Hmmm

Here's the judging process of Amazon/Penguin...

First Round: Amazon editors will review a 300 word Pitch of each entry. The top 1000 entries in each category (2000 total entries) will move on to the second round.

Second Round: The field will be narrowed to 250 entries in each category (500 total entries) by Amazon top customer reviewers from ratings of a 5000 word excerpt.

Quarterfinals: Publishers Weekly reviewers will read the full manuscript of each quarterfinalist, and based on their review scores, the top 50 in each category (100 total entries) will move on to the Semifinals.

Semifinals: Penguin USA editors will read the full manuscript and review all accompanying data for each semifinalist and will then select three finalists in each category (six total finalists).

Finals: Amazon customers will vote on the three finalists in each category resulting in two grand prize winners.

I'm perhaps a little worried about that first round, since it's all based on the pitch. I think the pitch is good, but it's so subjective, who knows? The second round could be worrisome, too. Will the 5000-word excerpt be enough? I'm more optimistic after the second round; but getting there is going to be challenging.

Amazon/Penguin

So, I entered a novel in the Amazon/Penguin Books Breakthrough Novel Competition. We'll see what happens. First round of eliminations is at the end of next month. I think I should make the quarterfinals, but we'll see how it goes. With my luck, I may get axed early, who knows? But fingers crossed. I'll keep you posted.

Sleepless

Damnable cat woke me up around 2:00 a.m. today. He wanted me to pet him, wanted to hang out on my pillow, purring in my face. I couldn't go back to sleep. So, I gave myself a bit of time to go back to sleep, couldn't, so then I got up and did laundry around 3:00. That's my way; if I can't sleep, I don't stew about it. I just get up. The laundry room in my building is in the basement -- Pennywise's Playground, it is. I don't know why I always think that when I'm down there, but there's this long hallway to one side, near the cargo elevator, and the vantage point always makes me think that. Every fucking time. Not the thing one needs to think at 3 in the morning. The funny thing is that the laundry room itself feels fairly like a sanctuary -- it's hard to think of menace tied with laundry (likely because it's all about getting clean), but when I step into the hallway, turn to the elevator, and can peer down the hallway, then it creeps me out a bit. Also, the fitness room is across from the laundry room, and there's this complete psycho who will jog the treadmill in there IN THE DARK. All hours: morning, late evening. Thankfully, he wasn't in there when I was doing the laundry, but every other time I've seen his dour self in there, he's jogging in the dark. Maybe that's his solution to working out alone, but seriously, who does that? A nutcase, that's who.

I don't drink coffee, but I had to snag a caffeinated diet soda to lurch through my day. Need a bit of the caffeine hit to function today, I think. A rarity for me, but I just need to make it through another 4.5 hours without nodding off at my desk.

This weekend is going to be very busy for me. Submitting one (for sure) or two (maybe) books to a competition, hoping something hits. We'll see.

After that, I'm thinking I'll do a fantasy novel. I've got a ton of material (~130,000 words) from a stillborn fantasy epic I wrote in 2002, material that I thought could be mined for a series of one-book fantasy novels, and I'm going to develop some of that. I would like to avoid trilogies. Tolkienitis and all of that.

Overcast

I was very productive over the weekend, although not productive at all yesterday. Blah. My day off. Why not? It's not like I wasn't doing anything; I was busy taking care of my kids.

Today I'm at work, and somebody brought in some Dunkin Donut holes. I loathe Dunkin Donuts. I want to take one of the powdered ones and launch it at one of walls. But with people walking about, that might kill them -- those Dunkin greaseballs are likely deadly projectiles.

I have six days to get the second chunk of revision done. It should take me two days, if I do it right.

Thirsty

Well, I submitted "Thirst" to the "Distant Worlds" anthology. We'll see what comes of it. Probably nothing, but I was pleased to expand the short story into a novella, and for the story to arc the way it did. It topped out at 21,064 words, so I nearly doubled it from its original size. It was a bit of a rush, working on that one. A fun little exercise, and that short story always craved a larger canvas upon which to stretch out, so I was happy to oblige it, and the protagonist in the story.

Fingers crossed, I hope it is one of the winners!

Whew

2422 words written this evening, which let me cross the needed minimum 20,000-word threshold on the novella. The story's very nearly done, so I'm sitting pretty. Brain-sleepy at the moment, however.

Words

Banged out another 3000 words last night and this morning, so I'm only about 3000 shy of what I need for my deadline (Friday). Should get there tonight or tomorrow morning, with time and breathing space.

Thirsty

2070 words added this morning to the short story I'm expanding into a novella. I only need about 6000 words to make the minimum length (20,000 words) for the competition I'm thinking of entering, and as it stands, I should be able to bang that out today and tomorrow, with time and breathing space.

I was bummed -- my old Black Flag pin I had on my bag fell off somewhere along my ramblings through the city. Not sure where it was. If you see a little Black Flag pin lying in the snow in Chicago, pick it up, take it; it's yours.

Novella? What the hella!

I stumbled across this today...

http://essentialwriters.com/distant-worlds-anthology-5061.htm

And thought I have a few candidates I could submit. Why the heck not?

One of the likeliest contenders would need maybe 9,000 words added to it to make the bottom limit, lengthwise, which is cake for me.

The deadline is January 15, which is, what, nine days away? No problem. I think I'm going to do it. The story's just sitting there, why not give it a go?

Writ Wrote Rote.

I'm going to punt my plan to try to bang something out for the Amazon competition. I just don't want to do that to myself! If I didn't have a full-time job, sure, I'd try it, but I don't have the time to really shoehorn a book into my schedule in the coming month. So, I'll just sling the two finished works I have handiest and hope for the best.

I need to get back in gear on some of my projects. The holidays always throw things off a bit, so I need to get my feet back under me.

Write On.

Okay, so Amazon and Penguin are having their third annual "Breakthrough Novel" competition, and I totally want to submit a thing or two to it. They have two categories: General Fiction and Young Adult. I have books that could go in either category. One of them is perhaps a reach for "General Fiction" but I may submit it, anyway, just because it's very good, and if people actually gave it a fair shake, it could get there. It's good stuff. Another one is a shoe-in for "Young Adult." So, I'd like to submit them both. I have to read the official rules to see if it lets me. They take a total of 10,000 submissions before they close.

I'm also highly tempted to whip up a novel that is squarely within the General Fiction category, just for insurance, should the other two not make it through -- I'd have to bang that baby out quickly, as the deadline for submissions opens on January 25. No time to waste. I know people like to entertain themselves with National Novel-Writing Month -- hell, I've done it a couple of times as a lark, so I know that dance. But this would be a serious effort intended to get into that competition. I don't know if I can make the deadline, but I'm tempted to try, just to push myself. If nothing else, I'll have another book ready to sell.

And, I admit that I'm a little scared, unsure whether I can do it, and I like that. I like that it makes me sweat, makes me wonder if I can swing it. So, that makes me think I need to do it, need to take that risk and swan-dive into this one.