Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Close Call

It was a close call. Almost made it to my first ever writers conference.

As usual, my plans were wiped out by job-related stuff that pretty much shot my weekend to you know where. So I missed out on the experience & the opportunity to see what kind of shenanigans take place at these writerly shindigs. Oh well. Networking? Self-promotion? Speakin' up in a workshop??? YIKES!!!

Can you tell I'm stallin'?

Well, I got some good news, but it'll sound kinda braggy. How 'bout a picture of my granddaughter Isabel holdin' up some loser's book instead? She's only smilin' 'cause she can't read the dang thing.


Yeah, she's cute. Gets 'er looks from Deb. Has me wrapped around her finger. Also like Deb. (Still stallin'.)

Anyway - The Florida Writers Association (FWA) held their conference without me. The good news (almost done stalling), BAD LATITUDE A Jack Rackham Adventure managed to make the cut as a finalist for the Royal Palm Literary Award for Published Young Adult fiction. The winning entry, SWIMMING WITH THE SHARKS was submitted by Debbie Reed Fischer (also won book of the year - Sheesh!) It looks like a pretty cool YA read. (Congratulations Debbie, but I'll be workin'  harder than ever on this writin' thing so I can catch up.) 

Well, it wasn't a total loss. I received an email with stuff about the entries and categories & saw the brief little blurb about my book included. It looked like this:

Bad Lattitude—A Jack Rackham Adventure by David Ebright.
Fifteen-year-old surfers discover an ancient and dangerous secret,
one that will force them to choose between fortune and friendship
and change their lives forever.


By the way - BAD LATITUDE took the 2nd place award.







7 comments:

Carol J. Garvin said...

That's fantastic, Dave! Wow!!! Congratulations! Second place is an awesome achievement. But you *should* have gone to that conference, you know, even if it was just for one day. (I'm going to nag you all year and try to get you in the frame of mind to attend next time.)

I'm just back from the Surrey Conference here, and am trying to get my brain unfogged enough to post some more of the highlights. It's hard to single out individual ones, or to explain the benefits I experienced. I might need one more night of sleep first!

Mark LaFlamme said...

Congratulations, dude. That was a fun read. Not surprised it did well in the Palms.

Laura Best said...

Yippee! Second place is pretty darn awesome. Congratulations on that! Hopefully, one year you'll get up your nerve to attend a conference, although to tell the honest truth that sort of thing would likely scare me a bit, too.

And how about these authors who use their grandkids to promote their books---shameless, but pretty darn cute!!

I know you're a bit shy about all this stuff, but having some recognize from time to time is kind of nice, lets us know we're heading down the right road.

Congrats, again!

Joylene Nowell Butler said...

CONGRATULATIONS, Dave!!! That is marvelous. I'm so happy for you. Brag! And then brag some more.

Anonymous said...

Kudos to you Dave. Wow, second place - fantastic for first try. Great job!!! I'm so happy for you.

David Ebright said...

Thanks y'all. I was shocked & stoked at the same time. Got the judges (4 sets) comments in the mail today. Drove home (600 miles round trip) to cast my vote & decided I may as well pick up the mail. Found the RPLA scoring packet, a check, some junk mail & an $11 water bill. Not too shabby. Proof once & for all that voting is a good thing. To celebrate, I cleaned the HVAC filters, mopped the tile floors (ugh!) & shaved off my mustache, but kept the goatee.

Carol - I'm going to attend a conference one of theses days. Stuff came up at work that made it impossible. (Lawsuit filed against the railroad - followed by injunctions, blah, blah blah. I was busy - lots of $$$ & jobs were at risk. A very rough 4 days.)

Mark - Can't wait to read your newest - Box Of Lies. The trailer is incredible.

Laura - You're right. I'll promote while hiding behind Isabel. Very uncomfortable. Out of my element.

Joylene - I wasn't going to mention anything. Trust me, I was pressured to 'announce' the news.

Arlene - Normally 2nd place in anything would be a bummer. Guess that's what happens with former coaches. In this case, I'm cool with it.... & thinkin' someone must have really screwed up.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the second place!!