Congratulations to Jeff Loehfelm, winner of the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award. His book, Fresh Kills, was announced yesterday as the overall winner out of supposedly 5,000 entries which were narrowed down to around 800 in January and then to the top ten just last month. Having been an entrant in this contest early on, I’m just glad it’s over.
And nothing against Jeff, but why am I not shocked they picked a mystery for the winner? Kellerman, Patterson, Cornwell, Higgins Clark, Grisham….geez, this market is so saturated and yet people love a who-dun-it! Boring! I also hope that Penguin Putnam comes up with a better cover for Jeff’s book before it’s released. The current one looks like something whipped up on Photoshop the night before.
But Yay, ABNA is over and now maybe the cat scratching eccentric over-the-top drama in the online forums will stop. In the beginning I was so addicted to reading them everyday, but stopped once I was out of the contest. Why I was addicted to reading posts from a bunch of bitchy writers who all thought they were the best out of the bunch, well…now that’s a real mystery!
Michael Van Kerckhove
April 8, 2008
“…now that’s a real mystery!”
Looks like you got yourself your next novel.
Bill Loehfelm
June 21, 2008
Thanks for the props. For the record, my first name is Bill, not Jeff. As for the contest, I’m pleased to say that Penguin will be publishing three other Top Ten finalists: Bad Things Happen, Butterflies of the Grand Canyon, and The Wet Nurse’s Tale.