The Story of Place: Sun Vs Snow

In honor of the Sun Versus Snow contest that I recently had the privilege of participating in, I pose the question:

Sun or Snow?

If you haven’t heard of it before, Sun Vs Snow is an annual contest hosted by an amazing duo, Michelle Hauck and Amy Trueblood. They draw an impressive panel of writing mentors to work with two teams of winners. The teams polish query letters and first pages of their novels and present them to an equally remarkable panel of agents.

Learn more about the contest on Michelle's Blog.

Depending on the season, a place has different stories to tell. Although I’ve been to Prague, Czech Republic, on many occasions and in all seasons, in my mind I nearly always picture Prague in winter, blanketed in a fresh layer of snow.

Why?

Prague as viewed from St. Vitus cathedral, 2013, Photo by Erik Lundmark

Perhaps it's the charm of the palace guards in furry caps.

Prague, 2013, Photo by Erik Lundmark

Or the mysterious way in which the statues on the Charles Bridge lay half hidden beneath a veil of white.

Charles Bridge, Prague, 2013, Photo by Erik Lundmark

Those delicious trdelník wood-fire baked pastries simply taste better when it’s cold out and they warm your fingers.

Prague, Czech Republic, 2013, Photo by Erik Lundmark

Go Team Snow!

Prospective participants sent their entries (consisting of query and sample) to the SnowvsSun email address. This year, Sun Vs Snow was open to the first 200 entries, and you had to be quick. The contest filled up in only three minutes.

A fun-filled week of waiting for Michelle and Amy to judge the entries started as participants gathered under the #sunvssnow hashtag on Twitter. We shared a piece of ourselves--how and where we write, our genre and category, and what music inspires us. At one point there was even a parade of adorable pictures of everyone’s pets!

I looked forward to checking in each day for fun games (such as post your line 11 from page 169 of your manuscript or post the title of your chapter fifteen.) It was an animated group, and I met some fun and inspiring fellow writers.

Although my entry didn’t get selected to go on to the agent round, the experience was uplifting, encouraging, and made me think about my manuscript and query letter in ways I had not before.

And since I made new friends who did get selected (some on Team Sun and others on Team Snow) now I get to route for both sides as they compete to see who will get the most requests from agents.

When the edited entries are posted to Michelle’s blog, they will be a great resource for writers to see examples of solid, polished query letters. Keep an eye out for that posting, coming February 22.

Now, since I started the post with a cheer for Team Snow, it’s only fair to end on a sunny note.

Go Team Sun!