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Meet Kara Reynolds, Query Kombat Host

7/12/2018

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Welcome, Kara!

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Thanks oodles for stopping by, Kara, and  many more thanks for choosing my entry GOT ME A DADDY MAP to be on your 2018 Query Kombat team!

I'm happy to be here!

What did you enjoy about hosting the 2018 Query Kombat Kompetition along with Michelle Hauck and Michael Anthony?

I enjoyed the high level of camaraderie between Kontestants. It seemed like a lot of people made connections either through being on the same team or competing against each other. Getting into the contest is exciting for the month or so it goes on, but making connections with other writers can benefit a writer's career for years. To me, that's the real prize of Query Kombat.

I was truly surprised and delighted when my entry was chosen to compete. There were so many excellent entries across multiple genres, including queries and openings from young-adult and adult novelists. Why did you choose my middle-grade entry to be on your team of twenty-one kombatants?

I chose your entry because it absolutely dripped with voice! I think voice is more crucial in middle grade than any other age category. Others may disagree, but for me a strong narrative voice usually is what makes me pull a middle-grade book off the shelf.

How did you feel about someone from your team (yours truly!!!) being crowned 2018 Query Kombat Grand Champion?

Not gonna lie, having someone on my team win felt pretty good! I was just filling in as a host for Laura Heffernan this year, so to be honest, I didn't care too much about winning when we began. But having so many of my entries make it past the first couple rounds helped confirm to me that I do recognize good writing when I see it. Being in the publishing world for several years has helped with that, no question.

Thanks so much for chatting with me here on my blog, Kara! 

Delighted to be here, and congrats again! Don't forget to let me know when you sign with an agent!
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Kara Reynolds writes fiction for young adults, reads books for everyone, and blogs weekly at Operation Awesome. She is a stay-at-home mom with three beautiful children that she enjoys about 90% of the time. (The other 10% is cleaning up messes.) Kara loves Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, and letting her nerd flag fly whenever possible. Kara’s work is represented by Jill Corcoran of the Jill Corcoran Literary Agency. You can find Kara online at karareynoldswrites.com and on Twitter. To learn more about the Query Kombat contest, click HERE.

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Query Kombat Grand Champion!

7/10/2018

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Got Me A Daddy Map Crowned
Query Kombat Grand Champion!


My disbelief began when my query and first 250 words for my unpublished middle-grade, MAMA'S CHICKEN & DUMPLINGS, was chosen out of 400+ submissions to kombat during the 2018 Query Kombat contest that pitted one query and opening words against another in a series of rounds. I was super excited that Kara Reynolds, young-adult novelist, had plucked my entry out of the sea of hopefuls to be a member on her team of kombatants. After all, those vying to compete included young-adult and adult novelists of  manuscripts with all kinds of explosions and intrigue. And my middle-grade? Well, it's what you'd call the quiet sort, (at least, if you keep my main character's temper out of the equation). That's why I was surprised Got Me a Daddy Map was chosen. Honestly, though, I didn't think it would go very far.

​And then the judges began to vote. And this is where my disbelief grew. Daddy Map advanced, round after round! It remained when 64 entries were whittled down to 32, 32 to 16, 16 to 8--all the way down until it was one of two entries battling it out for the win!

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And man, was the last round intense--hour after hour, Daddy Map was neck-in-neck with Assassin Mom, an adult thriller that seemed ready for a Hollywood screening. Then--during the very last nail-biting hour--Daddy Map was crowned the victor--the Query Kombat Grand Champion!!! Only by one vote, but still! (And yes, I kept recounting the judges votes because I simply could not believe it.) 

Of course, I am realistic. I know the victory doesn't mean my manuscript will for sure snag an agent or find its way to publication. (Only three agents requested a read of my manuscript during the Query Kombat agent round, whereas others received as many as 16 requests.) Nonetheless, my query was greatly improved, thanks to the insightful comments of judges and fellow kombatants along the way. My confidence in my main character's voice and story was certainly boosted. And the entire experience encouraged me to consider writing my main character into Book 2, even though Book 1 is yet to find a permanent home on an editor's desk.

​In honor of the win, I'll be hosting Kara Reynolds here on my blog very soon. She'll be sharing what she loved about hosting Query Kombat 2018, and why she decided to add Got Me a Daddy Map to her Query Kombat team. So stay tuned!
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    About Me

    Dionna is a spinner of children's yarns, a weaver of nonfiction, and a forever-learner enrolled in the Institute of Imaginative Thinking. Her kidlit work has appeared on the pages of  Cricket, Spider, and Ladybug. As a work-for-hire author, she's written projects for Scholastic, Lerner, Capstone, Little, Brown and other educational publishers. Her middle-grade, MAMA'S CHICKEN & DUMPLINGS, will be released by Holiday House come 2024. An SCBWI member since 2005, Dionna is represented by ​Kelly Dyksterhouse and 
    Jacqui Lipton of The Tobias Literary Agency.


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