Break on Through

So I entered the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. It’s a contest that Amazon has put together along with Penguin, which will publish the winning manuscript.

I submitted my lonely, dusty novel Retreat, which has made it to the semi-finals (sounds better than it actual is, considering the initial 5,000 entrants were weaned down to 836). Until March 2, folks can review excerpts from the semi-finalists. (Publisher’s Weekly will also be posting reviews.) So the more reviews my excerpt has (positive, naturally), the more chance I have of advancing to the finals.

This is the part where I ask a favor.

Visit the Amazon page for my excerpt.

Once you're there, just click on the “Download for Free” link. Then you’ll be able to read the opening pages of Retreat (via your web browser or by downloading a PDF). Unfortunately, they took out the prologue, so you won’t get the proper set up for the book. Oh well.

If you take the time to read the excerpt, thank you. If you take the time to post a review, thank you thank you. If you take the time to post a positive review, thank you thank you thank you.

This is the part where I can’t think of anything else to say and use an ellipsis…

The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks

My previous post reminded me of this very cool blog I stumbled upon a while back:

http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/

I love this “kind of stuff,” which my “wife” can vouch for.

Story on elimae

Hey, some “news.” I have a “story” in the new issue of elimae:

http://www.elimae.com/2008/January/Party.html

It’s called “After the Party, Which, As Predicted, Did Not Go Well.” The title is actually longer than the story. Seriously. It’s short. Very short. Click on the link and you'll see what I mean.

Is This Thing On?

The first post. Ah, the pressure. Well not really. All I can say is that I wanted to set up something just in case anyone might be interested in reading/finding some of my fiction. Just wanted to make sure folks have a warm, fuzzy, convenient place to go.

Postings will no doubt be sporadic and minimal. For starters, my wife and I are expecting twins in May (we already have a 2.5 year old). Plus, there’s work, my commute, writing, house stuff, bathing, etc. So yeah. Every now and then I’ll check in. Maybe it will get addictive. Maybe it won’t.