I Won!

"WOW!" I said leaping from my computer and rushing to the kitchen.
"What's happening?" Mr. Wonderful said setting his espresso cup on the breakfast table.
"I won. Well, my book won Best Humor Book of 2015!"
"Congratulations!" he said taking me in his arms and swinging me around the kitchen.
"Although today's April first. Do you think it's an April Fool's joke?"
"...Nah."

Two weeks ago my book EVOLUTION OF A WINE DRINKER was nominated by the indie book review site Big Al's Books and Pals as Best Humor Book of 2015! Since this was a reader's choice award, readers got a chance to vote for their favorite humor books, crime thrillers and paranormal vampire romances.

So THANK YOU readers for voting for my book! I literally could not have won without you! Thank you so much!

But then... maybe me winning is just an April Fool's day joke?
... Nah.

Again, here's the Good News!

The Fridge & Big Al

Whoo-Wee! I've been riding high all week because 1) Spring is here; 2) Our new refrigerator was delivered; and 3) My comedy wine book was nominated Best Humor Book of 2015!

The refrigerator has a special place to chill wine bottles: be they red, white or Blue Nun.

As for my wine book, Evolution of a Wine Drinker, was highlighted this week by Big Al's Books and Pals! You can read about it here, there or everywhere! The site also discusses the three other nominees.

1) Heads You Lose by Rob Johnson
2) Mischief in Italy by Beate Booker
3) Vulgarian Vamp by Barbara Silkstone

Congratulations to those writers for their nominations! Thanks to Big Al and Co. for my nomination! And if you would like to vote for my book, you can do so HERE! (I've even included directions!)

Thank you so much for your support and help! Now I'm off to admire my refrigerator and taste how cool it really keeps my wine...

How to Vote for my Book

There have been questions about voting for my wine book to be Best Humor Book of 2015. So here's how you do it:

1) Click here:  (http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2015/03/2015-readers-choice.html)

2) Scroll down until you find this box:

3) Sign in with your email or Facebook.

4) Click on the HUMOR section. 

5) At the drop down menu, you will see my book so VOTE away! 

Thank you for your support!

My Book Nominated!

Another fancy Saturday of feeding the chickens, taking out the trash and cleaning out Jackson's litter box.

But things really turned up when I learned my book Evolution of a Wine Drinker was nominated as the Best Humor Book of 2015 on Big Al's Books and Pals website! Yippee! A while back Big Al's gave my book a 5-star review and now this? 

Thank you reviewers of Big Al's Books and Pals. I appreciate this nomination and all the work you do reading, reviewing and promoting writers and books. Also, congratulations to the other three humor writers who received nominations in my category! I'm among some talented funny people.

Now I've never done this before but...

Evidently this is a "Reader's Choice Award" so... if any readers of my book would like to vote for it, you can do so via this link. At the link's site, just go to the blue box at the bottom that looks like this:

Sign in with your email address or Facebook. They request a sign-in to limit people to voting just once for each category. No stuffing the ballot box at Big Al's!

Also, voting closes on March 28 at 11 PM Pacific Standard Time, which is just two weeks away. So if you're going to vote, and I hope you do, sooner is better than later!

Thanks for your support! And thanks to Big Al's Books and Pals! Cheers!

Good News x2 and Bad News

“Here’s an after-dinner espresso,” I said setting a small cup and saucer on the table. 

“Good idea,” Mr. Wonderful said rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

“To go with it I made biscotti.”

“Great idea.”

“And homemade tiramisu.”

“… What’s wrong?”

Mr. Wonderful is very astute. He tells me things about me that I can’t even tell how he could tell them because they are so telling. One time he came home from the studio after 10 PM and said, “Has your sister called?”

“No. Why?”

“She’s going to call you tonight.”

“If she hasn’t called by now, she won’t call at all.”

At 10:45 PM she called. How Mr. Wonderful knew she would call,  I have no idea. In fact Mr. Wonderful didn’t know how he knew it either. He called it a premonition. I called him lucky.

This time he didn’t get lucky with a premonition of a phone call, he just saw me piling on the good Italian sweetness and figured: I was in the dumps; I was planning a Godfather movie viewing marathon; I wanted to eat my way to happiness. He is so lucky at guessing what is up with me.

“What’s going on,” he asked dunking a biscotti into the cup of espresso.

“I have good news, bad news and more good news.”

“Well lay it on me.”

I started with good news #1: a TV sitcom I wrote made the Semi-Finals of the PAGE Awards, a very prestigious screenplay writing competition in Hollywood.

Mr. Wonderful looked at me blankly.

“I means my sitcom was one of the top 25 written sitcoms of the year.”

“That’s great!” Mr. Wonderful said high-fiving me.

Then I progressed to the bad news, which was that this same TV sitcom did not make the cut to be among the Finalists.

He smiled and nodded dumbly.

“It means my sitcom was not one of the top 10 sitcoms of the year.”

“I still liked it,” Mr. Wonderful said giving me a fist bump.

It was nice that he liked it but I would have been stoked if more PAGE judges had liked it enough to make it a Finalist.   

Sigh.

A long time ago I learned to end on a high note, so I reminded my spouse and biggest cheerleader that I had one more piece of good news. 

“Guess what the good news is,” I said biting into the tiramisu.

“I have no idea,” he shrugged.

“Don’t you have a premonition or feel lucky about guessing it?”

“Nope.”

So I told him: My book Evolution of a Wine Drinker was reviewed by Big Al's Books and Pals, the respected book review website, and received its highest marks—5 Stars!

“That’s awesome!” Mr. Wonderful said picking me up and swinging me around the kitchen. I couldn’t stop laughing. Nor could he. 

Sometimes it’s good to forget premonitions and live in the moment with great book reviews and delicious tiramisu with the man of The House. Here’s to good news!