Faulkner-Wisdom Novel Awards—2024 Finalist for Novel: One Day Among the Ruins: A Lesson in Love and Friendship

 

  

One Day Among the Ruins:  A Lesson in Love and Friendship, one of the six novels that I re­wrote between 2022 and 2024 and blogged about, was named a finalist by The Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society’s The William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition.

 

            

This was also my COVID-19 pandemic project that I finished in 2022 then rewrote this year for the competition.  Here is the pitch I’ve been sending to agents:

One Day Among the Ruins:  A Lesson in Love and Friendship (111,985)

An American backpacker and a British expatriate widow experience a lifetime in one day at Pompeii and a night in Naples.  Eat, Pray, Love meets The Graduate meets Indecent Proposal

One autumn day in 1978, between college and career, Mad­dox, an Ameri­can back­­pack­er in a funk about missing a love-interest in Rome, meets Alexis, a middle-aged British widow teach­­ing literature in Malaysia.  Their unlikely, cross-gen­­erational friend­­­ship is forged among the ruins of Pompeii as they share their per­son­al trage­dies and troubled fami­lies, fill­ing a void in each other’s lives.  Yet who is the teacher…who is the stu­dent?  Eag­er to learn more about her near-death ex­peri­ence, Maddox dares Alexis to join him for pizza in Na­ples.  Later he dares her to dance and dares her to ac­cept an un­usual birth­day present, teach­ing him about love.  For Alexis, the dare feels like an opportunity to re­cov­er some love­less years, if on­ly she could for­get about the gut-wrench­ing di­lem­ma that she had to face in the waning days of her son’s life.

Alexis and Maddox came from different generations, different worlds:  Alexis, born in India, the pam­pered daughter of British Raj officer, mar­ried off young on­ly to be­come a wid­owed war bride at eigh­teen, then a survivor of the London Blitz, while Mad­­dox hails from a dys­func­tional, blue-collar Midwestern family with multiple divorces and para­sitic step­sib­lings.  One thing they do share, other than their company, is their brutal honesty.

 “People—all of us, I suppose—tend to see the world in black and white,” Alexis in­forms him.  “Most of life falls in­to a gray realm.  Rarely are there right an­swers.”  She later adds, “For both of us, this was our journey that we had to make…to find our­selves in Pom­­peii—one the teacher, the other, the student.  Only God knows which is which.  In life, as you will dis­cover, each of us teaches and learns, often at the same time.”

Having backpacked three months in Europe in 1978 (and a month in Italy in 1985), hav­ing visited Pompeii (with journal, guidebook, and Bulwer-Lytton intact), having lived for twen­­ty years in Pe­­nang as an expatriate (like Alexis), I have tried to show how that one day—a time cap­sule, real­ly—can resonate in unexpected ways in world events being played out to­day.

              —Borneo Expat Writer

My interviews with other Malaysian writers:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize. 

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey

Preeta Samarasan, author of Evening is the Whole Day, finalist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2009. 
Chuah Guat Eng, author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change.

MalachiEdwin Vethamani, author of Complicated Lives and Life Happens.

Faulkner-Wisdom Novel Awards—2018 Finalist for Novel: The Lonely Affair (and the Resurrection) of Jonathan Brady

The Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society recently announced the short list finalist; although I missed out, The Lonely Affair (and the Resurrection) of Jonathan Brady was named a finalist and three other novels semi-finalist.  This year they had 438 novels, 98% from the US.

The Lonely Affair (and the Resurrection) of Jonathan Brady had been a finalist in their 2014 and 2012 contest, a Quarter-finalist in 2012 Amazon Breakthrough, and won fourth place in 2008 National Writers Association novel contest), though under a different title.  Over the years, while rewriting the novel, I went back and forth over the title.

Originally it was The Lonely Death of Jonathan Brady.  Although his death was the culmination of the novel, at that point, the novel was more about his “affair”, so I changed the title to The Lonely Affair of Jonathan Brady.  After rewriting the novel, overhauling it completely, I changed the title to The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady.  Although the novel opened with his death, I resurrected his life by examining it, the year-long events that led up to his death, followed by his spiritual “resurrection” after his funeral.  Then I switched the title again and simply called it The Lonely Affair.  Nice and simple I thought, but then I rethought that the following year because the novel was not just about the affair, so I went back and forth between The Lonely Affair of Jonathan Brady and The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady.  Finally I hit on a perfect compro­mise, which fully encapsulates the novel since it’s about both:  The Lonely Affair (and the Resurrection) of Jonathan Brady.

Here is the synopsis:

          During Cabrina Chaval’s debut in The Magic Flute, Jonathan Brady was only sixteen years old, too young to understand the implica­tions of that look — the way she poured out her heart, her soul to him.  Twenty-two years later, she bumps into him and invites him to paint her house.  Yet Jonathan knows her true intentions.  She wants him to rescue her from her failing marriage so they can be together.

          Through a series of coinci­dences, Jonathan is convinced that Cabrina Chaval is not only pursuing him but also deeply in love.  Because of her prominent position in society and the fact that she’s married, Jonathan accepts that their love, for now, must be kept secret.

Recap­turing the innocent love between two sixteen year olds and coming to terms with the loss of a domineering mother, Jonathan Brady’s delusion takes him through five distinct stages of love — Heightened Aware­ness, Playful Pursuit, Courtship and Romance, Jealousy and Sus­picion, Reconci­liation and Acceptance — all unbeknown to Cabrina Chaval.

After some soul-searching about the state of her marriage, Cabrina Chaval resurrects Jonathan Brady’s life and, in the process, elevates his love for her to its penultimate stage — Eternal Love.

              —Borneo Expat Writer

Congrats to the Winners and Finalists of the 2014 Faulkner-Wisdom

Although my novella The Act of Theft came up short as a finalist in the 2014 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, and two of my novels A Perfect Day for an Expat Exit (finalist 2012) and The Lonely Affair (The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady) were short-list finalists for the 2014 Novel category, congrats to the winners and the other finalists and all those who took part. 

Again, this was the fourth time that one of my works has made it the Faulkner-Wisdom finals in four categories:  novel, novel-in-progress, novella and short story (“Malaysian Games”,  runner up in 2007).

Winners for the Novella:

1^st place:  Give Me You by Kay Sloan, Cincinnati, OH

2^nd place:  Tickfaw to Shongaloo by Dixon Hearne, Madison, MS

Finalists:

A Different Life by Philip Erickson, St. Paul, MN

Cold War by Farah Halime, Brooklyn, NY

Further by Deborah Jannerson, New Orleans, LA

Juanita by Kent Dixon, Springfield, OH

Not the Usual Sleep by Tim Knowles, Brewster, NY

Resistance by Amina Gautier, Chicago, IL

Tansy by William Thrift, Columbia, SC

The Act of Theft by Robert Raymer, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

The Little Girls by Lori Fennell, Lake in the Hills, IL 

The Year We Froze by Stan Kempton, New Orleans, LA

Witness by Melanie Naphine, Frankston, Victoria, Australia

Yankees Angels by Robert H. Cox, New York, NY

        Winners for the novel: 

1^st place:  Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradel, Los Angeles, CA

2^nd place:  The Talented Tenth by Ladee Hubbard, Champaign, ILL

3^rd place:  The Invention of Violet by Amy Boutell, Santa Barbara, CA

4^th place:   Sunrise for Asphodel by Dan Turtel, New York, NY

Finalists:

Advice for the Wicked by Glen Pitre, New Orleans, LA

A Stone for Bread by Miriam Herin, Greensboro, NC

Mask of Sanity by Jacob Appel, New York, NY

Scoop the Loop by Charles Holdefer, Brussels, Belgium

The Lenin Plot by Barnes Carr, Houston, TX

The Truth Project by Tad Bartlett, New Orleans and L. Ed Marston, Chattanooga, TN

                —Borneo Expat Writer 

Here are links to four of my author to author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.

Preeta Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day. 

Chuah Guat Eng,  author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change. 

Plus:

Five part Maugham and Me series

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I 

Five Finalists for Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

Congrats to the five category winners in this year Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. The exposure they are getting is great, and soon there will be one overall winner from the 10,000 who entered back in January.  I wish all five of them the best of luck! 

For those who are considering entering for 2014, here is the link to six lessons that I learned from the process that might be helpful.  Last year one of my novels was a quarter-finalist and two made the finals of the Faulkner-Wisdom Novel contest.  All the best.

Also, I would strongly recommend reading your novels out loud when you edit, and do it more than once.  You'll be surprised by what you catch and the changes you make.

                 —Borneo Expat Writer 

** Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is back for 2014!

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.

Preeta Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day. 

Chuah Guat Eng,  author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change. 

Plus:

Five part Maugham and Me series

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I 

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

 

I spent most of December rewriting my novel The Boy Who Shot Santa (formerly A Season for Fools) to get it ready for the upcoming 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.  The winner gets a publishing contract with Penguin USA and $15,000 advance, plus distribution on Amazon.  They need a 300-word pitch, a 3000-5000 excerpt (I’m sending 4000), and the full novel.  

First round is purely on the pitch—if that doesn’t grab people’s attention, you’re out.  80% of the competition will be eliminated.  This is also true for agents/publishers, though it’s more like 90-95% are eliminated!  If they’re not interested in the novel concept, or if you can’t hook them with an interesting premise, they’re not going to waste their time requesting a sample of your writing, let alone reading your entire novel.  They don’t have the time, and too often these days, since they’re inundated with dozens/hundreds of email queries each day, they’re making snap judgments.  In less than a minute, you even grab them or they quickly hit delete and move onto the next one.

This is a harsh reality of the current publishing industry that we need to accept if we’re going that route.  (Another route is e-publishing.) This is also something that Joel Roberts taught me: When the stakes are high and the time is short—it’s all about the impact of your language.  Either you make an impact or you don’t get the opportunities that you deserve.  

How the Contest Works

First Round (Jan. 24^th- Feb 6): Amazon editors will review a 300-word Pitch of each entry. The top 1000 entries in each category (2000 total entries) will move on to the second round.

Second Round (Feb. 24th): The field will be narrowed to 250 entries in each category (500 total entries) by Amazon top customer reviewers from ratings of a 5000 word excerpt.

Quarterfinals (March 22^nd): Publishers Weekly reviewers will read the full manuscript of each quarterfinalist, and based on their review scores, the top 50 in each category (100 total entries) will move on to the semi-finals.

Semi-finals (April 26^th): Penguin USA editors will read the full manuscript and review all accompanying data for each semi-finalist and will then select three finalists in each category (six total finalists).

Finals (May 24^th): Amazon customers will vote on the three finalists in each category resulting in two grand prize winners

Grand prize winners will be announced (June 13th)

Here's my pitch, which I revised last night and will be revising several more times in the next couple of weeks.  Any helpful suggestions let me know, 300 words max:

The Boy Who Shot Santa

What if your son accidentally shoots his dad dressed up as Santa Claus?

          Rachel Layton finds her fragile marriage to a redneck that got her pregnant during high school shattered when her eleven-year-old son kills a burglar who turns out to be his drunken father in a Santa Claus suit.  The shooting sets off a chain-reaction of events that threatens to tear apart a small Pennsylvania town.

Cast as a villain by the media, Rachel is determined to hold her family together, even as her son gets beaten up at school, her teenage daughter moves in with a low life twice her age, and an old high school boyfriend comes and goes. Tired of being on the defensive and utilizing the voice of reason, Rachel speaks out against hunters buying their children guns or leaving them lying around for them to find.  Despite threatening phone calls and a brick through her window, Rachel refuses to back off until Gordon’s Gunshop, located smack on Main Street, is shut down.

          While shopping at the mall for Christmas, Rachel overlooks one important detail.  Santa Claus.  To her dismay, her son Eric, still struggling from post-traumatic stress disorder, gets into line behind the other kids.  Sensing trouble, parents try to drag their kids, kicking and screaming, out of the line.  Soon the whole town, it seems, is watching as Eric confronts Santa Claus.

Still trying to come to terms with her deceased husband and hoping for one last chance for happiness, Rachel is all too aware that someone in the crowd is stalking her.  One thing is certain:  Christmas in Sharpton will never be the same.

        The Boy Who Shot Santa (97,000 words) is a short-list finalist for the 2009 Faulkner-Wisdom novel contest (as A Season for Fools), and the first book of a potential three-book series.

*Update, The Boy Who Shot Santa has just made it to Round Two
*Update: The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady just made Round Two 2012, (I included the pitch.)

**Update: The Resurrection of Jonathan Brady just advanced to the Quarterfinals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2012!

                                                          -Robert Raymer, Borneo Expat Writer

*Here are six lessons I learned from joining Amazon competition.

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.

Preeta Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day. 

Chuah Guat Eng,  author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change. 

Plus:

Five part Maugham and Me series

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I