Bullet Wisdom

I am an Active Duty Officer in the US Army. I am a Husband, father, writer, hunter, gamer, and SOLDIER. This blog is a forum for my many hobbies as well as my random musings.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

ABNA Quarterfinalist

First, I spent an awesome week in the field guiding our battalion through its first live fire in over two years. Along with the work, I made sure to take a bit of time to be a fan and take plenty of pictures, including that one. The speed and timing were giving me fits, but I ended up with more than a few decent shots.

Around the middle of the week, a friend emailed and told me 'Congrats'. My initial reaction was, 'What the hell for?' I'd been so inundated with live fire, I forgot all about my manuscript currently roiling in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. They let me know my Young Adult urban fantasy Novel, EMANARE, was selected as a quarterfinalist in the competition, making the cut from 2,500 down to the top 250.

When I set my goals for the contest, getting through the first round seemed like a daunting task. A contemporary whom I consider an excellent writer didn't make last year's cut, and now, I've made it through two. My reward? I review of the complete manuscript by Publisher's Weekly. That alone is a huge bonus. I always planned to re-imagine the work on the next time through, so any feedback from professionals would be excellent.

The other cool part about the quarterfinals, my excerpt is available for download from Amazon's Kindle Site. It's kind of cool seeing your work for sale on the site. Granted, it's listed for $0.00, but I'm still jazzed nonetheless. If you remotely interested or read any more of my recent work, you can see where my journey began about a year ago in Iraq by downloading the piece here.

Don't have a Kindle? Download the Amazon Kindle app for your Apple iPhone or Touch. It's a free app, and it'll let you read my piece. Consider that my shameless plug to increase my Kindle download ranking. Did I mention the price for my excerpt is also free?

Someone asked if I was sufficiently pumped to make the quarterfinals. Frankly, I've been too busy with Army stuff to take a moment and let it sink in, but it'll probably hit me sometime over the weekend. Whether I make the next cut or not, who cares? It's been a fun ride, and I can't wait to get the rewrite underway.

By the way, this is my week in a picture. How was yours?


6 comments:

Falcata Times said...

Congrats on your success BW. Stoked for you but keep yourself safe.

Angela Addams said...

That's a pretty cool picture!
Congrats on moving forward in the contest. That Publisher's Weekly review will go a long way, even if you don't end of coming out on top!

Michelle said...

So, when is the review available to read?

BTW - I was able to download the Kindle app directly to my Mac, so no reading on a tiny iPhone screen.

And, CONGRATS!!

Ken said...

That's a great question. Right now there're no reviews in my createspace account. If that changes, I'll let you know.

Diane Girard said...

That's great! Congrats on being in the quarter-finals. I won't be able to read your work (don't have appropriate technology) until it is published elsewhere. I'll look forward to that.

Love the rocket shot. And, as FT says - please keep yourself safe.

Danielle La Paglia said...

Congrats Ken! It's a great story. Best of luck in the final rounds. And awesome pic.