Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Sleeping with Rachel - Official ABNA Entrant, an Amazon Short

Synopsis
After years touring the world's war zones as a war photographer, Kieran Park is home to stay. Suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder he struggles with memories of conflict and of the most horrific childhood. His most haunting memory is the death of his elder sister Rachel in a car accident. Only Lisa, his twin sister, seems willing or able to understand him - but she has some unwelcome news. In a field opposite their former childhood home, a property developer has started to build a range of exclusive houses. A secret that the twins hoped would stay buried is about to be unearthed. The shattered remains of their father lie in a shallow grave, a place where his violent life met an equally violent end. Certain that evidence of his murder will lead back to them, the siblings decide to return and move the body to a safer location. Sleeping with Rachel is the story of a young war photographer's struggle with death, family and his search for redemption.

Amazon Top Reviewer
This is an extremely well written story which contains several plot lines at the same time. Kieran and his sister, Lisa, witnessed as children, their father cause an accident that killed their other sibling Rachel. Both are living with enormous amounts of guilt; Kieran in a bad marriage and Lisa single and alone, except for her brother. They have killed the father at some point in the past, and a housing development is about to be built where they buried the body. And, if that weren't enough, Kieran is in a bad marriage and wants out, while there is an air of sexual tension between himself and his sister. While reading this excerpt I was drawn in, and was amazed I had finished the excerpt long before I was ready to leave it. I believe this has the potential to be a book that cannot be put down at night.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0011ZCASS

Check it out at the above link. The first chapter is free to download and since this is a competition, I would appreciate a great review! A couple of lines is ok, plus five juicy stars...

Friday, January 25, 2008

ABNA, the invisible contest

I am slightly annoyed that Amazon seems to have decided not to publicise this phase of the competition. There is a single link on their home page which you'd have to know where it was to find it and this link takes you to a very fussy page that appears to just be a forum. I imagine most people leave at this point...

Since my entry is on page 7 of the General Fiction catagory it is asking a lot of the public to find it and it seems as though (surprise, surprise) those nearer the front have more reviews. If you have read my chapter but not left a review it would help me a great deal if you could return and take a moment to add one - just a sentence or two will be fine, plus, obviously, five stars :P

For those yet to view my masterpiece, Sleeping with Rachel, I would urge you to check it out while it is still available and, of course, leave a review.

The link is: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0011ZCASS

Tell your friends!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

David,

Thank you for participating in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. We received thousands of submissions and were impressed by the incredible talent and creativity seen in the entries. We are happy to inform you that you have been selected as a semi-finalist.

You can find your entry on Amazon.com via the following link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0011ZCASS, and access the main contest page where all entries are located at www.amazon.com/abna

Please note that we are continuing to update semi-finalist detail pages with any custom cover images that were submitted, editorial reviews, and other minor changes. These changes will appear online in the next few days.

Now that you're a semi-finalist, feel free to encourage friends and family to review yours and others' entries. The three customers who provide the most high quality reviews will be qualified to win one of three customer prizes, including an Amazon kindle reader, $2000 in Amazon gift card value, and an HP photo printer. Learn more at www.amazon.com/abna.

Good luck!

ABNA Admin Team