Mystery Blogger Contest #1-4: Critique Winners!

Yesterday we announced that 8 new bloggers were joining Operation Awesome! The first four were introduced mysteriously. They gave us three truths and a lie, and you took your best guesses on which fun facts were LIES. 

Now meet our Mystery Bloggers, discover who won each critique prize, and find out who lied about what!


Mystery Blogger #1: 

ANGELICA R. JACKSON

Hi, I'm so excited to join the illustrious Operation Awesome group and lend some credibility to my writing career! I'm looking forward to seeing the "behind-the-scenes" drama of the contests, as well as continuing to learn from the collective wisdom of my fellow bloggers and the commenters.
Where you can find me on the web:
My Facebook
My blog
My Twitter
My photo website (oh yeah, I'm also a photographer/artist)
Angelica will be blogging at Operation Awesome every other MONDAY.

Truths and a lie about Angelica:

• On her very first time volunteering at a regional SCBWI conference, Mystery Blogger introduced Well-Respected Editor without any verbal stumbles. And then as MB exited the stage, she promptly tripped over Well-Respected Editor’s purse and nearly faceplanted.

• The most cats that Mystery Blogger has ever had piled on her at one time is seven, distributed equally between her lap, feet, head, face, and shoulders. There were another five in the queue waiting for an opportunity. Or a fight to break out, which also clears the decks.

• Mystery Blogger once scared an agent on Twitter by trying to make a joke. Agent had tweeted something along the lines of “you don’t ever want to send me a query so bad it ends up on my Special List” and Mystery Blogger responded with “Challenge Accepted!” Agent tweeted back that the Special List was not meant to be aspired to and Mystery Blogger apologized profusely. They shared a laugh and became the best of friends.

• While recording a video pitch for a PitchFest, Mystery Blogger misspoke “sets a ship afire” with a bad word that rhymes with ship. And then couldn’t stop laughing for the next twenty takes. Now whenever she talks about that book, most of her brain cells are devoted to screaming, “make sure you say ship!”

THE WINNER of Angelica's query critique is Steph Scott!




Mystery Blogger #2: 

BECKY MAHONEY

I am a longtime Operation Awesome fangirl, and I am super excited to join the big leagues and become part of this amazing blog. I am an unassuming admin by day and a young adult writer by night, represented by Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger Inc. My preferred genre trifecta is fantasy, mystery, and horror. I am a lover of good food, awesome fashion, and any and all things creepy. You can find me here:
Blog: Rebecca Mahoney - Writer
Twitter
Becky will be blogging at Operation Awesome every other FRIDAY.

Truths and a lie about Becky:

• Mystery Blogger's favorite non-writing hobbies are handicrafts, especially origami. Mystery Blogger once signed up to help out at an origami instructional workshop, and ended up teaching the class entirely by accident.

• Mystery Blogger has a serious scarf problem. She was pretty sure she had one in every possible color, until she obtained three more over the holidays. Now she has every color. Maybe.

• Despite (or due to) the many gallons of coffee Mystery Blogger serves her bosses during her day job, Mystery Blogger is forever loyal to tea. No writing session is complete without a mug of red milk tea by her side.

• This Mystery Blogger began the first book she ever queried during a 13-hour car ride across Japan with her host parents and their two very restless young children. Mystery Blogger would like to thank that manuscript for saving her life that night.

THE WINNER of Becky's first 5 pages critique is Manju Howard!



Mystery Blogger #3: 

MAX GLADSTONE

I met my agent at an Operation Awesome contest, sold my debut novel soon after, and feel that Operation Awesome does exactly what it says on the tin. In various lives I've been an EFL teacher, researcher, tour guide, translator, smart grid analyst / cube operator, and an editor. These days, when I'm not making up stories about necromancers, I'm hunting my manuscripts for errant semicolons. I just deleted one from this paragraph!

My blog: Max Gladstone - Myths for Hire
My twitter: @maxgladstone
THREE PARTS DEAD
Max will be blogging at Operation Awesome every other SUNDAY.

Truths and a lie about Max:

• Mystery Blogger has been an illegal alien in the People's Republic of China.

• Mystery Blogger has shaken the hand of the Dalai Lama.

• Mystery Blogger has shaken the hand of a Vice President.

• Mystery Blogger has shaken the hand of Stephen King.

THE WINNER of Max's 5 page critique is Eliza Tilton!



Mystery Blogger #4: 

ABBY ANNIS

I am mom to three brilliant and talented kids. No bias there. ;) I write YA sci-fi and speculative fiction. My day job is in numbers (yes, I’m one of those weirdos who enjoys math), but I love words and writing. Taking beautiful writing and making visual art is one of my favorite things to do. Photoshop is a great procrastination tool. :) And I have a tendency to overuse smilies and the word awesome.

I’ve been a longtime lurker on the blog, and I’ve learned so much from the fabulous folks here. I’m excited to be a part of the awesomeness.

Blog
Twitter

Abby will be blogging at Operation Awesome every other SATURDAY.

• My AP English teacher from my junior year in high school made me HATE writing. And though I’ve journaled my whole life, I didn’t discover that I actually enjoy writing fiction until four years ago.

• I love anything peanut butter—PB&J, cookies, smothered in chocolate, plain—but I especially love to put it on waffles with maple syrup. Yum!

• The first piece of writing I got published was a poem I wrote in tenth grade titled “Down Yonder”. It was written as a joke and it was so very, very awful, but my English teacher loved it and put it in the annual school anthology.

• I really enjoy taking things apart to see how they work. So much so, that I get a little thrill of excitement when something breaks because that means I don’t have to feel bad about dissecting it.

THE WINNER of Abby's first 5 pages critique is Tiffany!

If you won a critique, please send the material you'd like critiqued to operationawesome6 (at) gmail (dot) com with subject line: MYSTERY BLOGGER WINNER

If you didn't win, come back tomorrow to meet our other Mystery Bloggers. There will be four more winners on the 31st, when our last four Mystery Bloggers' true identities are revealed!