I did not make the cut in the latest round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. I would have been surprised if I had; I was surprised when I made the first cut. Still, the experience has given me pause to think.
- It was a contest I didn’t even know existed until a kind soul told me and encouraged me to submit. It was not a dream I have been chasing for years.
- Being sad about not winning would be like submitting to only one agent and then being sad about the rejection. The odds were long. (And there is an ocean of agents out there.)
- Winning would have meant that I needed to be in Seattle on the day when I am going to be in Rhode Island for a wedding.
- Participating gave me a month of harmless buoyancy.
- I can now include that The Sleep of Reason was a semi-finalist in this contest when I pitch it to agents.
- There is plenty of other work I can focus my attention on.
(Does this much analysis suggest that I am not really as okay with the disappointment as I pretend?)