Midlist Writer: My novel is a finalist in Dorchester's "Fresh Blood" contest!

Thursday, 3 December 2009

My novel is a finalist in Dorchester's "Fresh Blood" contest!

December is turning out to be a good month. Not only did a short story of mine get published, but my horror novel, A Fine Likeness, is one of ten finalists in Dorchester Publishing's "Fresh Blood" contest. Grand prize: publication in mass market paperback and limited edition hardcover. Sweet!

I knocked out a pile of other entries, now I have to knock out these other folks. There will be several rounds over the coming months on Dorchester's website where we put up plot summaries, first chapters, etc. Each month the person who gets the least votes from the public gets eliminated until only the "Fresh Blood" is left standing. Talk about extended stress!

My novel is set during three weeks of the Civil War in Missouri, and other than the main characters and various paranormal events, most of the events and people are real. Here's the back cover blurb.

A Confederate guerrilla and a Union captain discover there’s something more dangerous in the woods than each other.

A Fine Likeness is a tale of two enemies struggling with inner demons, and discovering they face a far more tangible one. Jimmy Rawlins is a teen-aged bushwhacker who leads his friends on ambushes of Union patrols. They join forces with infamous guerrilla leader Bloody Bill Anderson on a raid through Missouri in support of a Confederate invasion, but Jimmy questions his commitment to the Southern Cause when he discovers this madman plans to sacrifice a Union prisoner in a hellish ritual to raise the Confederate dead.

Richard Addison is an aging captain of a lackluster Union militia. Depressed over his son’s death in battle, a glimpse of Jimmy changes his life. Jimmy and his son look so much alike that Addison becomes obsessed with saving him from Bloody Bill’s clutches. Addison must wreck his reputation to win this war within a war, while Jimmy must betray the Confederacy and his friends to stop the evil arising in the woods of Missouri.

1 comment:

Donna Volkenannt said...: Hi Sean,
Congratulations and good luck with the contest!
Donna; 27 December 2009 at 17:38

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

The Case of the Purloined Pyramid

The Last Hotel Room

He came to Tangier to die, but life isn’t done with him yet. Tom Miller has lost his job, his wife, and his dreams. Broke and alone, he ends up in a flophouse in Morocco, ready to end it all. But soon he finds himself tangled in a web of danger and duty as he’s pulled into scamming tourists for a crooked cop while trying to help a Syrian refugee boy survive life on the streets. Can a lifelong loser do something good for a change? A portion of my royalties will go to a charity for Syrian refugees.

Warpath into Sonora

Arizona 1846: Nantan, a young Apache warrior, is building a name for himself by leading raids against Mexican ranches to impress his war chief, and the chief’s lovely daughter. But there is one thing he and all other Apaches fear—a ruthless band of Mexican scalp hunters who slaughter entire villages. Nantan and his friends have sworn to fight back, but they are inexperienced, and led by a war chief driven mad with a thirst for revenge. Can they track their tribe’s worst enemy into unknown territory and defeat them?

Radio Hope

In a world shattered by war, pollution and disease. . . A gunslinging mother longs to find a safe refuge for her son. A frustrated revolutionary delivers water to villagers living on a toxic waste dump. The assistant mayor of humanity's last city hopes he will never have to take command. One thing gives them the promise of a better future--Radio Hope, a mysterious station that broadcasts vital information about surviving in a blighted world. But when a mad prophet and his army of fanatics march out of the wildlands on a crusade to purify the land with blood and fire, all three will find their lives intertwining, and changing forever.

Refugees from the Righteous Horde (Toxic World Book 2)

When you only have one shot, you better aim true. In a ravaged world, civilization’s last outpost is reeling after fighting off the fanatical warriors of the Righteous Horde. Sheriff Annette Cruz becomes New City’s long arm of vengeance as she sets off across the wildlands to take out the cult’s leader. All she has is a sniper’s rifle with one bullet and a former cultist with his own agenda. Meanwhile, one of the cult’s escaped slaves makes a discovery that could tear New City apart. . . Refugees from the Righteous Horde continues the Toxic World series started in Radio Hope, an ongoing narrative of humanity’s struggle to rebuild the world it ruined.

The Scavenger

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times. The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive. Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

Trench Raiders

September 1914: The British Expeditionary Force has the Germans on the run, or so they think. After a month of bitter fighting, the British are battered, exhausted, and down to half their strength, yet they’ve helped save Paris and are pushing toward Berlin. Then the retreating Germans decide to make a stand. Holding a steep slope beside the River Aisne, the entrenched Germans mow down the advancing British with machine gun fire. Soon the British dig in too, and it looks like the war might grind down into deadly stalemate. Searching through No-Man’s Land in the darkness, Private Timothy Crawford of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry finds a chink in the German armor. But can this lowly private, who spends as much time in the battalion guardhouse as he does on the parade ground, convince his commanding officer to risk everything for a chance to break through?