Indie-Pendence Week: Awards, A Different Kind of Community Support

This is my big-push month on publicity for Dust to Blood, so I’ve joined the Gravetells Indie-pendence week blog hop event, which means you get a chance at a free copy of my book. (Check out the Rafflecopter giveaway at the bottom of this post for ways to earn entries to the drawing.)
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I have been awarded these two awards, the One Lovely Blog Award and the Reader Appreciation Award, by my lovely friend Becky Fyfe. Thanks so much, Becky for the awards!

One of the best tools for indie authors has to have been the establishment of Triberr. Not only does it give you a semi-automated way to promote your blogging work a little more broadly, but it also introduces you to some very interesting people. I was lucky enough to get invited in to a small group of mutually supportive writers and bloggers there last Fall. That’s where I met Becky, and others like Justin and Kriss and Erica and Jane and Cathy and Kelly (you get the idea). Membership has shifted around since then, but pretty much everyone who’s participated has been happy to continue the mutual support pact we established with each other. The interesting thing about being in a group that came together out of random happenstance is that we seem to have gelled a certain kind of friendship. I don’t know if it’s because we’re all working independently toward similar goals, but it’s another of the spurs that helps keep me focused on producing more words. And I get many more of the feel-good moments of recognition as we share these kinds of awards amongst each other.

Just as Becky did, I’ve combined the rules of the two awards, so here are the rules for recipients:

• Thank the person/people who nominated you and link back to them in your post

• Share 7 things about yourself

• Nominate six to ten blogs you admire

• Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know
  

And post the lovely badges (as I’ve done, above).

Seven Things About Me:

1. It’s my birthday in a week, and I’m a typically over-emotional Cancer;
2. I would rather live with dogs AND allergies rather than live without either;
3. On a related note: I’m very proud of the fact that my married last name means “keeper of the dogs”;
4. I’ve realized I’m more of an introvert now than I was in High School–being in a large group mostly just makes me tired these days;
5. Conversely, I used to be shy as a little girl, but now don’t have an issue with speaking up–so long as I’m interested in the topic or person under discussion;
6. I still prefer quiet to noise;
7. I have a very hard time writing or carrying on an intelligent conversation when there’s TV or another conversation going on in the background.

And for my nominees… Well. Becky already nominated Kriss, Erica, and Justin, so I’m going to spread this out a little to some other lovely bloggers (and recognize a few others who are also in our Tribe):

• Cathy Dreyer
• Jane Isaac
• Dionne Lister
• Kelly Stone Gamble
• Maureen Hovermale
• Ciara Ballintyne
• Melody-Ann Kaufmann (also known as SafireBlade)
  
• Trish Nicholson

It’s definitely worth finding some sort of coalition of writers as an indie; I feel blessed to have found these people.

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