And the winner is...!

Yesterday I wrote about the difficulties in restoring self confidence once it's lost. One of the downward spirals authors often fight is the depressing conviction that no one will like their book.

And then...something like this award comes along. Romance Book Scene.com reviews several thousand books a year. At the end of the year they choose three in a variety of categories as their favorites for the year. There's no voting, no poll. Just a list posted of their Best of the Best.

In the Fantasy Romance category, they awarded Love Never-Ending a First Place. I was overwhelmed this morning when one of my critique partners e-mailed me the link and asked if I'd seen the news. No, I hadn't seen the news. I went over to the site immediately, blown away that they liked my book so much.

Does that surprise you? We writers are probably the least confident, shyest group on earth. Every time we write something and send it out into the world, its like standing on the corner in our underwear--and trust me the reality of that image is not pretty. Then we wait for the word. What do our friends, editors, reviewers, critique partners think of our work?

I can't describe how devastating the blow is when a reviewer hates our work. My personal goal is to learn something from a bad review. So I earnestly strive to read that review with a discerning eye, working to match the criticism with what I know of my novel. But that doesn't mean it doesn't sting. I won't lie. It stings like fire. And because the review system is public, it is also humiliating.

That is the chance we writers take.

On the other hand, when we receive an accolade like this one above-- it makes us feel ten feet tall. In the strange way the world works, I've also found that I often receive an award when I am feeling my lowest. It's almost as though the reviewer angels know I desperately need affirmation.

Love Never-Ending is one of my personal favorites. It's also my longest book. If you would like to find out more about Love Never-Ending, just click on the book cover at the top of the post. And if you would like to see the complete list of the winning books, then click on the little gold seal next to the book cover! I hope you'll check out both sites!

Thank you, Roni and Romance Book Scene!

anny