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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 delicious crow for dinner. I read the excerpt for Greyhound, by Steffan Piper. My socks were sufficiently blown off – I rated it a 5. As I said in the review, the narrative was flawless. I read it twice and found nothing I would change, not even a misplaced comma.

The protagonist, and first person narrator, grabbed me by the heart and never let go. He's an abused and neglected child being sent off on a three day bus trip by his self absorbed mother – I want to smack her – and her boyfriend of the moment, Dick – he needs his ass kicked. Could the irony of the name be any more beautiful?

The voice, the characters, the richly built scenes, all come together perfectly. If Steffan can keep that up through the entire manuscript we could very well be reading the next Huckleberry Finn. I couldn't give Greyhound any less than a five star rating.

Now I'm not just gushing for my friend Steffan. I don't know this cat from Adam. We met on the ABNA boards, like many of us have, and I friend listed him at ABNA and Facebook. This is the first thing I have read of his except posts on the message boards, but I want to read more.

In other news – I have read five excerpts so far and all have been top notch. With this level of craft in the top 500, I don't feel too bad only making the top 2000. I hope to get quite a few read this weekend. If I'm not blogging or hanging around online it's because I'm reading.

Stay tuned, there may be more 5 star excerpts out there. In the meantime read Greyhound by Steffan Piper. It is well worth your time.

-max