Indigo Is Now an Award Winning Book!

I just got an email from The Benjamin Franklin Digital Awards, letting me know that Indigo is now an award winning novel! 
This is a great honor, and I'm very proud about it. 
It is however, an honor that has to be shared with lots of people because the book was judged on several fronts. 
The cover kudos go to Adam Pippin for his cover art. 
The internal formatting kudos go to Lindzee Armstrong for her detailed and speedy job.
And the editing glory goes to several people, Naomi De La Torre, Susan Keiley, Catherine, Jessica Kern, and Lyne. 
And a special thanks has to be given to CJ for his tactical expertise.
Thank you, thank you all for all your help!!! 

 

Lip Balm

So, yeah, writing isn't what I do all the time. In fact, I only write for a few hours a day. The rest of the day I cook, homeschool, clean (a little), and experiment. 

 My husband has bees, and recently pulled a panel out of the hive for honey sampling. It was delicious! But I couldn't let the waxy comb go to waste, so I melted it with cocoa butter (I cut a stick of it. It looks like banana slices here), and coconut oil, and a couple of Vitamin E capsules for lip balm.
Inevitably, the comb had some honey in it, so the lip balm tastes like cocoa and honey. 
I put all those ingredients in my home made double boiler.

 As you can see, its very high-tech. But it did the job of melting all those ingredients together. 

The lip balm ended up being presents for my nieces, along with some home made soap to which I also added honeycomb. 

What do all these things have to do with my book? Absolutely nothing! Other than one of my nieces is reading Indigo, and she commented: "How does Silvina come up with all this stuff?" Her question sent my mind into a whirl of philosophizing. (I like to philosophize--its another hobby!)
What I came up with is this: Creativity is the spice of life. Not the salt, but the spice. The salt would be a moral code (religion). A spice added to a dish gives it direction. For example, if you add cumin, cardamon, cloves, pepper, turmeric, and ginger; you get a curry spice. If you add cumin, garlic, paprika, and smoked jalapeno peppers; you get chilli seasoning.
--Did I rant long enough? 
--Yes, I think I have.
--What do you get from all this convoluted information? 
--Go leave me reviews for Indigo! Yup. That's the message you need to be taking away from all this!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! 
I really appreciate the support I've gotten while trying to get Indigo nominated on Kindle Scout. 
Sadly, it didn't get picked up by them, but the e-book is now available for purchase anyway! 
How? Some of you have been asking me? 
Well, self-publishing baby! 
This is my first time flying solo, all the way. Before, with Veiled, Living Soul and Endless, I was under the umbrella of TreasureLine publishing's ISBN's. But this time around I got my own. To do this I had to create my own publishing house, BiblioPhilia Press. 

For now, this publishing house will be for just me, myself, and I. But one day, who knows? I might grow and add other authors.

Kindle Scout Nomination: 1 Day Left!!!

It's been an exhausting month!!! I've never been this dialed in to promoting--EVER! 

It isn't over yet, so please head over to Kindle Scout and nominate my book, or ask your friends on social media to do it. 

All I can say as this crazy time (and time of year) comes to a close is that I'm glad I did it. Weather I get picked by the Kindle Press people to get published or not, I'm happy I did it. At the very least I've promoted the heck out of this book--and series might I add--because once you start reading Indigo, you'll want to read the other two books. 
Eager teenagers are mad that Indigo isn't under their tree right now. The silver lining is: if I don't get picked for publication, I'll make sure it makes it at least to the New Years party or, El Dia De Los Reyes (Three Wise Men Celebration) sometime in January. 
Either way, I continue to do what I love to do, which is write! 
Here's a sneak peak at my next book's cover. It isn't done yet, obviously, but hopefully it might give you a taste of what it's about. I had another cover for it, but I think this one will be better. This is my unfinished version.

Meet Laurel Granger, a ballerina turned zombie huntress.
...yes, you read right. Zombie huntress.











This was the other cover that I was going to use, but I like where I'm going with this one better. What think ye?

Kindle Scout Nomination: 5 Days Left

Wow! This is almost over! 
It's been hard, I won't lie to you. Being ever vigilant about posting, commenting, sharing, coming up with something meaningful to say every day! So for today I decided that I'm not going to reinvent the wheel. I will go as meaningful as it gets! 
In the spirit of the Christmas season, I've decided to take on the 25 day challenge of #LightTheWorld 
 
The countdown for today marks day 6 of the the 25 day challenge. 
So today, the call for action was to share a scripture. 
 

So I shared one of my all-time favorite scriptures from the Bible,
"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."
 John 14:18
I know this is true. I have felt His love in my heart. I have felt His consolation. I have felt His forgiveness. I have felt His PEACE. 
 

The Final Countdown: 8 days left!

It's the last 8 days of Indigo's nomination period! 
The famous rock song by Europe The Final Countdown keeps playing in my head! I think I was about thirteen when I first heard it back in Argentina. 
Today, I thought I would give you a taste of what's to come in this series of abolitionists. 
 Azure, Indigo's father will be featured in the next book. 

 The third and final book of the series will feature Beryl, Indigo's brother who takes up the torch and joins the fight against the human slave trade.

Indigo's Kindle Scout Nomination: 10 days left

Using Pintrest has been another great way to put Indigo in front of people. Everyone has their own favorite social media site, I for one love Pintrest. I'm always in a giving or "pinning" mood when I go there. I don't know what it is, maybe the fact that I'm very visual and pretty pictures are relaxing to me. I feel no pressure when I go to pintrest, so I'm more likely to save something, or follow a link. As far as the nomination stats go, Indigo has been doing great! I've managed to remain "Hot" and trending ever since the Thanksgiving slump. I hope that translates into an actual publishing offer from the Kindle Scout team, but alas, I have nothing to compare it to. I'll try to reach out to Kindle Scout published authors to see if they'll spill the success beans! ...and if you haven't yet, go nominate me! S.B.