Whether it’s because we can sympathize, or because it’s important to compare professional notes, authors–indie authors in particular–have the tendency to flock together and forge friendships between conferences, Facebook events, and other marketing efforts. As some of you Champions seem curious, I thought I’d talk about a few of my friends today! 😉
To begin with, I should say that for a few years I actually was a bit of a solo act. I didn’t know anyone, and I had exactly zero author friends. (This was back in 2014ish) Around then, YA was relatively unexplored by Indie authors, so it’s not shocking I was doing my own thing without running into anyone. This changed when Bryan Cohen asked me to be a part of the “Once upon a Happy Ending” anthology.
I picked up some of you Champions that way, but that anthology also introduced me to Brittany Fichter, Mellanie Cellier, Aya Ling, and Shari L Tapscott. After the initial launch of the anthology, I got to know these four ladies, and we added/dragged into the group Kenley Davidson. (You can probably see where this is going as this happens to be the bunch who did Entwined Tales with me.)
Over the years these ladies have been huge encouragements to me. We’ve done several facebook events together, and we talk online nearly every day. (Why let a little thing like distances, oceans, and hemispheres get in the way of friendship??)
We’ve had great fun together, and our friendship is forged out of more than just a shared occupation. Just look to the Great Facebook Prank War between Brittany and myself, waged last week. Brittany sent out a stealth attack with a few of our shared readers, getting them to post some of the following pictures.
(Yes, that is Perfect Dog, my collie that I endlessly gush over on Instagram.)
I responded in kind by begging my Facebook Champions to slather Brittany’s facebook feed with pictures of naked cats. It was glorious!
(If you want to see the wreckage, here’s my facebook page and here is Brittany’s. Go to the posts section of the page by using the navigation on the left side of the screen, and then look on the right side for a little section that says “visitor posts,” and prepare to laugh…)
Though the five ladies I listed above continue to be my close friends (a few of us are hoping to meet up later this year!) I’ve also made other author friends since then! I’m very gleeful to count W. R. Gingell (City Between) Raye Wagner (Darkest Drae) and Frost Kay (Mixologists and Pirates) among my friends as well!
I also forcibly befriended Lindsay Buroker–author of Emperor’s Edge. (I lulled her into giving me her phone number so we could meet up before a writing conference, which naturally gave me the legal right to text her photos of Perfect Dog and inquire after the health of her dogs.)
It’s nice to have friends in general, but we do have a unique bond because we’re able to encourage each other and understand some of the pitfalls we experience together. (ie: the difficulty of slogging through a book, trying to pick the right model for a cover, formatting issues, writing romance–that would be me specifically–writing scenes of war/fights–everyone except me as I LOVE those–and so on.)
So…I guess the bottom line is I’m really grateful for all my author friends. (For my K. M. Shea team, too, but we’ll have a chat about them later!)
That’s all for today, Champions! Thanks for reading, and have a lovely day!
PS: Yes, I’ll confirm it, we do spend A LOT of time talking about book recommendations! 😉
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