A Different Sort of "Composing"

I know, too long between posts. Bad Jason ...

I'm still composing (just finished a piece to submit to a contest, and am in the middle of a sort of jazzy bell arrangement of "All Creatures of Our God and King"), but today I wanted to share a different sort of "composing" with you ...

Every year, Amazon.com runs the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest (ABNA). I have a young adult novel -- "The Coming of the Heroes" -- I've been working on for the better part of eight or nine years, so I submitted it to the contest back in January. From an initial pool of 5,000 young adult entries, my novel is now one of the top 250.

I'm inviting anyone and everyone to check out my excerpt (the prologue and first chapter) and, if the mood takes you, to rate it and leave me a review. The more reviews I can get, the better the novel will look overall, which is always a good thing.

So, how do you rate it, you ask? Simple...

1. Click here.

2. If you have a Kindle device, skip to step 3. If you don't, look at the right side of the screen, and there you'll see some options to download a free Kindle reader to your device -- PC, MAC, iPhone, Blackberry, etc. Click the one you want, and then install the software.

3. Now, go back to the page you went to in step 1.  Over at the right side of the screen, click on the "Buy now with 1-click" button. Don't worry, it's free.

4. Read it. Then, down at the bottom of the page, click on "Create your own review" to rate and review the excerpt. This won't help me through to the next level of the contest, but if I progress far enough, these reviews will effect the hearts and minds of people who could potentially put me on even further.

Thank you in advance.  To me, composing -- whether in words or in notes -- is one of the greatest joys in life, and I'm thrilled to be able to share what I create with all of you.  There will be much more to share in the coming months, as I think about eleven more of my handbell pieces will show up in print by the time summer's out.  In the meantime, enjoy this spring weather.  More updates coming soon!