A plea for another writer friend of mine

The day after I posted about Yanina Gotsulsky's story The Speed of Life being a semi-finalist in the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Competition, I discovered another writer that I know has made the cut.

This time I am asking your help on behalf of Robert G. Evans who is a member of my local writers club. Here is the summary of his historical novel:

The Yokuts are under threat of invasion. A new disease cannot be stopped by
the antu doctors. The village elders determine that a spy must be sent to
discover the secrets of the Spanish, and Kiyu is chosen. "You must save the
People," the elders tell him. "Learn their magic, and turn it back against
them." First he must endure a sojourn to the glass mountain; then he is sent to
Mission San Juan Bautista.

The first chapter of his story The Sojourner can be found here.

The main contest page can be accessed here and from that point you can read and review other stories to your heart's content.

If you have ever wanted to get a sense of what agents and/or editors go through when it comes to reading a large slush pile full of submissions, here is your chance for some insight.

Simply go to the main page and click on a category you are interested in, browse the descriptions and pretend that you are an industry professional reading queries. The ones that sound intriguing are the ones you ask for partials. Read and review.

To enter a review you have to first be registered with Amazon.com and for that all you need is an email address and create your own password. Then scroll down the page of the contestant's page that has the description and click on the button saying "create your own review."

It is as simple as that.

You can spend an hour or two reading summaries and then reading partials. You might just learn something in the process that will help you in your own writing.

Linda