Although I’m no longer in the Rave Reviews Book Club (RRBC) 30-day blog challenge (it ended on March 30), I would like to take a moment to toast the four people who joined me in that challenge–Pat Garcia, Joy Lilley (who both live in Europe), Nonnie Jules (RRBC’s fearless leader), and Karl Morgan. We are all so different, and yet, we’re all members of the same book club, a group that crosses international borders and doesn’t matter what color you are, what your bank account holds, nor what your childhood was like.

RRBC just accepts you. And your writing.

I said this several times during the blog challenge, but I will repeat: I have no idea how I found this group. I was noodling around online one day and somehow stumbled upon RRBC. I decided to give it a whirl. I had just self-published my first novel, Empty Seats, and I had so much to learn about this book-making stuff. RRBC members welcomed me with open arms, and the journey began. That was 2018, I believe, and I have benefited from their expertise–singular and collective–since then.

I feel as if I could visit any one of the members in his/her home and sit down and have a lovely conversation. I think I know which ones would prefer that I bring the wine, and which ones would prefer I bring flowers. Or chocolate. They live all over the country, and, really, the world. Of course we all have different opinions. Why wouldn’t we? It’s a lively group, and, therefore, we have lively discussions. But those discussions are respectful and offered with constructive intent.

So join me, will you, and raise a glass not only to my fellow bloggers in this second annual RRBC 30-day challenge, but also to all RRBC members. They’re my friends, my critics, my proofreaders (after I’ve already paid people to proofread and something’s been missed!), my handholders, my information source…They’re not afraid to tell me that something needs to improve, or that something I’ve written sounds really good–or really terrible.

Another Piece of News

I just found out today that my latest novel, A Few Bumps, won a first-place 2023 Incipere Award for Literary Fiction (Clean). That “clean” designation means it doesn’t have anything in it that would upset your grandmother (i.e., four-letter words or R-rated scenes). It does, however, contain the appearance of a friendly ghost.

And this is no April Fool joke, either. Thank you so much to Estrada Publishing for this award!