| So in January, I entered the Amazon
Breakthrough Novel Award contest. I also did this last year,
and I was turfed out in Round 2. This year, I wanted to see
if I could get farther with the same entry, and I did; I have now
made it to Round 3 (the quarterfinals). There are gazillions
of entries, so it's really a bit of a crapshoot, but it's amusing
to watch. The reason I bring it up now is that some of you
have, in the past, asked to see some of my actual prose fiction.
The quarterfinals involve the posting of an excerpt on
Amazon. If anyone is interested in reading the first 5,000
words of my YA time-travel novel,
go here. (You have to "buy" it, but it's free, and if you
don't have a Kindle, you can download an app that will let you read
it on your computer.) Incidentally, this is not me trolling for reviews. If you really want to put in the time and effort to create an honest review, constructive criticism and all, go ahead, but I would ask my friends to steer clear of the whole review process. It's never comfortable to rate your friends' work in a public forum, and the temptation is often to fudge the review to save the friendship. I would vastly prefer having no reviews at all to having dozens of bits of horrible puffery. Some of the entries already have multiple five-star reviews, many of them one sentence long and unaccompanied by any notification that the reviewers have purchased the entry. This is shudder-inducing, especially since the reviews have no bearing on the contest. In short: if you're curious about my writing, take a look, but feel free to say nothing at all about it. If you do want to comment briefly and without a rating, use the WoB comments page. |
| Wednesday, March 13, 2013 |
| Panel 1: Rahim and Barbara are in Marie's apartment. Barbara is dressed as Sherlock Holmes and holding Casey's violin case. Rahim: Does Casey own anything? Everything here is Marie's. Barbara: Except this. Panel 2: She puts the case on the dining-room table and opens it. Rahim: His violin? What can that tell us? Barbara: Let's see... Panel 3: She pulls a piece of fabric out of the case. Rahim: What on earth is that? Barbara: I would say a polishing cloth, but it's too rough. It looks hand-woven. Panel 4: Rahim: I can't tell if it's a clue or not. Barbara: Since it's all we've got, I'm going with yes. Alt-Text: If you eliminate the nonexistent, whatever remains, no matter how incomprehensible, must be the truth. Go to commentary |
