UPDATE: I received notice that my excerpt of Torch has survived another round of cuts, this time down to 100. The next round, down to 10, happens in early March.

A few months ago I submitted a 5,000 word excerpt from my novel Torch, on a whim, to the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel contest. I’ve been exposed to contests like these before, both in the form of warnings and depressing tales of stomped egos; never in the form of optimistic encouragement. Bookseller-sponsored writing contests have a certain stigma, not unwarranted, I’m sure.

But, here’s hoping those warnings are just the foul remnants of those taken by less legitimate contests. I received notice today that Torch has survived the initial dwindling of 5,000 to less than 900.

I’m happy. Despite the humility and caution that I should display, I instead embrace a smile. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Please, please, please head over to the Torch Amazon.com page, read the 16 page excerpt, and write a review. There are prizes on the behalf of Amazon.com for well written reviews; proof that I’m not being entirely selfish.EDIT: Some great people are leaving great comments already (most of which came through bribery, but praise is praise). Click here to go directly to the reviews.