Valya

Valya Dudycz Lupescu is the author of Mother Christmas, The Silence of Trees, Forking Good, and Geek Parenting. She is also the editor of Embroidered Worlds: Fantastic Fiction from Ukraine and the Diaspora, published in 2023 by Atthis Arts. Valya earned her MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been published in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Ukrainian American Poets Respond, Kenyon Review, Strange Horizons, Mythic Delirium, and others. Valya has been making magic with words and food for 25 years, incorporating traditions from her Ukrainian heritage with practices that honor the Earth.

More Pieces in the ABNA Puzzle

Posted on

According to the Penguin Blog, the group of 836 submissions will be narrowed down to 100 semi-finalists on February 19th. That doesn’t give us quite as much time as we originally thought. Less than one month to until the next level.

If you turn your attention to the reviews people have posted, you will notice that there is a question under each review that asks if you found the review helpful. You may have noticed that it’s possible to display reviews based on helpfulness votes, but is there more to this voting? Why is it there?

It turns out that there is an entire system behind this helpfulness voting. Positive votes help the rankings of reviewers, while negative votes do the opposite. There is a point system and formula as to how this works, but I don’t know the details.

So please continue to assess the reviews and vote them helpful if you feel that they contribute something positive/constructive. After taking the time to download, read, and evaluate the reviews, it’s nice for reviewers to get feedback as well, and please feel free to comment on the reviews. (Note: I did read somewhere that if you vote for the same review several times in a 24-hour period, all of your votes may get pulled.)

Also note the customer discussion at the bottom of the page. This is another space for you to ask questions, compare notes, and discuss THE SILENCE OF TREES.

Protected: Kids Update

Posted on

This content is password-protected. To view it, please enter the password below.

Tips for Writing ABNA Reviews

Posted on

When I used to teach Creative Writing classes, critiques were often one of the most daunting tasks for students. I know that some people have had questions about how to write a review and what to say. There are countless ways to review, I thought I’d provide a few helpful tips here.

Tips for Writing Reviews of ABNA Excerpts:

1. Don’t read other people’s reviews until you’ve written your own. It would be difficult not to be influenced by others’ words, and you want your review to be authentic.
2. Write down your initial reaction as a reader. Did you enjoy reading the excerpt? Were you drawn in from the first paragraph?
3. Give praise where praise is due. If an author has done something really well, let them know. It’s always nice to hear a little praise. Perhaps they have a strong narrator/protagonist. Maybe they are able to create a vivid setting or their dialogue is realistic.
4. Provide constructive criticism. Think about what did or did not work for you as a reader. What was a source of confusion or disinterest?
5. Don’t criticize the author, criticize the story. It’s all about the work.

Here are a few elements of a novel that you can think about and comment on:

General:
~Did you learn anything from the excerpt?
~Did you gain anything from the experience of reading it?
~Would you recommend this novel to friends? To family?
~Did you have a favorite character? Why or why not?

Plot:
~Is the story believable (according to its genre, obviously some genres ask you to suspend your disbelief more than others).
~Is some sort of conflict set-up. This can be an external conflict (woman versus mafia) or internal conflict (man must decide what to do with stolen diamond)?

Setting:
~Does the description paint a vivid enough scene for you? Are there not enough or too many details?
~Does the author rely on too many clichés: avoided her like the plague, eyes blue as the sky (or emerald green for that matter), easy as pie, chip off the old block, etc.

Characterization:
~Are the characters believable? Do they seem too flat and dull, or are they complex like real people?
~Are the details about the characters correct and consistent (if the story is set during the Civil War, do the facts check out)?
~If there is an antagonist, does he or she seem real enough?

Dialogue:
~Are the things that people say consistent with their description?
~Were the conversations easy to follow?
~Was the speech natural or did it sound fake?

These are just a few things to think about to get you started. For many of us authors, we welcome the chance to improve our writing nearly as much as we appreciate praise.

Thank you again for downloading my entry and for taking the time to review it. If you are an Amazon customer who hasn’t written a review yet, don’t be shy. Go to: , and download, read, and review!

I would love to hear what you have to say, and I also encourage you to view the other Semifinalist entries at:
http://www.amazon.com/abna

Valya Dudycz Lupescu
Author of THE SILENCE OF TREES
Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Semifinalist

Web site: www.thesilenceoftrees.com