Valya Dudycz Lupescu

Amazon announced the Top 100 early Tuesday morning, and I am not among those who were chosen to move on to the next stage.

I wish all those who were chosen the best of luck. There were quite a few that I read and really enjoyed (and even wrote reviews for three of them!…Congratulations Patti, Jennifer, and Dwight).

I want to thank everyone who read my excerpt, wrote reviews, and passed the word along. I received 195 reviews! That’s amazing, and I will treasure them (I’ve already saved them for posterity).

Many good things came out of this process (people I’ve met, contacts made, stories read, positive exposure), and I am so grateful for that.

We’ll see how this journey continues. Stay tuned. I have no doubt it will be interesting!

Tomorrow Amazon and Penguin are supposed to announce the ABNA Top 100 Semifinalists.

We, the contestants, don’t know really know when or how. Will it be via email? Or a mass list? Posted on Amazon? Posted on Penguin? We shall see. This from the Penguin Blog site:

“This group of submissions will be narrowed down to 100 semi-finalists on February 19^th, and Penguin editors will then select the top 10 contestants who will enter the final round, their decisions informed by the ratings and reviews conducted by Publishers Weekly and Amazon.com critics. Amazon customers will then vote on the 10 selected finalists to elect the winner of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, which will be announced on April 7th, 2008.”

Speculation and theories abound on the Discussion Forums as anxious writers await the news. I will certainly keep you all posted.

Whatever happens, thank you to everyone who has done a review and rallied support. I appreciate your time and the kinds words and constructive criticisms.

I look forward to sharing this book in its entirety with you someday!