Spirit Animal GIVEAWAY!

What’s your spirit animal?

Do you feel a strong connection to a certain animal? Do you feel that a type of animal represents your unique essence?

I’m not sure I have a spirit animal, although hedgehogs will always have a soft spot in my heart.

This little prickly critter helped inspire BOY ON HOLD, after all. Did you know, I’m also an illustrator? Here’s my super-realistic hedgehog drawing that appears on the back cover of BOH and also at every chapter heading.

In honor of my birthday this year, I’m hosting a HEDGEHOG GIVEAWAY!

No, not an actual, live hedgehog, silly. I’m talking SOCKS! Adorable, hedgehog socks!

Here’s how to play:

• Post a selfie with BOY ON HOLD on any social media platform (kindle or phone image ok!)

• Tag me and one other hedgehog-loving friend who’d want a chance to win.

• On May 16–my bday—my kids will randomly pick 4 lucky winners!

Post as many times as you’d like to increase your chances! (Now thru 5/16!.US & Canada only…)

IPPY Gold Winner!

In May, I got word that Boy on Hold won IPPY Gold for Best Mystery/Thriller ebook!

A rare and prestigious honor, IPPY typically holds a gala in NYC for their award-winners. But alas, with all other public events in the spring of 2020, it went virtual. And though I planned to do a red carpet vlog in heels with my husband popping champagne by my side, summer came and the sunshine ate up all my grand plans. Now, with July in full swing and with it all my boys’ birthdays, I wanted to post before too much time passed.

An at-home celebration in lieu of the NYC gala. Still an honor!

Press Release from IPPY

(May 13, 2020 – Traverse City, MI)  – Jenkins Group and IndependentPublisher.com are proud to announce the medalists in the 24th Annual Independent Publisher Book Awards. Conducted each year to honor the year’s best independently published books, the “IPPY” Awards recognize excellence in a broad range of styles and subjects. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the gala award ceremony in New York is cancelled. Winners will instead use #IPPY2020 to post acceptance speeches and related award content.

From last year’s IPPY gala in NYC. Sad it had to be cancelled in 2020.

All 419 of this year’s IPPY Award gold, silver and bronze medal-winning books have something to offer readers. This year’s contest drew 4,750 entries, and medals will go to independent authors and publishers from 44 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia and Guam, 7 Canadian provinces, and 15 countries overseas.

“A book is a lifeline that can help us through all kinds of difficulties,” says Jim Barnes, director of the Awards. “These medal-winning books epitomize how we humans share our stories and help each other solve problems. Each new book you open offers the promise of a new day with new possibilities.”

Congratulations to all this year’s IPPY Award medalists for their independent spirit and dedication to making the world a better place! See the official award listing here.

A bit about IPPY

The Independent Publisher Book Awards were conceived in 1996 as a broad-based, unaffiliated awards program open to all members of the independent publishing industry. The awards are intended to bring increased recognition to the thousands of exemplary independent, university, and self-published titles produced each year, and reward those who exhibit the courage, innovation, and creativity to bring about change in the world of publishing.