So, BigAl's Books and Pals received 1,400 books to review over the twelve months between February 2012 and February 2013. Now, my math is fairly rudimentary but that's over a hundred books a month. Of that number, they selected nearly 300 to review, so about 25 books a month. And of those 300, they have now selected just over 50 for nomination in twelve categories for BigAl's Books and Pals 2012 Readers' Choice Awards.
And my debut, Dissolute Kinship: A 9/11 Road Trip (yes it's on the right sidebar and yes you can buy it from Amazon), was selected along with four others in the Memoir category.
Which makes me happy for one obvious reason—uh, something I wrote got noticed, y'all—but also because Big Al and his crew over there are as honest as the day is lengthwise, with their reputation for not suffering fools very much preceding them.
Anyway, you can go there and vote. It's not altogether straightforward: you must sign in via Facebook or email, they promise not to steal your credit cards or your children, but don't bother trying if you browse the interwebs with Internet Explorer. Use Chrome, Firefox or Safari and you should be good to go. Once you sign in, the categories appear and apparently you can also win stuff, I think (Laurie Boris probably explains this much better here).
Speaking of Laurie, I also want to give a shoutout to a few fellow nominees whose paths I've crossed, including Laurie Boris, Laura Clark, KS "Kat" Brooks, Melinda Clayton, Ed Lorn and Lynn Cantwell—all worthy writers and the type of folks you can safely bring home to meet mother. (There should probably be a "lol" in there, somewhere.)
But I'll end this with a thought: we writers—and boy do those ranks continue to swell—crave recognition and acknowledgement in a crowded marketplace. Some are risking plenty in this pursuit of our need for expression. I see it in my mind's eye as kind of like Covent Garden in London. We're hawking our wares, some of us resorting to extreme measures. Some of us are swallowing live ammunition while answering questions on the likelihood of an asteroid striking a kindhearted three-legged Albanian in a tuxedo, all while juggling smoldering chihuahuas, of course. Well, not many of us are doing that, actually. But it's hard to get the attention of readers, really hard. And of course we love to win things, because winning feels good and people notice our stuff more if it's been approved of by an objective, neutral source, especially one with a reputation as solid as BigAl's. But... and I really mean this. I am reluctant to ask anyone directly to vote for mine, or even to leave it out there as some kind of an assumption. I have no doubt the other books nominated alongside my own have been formed from the precious, living sorrow and joy of existence every bit as intensely and lovingly as my own small offering.
So read as many of these books as you can, and vote for your favourites. That's all. Oh, and you have until Midnight Eastern Time on April 1st.