When Randall Luce found out he was chosen as one of 10 finalists out of nearly 5,000 in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, he didn?t understand what was happening.
“It was kind of muted at the time,” the former Towson University professor said. “I wasn?t quite sure what they were saying at first.”
Luce entered the contest with his unpublished manuscript, “Motherless Children,” a mystery about the decline of a Southern family set in a Mississippi Delta cotton town in 1946. He wrote the manuscript more than 3 years ago while living in Westminster.
“It?s my first attempt at fiction. In the past, my writing has been in terms of non-fiction, more academic-oriented things,” Luce said. “But I?ve always liked the idea of being a writer, even when I was a kid.”
It?s the first year for the ABNA contest. Amazon initially came up with the idea and partnered with Penguin Books USA and Publishers Weekly. “Penguin is quite happy with the way things have shaken up,” said Tim McCall, Vice President, Director of Online Sales and Marketing at Penguin. “We have some very worthy voices in the top ten, and I?m interested in seeing who the public votes for now.”
The contest received nearly5,000 entries from all over the nation, narrowed them down to 1,000, then to 100, and finally to 10.
“What we were looking for was originality, plot development, characters, place and overall success of as a novel. And we were looking for those things in any category or genre of novel,” McCall said. “With the idea being that we would find the next popular novel, the next breakthrough novelist.”
The winner will be announced on Monday, April 7. Faced with the possibility of winning a $25,000 publishing contract from Penguin Group (USA), Luce said he?s not sure what he will do if his book is chosen.
“But that would be a problem I?d be happy to have to confront,” he laughed.
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Click here to vote for your favorite finalist excerpt through March 31.
