The list of the 50 semifinalists is here. It’s fun because it’s alphabetized by first name so it looks like I’m already leading the pack (which I’m not). There are only two more stages left to the contest:

1. Penguin editors pick their top 3 books.
2. The general public votes on the top 3.

But I already feel like I’ve won because making it to the top 1% from an original pool of 5000 books is a huge honor. And also, to have real editors from the publishing world read my book (which is what is going to happen at this stage) is an accomplishment in itself.

I’m reminded of the three factors for success in a subjective contest like this (as opposed to an objective contest like running 100 meters):

1. Your own performance (the book I wrote).
2. Your competitors’ performances (the quality of the other books in the contest).
3. The judges’ decisions (what they like, their biases, background, etc.).

Of those three, only the first one is in my control. So success or failure in a subjective competition is, at most, only 1/3 my fault.

But I feel strange even taking full credit for my own performance. Did I force myself to have the idea for the book? Was it by dint of my own diligence and effort that I imagined the plot as it is? Was I the one who convinced my friends and family members to encourage me to keep writing? When I think honestly about this wonderful accomplishment, the actual percentage I’m willing to take credit for drops down to about 1%. All I did really was follow through.

So I’d like to say thanks to everyone who helped get the book this far. God knows it wasn’t all my doing.

Get all faceless news updates delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

A quick outline of the contest rounds and number of entries:

1. 5000 entries submitted in each category (Adult / Young Adult)
2. Top 1000 entries chosen based on 300-word “pitch” (I won’t give you the pitch because it spoils the whole story)
3. Top 250 chosen based on 5000-word “excerpt” (announced here)
4. Top 50 chosen by Publishers Weekly editors, who read the whole book (to be announced April 24, 2012)
5. Top 3 chosen by Penguin editors.
6. Winner chosen by Amazon customers.

We’ll see what happens next. It’s fun to be in the contest because no matter what, I’ve already got the book finished!

Get all faceless news updates delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

The paperback is, of course, still available as well.

If you’ve read faceless and liked it, please feel free to write a little review at Amazon. Read it and didn’t like it? No need to write a review. Forget you’ve ever heard of it. (That last part stolen almost verbatim from J. Kraft Mitchell.)

Get all faceless news updates delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

I’m certainly not the first person to come up with the idea of glasses / goggles that project information into the user’s eyeballs. But it’s fun to think it might actually start to come true for the average computer user and soon!

In the various and sundry articles about the glasses, you can read a description of how they’re intended to be used.

Similarities with the hologlasses in faceless include:

• projecting computer screen to wearer’s eyes
• screen almost invisible to others
• camera on front of glasses to capture real world
• could be mistaken for normal glasses

Differences between Google’s glasses and faceless glasses:

• not intended to be worn all the time
• navigation involving head tilting rather than just clicking your finger on the projected screen
• Heads Up Display for only one eye and not transparent
• expensive (at first) so only a few people will have them

I’m looking forward to my complementary pair of beta-test hologlasses because of Google gratitude for all the inspiration. Yeah right!

Get all faceless news updates delivered to your inbox by subscribing here. 

If there is any news to report about the book, I’ll write a little post here.

You can subscribe to get updates by email or RSS.