I am thrilled (like, to bits and beyond!) to announce that my self-published YA, FREAKS OF GREENFIELD HIGH, has been optioned for TV by Cream Drama, Inc.

Please wish us luck for the next stage: obtaining funding for the project.

I’ll keep you posted!

:-)

Maree

Hi all,

I have a friend with a daughter the same age as mine. My friend’s daughter lives with diabetes, so when I had the opportunity to participate in Brenda Novak’s Annual Auction for the Cure of Diabetes (2012), I jumped at the chance to participate! Here’s the low-down from the woman herself:

“Welcome to Brenda Novak’s Annual Online Auction for Diabetes Research. So far, we have raised over $1.3 million–and hope to break $2 million in the near future. In order to make that happen, we are gearing up for another great year, so be sure to keep an eye on all the fabulous items our generous donors are contributing. The auction will open on May 1st and run through May 31st. Make sure you register as a shopper so that you get all the notices that will be going out. You wouldn’t want to miss the fun–this is such an easy way for us to join together to make a difference!”

Yep, you saw right: the auction’s on right now!

And you’ve gotta see it (i.e. VISIT THE WEBSITE!!!) to believe what’s being auctioned this year :)

I went in with a bunch of my author-friends, and we all kicked in to buy eReaders which are being auctioned off on Brenda’s online auction website. And, because no eReader is complete without eBooks, we’ve preloaded the eReaders with a bunch of eBooks *g*

First up is  ITEM #2553511 Young Adult Kindle

This is a Kindle Wi-Fi, pre-loaded with the following eBooks:

• STIRRING UP TROUBLE; VALENTINE’S DAY SUCKS by Juli Alexander
• THROUGH THE EYES OF A GEEK by Kat Brookes
• HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES; ON THIN ICE by PJ Sharon
• DANGEROUS DESIGNS; VAMPIRE IN DENIAL by Dale Mayer
• SHATTERED by Jezebel Jorge
• FREAKS OF GREENFIELD HIGH by Maree Anderson
• THE DEEPEST CUT; A MACKINNON CURSE NOVEL by J.A. Templeton
• THE HAUNTED; A MACKINNON CURSE NOVEL (Bk 2) by J.A. Templeton
• A CLOCKWISE FAIRYTALE by Helen Scott Taylor
• PRIDE’S RUN: A WOLF’S PRIDE NOVEL by Cat Kalen

And second, is ITEM #2553155: Paranormal Romance/Paranormal Suspense Nook

This is a Simple Touch Nook with power adapter (usually sold separately), pre-loaded with the following eBooks:

• SPIRIT OF THE MOUNTAIN by Paty Jager
• THE CRYSTAL WARRIOR (BOOK 1 OF THE CRYSTAL WARRIOR SERIES) by Maree Anderson
• FIONA by Linda Andrews
• SUPERSTITION by Tori Scott
• KISS ME, I’M IRISH by Bella Street
• DARK MOON (DECORAH SECURITY) by Rebecca York
• YOUR MAGIC OR MINE by Ann Macela

But if eReaders and eBooks aren’t your thing, there’s plenty more to check out. So make sure you head on over to Brenda’s Online Auction and check out the amazing range of items and services being auctioned and let’s make this year’s auction the most successful one ever!

:-)

M

Anyhow, I’d be interested to know what your reading habits happen to be–yanno, being nosy insatiably curious and all.

Me? Given the sheer number of books I can power through in a month, and given the horrendous cost of books in New Zealand, I tend to order new releases or book recommendations from the library. If I read a book and it’s a keeper, I’ll then wait till it’s out in paperback to buy it… and take great delight in reading it all over again and finding a special place on my bookshelf (or in a folder on my Kindle *g*).

I do this with whole series, too, like Lilith Saintcrow’s Jill Kismet series, for example. Ordered the 6 books in the series, one by one, from the library. Loved them! Then bought the whole series in paperback to re-read and savor at my leisure. Yep, I’m one of those people who can’t think of anything better than grabbing a 10-book series I’ve already read, and sitting down to devour the books again, one after the after. Mmmm. I seem to sense a Robert Jordan-fest happening sometime in the very near future.

I’ve mentioned Sarah Rees Brennan’s “Demons” YA series before, I’m sure. Daughter and I argued over who got to read them first when I got them from the library, and DS, being a slower reader, didn’t have a chance to read them before they had to go back. But I’ve just bought the trilogy for our home collection, and now I’ve re-read them, he gets to take his time with no one begging him to hurry! (Better still, turns out the author signed the first book in the series, The Demon’s Lexicon–she must have signed a heap in bulk and the UK warehouse just happened to ship me one: cue embarrassing fan-girl moment from moi.)

If it’s a book I like, but aren’t absolutely dying to read right now, this minute, I’ll often wait till it’s been out for a while and the price drops. I find I can afford to buy far more books via online stores that way, so I no longer feel bad about resorting to such measures. Hey, when you read on average twenty books a month, the book budget gets blown sky-high if you don’t watch yourself.

The only time I do tend to suck it up, gulp, and fork out $22 for a paperback, or $35 for a Trade, and a whole heap more for a hardback, is when I’m buying books for gifts. If I see the perfect read for someone, price isn’t an issue.

So for me, it’s new releases and recommendations of new-to-me authors ordered via the library. Keepers, and any new books from series I’m collecting, purchased from online stores around six months after they’ve been released at a discounted rate. Gifts of paperbacks, trades, and the occasional ($$$ ouch!) hardback bought at full price (because when it comes to that special gift for a special someone, price isn’t so much an issue.)

What are your habits when it comes to buying books?

• If it’s a series, do you dive right in and buy the first one and hope it’s a keeper?
• Can you afford to buy all the books you want on a whim? 
• (And if the answer is “yes”, can I please be your new BFF???)
• Are you a dedicated library-goer? 
• And if you love a particular library book, do you then go out and buy it for your keeper shelf?

And now to my April reading list–only posted a day late!

• Shadow Heir by Richelle Mead
• Aces Wild by Taylor Lee
• Buried Thunder by Tim Bowler
• The Banshee and the Linebacker by P.R. Mason
• Conference Cupid by Eden Elgabri
• Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare
• Alien Mate by Eve Langlais
• Forgotten Mistress, Secret Love-Child by Annie West
• All Hallows Heartbreaker (My Immortal Knight, Bk 1) by Delilah Devlin
• Almost Perfect by Denise Domning
• The Survivors by Amanda Harvard
• Heartbreak Hero by Frances Housden
• Alone by Marissa Farrar
• The Repossession by Sam Hawksmoor
• A Million Suns by Beth Revis
• Bumped by Megan McCafferty
• The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
• The Demon’s Convenant by Sarah Rees Brennan
• White Cat by Holly Black
• The Demon’s Surrender by Sarah Rees Brennan

:-)

M

Last week was the first week back at school for the kids after the Easter school holidays. But to my dismay, instead of having more time on my hands, for some inexplicable reason I had less! And writing the next chapter of the sequel to Freaks of Greenfield High (henceforth referred to as Freaks 2, as I have No Freaking Clue what to call this sequel as yet) had to be put on hold for a week while I got a bunch of pressing stuff I’d been putting off sorted.

Now normally, a setback like this would majorly pee me off — interrupting the writing flow when I’m on a roll can end up playing havoc with my capricious muse. Normally, if I have to put my manuscript on hold for more than a day or two I’ll be cranky as all get-out. My head will be spinning with ideas, my fingers twitching to attack the keyboard, and I’m so distracted I end up asking the same questions over and over because my family’s answers go in one ear and straight out the other.  I’ll be frustrated to the max that I can’t lock myself away from the demands of real life to get it all down on paper/computer screen. In short: I’m a horrible person to be around — HORRIBLE!

And, inevitably, when I do snatch some “me” time (i.e. time to write), it takes me a couple of hours — or even days! — to get back inside my characters’ heads and pick up where I left off.

Worse — oh so much worse! — instead of reveling in the joy of a nice long stretch of uninterrupted writing time, I’m haunted by this horrible suspicion that at some stage I thought up some completely brilliant idea for the direction of one of the key characters, or an awesome plot angle, got distracted before I could scribble it down, and now I’ve forgotten what the hell it was.

Not so this time. This time, I took up where I left off in my manuscript and was off and running… kinda like my cat when she spots food in her bowl.

So what’s changed?

At a guess the main change has been my “process” for this particular manuscript.

Let me explain. It was mid-2008 and I was a pantser who eschewed outlining for the heady thrill of  having only the faintest clue where my story and characters were headed. Where they ended up was often as much a surprise to me as it ended up being to anyone who happened to read my manuscripts. Freaks of Greenfield High was my first attempt at writing a YA. I always meant to write a sequel at some stage, so I left a bunch of threads open rather than tying them up in a nice, neat, tidy bow prior to the ending that eventually saw Tyler and Jay being Happy For Now in early 2009.

But now it’s 2012 — just in case you’ve recently arrived from another planet or something — and the journey I’d envisioned for the characters in their sequel back then, is very different to the journey I’ve planned for them now; a whole three years, two fantastic editors, five small press published books, five self-published books, and another completed YA manuscript, further on. And the problem is, I have to build this shiny new direction for Tyler and Jay into the structure and parameters already dictated in the first book.

I didn’t want to “wing it” with Freaks 2. These days I haven’t got time to do multiple drafts, change the genre or the point-of-view, or even tackle a complete “sex-change” and rewrite my hero as a heroine just for the hell of it (like I did with Freaks of Greenfield High). I’ve always seen these sort of rewrites as challenges, BTW. They’re never wasted because they’ve helped me become a better writer. But now my challenge was to write smarter the first time around.

I felt strongly that if I completely “pantsered” this sequel, I risked those open threads from the first book being addressed in meh “Okay, I’ve ticked that box — moving on” ways, just so I could skip to the more exciting things I had planned. And because my “voice” has evolved and my writing process has changed so much over the past three to four years, I risked it looking like two completely different authors had written these books.

The solution? I needed to outline.

I think I’ve mentioned before that the only story I’ve ever completed outlined and plotted from whoa to go is Kat On A Hot Tin Roof (in the Red Sage Secrets Volume 30 anthology released last year). So far as outlines go, that story, ah, didn’t exactly turn out as I’d planned.

• It was originally supposed to be a slightly sexy story: It ended up being an erotic romance.
• It was originally supposed to be a full-length novel: It ended up being a 30k novella.
• It was originally supposed to feature a lawyer and a secretary: It ended up featuring an interior designer and an architect.
• It was originally supposed to be a story with No Paranormal Element Whatsoever:  The heroine ended up being a part-time cat-shifter.

Yeah. My outlining process was… fluid, shall we say. And I must confess it was a process that I found terribly dull, terribly frustrating, and couldn’t bring myself to go beyond a couple of pages before diving in to the fun stuff–writing the damned book!

So despite being sold on the benefits of outlining after writing Kat On A Hot Tin Roof in six weeks so it could be contracted for Secrets, outlining was still far from my favorite thing in the entire world. And I sure wasn’t looking forward to outlining Freaks 2. Still, I was somewhat heartened by the fact I already had a starting point: a bunch of scribbled notes made while working on another manuscript. So if the worst came to the worst, I could type these into something resembling a logical progression of scenes and convince myself the outline was done.

It took me a few days to really become invested in this outline, but once I did? Damn if it wasn’t fun and the teensiest bit thrilling and immensely satisfying. I kept having “Oooh oooh!” moments, and rushing back to my keyboard to add another scene. And instead of being a chore, my outline got longer and longer, and to my surprise, I didn’t have to resort to bribes and threats and pleas to see it through to the (no longer!) bitter end. And at the end of two weeks, instead of a measly two or three pages, to my delight I had a 10,000 word, detailed outline for Freaks 2.

At least, it’s what I call an outline. Some might call it a hot mess of paragraph-long scene summaries, interspersed with narrative, and a few complete conversations that I had to get out of my head and down on paper in order to move forward. But hey, I figure whatever works is your “process”… at least for this particular work-in-progress, anyway. (I can always tidy up the outline later if anyone needs to see it, right?)

So here’s hoping all this groundwork will mean I can write Freaks 2 as quickly as I wrote Kat On A Hot Tin Roof. For a writer, that’d be a very nice reward indeed :)

Speaking of rewards: here’s a sneak peek at some of the royalty-free stock art we’ve purchased from Fotolia and are considering using for the cover of Freaks 2.

In Freaks of Greenfield High (without getting all spoilery) there’s a pivotal scene where  Tyler notices Jay’s changed her hair color. So imagine my delight at finding the same model we used for that cover, but with different color hair that exactly matches her hair in that scene.

What do you think?

Cheers!

M

I guess it’s hardly surprising I felt that way, given that a few years ago I felt exactly the same way about e-publishing. eBooks just weren’t “proper” books. And after becoming epublished, every time one of my friends asked whether they could buy my books in a store and they lost interest when I explained they were eBooks, my heart would sink. I wasn’t “properly” published because after all, eBooks weren’t “real” books.

It took me a long time to get over that and quit making excuses and “own” my career as an epublished author. But the God-honest truth is I only felt truly successful as an author after my first print story (a novella in a print anthology) was released last year, and I could finally hold my book in my own two hands and turn actual pages. Sheesh. How pathetic is that after having five books published and an editor who raved about my stories to me? Pathetic, but that’s the way it was.

But the face of publishing is changing — again.

Consequently, in August last year I finally took the plunge and withdrew a manuscript I had submitted to a publisher I’d love to be published with, with the intention of self-publishing it instead of pursuing a traditional publisher. I felt both sick to the stomach and elated. Sick to the stomach because what if I was doing the wrong thing by opting to self-publish this award-winning story? I was currently pubbed by a small press specializing in erotic romance, and after some success on the contest circuit with young adult stories, I was hoping to branch out into writing paranormal romance, fantasy and YA. What if by self-publishing a story, I’d completely blown my chances of ever being picked up by an agent, or ever being taken seriously by a large publisher? What if I’d done The Wrong Thing? The elation came because finally I was taking control of my career, owning it. Whether I succeeded or failed would be solely down to me, and me alone. If the cover was crap — my fault. If the editing was sub-par — my fault. If it didn’t get reviews — my fault. If the plot and the characters I’d written and rewritten didn’t do it for readers — my fault. If the price was set too high for anyone to take a chance on a little-known author — my fault… you get the picture.

Well, whether I’ve done The Wrong Thing and will regret it for the rest of my writing career remains to be seen. I’m in this for the long haul and it’s too soon to tell. But if the recent reader reviews I’ve received for my self-published books and the readers’ choice award I recently won for one of them are anything to go by, if I fail at this gig it won’t be because the stories are crap.

The other stigma that persists about self-publishing is a plethora of amateur covers and an embarrassing lack of editing.

Now I’ve seen some pretty dire covers on traditionally published books, and read some pretty poorly edited traditionally published books as well — not always the author’s fault I feel compelled to add. Sometimes it’s as though all those hours you spent line editing (to pick up all the weird and wonderful errors that somehow crept into your manuscript once it left your editor’s hands), and painstakingly reporting them line by line, were summarily ignored and never fixed. If you’re lucky, you get to make another pass at the manuscript before it’s published. But if you’re not and time is an issue… well, let’s just say you end up cringing and wishing you’d published under a pseudonym.

I’ve also frequently seen numerous comments insisting the quality of a self-published book can’t possibly compare to a “properly” published book, resulting in many reviewers stating they will not even consider reviewing a self-published book.

Well, to that I say, BOLLOCKS. Self-published books should be taken  individually, on their own merit — just like traditionally published books. Some stink. Some are mediocre. Some are incredible. Sometimes it’s a crap shoot.

So far as the incredible ones go — that’s not just wishful pie in the sky thinking. They’re out there. They exist.

And if I wanted to prove my point, I only needed to open the June 2012 RT Book Reviews magazine I received only yesterday. (For those of you who don’t know, RT Book Reviews is the go-to magazine for the romance genre. If you or your publisher submits your book and it gets the nod from an RT reviewer you’re in like Flynn, baby. You’ve got it made.)

So what did I notice in the extensive reviews section of June’s RT Book Reviews?

Only a whole bunch of self-published authors from a self-publishing loop I just happen to belong to, competing with the big names of romance writing and acquitting themselves very well indeed! And you’d better believe that if their covers were crap, their plots lacking, their characters wooden, their editing sub-par, the RT reviewers wouldn’t have hesitated to call them on it.

Here’s a run-down of the self-published stars reviewed in June’s RT Book Reviews. I call them “stars” because they received some pretty darned glowing reviews from some pretty darned picky reviewers who don’t tolerate crap. And BTW those listed below are only books from authors I happen to instantly recognize from the 900-strong indie-publishing loop that I belong to (and am proud to be a member of). There are a number of self-published books I haven’t listed.

Vonda Sinclair — MY FIERCE HIGHLANDER — historical romance

P.T. Michelle — BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS — YA paranormal

Amanda Brice — CODENAME: DANCER — YA mystery

Norah Wilson — GUARDING SUZANNAH — romantic suspense

Kris Pearson — THE WRONG SISTER — contemporary romance

Stephanie Queen — PLAYING THE GAME — contemporary romance

Tori Scott — SUPERSTITION — paranormal romance

Roz Lee — INSIDE HEAT — erotic romance

K.E. Saxon – DIAMONDS AND TOADS — erotic romance

K.E. Saxon – LOVE IS THE DRUG — erotic romance

Oh, and here’s the bunch of gorgeous covers — just click on each one to enlarge.

So there you go.

Convinced yet to give a self-published book a try?

I hope so. Because if you’re not reading self-published books solely because you believe none of them are good enough to be published any other way, then you’re missing out on some great reads.

Mind you, as with anything you buy untried, it’s a good idea to read a few reviews, and try before you buy via the Look Inside function on Amazon or by reading an excerpt. As with traditionally published books, not all self-published books are properly edited or turn out to be compelling, un-put-down-able stories. But a heckuva lot of them are amazing, and will end up on your keeper shelf for sure.

:)

M

April 22nd is Earth Day, and to celebrate, the hugely popular All Romance eBooks (ARe) are running the Earth Day Series Showcase:

“To celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd we are showcasing some great series books by offering the first in 21 series for free.

Each day from April 1 – April 21, there will be a new free eBook. Sample a new to you series and experience some fabulous authors you may have missed.”

Note that the FREE title will be available from 12:01 AM US/Central time on its featured day to 11:59 PM US/Central time the next day. No rainchecks will be given.

~~~

All featured series showcase books are shown on the scrolling banner at the top of the ARe homepage–just click on the book of the day as it scrolls past to go to the book’s product page, or sign up for ARe’s newsletter to receive an email newsletter giving details for each featured book/series.

And guess what?

I’m thrilled to announce The CRYSTAL WARRIORS series by yours truly will be featured on the All Romance eBooks “Sensational Series Showcase” this coming Friday, 13th April!

And you guessed it, the first book in the series, THE CRYSTAL WARRIOR, will be available for FREE on All Romance eBooks from 12:01 am US/Central time April 13th to 11:59 pm Central time April 14th.

(For my Kiwi friends, according to timeanddate.com I’m pretty sure that makes it free on ARe from 5.01pm Friday 13th April to 4.59pm Saturday 14th April NZ time.)

Here’s the direct link to The Crystal Warrior on ARe and here’s the link to the rest of the books in the series on ARe.

(Please note that The Crystal Warrior is only free on its featured day, and within the time period specified by the ARe Series Showcase promotion. At all other times the price reverts to the original US$3.99.)

BTW, the immensely popular All Romance eBooks (ARe) is a distribution site for electronic romance. ARe offers “All the romance you need from the publishers you love….” and is a one-stop-shop for discerning readers of romance, who appreciate being able to buy eBooks in a variety of electronic formats, including PDF, epub and mobi. ARe also offer “a simple and straight forward reward program to their customers. It doesn’t get much better than that :)

I’ve already snagged a couple of freebies from new-to-me authors, and will definitely be checking out subsequent books in these series. So please let all your friends know about ARe’s Sensational Series Showcase and I hope you’ll check out some of the free books on offer until 22nd April.

Enjoy!

:-)

Maree

It’s March 31st already? (Well, it is in New Zealand anyway.)

Where did the month go? In fact, with Easter school holidays imminent, where did the first school term go?

We’re looking forward to dragging DH to The Hunger Games in the first week of the school hols. He’s the only member of our family who hasn’t read the books, so it’ll be interesting to get his perspective on the movie because he won’t have all the “baggage”, i.e. expectations from having read the books.

Speaking of books: I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that DD enjoys reading a bit of horror. So when she told me about Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann (author of the NYT bestselling Wake trilogy), a book featuring a couple of missing teens who–without getting too spoilery–aren’t found “in time” , I immediately pegged it as a horror and decided I didn’t want to read it. Period. End of story. (You know, the whole being a mom and hating reading stories where bad stuff happens to kids kinda thing.)

But DD wasn’t about to give up. She begged. She pleaded. She cajoled.

Jacian is sooo hot, she said. And Kendall is awesome. And they’re soooo good together. And it has a really great ending…. well, except for what happened to those two missing kids of course. And you read the Wake trilogy and you loved it, remember? Please read this? You’ll like it, I promise!

So I gave in. Anything to get some peace. And I gotta say, it was a fantastic story.

I know from the Wake trilogy that McMann writes a gritty kind of story with a kind of a bittersweet ending. Cryer’s Cross is no exception. But instead of the horror that I was half-dreading, I got a suspenseful story with a really heartwarming romantic thread running through it. I rooted for Kendall and Jacian all the way–wasn’t sure they’d make it, but was thrilled to bits and totally satisfied when they did.

Warning: this is not your normal paranormal YA, and Kendall, the heroine, is not your normal paranormal YA heroine. She has OCD and although she manages her condition, there is no magical “cure”. One of the things I liked most about this story is that although Jacian saves Kendall, by the time he found her, she’d already pretty much saved herself. And it was her OCD that made her different enough, and strong enough, to fight and choose to live.

I’d normally give you the blurb for this book, but IMHO, neither the inside cover blurb, nor the back blurb, did this book justice. Both, combined with the cover of the hardback edition I read, made the story look and sound like a horror, which it definitely is not. So instead I’ll quote Alyson Noel’s cover quote: “Eerie, gripping, totally addictive.” Yeah. What Alyson said.

Interestingly, when I searched out a cover graphic of Cryer’s Cross to include with the post, I found the cover of the hardback edition I read, plus another cover for the paperback that for me, screams YA romance. Here are both covers:

Not hard to figure out which one I’d have happily plucked from the library shelves and given a second look, is it? *g*

One more thing: in the interests of full disclosure, this story is written in present tense from Kendall’s POV. Now I don’t have a problem with present tense when it’s done well, and McMann always does it well. So please take a chance, because reading about Kendall and Jacian and seeing their relationship develops throughout the story is totally worth it!

Here’s my March reads:

• This Side of the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
• Unlocked by Courtney Milan
• Heart of the Wolf by Terry Spear
• Fury (OtherKin) by Anya Bast
• One Grave at a Time by Jeaniene Frost
• Tranquility (OtherKin) by Anya Bast
• Clockwise by Elle Strauss
• Holding the Cards by Joey W. Hill
• Catch Me If You Can by Nina Bruhns
• Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann
• Storm Born (Dark Swan 1) by Richelle Mead
• Thorn Queen (Dark Swan 2) by Richelle Mead
• Absolute Boyfriend 3 by Yuu Watase
• I Now Pronounce You Someone Else by Erin McCahan
• Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers
• The Catastrophic History of You And Me by Jess Rothenberg
• Iron Crowned (Dark Swan 3) by Richelle Mead
• All You Desire by Kirsten Miller
• Absolute Boyfriend 4 by Yuu Watase
• The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff
• Perchance to Dream by Lisa Mantchev
• Bumped by Megan McCafferty

:-)

Maree

You see, I entered my YA, Freaks of Greenfield High, in the YA category of the Gulf Coast Chapter of Romance Writers of America’s Silken Sands Self-Published Star Contest --a readers’ choice contest set up to recognize excellence in self-published romantic fiction. And I was chuffed to bits and beyond to be one of the three finalists in this category, and then totally over-the-moon-and-on-cloud-nine to learn Freaks won the YA category! Then when Jamie, the coordinator of the contest, told me she’d be posting me a certificate and a little something extra, I was even more rapt. Not just a certificate? How exciting! I wonder what it could be?

So when I’d figured out who this parcel was from, I was like, “Huh? That sure is a big parcel for a certificate and some cool little knick-knack for winning my category.”

In my household, a courier arriving on our doorstep is always exciting. Usually it’s online shopping items like clothes or books or DVDs, and the kids clamor round to see what mom’s been spending dad’s salary on, all the while hoping it’s something for them. So the whole family gathered round, eager to see what’s in this parcel.

I opened it and found the certificate I’d expected — and a lovely one at that! — along with something I hadn’t expected at all: a really gorgeous personalized award. Rather than try to describe it, I figured a photo is worth a thousand words (words that really should be devoted to my current work-in-process rather than this blog *wry grin*).

So check this out:

And because this photo really doesn’t do it justice, I feel compelled to explain that the award is a shadow box, so those shells etc are all real–how cool is that???

Way. The. Heck. Cool! (And DH and the kids agreed, so I know it’s not just me *g*)

Suffice it to say I’m totally stoked, and I’ll be spending the weekend clearing off some space in my bookshelf to accommodate this fab award.

And I’d like to give another huge shout-out to Jamie, and the Gulf Chapter of RWA, and everyone involved in the running of the Silken Sands Self-Published Star Contest. Thank you! Readers’ Choice awards are always special, because it’s pretty darned awesome to be publicly appreciated by the very readers you write for. And this is an award I will treasure always.

Hugs,

Maree