Interview: 2010 Golden Heart YA Finalist Erica O'Rourke

Erica O'Rourke

Entry Title, category, year:    Unchosen, Young Adult, 2010

Were you the overall Winner that year?   Yes

Website and/or Blog Links:     www.ericaorourke.com

Why did you decide to enter your manuscript in the GH Contest? 
Friends suggested it would be a good way to make myself stop revising (I will revise endlessly, given the chance) and start submitting.

Where were you and what were you doing when you got the GH call? We were on a flight from Chicago to San Diego. I knew it was “Call Day”, but after we landed, I checked my phone, and there were no messages. I assumed I had not finaled, put on a stiff upper lip, and got in the rental car. Halfway to the hotel, my phone started buzzing that I had emails. Lots and lots of congratulatory emails.

 “We were wrong,” I said to my husband.

 “We missed our turn?”

“No. We were wrong about the Golden Heart. I’m a finalist!”

“That’s great! I still need to know where our turn is.”

(We missed it. Twice. Hard to hear the GPS lady over shrieks of glee.)

TORN,
formerly Unchosen

How has being a GH Finalist/Winner affected you as a writer?It’s been an incredible experience – one of the judges requested the full of my story, and a month later, called with an offer of publication. I signed with my amazing agent, won the GH, and TORN (formerly UNCHOSEN) will launch Kensington’s new KTeen line later this month, at RWA Nationals. In addition, I’ve been welcomed into an incredible community of writers – the 2010 Finalists and The Golden Network, who have provided me with friendship, encouragement, and advice from the very first day. It’s been the most amazing year of my life.

Erica O’Rourke
TORN ~ KTeen/Kensington Publishing, July 2011
Winner, 2010 Golden Heart®,Young Adult