My 13 day work week

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I've been working six days a week, ten hours a day on most days. This week I had to work Sunday. That made a 13 day work week. I'm tired. Because of that there has been no time for reading excerpts in the ABNA contest, or writing reviews. I also haven't been keeping up …

Another 5 Star Review in the ABNA Contest

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I continue reading the top 500 ABNA excerpts. I have found some wonderful gems. The quality level in this competition is very high. I haven't read anything yet that could not do well in bookstores.

I found another 5 star excerpt. This is a beautifully written piece by …

Eating crow and loving it

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In my ill timed diatribe yesterday I explained my reasoning behind my rating system for ABNA excerpt reviews. I stand behind the logic. I also said there would, most likely, be no 5 star ratings from me. I underestimated the talent of my fellow writers.

Last night I had …

How I rate ABNA entries: a personal view

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So much to read, so little time

The 500 excerpts were posted in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. Anyone can down-load the excerpts and review them. The feedback will effect the judges' decisions as they cut the field down to three finalists.

I'm trying to read and …

ABNA Top 500 Announcement

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Amazon announced the top 500 manuscripts in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards last night. It was a tense day. Many of the writers spent the whole day glued to their monitors – on the Amazon message boards, on CreateSpace, and for many Facebook became a good place …

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards: Quarter-Final Round

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On March 16, 2009 (Monday) Amazon.com will post the excerpts presented by the 500 writers who made the quarter-final round. There were approximately 10,000 entries in ABNA this year, so it is a huge achievement to make this cut. It was decided based on the writers' …

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards Semi-Final Round

One week to go before Amazon announces the 500 semi-finalists in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards (ABNA). The slush pile of entries (up to 10,000) have been waded through, their pitches read and judged, and the field of 500 should be taking shape. Unfortunately all …

Contraception and STDs in Erotica

I'm a member of an Erotic Romance crit group over at AQ Connect. One of the subjects that came up recently was “safe sex” in erotica, or romance in general. I'm not a big reader of erotica, and what I write is more romantic than most of what is considered …

Online Communities: Flame Wars

I've been online since the mid 90's – hanging out in chat rooms, message boards, forums. The dynamics of group interactions are intriguing, for someone who loves to watch people. Much of the psychology is universal among divergent communities, whether they are sports …

(via Maxwell Cynn)