I'm Judging Again!

Hello All!
Once again things have gotten a little quiet here.
I swear I haven't disappeared and I'm actually reading just as busily as usual.  Surprisingly, at the moment, I'm working my way through a stack of adult romance novels - and I'm loving it!

See, right now I'm helping to judge for the Maggie Award for Excellence given out by the Georgia Romance Writers, a division of the Romance Writers of America. The Maggie Award for Excellence has been given out by Georgia Romance Writers for over three decades and I'm honored to be assisting them in the judging process.

I'm having such a great time reading, too, because I got sent eight romance novels from the Paranormal and Historical genre categories and the two I've finished so far have both been well done. I liked one so much, I immediately went online to see what else the author had written in the series. I think I'm going to be reading my way through the rest of hers. *grins*

Since these books are being judged, though, I don't feel comfortable sharing any more info about them until after the contest is over... so.... no reviews for now! You all will just have to know that I'm sighing happily somewhere with a good book, even if no evidence shows online. *wink*

2013 ABNA Update #2

Sorry guys! I thought I would be able to give you more updates through the judging process this year, but I was BUSY!! Let me catch you up to speed: 

I've mentioned before that I am one of the contracted Quarterfinalist judges for Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award each year. This year, Amazon decided to open things up more and now there are five categories: General Fiction, Mystery and Thriller, Romance, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, and finally, Young Adult.  This year I am judging in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror category. 

This year, aside from changing categories, I also changed the *way* that I received my manuscripts... in previous years, I received loose leaf paper manuscripts which I physically flipped through to read, take notes, and basically take up space in my house (LOL).  So, this year when the option to receive the manuscripts as Kindle documents was offered, I jumped at the chance.  Now some of you may know that my ereader is actually a Nook...so why on earth did I accept Kindle manuscripts?  Well, because I have a Kindle app on my phone and figured that would be just as easy...and less bulky to carry around. 

And...I was sort of right.  It was GREAT not having to carry around the equivalent of two or three reams worth of paper while reading.  I'm one of those people who can read just fine on an ereader, so having the electronic copies didn't bother me at all.  Being able to highlight in the text and then just check for my highlighted "notes" like bookmarks was amazing...I didn't have to physically flip through an entire manuscript each time to verify info I used in my reviews. BUT... I wasn't able to transfer my manuscripts to the Kindle Cloud app where I could have read them on my computer (which would have made things even easier sometimes!) and I found that trying to read on my phone while laying in bed pretty much sent me straight off to dreamland... 

All in all, though, I think I will do the same thing next year... if I don't enter the ABNA contest myself! (I keep considering that...and I might be ready next year...I don't know...) 

So, what did I read this year? Well, I can't tell you much because we have to wait for the results of the judging, but here's a little teaser for each manuscript: 

Novel 1 - A scifi story with an alien presence that speculates that humans use of genetic manipulation is slowly causing the species to lose its ability to naturally survive...

Novel 2 - A dark fantasy where a grieving girl is taken to another world only to be pursued by a murderous being... 

Novel 3 - A scifi story where a girl strives to outdo her wildly successful, but cold half-brother who is secretly pursuing his own agenda...

Novel 4 - An alternate history following Napoleon's escape from Elba Island in a world where magic influenced the outcome of the war... 

Novel 5 - (My favorite of this year's bunch) A murder mystery set out west, told from the perspective of the ghost who ends up trying to find the murderer in order to save the living girl he's haunting... 

So, this year's quarterfinal judging is officially over today...and as always, I feel both accomplished..and EXHAUSTED, LOL.  I can't wait to find out which manuscripts make it to the next round...and I'll be VERY interested to see what happens in the finals!   Until next year... 

2013 ABNA Update #1

I've mentioned before that I am one of the contracted Quarterfinalist judges for Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award each year.

This year I'm intrigued to see how things pan out with the new changes to the contest system.  In previous years, there had only been two categories for writers to enter, adult and young adult.  This year, Amazon decided to open things up more and now there are five categories: General Fiction, Mystery and Thriller, Romance, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, and finally, Young Adult.  Unlike previous years, I am *not* judging in the young adult category. This year I am judging in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror category.

I have received five anonymous manuscripts that I have to read and review by the beginning of April.  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 last year (Regina Sirois' On Little Wings) actually went on to WIN the category. I CANNOT wait to see that book resting on my Library's book shelves this summer.

This year I decided to tackle my largest manuscript first and though I cannot tell you about what I'm reading at this point, I will say that it's an interesting story with genetic mutations and an alien presence. Currently I'm speculating about how the main characters will save the world...

I'll try to keep you posted...