A tiny setback and a load of gratitude re: The Lady of the Pier – The Ebb

Those among you who follow my blog and keep up with my writing, will know that I’d submitted my upcoming novel, The Lady of the Pier – The Ebb, to this year’s ABNA contest (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award). I’d heard about the competition at a time when the novel hadn’t even reached my beta readers as yet, and generally needing still a lot of editing work. Still, egged on by friends, I submitted it, thinking I had nothing to lose.

Never in a million years did I expect to make it to the quarter-finals! This success was a wonderful surprise, and an asset, that I’ll be able to display proudly on the book cover when I finally publish the book in July (fingers crossed).

Yesterday, ABNA announced the semi-finalists, and the book didn’t make it. Friends naturally attempted to console me with the typical comments like ‘better luck next time’, ‘what were they thinking?’, ‘how unfair’, and other, thoughtful stuff like that that friends will say. However, I find that I really don’t mind this particular ‘defeat’, and thus don’t feel disheartened at all.  As I said, I’m well aware at what stage of the editing process I’d submitted the novel so, today I leave this ‘battle’ feeling like I did quite well for myself.

Since submitting it, the novel has underwent major changes, thanks to the loving care of my wonderful beta readers, whom I wish to publicly thank today, by the way. Good beta readers are those gifted, rare creatures who can find the right balance between diplomacy and directness, honesty and subtlety, while having a solid understanding of character development, story flow and proofreading/grammar. I’ve been blessed with no less than five gems of the sort, and they are: MM Jaye, Nicholas Rossis, Kerry Hall, Danica Cornell and Jenny Twist. They took a piece of coal from my hands, and gave me the awesome feedback that turned it into a shiny diamond. Thank you, guys!

Thanks to you, soon, I’ll finally be able to see a dream of many years become a reality. I’ll finally be able to tell this story about my favourite pier and bring it back to life again, if only for a while.