Congratulations to the winners of my Goodreads Giveaway that wrapped up on March 25th! The total number of people entering the giveaway was 829. Five people won copies of "We Are the Warriors." Of these five, three were from Canada and two were from the United States (Florida and New York). Thank you to all who entered the Giveaway.
The day after I mailed out my novel to the winners, I was notified that I had been selected as a Finalist for the USA Regional Excellence Book Awards for the Young Adult Fiction category, West region. I was so excited to hear the news! I knew the USA REBA awards would be announced in mid-March and was waiting to hear, without "expecting" too much.
The announcement stated "Your book, We Are the Warriors, truly captured the spirit of the West region of the United States and the excellence that this award was created to celebrate, and we salute you and your fine work."
Only one Winner is named for each category of the USA REBA awards. Finalists are not necessarily awarded for each category. So many categories did not have Finalists awarded. Judges also reserved the right to not make an award in a category.
The REBA awards sites states, "often there is more than one book in a category that truly stands out, and we believe these deserve recognition also. While it makes the job of our judges harder in some ways, we are dedicated to celebrating excellence in self-published books. So we created the category of "Finalist." Books that are recognized as Finalists are in every way outstanding. The difference between the Winner and Finalist books are often so minute that the call might have gone either way."
The West region that my novel was named a Finalist for includes the states of California, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.
After all the years of work and taking the leap of indie publishing, the recognition is muchly appreciated.
Wishing you in the northern hemisphere a wonderful start to spring and ALL a good Easter week.
