2014 ABNA Judging - Update #2

I blogged last week about how I was finishing up my quarterfinal judging for this year's Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.  Today was our due date. I'm happy to say that I finished everything in time and am happy to probably just watch some bad tv for the next few days.  I DO however, have some excellent books just waiting to be read this weekend... *grins*

So, like last year and the year before and the year before...well, you get the idea... I can't actually tell you what I've read.  I can, however, give you a little teaser for each and then you can all wait with me to see how they do in the next round! 

Novel 1 - A college student discovers that she can manipulate the elements.  Now she's being hunted for her powers and if she can't band together with one aggravating/cute boy, she may not survive to get her degree...

Novel 2 - A high fantasy about a man who can travel between worlds.  When a dragon egg is stolen and brought to our world he must return it or risk both worlds falling to ruin...

Novel 3 - A dystopian set in a snow-covered London.  A stranger enters a small, self-sufficient community of survivors and brings danger into their cozy world. 

Novel 4 - A horror story about a serial killer targeting a neighborhood to create an artistic vision that will shock the world...

Novel 5 - A dieselpunk adventure set in an alternate Prohibition-Era Chicago where the gods topple Capone only to bring ruin to the City as they try to grab power for themselves... 

This year, I was pleased that I really enjoyed two of the books! Enough that I would love to read sequels for them both.  I can only hope that someday I can...      

So, until next year, I'm officially done with ABNA... *wipes forehead and grins*

2014 ABNA Judging - Update #1

I blogged last year (here and here) about the fact that I am one of the contracted Quarterfinalist judges for Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award each year.

As with last year, Amazon allows entries in five categories: General Fiction, Mystery and Thriller, Romance, Science Fiction and Fantasy, and finally, Young Adult. Like last year, I'm judging in the Science Fiction and Fantasy category. I love it because I've always been a sci-fi/fantasy enthusiast...ever since I could first read.

A few weeks ago, I received five anonymous manuscripts that I have to read and review by the middle of next week. It is such an interesting process to judge for this contest because not only am I reading to see if the premise is intriguing and the characters engaging, etc, but I also have to take tons of notes as I read so that when I go back to do my review, I can cite each piece of information that I use to discuss the work.

While I have a lot of fun reading each new story (it's so fun to just read a book with NO prior knowledge of its content sometimes), the critical skills necessary to reading for this specific contest can become fatiguing. It's absolutely rewarding at the end, though, like when I found out that one of the books that I read and pushed forward two years ago (Regina Sirois' On Little Wings) actually went on to WIN the category. Then last year, Rysa Walker's YA book won the whole contest... which I found thrilling, as well! (GO YA!)

So...for the next week or so, you may hear almost nothing from me as I finish up my last two books and their reviews, but I'll try to keep you posted...