Enter our 25-4-25 Contest for 2022
and Get Vital Feedback on your First 25 Pages!
​

Here's your chance to get a developmental edit by published and soon-to-be-published authors of your first 25 pages, and it's only $25!

Our feedback can include tips on plot, pace, characterization, dialogue—whatever it might take to attract the interest of an acquiring editor.  The most promising manuscript will win our grand prize: a premium one-year subscription to Querytracker.net, to help you find the perfect acquiring agents and publishers for your project and keep track of your submissions.

Below, please find the 25-4-25 Contest rules with links to required disclaimer, and judging criteria:


Contest General Rules:

1. Hudson Valley Scribes Membership is NOT required to enter the contest
2. Cost is $25, nonrefundable, paid via PayPal. 
3. Entries will be limited to the first 50 received. All additional entries will be returned and the money refunded.
4. If you use Paypal please click www.paypal.com. The PayPal email address is hudsonvalleyscribes@gmail.com. Put 25-4-25 in comments.
5. All entries must be accompanied by the contest Disclaimer which must be copied and pasted in the body of the e-mail. Please also include the Paypal confimation in the e-mail.
6. Entries should be a word document (PDFs are not allowed) and should include the first 25 pages of your manuscript along with a cover page with your name, e-mail and title/genre of your unpublished, romance book-length novel or novella. The cover page should be your first page (which makes the entire submiission 26 page.). Do not send cover page as a separate attachment.
7. Manuscript should be professionally presented in 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins all around. Any entries that do not meet this criteria will be reformatted and only the first 25 pages will be edited.
8. We run 25-4-25 twice a year. Entries must be sent electronically between January 1, 2022 -May 31, 2022, for winners to be announced by September. Entries sent between June 1-November 30th will have winners announced by March 1, 2023.
9. Send entries to contest coordinator: Liz Mattila at hudsonvalleycontest@gmail.com
10. For the purposes of this contest, the author’s name should not appear on the manuscript.
11. We will return manuscripts within 3 months with edits. Scoresheets will NOT be sent to authors; they are for internal use only.
12. Winners will be announced in September, 2022 and March, 2023. In the case of a score tie, manuscripts will be judged by a team of three published authors.
13. Editing by HV Scribes authors in no way guarantees agent/publisher interest or action. Opinions are those of the HV Scribes member/editor only.
14. The criteria on which your entry will be scored can be found here.
15. Please direct any questions to hudsonvalleycontest@gmail.com

​2021 Winner: Shadows of the Heart by Wendy Eire!

Wendy Eire is a romance writer living in an eastern suburb of Cleveland, OH with a varying number of cats and a best friend
who shares her desire to avoid adulting for as long as possible. She currently works in an immigration law firm, which is a business
that would drive anyone to seek an escape from reality. Shadows of the Heart is her first novel, an urban fantasy YA romance,
​ and she's still in the throes of finishing the damn thing!

An Excerpt from Shadows of the Heart:


CHAPTER ONE
 
Roxana
“This is hideous,” I groan, scowling at the mirror, “Do the elders really believe wearing a uniform is going to change the way the gwahls look at us? I wish I hadn’t promised Mami I’d go along with this,” I snort, “but she’s so afraid to offend the council she almost bows any time we meet an elder.”
            Ali grunts but doesn’t look up from the graphic novel she’s clutching. Since dawn she’s had her head buried in anything she can grab from my bookshelf. She’s been drifting on denial all summer and now that doomsday is upon us, she’s struggling to stay afloat. I don’t know why she’s worried, her family is always praised by the elders for adhering to the natural ways. No matter what the gwahls do, Ali’s family will be protected.
            “It’s okay, then we won’t need so much sunblock. Why’re you worrying about your appearance anyways, Xan?” she grumbles, lying on my bed in the long-sleeved white shirt, black skirt and black tights the council has forced upon us.
            I tug at the black cotton. “Does the council think showing our knees will start a riot? It’s like we’re in the dark ages again, when vampirs were forced to wear cowls and crosses to show reverence for their gods.”
            Ali grunts again and turns a page.
            “Maybe I can make it better,” I say, turning to my closet, “perhaps a belt?”
            “No matter what we do, or wear, or say, they’re going to shit on us, you know that. Bad enough we’re forced to go to their school, do we really need to worry about dressing to impress?” She twists on the bed, holding the book over her head so I can’t see her face.
            “I don’t care about impressing anyone, but I’m not going to be part of the background. Wouldn’t that make them happy? They’re all too willing to either classify us as sinners or as dirt beneath their boots. If we’re going to be forced into this situation, we need to show them we’re unique and that we should be treated that way. The first step is to make them look. The elders are just a bunch of fussy old nannies, with their rules on blending in.”
            She finally looks at me. “I know. But my brothers say don’t make the mistake of thinking that those gods-worshipping a-holes are going to let us walk in without a challenge, even if we are bringing buckets of gold, so the elders might be right to urge caution.”
            She’s exaggerating about buckets of gold. Sort of. A few years ago, the economy soured in Nuland, and the gods-followers in Ravensfall lost a lot of capital. Low district daemons like us didn’t do so poorly, mainly because we come from a long line of bury-your-coins-under-your-casket. But we suffered a different sort of loss when our high school imploded due to faulty wiring, a basketball championship party that involved too many beers, and an itchy pyrea daemon.
            The elders said it was a sign that we should finally embrace our country’s progress and integrate, although everyone knows they panicked at the notion of unhoarding the amount of gilt needed for new buildings. They met with the synod, offered enough coin to shore up their upper school’s depleted endowments, as well as install a new gymnasium, and ta-da, we get to spend our remaining years of basic education with those judgmental bigots, the gwahls.
            “And you think it matters what you wear?” Ali continues, “You’ll be the main attraction, who could overlook you?” While her words are complimentary, her tone is tinged with envy. She doesn’t get how annoying it is to stand out just because I’m not slender and petite. I don’t want to be remembered just because I look more vamp than vampir.
            Mami shouts from down the hall. “What are you girls doing? You better get yourselves together if you want to eat before school. There’s only an hour left before the dining hall closes for clean-up.”
            I walk to my closet to sort through my accessories. My bedroom is small, but when we were offered this unit. I’d pounced when Mami let me have the room with this closet. It takes up one entire wall and has tons of clever little drawers and hooks, with sufficient storage for all my everyday clothes, as well as my shoes and sweaters. I painted a lovely sky blue on the walls to make the room appear larger, which also shows off my butterfly art. I like the coziness of it all, and besides, it’s not like I have the kind of family or the sort of sleepovers that require more than one bed.
            Before I can ask Ali her opinion, Mami pokes her head in my doorway. Her delicate features tighten as she worries her bottom lip. “Really, puppy? Do you think the council would approve?”
            I growl. She holds up her hand in an I-don’t-have-time gesture and walks away. Why is she always on me about the council? I’m not the one who refuses to get a divorce. I didn’t ask for Tati to be banished. She acts like the elders are going to reverse their edict if we show ourselves to be the most obedient rule followers.
            “What’s wrong with it?” I walk over to the mirror again. The red belt hugs my waist, making my boobs and hips stand out, but it’s a little bit of color and it’s dark red, not scarlet. My upper body is totally covered, plus my thick black hair is in a restrained ponytail instead of the usual cascade of curls. The double hoop earrings and high-heeled booties are hardly the trendiest things I’ve ever worn. The council can’t really complain, can they?