I've been nominated for the 2011 Indie Lit Awards!

Well, now, this is just crazy.

First and foremost, look at the books on this list for the award in Biography/Memoir:

• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua (Penguin)
• Bossypants by Tina Fey (Reagan Arthur Books)
• I Pray Hardest When I'm Being Shot At by Kyle Garret (Hellgate Press)
• Little Princes by Conor Grennan (William Morrow)
• Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch (Harper)

I mean, that's just insanity.  I can't believe my name is side by side with those people.  And, as my publisher said, neither of us can believe that Hellgate is up there next to the big boys like Penguin and Harper!

The Independent Literary Awards are entirely grassroots, which gives them a certain sincerity and approachability that you don't really see in awards anymore.  I mean, absolutely no one knows who I am, yet I got nominated.  That, my friends, is democracy in action!  Granted, if/when SOPA passes, I'm sure this kind of thing will be outlawed, but I got in under the wire!

I really can't thank the directors and members enough.  It's so hard to get any kind of a publicity at all when you're an unknown author with a small publisher and neither of us is based in New York.  I can't wait for more people to read "Pray!"

Thanks also has to go to all of you who are reading this blog.  So many of you bought "Pray" and then proceeded to tell your friends that they should go buy it, too.  Word of mouth is the be all and end all of publishing these days, and if "Pray" has a long life, it's because of you!