Tied for Fourth, so far--and some diabetes stuff, too

My novel was one of about 275 entered into the Gather.com First Chapters contest sponsored by Simon & Schuster and Borders--the one the New York Times called an "American Idol" for writers, and after 4 days, I'm tied for fourth place!

I'm psyched. If you haven't checked out my entry, the link is:

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976887960


Please rate it if you like it. One is low and ten is high on the rating scale.

BTW, in regard to some of the comments you'll find posted, the contest was stated to be looking for "Commercial fiction." Unfortunately quite a few of the people commenting seem to think that the fact that my piece is commercial fiction--a historical romance--is a detriment. Do keep the goal in mind while reading. Simon & Schuster has a serious presence in Romance publishing. The only "literary fiction" they publish, according to their web site is Stephen King and Jennifer Wiener, the author of Good in Bed, a fact that seems to have eluded 99% of those submitting atmospheric elegies for their lost youth as their contest entry.

Oh, and if you wonder about what this has to do with diabetes, the answer is nothing, but I'm still getting near normal numbers taking Januvia and eating about 30 grams of carbs per meal. Not quite as good as with insulin, but so much easier and I'm not going up and down all day blood sugar-wise which is delightfully relaxing. With the values I'm seeing I'd expect to have a very similar A1c as before--mid 5%, but I don't have to test anywhere near as much because there's no threat of lows and my bgs are much, much more predictable.

The only side effect now is a slight bit of edema and occasional attacks of abdominal gas, but nothing I can't live with.