Yeah, I know I'm supposed to use exclamation points sparingly. But this is a post that screams for them -- at least as far as my brain is concerned. So please prepare yourselves, dear readers, because I've received a lot of AMAZING news in the past few weeks.

First I found out that The Rampart Guards is a finalist in the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards for 2016! What?? Yes, it's true. A national competition, and my darling TRG is a finalist. You can see the full list of finalists here, and my fellow Young Adult category finalists here. The awards will be announced June 24, 2017, at the American Library Association's annual conference.

The Rampart Guards scored another kudo when it became a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards as well. Woo hoo! The public announcement of all finalists and winners will be made mid-May on their website. The excitement ramped when I found out Tick Tock: Seven Tales of Time is a finalist as well. Yay for team Wicked Ink Books, too!

The razzleberry on top of all this mind-boggling good news is that I am a finalist for the Independent Writer of the Year (IWOTY) award from Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. WOW! I am so honored, so touched, so thrilled by this news! I'm giddy beyond giddy. I'm just...I can't...I don't know the right words to describe how over-the-Milky-Way delighted I am.

I must add that my fellow finalists, Stephanie Reisner and Bernadette Marie, are talented and impressive authors, and I'm especially honored to be in their company. I've linked their websites to their names, and if you'd like to see the IWOTY nominee's page on RMFW's site, click here. The winner will be announced in July, but I can honestly say I get what people mean they say, "It's an honor to have even been nominated." I feel that for certain.

Thanks for reading this far and sharing in the news. And thanks for being part of this community! I couldn't do any of this without you.

Kudos for The Rampart Guards, Tick Tock, and Yours Truly!