Terrified + Excited = Terricited?

At the end of the month, I’m attending a writers’ workshop at ArmadilloCon with Whitney.  I submitted a short story that barely squeaked under the 5,000 word limit.  It was based on Day Thirteen of my Days of Genius.  Thirteen is my lucky number.  I think it helped me out.

When I emailed my submission, I very politely asked to be in a group with Whitney. Then, I ultra politely asked to be in a group led by one of my favorite authors, Ilona Andrews.

I was told that I might be able to be grouped with Whitney, but that all guest of honor groups were chosen by a jury process. I didn’t think anything of it and figured it hadn’t hurt to ask. At least Whitney and I might be grouped together.

Imagine my surprise when I received an email a couple days ago, letting me know I was in Ilona and Gordon’s group. I almost died. I don’t know if it’s because I asked politely or because my story was good (or bad?) enough, but I’m now a combination of excited and terrified.

I was already slightly worried about the critiques, as this will be my debut sharing my work with people who aren’t friends (or the few people who read the blog), but now an author whose writing I totally adore is going to be reading my story.  Gah!  ::breathes in a bag::

The good news is that I get to read the stories/first chapters of the four other people in my group.  I’m super excited to see where their imagination takes mine, because the scifi/fantasy world is so varied.