A Place Between Breaths wins Writer's Digest Award


I am so excited to share this news: A Place Between Breaths was awarded an Honorable Mention for genre fiction in Writer's Digest's most recent Self-Published Book competition. Nearly 5,500 books were entered in the competition and only ten books were honored for genre fiction (that combines romance, suspense, thrillers, sci fi, memoirs, mysteries, westerns, etc. -- in other words, a very competitive field).

Each books was judged in six categories*, with a high score of five points. A Place Between Breaths was awarded a FIVE in every category!

Here's what the judge who read it had to say (SPOILER WARNING: A minor spoiler from the prologue is in the second paragraph):

I loved this story! It is a well-written, suspenseful, crime-investigation novel that also highlights the problems of border crossings, the Mexican drug cartels, dirty DEA officers and police officers as well as their truly courageous counterparts.

In addition, I loved that you began with the viewpoint of one of the victims who knew she was going to die yet did so courageously. You also included the viewpoint of the perpetrator, a difficult thing to do sometimes. And your characters are very dynamic (in the literary sense of changing) and appealing.

The front cover is truly eye-catching and encapsulates elements in the story perfectly. I really appreciate the large size of the title and author’s name both on the front and on the spine, and especially the transversed “E” in the word “BETWEEN.” Nice!

A few very minor things:  (1) On the back cover, “What Readers say:” is not really necessary and might give you some room to put a small author pic and short bio.  (2) New chapters typically begin on odd-numbered pages on the right hand side of the book. (3) The only grammar error I caught (and I was reading fast, both because of time and because I wanted to see what happened next!) was the tense of the word “plead” on page 131; it should be “pled” or “pleaded.”

I appreciated that the acknowledgements were at the back of the story this time. I didn’t read that first and, therefore, had no preconceived notions about the book.

Bravo! Thank you for allowing me the privilege of reading your book!


*Categories

Structure, Organization, and Pacing: 5

Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar: 5

Production Quality and Cover Design: 5

Plot and Story Appeal: 5

Character Appeal and Development: 5

Voice and Writing Style: 5

You can read about all the other winners in the March/April 2016 edition of Writer's Digest, available on newstands now.

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