ABNA: Pinocchio Punched in That Dirty Liar Nose of His
February 20, 2008

ABNAAs suspected, my little novelette that could did not make it to the finals in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award thing. But I'm quite pleased with how well it did. Instead of collecting digital dust on my hard drive for the last few months (setting it aside while I worked on other stuff, so I could come back to it fresh for revisions), it collected a quite generous Publishers Weekly review.

And I think the good the PW review will do in my cover letter outweighs the negative of telling agents or editors that they aren't the first place I've sent a work. Besides, that damage is pretty much already done with the title of the work so easily available online (try "Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award" in Google; I'm like number 4, after Amazon, Penguin, and The New York Times. Had no idea my blog was that popular, though I don't suspect that search placement'll last as they gear up the publicity machine/the contest reaches its climax, and as I start shutting up about it). I knew that'd be a risk, and that's why it's the only unsold work (I think) I've ever named in my Submission Log.

Congrats and good luck to the three finalists I kinda know: online friends Ruth Nestvold and Tom Pendergrass, and fellow Carrborian (Carrboro-ite? Carrborean?) Erica Eisdorfer.

Of course I'm incredibly grateful to everyone thoughtful enough to give the excerpt a read and/or to write up comments (though I'm quite glad I erred on the side of minimal publicity this time and didn't beg friends and family for reviews or anything, thus saving most of my Annoying Publicity Tokens for another day/project). You'll hear about Pinocchio again, and more annoyingly, when I place it with a publisher.

Hmm. Carrborean, definitely. Carr-BOAR-ee-uhn. It ain't no "Cimmeria, Land of Darkness and the Night," but Alexander the Carrborean coulda been one of Robert E Howard's unpublished tales, dontcha think?
by Alex Wilson. This is from an online journal/blog I kept from 1998-2009. Back to alexwilson.com.