A Little Win

I'm very excited and a little shocked to announce that 'A Light From the Nether' has been selected as a finalist in SPFBO 11.

When I submitted the book many months ago, I assumed I wouldn't get through the lottery phase but, miraculously, it made it into the lucky three hundred out of thousands. I waited with a healthy level of Disappointment Anticipation as my judge narrowed down her thirty books to five semi-finalists. And, of course, in the last week or so of the competition phase, I was the last semi-finalist she announced. I suppose this was a lesson on patience.

And that's where I thought the journey would end. I was ecstatic to be a semi-finalist. It was the win. I couldn't hope for anything more.

So you can imagine my surprise when I woke up and opened the SPFBO blog a few days later. I scrolled...and scrolled...and saw that my judge had announced a winner. "Please please please" I whispered as I gradually worked my way down the page.

And there it was. FINALIST: A LIGHT FROM THE NETHER BY MOLLY DOWD SULLIVAN in big font. I launched myself onto my unsuspecting sleeping husband. "I'm a finalist!!!" I kept repeating as I pattered on his shoulder like it was a drum. He started hugging me before he was fully conscious, I suspect.

Now, I'm back on the waiting game as all ten judges read and review my book along with the other Finalists' novels. I say without ego that it takes a lot of bravery to have my book subject to scrutiny like this. I'm as nervous as I am honored. I don't think anyone can prepare a person for how vulnerable sharing a novel is, especially when you put so much of your heart into it.

And, in truth, I really think it won't be the final selection. It's a genre-bender. It's a debut. It's weird and maybe a little overly complex. It's absolutely not everyone's thing (and hey, neither am I).

But in a career with so few wins, where battling despair and burnout and a sense of failure is a constant, I'm choosing to take the little win.

And not let the fact that my car broke down the very next day take it from me...