I am ecstatic!

Confessions of an ADDiva won first prize in the Women’s Issues category at the Indie Book Awards! I wasn’t officially notified, but wandered over to their web site, feeling sad already that I hadn’t even placed among the thousands of entries.

I scanned through the top prize winners (not me) and then scrolled through the 60 categories (!) noticing that there was a First Prize winner and a four finalists. I had forgotten what category I had entered, to be honest. So I pulled out the entry form and saw that I had entered in THREE categories…Health, Self Help and Women’s Issues.

Nuttin’ in Health, nuttin’ in Self Help and I perused the finalists in the Women’s Issues category with a heavy heart…then glanced up at the winner. it was ME! OMG! My heart burst with gratitude and pride!

I won a $100 prize and a gold medal (pretty impressive, eh?) but most important, I found out that the First Prize winners will go to a New York literary agent for review and possible publication with a major publishing house! OMG!!!

No guarantees, but how cool is THAT? The stats are frightening — in 2009 there were 1.3 million books published. In 2010 (one year later) there were 3.1 million books published and of that number 2.77 million were self published. That means that there was a heck of a lot of competition for that First Prize and yet….I won!

OMG- I can’t stop saying that! I am really really proud and really happy. Which is a good thing. I needed this boost. I think we should throw a virtual celebratory party! Wanna come?