took time out of their hectic schedules to provide helpful feedback on all the finalist entries — and congratulations to Kelli Martin of Kimani Press who couldn’t participate in the contest as she’s out on maternity leave.  We couldn’t have had yet another successful contest without all of you!

Until next year … success and happiness to all!

Vote NOW for the Winner

Whew! The hard part of the contest is over – that is, picking the finalists and mini-critique winners from all the talented candidates.  Now, Leigh and I can sit back and anxiously wait for the feedback from our fabulous agent and editor judges – and for you to pick the winners!

So, let’s get started. First, check out this week’s winners:

Week 8 Finalist

Week 8 Mini-Critique

Now, review all the entries and then vote for your favorite by March 10, 2010.

Next, please complete our short survey to let us know how we can make next year’s contest even better!

And, don’t forget to stop by each finalist page between now and March 17, 2010 to see what our agent and editor judges had to see about each entry.

Thanks to all of you who entered – and all of you who are about to vote!

Only One More Week to Enter

We truly cannot believe that there’s only one more week to go! So, if you’ve been lurking and haven’t yet sent anything in, this is your last chance for 2010. And if you’ve been sending an entry in, give it one last shot. Send your entry in today!

I want to apologize for my tardiness. First off, for not getting last week’s finalist and mini-critique winner up until Wednesday evening. A night of little sleep (due to some sort of stomach bug) the night before put me a bit behind. And secondly, I owe two of you a mini-critique comment (I’m blaming that delay on my long hours at the day job) – not that you are anxiously awaiting my feedback or anything, but I do like to participate by leaving a comment. I will catch up on that by the weekend.

The good news is I’m on time this week – in fact, I’m several hours early! So, here are this week’s winners…

Week 7 Finalist

Week 7 Mini-Critique

Best,
Rachelle

Popular Subgenres

Each year, it seems like a large percentage of our contest entries fall within a specific subgenre of romance or fiction with romantic elements. One year, it was paranormal. Another, it was chick lit, a.k.a. humorous women’s fiction. This year, it’s historical romance. I’m amazed by the number of intriguing, original, and well-written entries that run the gamut of time periods and cultures.

And just as there are entries in categories or subgenres that we get a lot of each week, there are those we seem to get a only handful. Such as erotic romance and contemporary ethnic or multicultural romances.

Why is that? Does the trend in our contest submissions accurately reflect what most of you are writing? Or have we been unable to reach writers of these other subgenres?

Regardless of the answer, a heartfelt thanks to those of you who have participated – and continue to participate. We continue to be amazed by the quality of your submissions! So, please continue to send us your best in the next couple of weeks.

Without further ado, here are this week’s winners:

Week 6 Finalist

Week 6 Mini-Critique

A Variety of Entries

The entries this week ran the gamut from paranormal to romantic suspense, from chick lit to a handful of erotic, and from contemporary to historical to futuristic.

Every romance reader has a favorite (and a not-so-favorite) genre, and one of the great things about the contest is that it exposes us all to types of books that we might otherwise not see. I’m fascinated by how many of you have made comments along the lines of “I don’t generally read paranormal” or “I don’t generally like first-person narrative” but the contest entry made you look at this type of story in a different way.

We’re pleased to be part of the widening stream of romance. Though the finalists are not chosen based on any kind of quota system, so far we happen to have had a wide range of genres end up in the winner’s circle… Which of course brings us to this week’s winners:

Week 5 Finalist

Week 5 Mini-Critique

Four More Chances to Win – Enter TODAY!

It’s hard to believe that we’re already at the halfway point of this year’s CHASE THE DREAM contest. Four finalists have been named, with four yet to go – which means there’s plenty of time yet for YOU to final. You can’t win if you don’t enter, so give another polish to your first 1,000 words (or maybe start a whole new project) and send it in.

We’ve added a page which lists some of the many, many sales and deals which have come about because of previous CHASE THE DREAM contests. Check it out here (or by clicking on the graphic at right) and see what wonderful things have happened to many of the finalists and mini-critique winners.

And again, we have a question at the end of the mini-critique – something to think about and share to start a discussion. What do YOU think?

But without further ado, here are this week’s winners:

Week 4 Finalist

Week 4 Mini-Critique

Winners, Discussion, and an Extra Prize

It’s Week Three – and once more we have a great finalist to announce – and again there were a whole lot of almost-finalists.

If you’ve entered each week so far, don’t give up. Perhaps it’s time to take another look at how you might tighten up or sharpen your opening, and then send your entry in again. Our Week 2 finalist tells us she revised her opening after reading the first mini-critique, and it made a huge difference in her story. Maybe next week will be your turn!

Thanks to everyone who has commented on the finalists and mini-critiques. We love hearing from you, and at the end of the contest, we’ll  throw the names of all who have commented in a hat and draw one to award an extra prize. At the end of the mini-critique, I’ve asked a question – go take a look, and let’s start a discussion on the mini-critique page!

 And now (drum roll please) for this week’s winners:

Week 3 Finalist

Week 3 Mini-Critique

Decisions, Decisions…

In the second week of the contest, we’ve once more been flooded with great entries. It’s enormous fun to read the openings of your stories, and I know it’s very difficult for Rachelle to choose just one finalist each week.

It’s also a challenge for me to choose an entry each week for a mini-critique – because I’m looking for an entry which can be an example of a common difficulty, something that many writers struggle with. It’s often easier to see and understand a problem area when we see an example in someone else’s work, rather than our own – so the hope with the mini-critique each week is that it will help all participants to check that this difficulty doesn’t show up in their own work.

We’ve just added Brenda Chin, Harlequin Blaze Senior Editor, to our great panel of agents and editors who will be reading and commenting on all the finalists’ work – and there are more to come! Check them out on the agents/editors page.

So to end the suspense – here are this week’s winners!

Week 2 Finalist

Week 2 Mini-Critique Winner