Richard Hine, a frequent anti-caption contest winner � "in the days when there were winners," he notes uproariously, alerts me that his would-be debut novel Russell Wiley Is Out To Lunch is a semi-finalist in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Awards. That means that out of 10,000 entries, the free excerpt of his book linked above has been judged one of the best 100. I'm unclear on how the judging works, but Richard is pretty sure it has something to do with the number of people who download the free excerpts (linked above). Given that his comic novel concerns sex and the media biz, it's a natural for readers of this site (I look forward to reading the excerpt (linked above) myself).
Richard writes: "The out-of-NY finalists are getting profiled in local papers, etc. but jaded NY-ers are perhaps understandably less impressed by the enormity of the achievement reflected in entering an online contest." So consider Radosh.net your local newspaper and help out a fellow reader. At stake: a contract with Penguin Books and a $25k advance.
If you do read it, let us know what you think.