Posted in ABNA, tagged 3 Day Novel, ABNA, rejection on 04/24/2012| Leave a Comment »
One of my writing endeavors is Three Day Novel (www.3daynovel.com). Two of us submitted to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest (ABNA), me and CatRad. Well, the Semifinalists were posted today, and sadly, CatRad didn’t make the cut. Darn. I was so hoping one of us would last to the Semis. (I got whacked at the Quarters)
Sorry to see you miss the cut, CatRad. Let’s go after them again next year!
Posted in ABNA, tagged ABNA, rejection on 03/20/2012| Leave a Comment »
And so comes the end of the road for ABNA. I made the second round, and failed at the quarter-final level. It sorta clears the mind, however. I won’t be sweating the 24th of April, for instance, when the Top 50 are announced.
It was a fun month, though, imagining that I had made the top 1k out of 5k. I will probably always drop something into the contest because a) it’s free, b) winners get published.
The only thing still unresolved is the reviews, which are supposed to be posted on the 18th, and still aren’t up. I really want to see what the reviewers thought.
EDIT: Well, I received one lukewarm review, and one fairly mean-spirited review. In that last one, the reviewer had concerns with the premise, then spent the rest of the space mocking my text. There’s been many splenetic riffs on the Amazon Vines Reviewers, I won’t add to them. The challenge, as I see it, is to hone my craft. There’s always next year.
Posted in ABNA, General Info, tagged ABNA, DOV, Duotrope.com, Riddled Space, submissions on 03/14/2012| 1 Comment »
I admit, the calendar is a little lean. Here’s a screen shot of my Duotrope.com deadlines through the end of June. The second entry is just a little too much for me, given that I have the DOV edit that is already two weeks late, and the Riddled Space novel that is due at the end of June. So, I’m going light on the short work submissions for now, and concentrating on the long form work until the end of June.
Status: Six in the queue, including ABNA, which decides on 3/20. I should have a decision on two others in about two weeks, and a third in six weeks. The fifth, I haven’t the foggiest when that’s going to be decided.
Back to DOV….
Posted in ABNA, Writing Contests, tagged ABNA, James Patrick Baen Memorial Writing Contest, James White Award, rejection, submissions on 03/02/2012| Leave a Comment »
Another couple of rejections. Well, that’s what happens when you enter international competitions – there’s only one winner. I guess that means there are two more stories that need to get sent out into the world. Let’s head into Duotrope.com to find a home for them…
I am now left with five submissions in the queue. Here’s the breakdowns
So, I have one more decision expected soon, then a bunch more waiting.
Strategy here: I missed my 3/1 deadline for the Book Doctors. New deadline, 3/16. So, no writing/revising short stories until then. HOWEVER, I don’t want my queue to go to zero. Therefore, I will chech out the Calendar on Duotrope and see if there are any places I can find a home for some of the returned stories.
As for that MSS due to the Book Doctors, I’m sitting at about 40% completed.
Posted in ABNA, Pitchapalooza, tagged ABNA, Pitchapalooza, The Book Doctors on 02/23/2012| 1 Comment »
Does this mean they like my novel? Nope. In fact, the first cut is made solely on the basis of a 300 word pitch. And where did I learn to write a pitch? I am glad you asked! Pitchapalooza, run by The Book Doctors!
The next round is judged by a combination of my pitch and my excerpt. The next cut is announced on the 20th of March. This one is where they read the pitch plus your first 3-5k.
Posted in ABNA, Writing Contests, tagged ABNA, submissions on 02/23/2012| 1 Comment »
It’s seriously crunch time here on the submission front. ABNA comes out today. Some markets have promised to render a decision before the end of the month, and Duotrope is starting to show responses from three of them. I find myself synching the email more often, refreshing the feeds more often, and in general being distracted from my task of writing.
On the positive side, I have flensed about 3k from DOV, and might actually have a home for the excised material. Nothing quite as joyous as finding a market for something you’d ordinarily be throwing out.
Posted in ABNA, Writing Contests, tagged 3 Day Novel, ABNA, rejection, Riddled Space, Sirens, submissions on 01/30/2012| Leave a Comment »
Yeah, I foobed it with 3Day. The good thing, though, is that I now have another universe, although a slightly cramped one, within which to write stories (see The Siren’s Consort in Bill’s Worlds). A short story is currently out in a market, awaiting a decision.
The point here is I could be sitting around, sucking my thumb about whiffing at the 3DN contest. Instead, I not only put one of the Molokai books into ABNA just now, but I entered a Riddled Space story for an annual award contest.
It doesn’t matter how often you get knocked down, it matters how often you get back up.
Posted in ABNA, tagged ABNA, SOP, The Book Doctors on 01/23/2012| Leave a Comment »
Here, I’m going to break a rule and talk about a market I am submitting to. No, I really don’t think they’re going to research me, because, frankly, I don’t think I’m going to be getting that far in the competition.
Check it out: www.amazon.com/abna
My goal this year is to make the first cut. That means my pitch has to be interesting enough to make it through the eighty percent haircut. I’m using all the wiles I learned from The Book Doctors to see if I can make the cut. We’ll see.
Posted in ABNA, Writing Contests, tagged ABNA, Duotrope.com, James Patrick Baen Memorial Writing Contest, James White Award on 01/08/2012| Leave a Comment »
Well, it’s Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award time again. I was really looking forward to putting in my Demons work, but it’s just not going to be ready. Even if I took off the two weeks between now and the start date for submission, there’s no chance that I would have the work ready. So, I’m going to have to forego Demons for ABNA.
Actually, it’s a good thing. When I pitched Demons for Pitchapalooza, one of the judges looked at me dead in the eye and requested that I send it to them when I’m done. I was a bit conflicted about sending Demons into ABNA. Now, I guess, I can do the best, right thing.
Time to drag out Molokai again. I didn’t even get past the first round last time, therefore the pitch must get seriously reworked. Two weeks? Yeah, that’s sufficient.
One of the side effects is that I can devote some more time to my entries for the James White Award and the James Patrick Baen Memorial Writing Contest.
Current Status: 7 items out, 4 decisions due this week, 6 items due before 2/1, not including ABNA. Things are busy.
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