Angel Trap and Gumbo Justice

Angel Trap has made the semi-finals in the Page Awards. In September they'll post the finals and then a winner. I am excited, but it sort of balances out because it didn't make the finals in a different contest. It's difficult to know what contest readers are looking for. I have received feedback that contradicts other feedback and now I'm starting to think I've listened to too many different people in my editing process. I think I should have waited to edit until I had several opinions, and then found the common thread, if any, among all of them and edited accordingly. Instead, I changed one part to make it like one reader suggested, and then added something in to please someone else. Then the next guy didn't like either of the changes and suggested something else that I had originally done and taken out. It was a good lesson on my first attempt if nothing else.

I am still promoting Gumbo Justice, planning a book launch party in fact at the bar that isn't a bar yet. It will be a "private" party, since we can't sell drinks. I'm also having a gumbo contest, and the winner will have a character in my next novel named after them. It should be fun. So far response has been pretty good to the novel. Still waiting for Brad Pitt to read it and decide he wants to produce it as a movie to star as Shep, or for Quentin Tarantino to read it and decide he absolutely has to direct it. But then enough of my fantasy life.

Unsettling thought, Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino in the same fantasy, but then that's me.