Pre-publication – Page 2

One of the items on my pre-publication bucket-list for my manuscript was to be able to call myself an award-winning author. I can now check that off. I entered the first twenty pages of my book, Through Fear of Death: A Novel of Empire and the Kingdom, in a contest sponsored by the Foothills Writers Guild. Last month, it won the Juanita Garrison Prize for unpublished fiction.

image of pre-publication cover of Through Fear of Death — Possible cover for as yet unpublished novel

A few days ago, I actually got to meet Ms. Garrison herself! What an honor not only to win the award but to meet the person for whom it was named. She was a lovely lady and a gracious host.

I certainly hope there will be more awards to follow, not to mention publication. But for now I am pleased as punch.

I’m calling the last cover survey. You can see the results by clicking here. Ran into a problem, though. The most popular were the ones with the empty helmet. One respondent pointed out that was a Greek helmet. My book is set in Rome, not Greece.

So in this new survey, I’m asking to pick between the helmet – gladiator helmet this time – and one with the gladiator that showed respectably in the polls. Another problem: in the helmet theme, the one with the T like a cross got the most votes, but in a thumbnail view (necessary for Amazon, B&N, or iTunes listing) the T did not show up well. So it’s down to the correct helmet (with T not t in DEATH) and a gladiator cover.

Your vote is greatly appreciated.