#ABNA Semi-finalist!?! For Once I Am Speechless...
For anyone who read last week's Sneak Peek Sunday, I was excited enough to have All My Tomorrows selected as a Quarterfinalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest.
I had it all figured out. You see, I had just finished production on the audiobook for Pulse and Prejudice (and it sounds amazing!), so I was naturally anxious to get started on the audiobook for All My Tomorrows as well. Of course, as long as it's a contender in the ABNA contest, I can't do anything with it; so I have been waiting patiently for April 16th for it to be eliminated so I could go forward with auditions for the audiobook. The best laid plans of mice and men!
You could have knocked me over with a feather when I found out that All My Tomorrows had actually been selected one of the FIVE Semi-finalists in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards contest (out of 500 Quarterfinalists - and 10,000 entries overall)! Plus, it received a lovely review from Publishers Weekly - a portion of which I have included below. So needless to say, the audiobook will have to wait awhile longer.Thus, it seems only appropriate that this week I offer another excerpt from the little novel that could, All My Tomorrows. In this excerpt, Alice and Peter and friends are at a karaoke bar in New Orleans (and Alice hates karaoke).
Then the moment she had dreaded arrived – karaoke. Eileen and Evan begged and cajoled, but she wouldn’t budge. They were the first of them to go on stage with a ridiculous rendition of “I Got You, Babe” that had the audience howling.
Later, as Eileen and Dirk launched into “Summer Nights,” Peter said
something to Alice, but she couldn’t hear.
“WHAT?”
“I ASKED IF YOU FINISHED YOUR BOOK,” he said over the noise.
“HOW DID YOU KNOW I WAS WRITING A BOOK?”
“YOU’RE WRITING A BOOK?”
“ISN’T EVERYONE?”
“WHAT’S IT ABOUT?”
“I’M NOT GOING TO SCREAM OUT THE PLOT LIKE THIS.”
“I ACTUALLY MEANT THE BOOK YOU WERE READING. THE EDGE OF DARKNESS.”
“OH. ALMOST. I’VE BEEN READING IT MAINLY FOR WORK, FOR INSPIRATION.”
Eileen and Dirk finished their song to raucous applause.
“ARE YOU READY FOR ANOTHER ROUND?” Peter asked Alice.
“YOU’RE DOING IT AGAIN.”
“WHAT?”
“TRYING TO GET ME DRUNK. IT WON’T WORK.”
He shook his head. “NO. NOT YOU. IT’S FOR ME.”
The noise abated somewhat while the emcee chatted with the next performers.
“Why do you want to get drunk?”
“Not drunk. Just courage.” He reached out and wrapped one of her curls around his finger, watching as he played with her hair before bringing his gaze to her eyes.
“Why do you need courage?”
He leaned over and put his mouth to her ear. “I need to talk to you about something, Alice.” His lips grazed her ear as he spoke and made her shiver. “Just talk. I want to ask you something. Will you let me? Can I talk to you tonight?” He pulled back and peered at her awaiting her answer.
I hope you enjoyed this excerpt from my little novel that has been far more popular and successful than I ever would have dreamed!
For more Sunday excerpts from other amazing authors, use Twitter hashtag #SneakPeekSunday.
From the Publishers Weekly Review of All My Tomorrows:
This engagingly written and entertaining novel stars Alice McGillicutty, a soap opera writer who spends her days managing the melodrama both on- and off-set of "All My Tomorrows." The show's exasperating cast, including party girl Giselle, paparazzi-bait Peter, and quietly smarmy Rich, turn Alice's life into a soap opera in its own right, and before long she finds herself romantically torn between the two leading men. Secrets come to light, Rich disappears, and the story climbs gleefully toward the over-the-top drama that forces Alice to write in a serial killer to explain the actors' absences. Laugh-out-loud funny and filled with endearing characters, the novel's greatest strength is its masterful dialogue and the banter between the players. Skillfully rendered love scenes add heat to the romances, which the author keeps interesting through a roller coaster of plot twists.
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