I thought it was long past time to play a bit of catch up. The first draft of the new book is nearly done. It’s been a far more difficult volume to write than “Brothers In Darkness“, though the time and frustration invested in it cause me to appreciate it more and more each day.

Speaking of my first book, in January I entered it into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest. There were two categories, General and Young Adult, and a total entry cap of 10,000 books. It’s a bit mind boggling to think of that much competition, but I have to remember A) many of these books aren’t necessarily new, and B) The contest is specifically limited to unpublished and self published titles. Actually, thinking about it like that might make it worse.

Reading the threads in the ABNA forums has led me to believe the YA category never filled up, requiring the General category to make up the difference in hitting the 10,000 book mark. I’m not sure that’s exactly what happened, but if it did, the result would be more competition in the General category. Grrrr.

On February 23rd, the entry pool in each category was whittled down to a thousand books in each of the two sections. With the odds apparently now stacked even further against me, I made a point of keeping expectations low. As such I was pleasantly surprised to find out I had been chosen to progress into the second round! It was a fine bit of news! Next week I’ll learn the outcome of Round Two. I’m keeping expectations low, but regardless of how it’s turned out the initial success was nice to see!

In the coming weeks I’ll be wrapping up Book 2, finalizing the title and choosing the cover art, and outputting “Brothers In Darkness” to the Kindle. There are a lot of twists and unexpected turns in the sequel, and I’ve pledged to not give anyone spoilers this time out.

As soon as I’m done with Book 2, I’ll be sharing it with a few folks for feedback. While that’s happening, I’ll be diving into a third. It will be another installment in the “Brothers” storyline, but it’s a radical departure from what’s gone before. I shared a few secrets with my friends in the Cedar Hills Writers Group, but I’m not quite ready to go public with it yet. It’s a very off-beat idea that may or may not work…more info once I have a better feel for it. That’s it for now. Wish me luck making it work