Didn’t win, but had a great time

Hi, everybody.  I didn’t win the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest with Grace Humiston and the Vanishing, but I had a great time.  Congratulations to the General Fiction winner, Alan Averill, and kudos to his novel, The Beautiful Land. Also congrats to Young Adult Fiction winner Regina Sirois for her winning novel, On Little Wings.  I got to hang out with Alan, Regina, finalists Rebecca Phillips, Brian Reeves, and Casey Griffin, and various spouses and friends, in Seattle for the awards dinner weekend.  A bunch of wonderful folks, and we had a lot of fun.  Thom Kephart of Amazon, who coordinated the whole thing, made it all look easy.  All contests should be run this well. My fellow finalists were all very talented, and I’m sure they will find publishing success in the future. I loved the whole ABNA experience, and I highly recommend it to all novelists.