Wanna hear something cool? This is my third novel, On the Shoulders of Giants, written longhand on my bunk over the course of two years. When I finished it in 2016, I knew it was special. I couldn’t wait to enter it in the annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards competition. With Arms Unbound had come close in 2015, winning an Honorable Mention that year. This one was going to win! I could feel it.

So you can imagine my bitter disappointment when it lost to a cookbook. I wasn’t just disappointed… I was defiant. A cookbook? The following year I entered Sticks & Stones, but I no longer harbored any delusions of winning. Those literary snobs wouldn’t know good writing if it yanked them by their turtleneck sweaters. The people Giants was written for — the forgotten, the lost, the state-raised — they recognized its beauty. That’s all that mattered.

But in April of this year, a friend talked me into reentering. Giants was still within the five-year window of eligibility and I was months away from finishing my latest novel, Year of the Firefly, so I had nothing new to submit. Why not, right?

Good thing I listen to my friends. Giants won! First Place out of nearly 2,000 entries! Finally, a little critical acclaim and some much-needed cash. Life is good. And, according to the gold standard magazine on the craft of writing, On the Shoulders of Giants is good, too. (I recant my previous turtleneck accusation, WD staff.)

If you haven’t read it, you can download it for free on Amazon over the next five days (through Saturday, Nov. 21), or access it through your Kindle Unlimited membership. Just hook me up with a review. I’m excited to hear your thoughts. If it’s on your bookshelf right now, then you already know what’s up. Dum Spiro Spero.