That phrase just keeps echoing through my head.
Oh, wow.
Yeah – I know. I’m being dorky. But, oh, wow. **wink**
Sunday morning I woke to the news that my first novel Loving Jay had been voted the winner of the Goodreads’ MM Romance Group’s Member’s Choice Awards in the category of Best Book Debut.
Nah! Couldn’t be!
But I checked, and there it was. And look – they even sent me a badge!
But even more amazing, is my lovely little book won a third place too!
Even though I am still sitting here stunned at the news 36 hours later, I want to say thank you. Thank you to many, many people who helped get to this spot. Because I in no way delude myself in believing that this book came to win this award from only my sole effort. Let’s see who:
1. Thank you to my BFF who gave me the encouragement to write.
2. Thank you to my husband and children who I ignored while I was writing.
3. Thank you to Aaron for the inspiration behind Jay.
4. Thank you to NR Walker who encouraged me to do something with my story.
5. Thank you to Dreamspinner for having faith in me.
6. Thank you to Liz who had the daunting task of editing the story.
7. Thank you to the second editor, the proof readers and everyone else who polished with me.
9. Thanks to all at Dreamspinner who did all the little bits to get this published.
10. Thank you to Nic Starr who held my hand through the wait for it to be released.
THEN
11. Thank you to every single person who bought a copy and read it. THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!
12. Thank you to the reviewers who took the time to share their thoughts on their websites.
13. Thank you to the readers who took the time to send me emails, messages and pretty pictures – YOU GUYS ARE BRILLIANT!
14. Thank you to every person who gave me a great rating or wrote a great review on sites such as Amazon, Goodreads and ARe that helped spread the word about my book.
15. Thank you to those who wrote reviews that weren’t so good, because they helped show me where I was going wrong.
16. Thank you to the authors and readers who said to their friends, “Hey, this isn’t half-bad.”
17. Thank you for the friendships on social media and through my website.
18. Thank you to the tireless efforts of the MM Romance Group’s mods who set this award up.
19. Thank you to those who nominated my books for the categories.
20. AND FINALLY thank you for all those who voted for me.
BECAUSE: without all of these little steps, I wouldn’t have received this great award. So every person who contributed to this, deserves a tiny piece of the award.