I won!

So I opened this package that came in the mail today, and out spills a check for $25.00 and two packets of paper, each with a binder clip.

My first thought was to wrack my brain trying to remember if one of my paralegal clients owed me work and money. And then...THEN...I noticed it.

A Certificate of Merit to Shaunta Grimes for winning first prize in the Red River Romance Writers Ticket to Write contest.

I won! I freaking won first prize! My heart pounded, I jumped out of my seat and screamed and danced and shouted "I won! I won!!!" (Funny story...I can't type that without thinking about the time I was at sixth grade Girl Scout camp and, as I still do in unfamiliar beds, exhibited my amazing ability to yell inappropriate things in my sleep. This time it was "I won! I won! I won a donkey!" If you don't think that's inappropriate, try going back to age 12, being chubby and unpopular, and then shouting it in a cabin filled with girls who will bring it up over and over again until you're 16 and finally leave town. I can laugh about it now...)

So now tomorrow I get to rewrite my query letter with the words "My novel won first prize in the..." and the agents who get my letter will know that a publisher read my first thirty pages and thought they were the best. (The publisher that did the final round of judging was from Harlequin and I wasn't expecting a request for my novel, since it's not a Harlequin-type category romance.)

So now I'm officially a professional novelist right? I've been paid $25 for nine months worth of blood, sweat, tears, lack of sleep and shower Ah HA! moments. I am a novelist, damnit. An AWARD WINNING NOVELIST.

Right this minute, I feel like there isn't anything I can't do. What perfect timing too, since the next NaNoWriMo starts next Wednesday. Is anyone else participating?