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The results are in - congratulations to our 5 FINALISTS!
The 5 finalists below have been selected from a group of truly amazing writers, making this a difficult decision for everyone who participated in Round Two by reading, commenting, and voting. We would like to extend a sincere thank you to all of the semi-finalists for their fine work, as well as to everyone involved in the reading and voting process.
The manuscripts of the 5 finalists are now in the hands of our Grand Prize Judging Panel, who will announce the winner of the truTV Search for the Next Great Crime Writer Contest during the final episode of "Murder by the Book," on truTV on Monday, February 4.
Here are the five finalists:
Dale Cozort - Char
Genie Davis - Marathon
Christina Fiske - Allegations
Terrence P. McCauley - Prohibition
Amie Thompson - Kill Me Sweetly
Dale Cozort - Char
Dale Cozort is married, with a teenage daughter, a twenty-something stepdaughter, and a step-granddaughter. He's a computer person and educator by trade, and an avid amateur historianin his spare time. He self-published a print-on-demand book of Alternate History essays called American Indian Victories a few years ago.He has a short police procedural/Science Fiction story called The BEMs in the Amazon Shorts program. He has also had a few paid articles published by the Military/Political website StrategyPage.com.
Dale received much of the court and police procedural background for Char in the course of a real-world court case involving an alleged attempt to defraud one of his elderly aunts.
About Char
Charis a police procedural story set in modern-day Wisconsin. However, there is one major element in Char that you won't find in most police procedurals: Char herself.
One Fourth of July evening near a small town in near-future Wisconsin, Char of the Real People walks out of a mud hole that she didn't walk into, wearing a deerskin skirt and carrying a crude wooden spear. She has a larger than life-sized wolf-head tattoo on her chest. She is bleeding from a spear wound in her leg. She finds herself in what to her is a strange and empty forest. She is apparently being chased by mysterious and powerful enemies. Is she dreaming? She hopes so, and that's the only explanation she can think of, but if this is a dream it seems frighteningly solid.
Two worlds are about to collide and a murder is about to happen. Will Char be a victim? A scapegoat? The murderess? Or a key witness to the murder?
Ch. 1| Ch.2
Genie Davis - Marathon
Genie Davis has written for day time television, and written, produced, and directed reality programming and documentaries. She's also produced and written numerous commercials and corporate videos, including such notable work as "Santa Goes Shopping at Frederick's of Hollywood" and "Let's Watch the Big Metal Machine Parts go Up and Down For Twenty Minutes While the Boring Guy Says Stuff." She's also written romance for Kensington Publishing, including The Model Man, Five O'Clock Shadow, and Rodeo Man from The Cowboy anthology. Her novella Dreamtown was published by a small press.
About Marathon
Haunted by vivid images of a woman's murder, a troubled psychic becomes a victim herself.
Searching for the killer, Houston ex-cop and licensed private detective Lynn Bryant finds her beliefs challenged and her life in danger. Traveling to a small town in the high desert, she uncovers a web of death and destruction, and revelations that intimately effect her own life.
Ch. 1| Ch.2
Christina Fiske - Allegations
A former Department of Defense teacher, Christina Fiske taught English to US Army dependents while she was stationed in Germany in 1990-1992. She lived abroad during a magical time, following the Cold War yet prior to the devastation of nine-eleven, when Americans living overseas might attend a local festival on any given week night or visit a castle over a long weekend. In the summer of 1997, Christina set out to recreate that moment in time through the medium of a crime fiction novel.
Christina, a Stay-at-Home Mom to two elementary age boys, currently spends her days trying to keep up with all her boys' activities while looking forward to their precious nightly read-aloud time. She also teaches salsa and pilates classes, volunteers at her sons' school, and, during school hours, writes. In her spare time she enjoys jogging and hiking with her dogs, singing in her church choir, seeing movies with her husband, and reading.
About Allegations
In Allegations a high school teacher's lifelong dream of living in Europe becomes a terrifying nightmare when her best friend is murdered on a US military base in Nürnberg, Germany. Catherine Caldwell's close bond to her friend Jessica Tarran, deepened by their isolation from home, compels her to seek the truth behind Jess's death despite the Criminal Investigation Division's inquiry into her own husband as the killer, his subsequent Article 32 Hearing, and her inner struggle as she uncovers Jess's buried secrets. Along a path of deception and intrigue, Catherine faces issues involving friendship, trust, obsession, magnetism, fidelity and loyalty until ultimately the killer's identity is revealed.
Ch. 1| Ch.2
Terrence P. McCauley - Prohibition
Terrence P. McCauley is a proud life-long New Yorker. He was born and raised in the Bronx and graduated from Fordham University with a B.A. in Political Science. He has more than 12 years of extensive economic development and government affairs experience. Mr. McCauley is currently employed at Metro-North Railroad, the second largest commuter railroad in the United States. An avid reader and writer, Mr. McCauley currently resides in wonderful Wassaic, New York with his wife Rita.
About Prohibition
Prohibition is set in 1930 New York City. The country has already begun its long, downhill slide into the Great Depression. People are losing their jobs. Breadlines are growing longer by the day. People are getting desperate and not even the underworld is immune. Archie Doyle has controlled the most powerful mob in the East coast for almost a decade, but his organization is starting to lose power fast. As desperate times call for desperate measures, Doyle draws up a bold scheme that if successful, will make his criminal empire more powerful than he ever dared to dream.
But Doyle's plan comes to a grinding halt when someone tries to kill one of the top men in his organization. Doyle must turn to his loyal body guard - the ex-boxer Terry Quinn - to find out who is behind the shooting and why. Quinn stays hot on the assassin's bloody trail in his search for a man who might know all the answers. Through the rain-soaked cobblestones of the Lower East Side to the swankiest night clubs in the city to the hallowed halls of City Hall itself, Quinn is in a race against time to discover who is trying to destroy Doyle before all hell breaks loose. Danger lurks in the shadows behind every corner as he searches for the one man who may hold the key to saving Doyle's empire...and his life.
Ch. 1| Ch.2
Amie Thompson - Kill Me Sweetly
Amie Thompson lives in Aurora, Il. She teaches middle school science at Simmons Middle School, and online graduate classes for the American Museum of Natural History. She wrote her first book in the seventh grade and has flirted with writing intermittently. When she's not writing she enjoys family time with her husband, Mike, and four children, Logan (23), Rachelle (21), Sheah,(13) and Ian (11). When time permits she bikes, roller blades, reads and travels.
About Kill Me Sweetly
Kill Me Sweetly stars an in-your-face heroine with a sharp wit and tons of attitude. Tommie D'Ambroso is a bricklayer in Aurora, Illinois. She finds herself on the radar of a brutal serial killer known as The Mutilator when she discovers the disfigured body of her best friend. She must dodge a detective determined to fix the crime at her door. Past demons plague her and she has to battle the monster within in order to win the war with The Mutilator in a twist ending that will leave you scouring the book a second time for the clues pointing right to the killer's boots.
Ch. 1| Ch.2
Please join me in congratulating our five finalists on their success!
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Comments: 256
I am thrilled that 2 of the 3 favorites I was most pleased with have made it to this list!
Char and Kill Me Sweetly
Anxiously awaiting the 3rd chapters to these and the other 3 which I shall read tonight!
To all the entrants, good job folks, and thanks for the entertainment!!
Eric, at this point, the Grand Prize Judging Panel will review the complete manuscripts of the five finalists - the authors will not be posting their third chapters.
ask Jonathan Kellerman
Dale....well done..
To all the entrants, thanks for the great reads. Here's hoping you'll all be published one day soon.
Dale, great job with re-working Char for this contest. Best of luck.
Congratulations as well to all of the other entrants. Getting your work read and critiqued is a key step on the path to publication. I enjoyed reading these works.
May the best manuscript win!
Laz, You're still tops in my book, no pun intended. You will be published!
I'm very surprised that Marathon was chosen as a finalist as it seems to flagrantly violate your rules. As the author is not only a professional writer but a widely published author of professionally published novels it has crossed my mind that this contest may be fixed. I certainly hope not as these potential authors worked hard to get where they are..
Your rules state:
a. Authors who have not previously published a full-length book in any genre (excluding self-published and vanity press) are eligible to compete in the Court TV Search for the Next Great Crime Writer Contest. If you have had another type of book published (nonfiction, commercial fiction, etc.), you are not eligible for this competition.
b. If you have had small excerpts published from the mystery/crime novel or any other manuscript, but have not had a complete manuscript published, you are eligible for this competition.
Her own biography on Gather tells of her full-length, professionally published and reviewed novels:
Genie Davis just plain loves to write, and she's amassed a large body of work in the seven years she's been working professionally.
Her romantic suspense (novel)THE MODEL MAN is her first with Kensington/Zebra. In this wildly entertaining story, LA psychic con-artist Christy Harris meets her match in homicide detective Joe Richter, but is true love really in the cards? Separating truth from fiction becomes increasingly difficult for Christy, in a town where illusion is often more convincing than reality.
Booklist says Davis' romantic suspense THE MODEL MAN is truly a find. The protagonists are interesting; their love affair is convincing; Christy's best friend, Louie, is a delight; and the well-crafted mystery is as entertaining as one of Stephen J. Cannell's television shows.
More romantic suspense is coming in January 2007, with FIVE O'CLOCK SHADOW also from Kensington/Zebra. Jessie Adams is a D.J. making a run for local political office to help save her best friend's music club, and embarking on an intense affair with Frank, a cop with his own cause. If their passionate involvement isn't wild enough, what about the stranger threatening her life and trying to force her out of politics? When your life depends on surviving both love and a political campaign, winning is only half the battle.
And, written under the name Nikki Alton, in July 2006 you'll see the publication of the erotic romance RODEO RIDER, part of Kensington/Aphrodesia's The Cowboy collection.
Genie's noir DREAMTOWN was published by a small press in 2001, and is still guaranteed to have readers getting out their handkerchiefs.
A produced screen and television writer, Genie's work spans a variety of genres from supernatural thriller to romantic drama, action, family, teen, and comedy.
She's also excited to be selected as an Amazon Shorts author. Her noir short story THE GIRL AND THE GUN is the first selection. It will be linked through her novels on Amazon as part of a new program on the web giant's site. The story will be available in February.
If this entry is allowed to compete it makes a mockery of your entire contest. Other Gather members have already noticed and the contestants won't be far behind. I don't know if they can take legal action based on your rules, but at the very least it looks horrible to have a professional author competing.
There are a couple of great stories I read and am sorry to see they didn't make it. i do hope to get to read the rest of these tales.
Special Congratulations to Dale. Long time coming my friend, but well worth the wait.
Christina congratulations and best of luck.
Lin--definitely words to think about.
(a) The Contest is open to all legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia, age 18 years or older at the time of entry, who are or who become members of Gather.com as of the time of entry; except individuals under exclusive book publishing contracts...
(b) Each entrant's ("Entrant") entry into the Contest (the "Submission") must be an original, previously unpublished(excluding self-published and vanity press-published), completed, book-lengthmanuscript in the mystery/crime genre, i.e., the central plot and core driversof the story must involve the uncovering and/or unfolding of criminal actions(the "Submissions")...
Now I would like to hear publicly from the experienced Gather authors who privately maintained to myself and others off and on since November that the fix was in. Too bad it was not 'in' for a better book - Marathon is garbage. Mykonos, Fuge, Two Birds, Moose, hell, my book - were all objectively better. Dale? Judi? Terri? All you captains of Gather morality - weigh in on this...anytime. This is what we might call a 'possible conflict of interest' - can you buy into the system and criticize it at the same time? We shall see.
Oh well, that's all blood under the bridge - say Jason, is there a place on the site where we can register to buy ourselves a better finish next year with our Gather points? Perhaps get slipped into a special Selection category. Maybe buy blocks of positive ratings? And perhaps for a little extra, get our bios edited so they meet the rules? Can we spell 'fraud', class?
Gather.com becomes what? Pathetic.com? TruTV becomes UntrueTV? My, my, my.
Can you spell 'hypocrites', class?
Wow, a professional writer can beat out amatuers. What a contest! I feel sorry for the 20 other people who didn't make this round. I guess we know who the winner's going to be.
Gary- a lot to think about.
Q) Are authors who have published non-commercial fiction eligible?
A) Yes. There is no limitation on published authors entering the contest. However, the submission must be an original, unpublished mystery/crime manuscript.
So maybe the rules page and the how to enter page never matched and no one noticed.
And Lou, you have a good point, but if it is the case that's really sloppy of whoever was in charge of setting this contest up.
And it still seems unfair.
I don't. Much of the language from the how-to-enter page was copied word for word from the the romance contest. Sloppy, perhaps, but not intentional.
This certainly looks like a disqualifier to me. I don't have a dog in the fight but I remember having to fight to get into FC1 for more than two weeks because they said I was published when I wasn't. The "rules" sure are dynamic.
By the way, I have sent Jason a personal e-mial asking him to come and read these comments and straighten things out.
And still - where are our authors and their comments on all this? The men and women who posted every day about relatively unimportant stuff. What's the matter? Too real?
By its very nature coming as the third outing of the First Chapters contests on Gather, we who entered from previous editions had every reason to believe we were competing against other unpublished novelists. They changed that but I didn't catch it when I signed up. I don't know that I would have competed -- I wouldn't have considered it an even playing field.
I don't agree with suggestions that the other four finalists should be forced by community pressure to step down or anything like that. They each earned their spot and we should support them whole-heartedly for their accomplishments. The focus here should be on the one person under question -- and I think the answer has to come from Gather and the contest administrator. After all, Genie certainly never hid her writing credentials -- they were listed on her Gather page before and during the contest. Gather obviously knew her professional credentials after she was selected as a finalist since they openly posted them in this article.
Lin, I agree with Gary about you -- you are always fair, open, supportive. You also stand tall here to call this into question in a respectful and assertive manner. Hopefully, the answer from Gather will come soon and will place the controversy to rest. We can only hope. They do owe it to all of us.
group description
The truTV Search for the Next Great Crime Writer Contest is a first-time mystery/crime author's gateway to publication. One mystery novelist will win a publishing contract with Borders, Inc. with a $5000 cash advance! Enter or read and rate today.
Group Tags: fiction, crime, court tv, trutv, published, book, writer, tru tv, mystery, court, murder, author, unpublished, courttv, writing
The truTV Search for the Next Great Crime Writer Contest is a first-time mystery/crime author's gateway to publication. One mystery novelist will win a publishing contract with Borders, Inc. with a $5000 cash advance! Enter or read and rate today.
Well, I may now have my answer! There may not have been a gamble in it at all. I hope I'm wrong here--I hope we're all wrong. But I don't see how we can be. It looks as if the contest really consisted of one guaranteed winner, and a bunch of suckers. So my message to you Gather folks, you judges (although I know there's no chance on earth you're going to read my message) is, prove us all wrong. Choose honestly. Choose an amateur.
After all, this contest brought in some very good amateurs.
I wrote the book for this contest in the hopes of getting my foot in the door. I've worked really hard to be here and I've gotten farther than I ever believed possible. Even with all the controversy, I am still optimistic for a good outcome.
Thanks again, your great. I couldn't go through this without you!
Amie Thompson
Kill Me Sweetly
In support of this contest I at least visited every entry. This took a good amount of time and effort on my part. Many of us supported this contest by being readers, to discover there is a published author in the mix really sullies everything. It is likely I won't participate in another such Gather contest, unless this is address.
What sport is there in a published author competing against aspiring authors? This is completely unacceptable. Is someone in Gather going to address this issue?
Gary, thank you for standing with me on this. I love your sense of humor. I don't think we'll hear much from the would-be authors on this. Most of the ones who already lost probably aren't following this. The four competing contestants probably don't want to say anything for fear it will go against them in the voting.
I had a horrible thought. None of the novels in the contest are published. Could they be plagerized for things like made for t.v. movies or some other form of media? Hope that's not the case.
Frank, I hope you're wrong, too. But your right on about the contestestants. Most of them any way. There were at least 10 really great novels in the making here. All of the entrants were loaded with talent. Of the 4 finalists, I have my favorite, but all of them told their story really well and in a mesmerizing manor.
All of you are wonderful for standing up for the rights of the entrants. Makes my heart proud of you all.
BTW, I can understand that none of the authors is going to spontaneously be the first to withdraw--that's why they should collude. Withdraw as a group. That's my two cents.
I am pretty sure that all of the Gather contests were won by "editors' picks," meaning that the publishing houses who worked with Gather picked out what suited their needs from the contestants' ranks. But it's one thing for an unpublished author to be selected that way – it's well within the rules — quite another for a published author with TV credits (!) to boot to win.
Gather, we are waiting.
I'd like to weigh in with a couple thoughts as a competitor in the FCC and also in the romance competition.
First, as a person with a day job, it took me a while to get around to reading the responses to this article that were posted after I posted my congratulations to the finalists. So I would say by this that sometimes it takes people a while to catch up with an important thread. Gary, Frank and others, if you think some folks like me are chickening out and not having backbone, then you need to send us individual emails and inform us of this dispute so we can post our thoughts.
Second, Gather does owe an explanation to its readers and to those of us who participated in the competition in good faith in what we thought was a contest for amateurs. It's not just for us but for Gather's reputation and ability to acquire willing participants for future contests. My initial inclination is to give the site the benefit of the doubt for several reasons: 1) in the romance contest a competitor was eliminated when it was discovered she had been published 2) you might say this crime/mystery contest was different because of the expressed suspicion that the published author in this contest is a ringer who was chosen to win before things began; I doubt that because, honestly, compared to the previous contest and what I've heard about the first contest, the crime/mystery competition was not smoothly run (one example and I'll quit beating this dead horse: despite emailed questions from me from before the contest began, I have only seen one post from Jason V, the person supposed to be in charge; most of the information I got and I saw posted came from Diana and Kristen; I think this was a sloppy contest and maybe somewhere along the way Gather people were quietly trying to change things to cover mistakes; let's face it: if you're going to have a ringer, you fix the rules at the beginning, not in the middle of the race) 3) I understand why Gather has the popular vote element (in order to prosper, it has to draw in additional members; we contestants help do that when we ask people to join and vote for us), however in my view the popular element should end after the first round (it becomes disingenious for an author to ask somebody who didn't read her/his first chapter to read his/her second chapter); it's great for us to post our thoughts on the second chapters, but what an insult to a couple really fine novelists (and I'm not talking about myself) that they will not be read by the final judges in this contest because they didn't have the time, inclination or number of friends to ask for a vote (and I mean no insult to the authors who acquired a great number of voters to boost them to the top of the contest; I consoled myself after my #5 finish in the first round by saying, "Well, Medicine probably would've been a judges choice anyway.").
Third, The Medicine People is not in the final five because it does not meet the publication criteria of Borders and the Gather judges. If it had, it would be in the finals. I personally liked the entry that is attracting so much attention here; but from a literary point of view it isn't appreciable better than at least four of the other semi-finalists and three of the first-rounders who got overlooked. Getting chosen for the finals only means you have a chance of winning the contest because your specific entry is close to what the judges are looking for. The back door of that is, if an entry didn't make the finals, it just might be the all-time great American novel--but it isn't what the judges were looking for. Assuming this was a fair competition--and I'm pretty sure it was--that's the only thing that matters. And if you stop and think about it, the thing all of us learned from this contest is that who gets published and who doesn't is more a matter of preference than quality.
I think Gather and this contest are a worthwhile. Personally I learned a great deal about writing and I had a marvelous time interacting with other writers. The critical comments about my chapters were very meaningful to me. I believe it is important for us--writers and readers--to be measured and patient in our criticism at this point. Gather needs to respond and hopefully they will, promptly. And we need to make sure we do NOT ruin this experience for those who have made it to the finals. This is their moment and we should not cry "sour grapes" during their feast. Good luck to all of them.
Firstly, I think Laz was far more eloquent than I can be, so I'll be brief. Like everyone who has weighed in on this, I find the rules change/discrepancy to be truly frustrating and appalling. However, since the author in question did not make any attempt to hide her publication history, I don't know that she can be held responsible. I think Genie, whom I don't know, submitted in good faith. Frankly, I was more frustrated that she didn't participate in the commenting and reading process.
Gather is responsible for this because they administered the contest, and there are clearly major and important inconsistencies. This is a major issue, but I don't think it is easily rectified. Like Laz I found this contest very much worth it – for the collegiality, some good ideas, some good life experience, and a few friends. I'm a little annoyed just now, but nothing changes those truths.
Congratulations to the finalists.
Best,
Ricky
But, I'll repeat what others are saying, anyway. It seems that I'm not alone in my disillusionment with this contest. A published author reached the finals - bah, humbug. I didn't make the cut, but with a published author in the top five, I feel like I was wasting my time and energy, spinning my wheels for no particular purpose, and just feeding into whatever Gather and/or Court TV was trying to get out of me. As an amatuer, unpublished writer, I felt I was in a level playing field with other amatuer, unpublished authors. Now, I feel swindled.
Lin raised a point that someone else had mentioned before the actual contest started. How do I fight if my manuscript is made into a TV show or movie or whatever, particularly if my story is changed enough so that it's not a direct copy (thereby, not plagiarized)? It's a little unsettling to think that I'm going to have to be watching out for this for the next, oh, decade or so. And really, how would I, a little tadpole, fight a big shark like Time Warner?
Okay, if I sound like I'm talking out of my head, I'm blaming it on the 20 ounce Columbian (coffee, that is) I had this evening LOL. This whole thing has been, as Pat put it, bizarre.
This is Gather's third big contest and none have been without controversy. Growing pains? Unforseen events? Court TV's change to TruTv mid-contest?
Lots of possible reasons for what we see. But I agree that the finalists don't deserve to be dragged into the fray. Yes, they are affected. As are the other contestants and every reader who took time to read and offer a review. But we can--and have--spoken on their behalf. Gather knows this has shaken some and bothered many. As would everyone here, I would like to see their response. But I don't think we should dump our collective confusion and disappointment on the finalists or other contestants. If they want to push for answers, they will. They don't need to be pressured into attack mode or a defensive posture on behalf of others.
And who knows what has transpired between individuals and Gather regarding this?
First of all, this was not an amature writing contest...it was a contest for unpublished writers...there's a big difference. Someone who spends a month throwing a story together to enter into this contest is an amature and should not have expected to make it to the second round, but it happened because of votes. Someone who has spent years writing and learning the craft but has yet to sign with an agent or sell their work is an unpublished writer and should have been the ones to move on.
Yeah, Genie has been published in romance so that makes her a romance author....she hasn't been published in crime fiction....which is a whole other way of writing....therefore she is unpublished in crime fiction and eligible for FCC....it's a loophole, but it's there.
Yes, I believe the contest coordinators had their picks already chosen for the top ten spots before the first round ended and I think they already had their choices for the top two and subsequent winners since they knew the top three would be chosen by popular vote and not quality of writing.
I'm sorry to insult the top three vote getters, but I've said it before (and often) they are not strong enough to be published (and if you don't believe me I'll give you a list of agents to submit to and let them tell you what needs to be done to get you there...uh..just don't tell them I sent you).
The house who will be publishing the winner has their own reputation to look out for and that's what they are doing by chosing someone who knows the craft and knows how to write a story that will need very little editing.
Sure, everyone enjoyed reading the 200 entries because they were reading for enjoyment (and friends) and overlooking everything an agent or editor or marketing will look for.
Also, when entering the contest, it's suggested that contestants read and comment on other's chapters...it's not mandatory. So, for Genie to post and run, well, that was her choice. And, I think when she entered, she did so with the same expectations as everyone else...she knew she'd be up against talent and knew her chances were just as slim. The only foot in the door she had was that she knows how to write.
I think a lot of people are missing a valid point which Pat pointed out. You should focus on what you got from this contest.
* An audience for your work,
* tips on what to work on from writer's who know their craft (despite what some people say) and
* personal connections so that when you've leapt that last hurdle and sell your work....you know you'll have someone waiting in the wings to buy it.
Okay....back to oblivion for me.
Eligibility:
• Authors who have not previously published a full-length book in any genre (excluding self-published and vanity press) are eligible to compete in the Court TV Search for the Next Great Crime Writer Contest. If you have had another type of book published (nonfiction, commercial fiction, etc.), you are not eligible for this competition. If you have had small excerpts published from the mystery/crime novel or any other manuscript, but have not had a complete manuscript published, you are eligible for this competition.
Simply put, a published author is not eligible to compete.
Incidentally, is it just me or was anyone else struck by the irony of this happening during the CRIME contest?
And to all who entered, try not to be disheartened by what happened here. Soldier on and keep on writing. There were so many worthy of publishing and I truly hope to see them on the shelves one day. Good luck to the (unpublished) final entries.
I was in the first bloodbath, a Top 5 for the 2nd, and a reader for this one. I saw Gather react to DB1ers and ballot-box stuffers in FC1, saw them disregard rules in FCR, and now this.
It's not the finalists' fault - they are what we all were in previous contests - hopeful writers. To ask them to stand down is not the way. The Gather community needs answers. But the PowersThatBe have been woefully mum on the subject - even after assuring me via private message that all finalists would be vetted before the announcement. So, if they vetted them, they need to explain it to the rest of the community who are questioning. It takes away from Genie's accomplishments in her published writing to have people dissing Marathon. It also takes away the hard work the other finalists put in for marketing and writing a novel. And Terence, the other editorial pick, I can only imagine what he's thinking.