The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award will be announcing the finalists next week. Calls went out to the three writers this past Monday and the only call I got was from Les Schwab. My brake pads are in, which was good news, but not the news I was hoping for. It certainly has been a great ride and my friends around the world have been supportive as I moved from round to round. Thanks.

So now it is back to the business of writing letters to agents and waiting. The good news is I have a handful of great reviews and a nearly flawless review from Publisher’s Weekly. I should be able to get my size 12.5 in the door somewhere. If not, it won’t be the end of the world. When I set out to write Six Summers in Paris reaching the end was my goal. I made it there, not many people finish a novel and even fewer writers get their work published.

What’s next on my global plan to take over the publishing world? Not much, I will pop in here to drop a few words and I will also continue my work on two other novels I have started and crank out more short stories. One of my stories (The Land Baron) came in second place in a local contest and it will be published in the Tidepools literary magazine in June.

My annual pilgrimage to Powell’s bookstore is on Friday and for the first time ever I will document the wanderings of Jon Quixote and Peter the Red.