HOW AMAZING to see so many people enter the Novel Novice contest to become a character in SWEAR, the sequel to SWOON. Enormous thanks again to Sara of Novel Novice for hosting this special event as the culmination of SWOON week, and for her help in narrowing the field to a handful of semi-finalists.

All the entrants were awesome, so I knew it would be tough choosing a winner. In fact, it proved impossible. Two entrants offered well-written and thought-provoking answers with attitudes, ideas a...