Nirvana Has Won an Award!

Hi all,

If you remember my post from last year about Years and Mute winning awards, then you won’t be surprised to hear that I entered Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana for an award as well. I got the results in last month and it is a ‘Recommended Read’!

I’m very careful about what awards I enter as there are so many out there that prey on authors. I’ve entered four books in Author Shout awards now and I trust them so I enter books when I can. But there are still so many out there who charge outrageous fees or don’t even give out their prizes. While I would like to enter my books for more awards, I’m content with just the one for now. At least I know that Author Shout are trustworthy.

With the first book in the Curse of Anubis series out in October, I will hopefully be able to enter that book for an Author Shout award too. I love being able to display the award under my books!

That’s it for this week! See you next week.

PS; don’t forget to check out these bundles, they’ll be going soon!

Free to Dream (Sci-Fi & Fantasy)

KU Kickstart (All Genre - 1st in Series)

A Dragon-themed New Year’s Adventure

Mute and Years Have Won Awards!

Hi all,

This week I’m writing about the 2023 Author Shout Reader Ready Awards. I entered both Years and Mute in around June last year and pushed it to the back of my mind until November. I received an email stating that both books had made through the first stage so I was pretty excited to see if they would place anywhere. Then I finally got the emails with the results…

Both of them won ‘Recommended Read’ awards!

I don’t enter my books in many awards as there are quite a few that are scams. They prey on writers who want to be an ‘award-winning’ author. A lot of these charge extortionate fees which then don’t end up going towards the prize pool. I always do my research before entering any awards. Usually Googling an award can show up with several results from other authors about their experiences. Another part that I came across that disappointed me is the amount of awards that won’t touch self-published books.

I entered Elemental Dragons #1: Blood and Water in the 2020 Reader Ready Awards so I knew that I could trust Author Shout. I just thought that I’d enter Mute and Years just to see how they would get on, I didn’t expect them to place in the second category!

I will be entering my books in more awards in the future but for now I’m going to take a break and focus on my writing. There are plenty of awards out there, after all! Maybe I’ll enter Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana in an award of some sort later in the year, when I have more books out in that series.

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading. Next week I’m going to unveil a new piece of merchandise that I hope you will be excited to see! See you next week.

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles while they’re still available:

Mid-Christmas Horror Giveaway

New Year, New Monsters 3: From the Darkness

The SoundArt Dragon Award and Radio Interview

Hi all!

This week I'm going to talk about a radio interview I did a few weeks ago. You may remember John Eden from previous blog posts, who interviewed me on SoundArt Radio about the books in the Elemental Dragons series. You can check out SoundArt here:

In this interview we talked about Elemental Dragons as a whole, in order to get onto the topic of Cinder and Fire. We discussed the characters and my reasons for writing the books, as well as I'm what I'm planning for Elemental Dragons in the future. This interview was a little different, as we couldn't actually meet face to face in the studio. Instead we did it over webcam, although John couldn't see me!

He presented me with the SoundArt Dragon Award, which sits above my bookshelf (mainly so Mishka can't knock it over).

The SoundArt Dragon Award

Although the interview was a bit different from usual, it still followed the usual format. I had three songs played, which were:

Til The Love Runs Out - One Republic

Hey Brother - Avicii

It's All So Incredibly Loud - Glass Animals

We discussed Draca and the Wyrms again, as well as the characters in Elemental Dragons. We also discussed a blog post I made a few weeks prior, about the element of metal. He wanted to ask more about the Elemental Dragons series, but unfortunately I couldn't give too much away thanks to planning the Original Elementals series!

Mute and Years were brought up again, the next two books I'm planning to publish. I talked about what a wendigo is and how it features in the story of Mute. Audra as a character was also discussed, as she is the first character I've written who never verbally speaks a line of dialogue. I did mention the gore, but that didn't seem to put John off!

Mishka was constantly wandering in front of the camera throughout, which lead to me losing my train of thought at times! Luckily I was able to keep her from walking all over my laptop, which was her primary goal.

I read a bit of Cinder and Fire, and I think this time I managed to slow down a bit more. I tried to make my voice more steady, and I don't think I stumbled as much as I have in the past. Thanks to doing this twice before, I think it alleviated my anxiety a lot. I knew the format, I knew what was going to happen. That definitely helped with my nervousness.

That's it for this week, next week's blog post will be dedicated to a bit of Mute's lore which I hope you will find interesting. See you next week!

PS; looking for some new books without breaking the bank? Check out this free bundle:

Spring Sci-Fi and Fantasy Giveaway

Winning a Book Award

Hi all, 

If you haven't already guessed from the title, I've won a book award! 

I entered Blood and Water a few months ago into the award on a whim, and managed to make it through all three rounds!

Although it's only a small award, I'm still so grateful to win it. You don't need a prestigious book award to be a good author. 

I struggled to find awards to enter due to be self published. A lot of the larger and more well known awards won't even look at you unless you're traditionally published, so I had to look elsewhere for Indie awards. 

The problem is, a lot of these awards are scams. 

A lot of them charge extortionate fees or don't give out the winning prizes. You really need to research which awards you want to enter before submitting. I managed to find a few that charged a fair entry fee but also, with a bit of research, were legit. 

Even if you don't win, some offer reduced rates on editing your manuscript or getting added to the longlist. Some will even still advertise your book anyway.

If you're going to enter an indie award, please just research before you do anything. It will save you money and pain in the future. 

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed! See you next week.

PS: check out these book giveaways!

Summer and Sunshine Fantasy Sci-Fi KU

Mid July Fantasy Giveaway Promotion

Entering my First Book Award

Hi all!

In November I entered Blood and Water in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, and I thought I'd share how it got on!

The Wishing Shelf Book Awards is an award run by Billy Bob Buttons, a children's author. For each category a group of the target audience reads the books and rates them. I entered the teenage category, so my book was read by my target audience.

A few weeks ago the finalists were announced, but unfortunately I didn't get through. I did however get wonderful feedback from those who read my book and a four star review!

There was a surprise among my feedback, Blood and Water won a Red Ribbon Award! This means that although my book didn't get over 30/40 to be a finalist, (it got exactly 30/40), it was enjoyed very much by the readers, who gave it a Red Ribbon! I'm thinking of adding it on the back cover, so it doesn't draw from the front cover.

The Red Ribbon Award I will be adding to my book cover

For my first time entering an award I wasn't expecting to get through, but I'm very happy with the fact that I got an award out of it. I've entered another two different awards, so fingers crossed I'll win something there too!

That's it for this week, hope you enjoyed. See you next week!