Faulkner-Wisdom: An Unexpected Gift from a Growling Fool, short-list finalist

An Unexpected Gift from a Growling Fool was named short-list finalist in the novel category for the 2013 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition.  There were 362 entries from 37 US states and seven foreign countries.  Last year, A Perfect Day for an Expat Exit was one of the finalists and The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady was a short-list finalist for the second year running.  I’m still waiting to hear the results for the Novel-in Progress category, where The Girl in the Bathtub was a finalist last year, and from the Novella category where I entered for the first time, The Act of Theft.
  So that’s four novels that have made the finals or short-list finals in 2012 and 2013 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition in the novel and novel-in-progress categories.  Not bad.  A fifth book has a chance in the Novella category.
Before entering this year, I revamped my novels and read them out loud, a good way to catch mistakes and sharpen the writing, something I recently blogged about. 
Still, there is a lot of competition out there from all those in master degree writing programs and literature majors that have a leg up on the rest of us.  It sure helps to have some­one, other than yourself, pushing you to raise your writing standards and your storylines.  That’s what I did for years for my writing students and those whom I edit. When living in Penang, where two of my novels are set, I exchanged work with other writers, and did a little of that over here in Borneo with the opening pages.  Perhaps it’s high time I start doing that again.

*Here's the link to my website, to MPH online for orders for all three of my books, including my latest, Spirit of Malaysia and forTrois autres Malaisie.