Everyone stop what they’re doing– #TeamMystery has an announcement to make! Oh, who are we kidding, you’re all just scrolling down to the bottom of the post aren’t you?  Of course you are. I may as well put a paragraph of filler text in here, because you are totally scrolling.

Yup.

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Back?

Okay. So, now you’re probably in one of three camps. It breaks down like this:

CAMP ONE – The biggest camp. You were not selected for #NewAgent. There are other mentors who have said it better– Dan Koboldt in particular breaks down the cruel and crushing math– but this wasn’t your time. To you: I say, shake it off! This is the third contest I’ve judged for now, and the math on this one was crazy. There were 290 entries, and I picked four. That’s kind of insane. There are no tea leaves here to read. There were many awesome entries I wanted to pick, and even fought for that just didn’t make it. Hang in there.

CAMP TWO – The second largest camp. You’re reading this post even though you aren’t a writer. Either you know me personally, or you’re time-travelling from the future, and googled me after reading my book, and you’re thinking “what the heck is this contest Max is going on about? I don’t care about that.” To you, friends and readers, despite your impudent questions, I politely and gently suggest that you ignore this post altogether. There are other, more interesting posts for you on this blog, just not this one.

CAMP THREE, aka TEAM MYSTERY – You guys are living the dream. You battled through two-hundred-ninety freaking queries to be selected. Like I said to CAMP ONE: those are crazy odds. That said, I have quibbles with all your queries, or I wouldn’t be a mentor. DM me on twitter; let’s talk.

Who are the outstanding members of #TeamMystery, you ask? They are, in no particular order.

D. Fifer – NO CAN DO

Etaf Rum – ALL THE SILENT SOUNDS

Emily Layne – THESE WICKED WATERS

J.M. Goebel – DAUGHTER OF PELE

Joe McCourt – OVERHEARD

Kimberly Johnson – HER ONLY ESCAPE

Groups picks are just mixed in. To heck with arbitrary divisions. Also, if you WEREN’T PICKED HERE – be sure to check all the mentors blogs, because a couple of group picks ended up in strange spots. And I believe that Michelle has made a few host saves for the entries that she couldn’t persuade us to take. They are:

http://natasharaulerson.com/ http://wadealbertwhite.ca/blog/ http://dankoboldt.com/blog/ http://www.lauraheffernan.com/2015/07/new-agent-contest-winners-revealed.html http://michelle4laughs.blogspot.com