Sometimes You're The Windshield, Sometimes You're The Bug

I'm feeling very "buggish" right now. Just the normal experience of most first-time fiction writers, I guess. Especially when I don't fit into any particular slot. I'm definitely paranormal, definitely "with romance elements," definitely write in first person with a chick-lit-ish vibe, am a fan of dialog, introspection and an on-going story (all my favorite books are series), and the sex in my books is grown-up but not erotica. And, oh yeah, it's about vampires. Why am I talking about not fitting in again? I'll tell you. I got back another set of scores from a contest (one of the last ones I entered before I decided not to participate in any more), and it's the same deal: 95, 96 and 64. I don't know if a high 3rd score would have put me in the finals, but it's possible. I don't think I'm any different from any other creative person in that encouragement feels much better than the opposite. In fact, my writing friends keep asking me if I've started something new (answer: sorta), and I really haven't jumped in that boat because I'm temporarily lacking confidence. I know. Pitiful to need outside validation. Actually, what I'm wanting is a reality check. I think my book is good and I wonder if anybody else thinks so. I also got back a rejection from an agent I queried. The rejection was just a 1/4 page blue sheet with a generic message. After listening to the agents on the panel I moderated talk about how often an office person opens the queries and looks for target words, etc., I might assume my query never made it past the front desk. Well, that's OK. I have no illusions about how many rejections I'll gather. It would be great to get some good news, though.