The 2020-2021 Rainbow Awards

Happy Wednesday Scribblers, what a mind-blowing week. I’m so pleased to share with you, if you don’t already know, how my books performed in the 2020-2021 Rainbow Awards. This year I entered T.A.D.-The Angel of Death (click here to learn more) and The Called (The Calling Book 2) (click here to learn more). As some of you may know, I wasn’t sure about entering the books in the Rainbow Awards this year. T.A.D.-The Angel of Death hadn’t performed as well as I had hoped and the reviews were mixed; including a DNF (did not finish) along with a scathing review of what the reader read. On the flip side, The Called had received some wonderful reviews, but again wasn’t performing as well as The Calling had. With that fresh in my mind, I decided to sit this year’s awards out.

Well, some of my readers and a few author friends weren’t having any of my worry or concern. They told me to suck it up and enter the two books and see what happens. So, I did. Then the waiting began.

During the competition, for which I was a judge again, I accepted that there were several fine books out there and prepared myself for what I believed to be the inevitable.

I was wrong and gladly so.

How did I do? You may be wondering.

This year, T.A.D.-The Angel of Death won the 2020-2021 Rainbow Awards: Gay Alternative Universe/Reality category and in the 2020-2021 Rainbow Awards: Best Gay Book category T.A.D.-The Angel of Death was a runner-up! Here are some lovely judges’ comments:

This was a wonderful story! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the angel of death and the drag queen/hairstylist’s lives, especially when it covers an entire life span (get tissues, you’ll need them). Although it covers some very tragic events in real life, they were portrayed with care. We have TAD, the angel of death, wanting to diminish the amount of death in catastrophic events which cost him his wings and to be sent to live life on Earth as punishment. Then we have Doug, who cares so much about humanity that when he meets TAD he can’t pass by without giving the smelly, disheveled man a hand, thinking him a homeless man, which he was at the time. Bringing TAD to the salon to give him a makeover, Doug then brings him home, where TAD spends years watching Doug ruin his life with alcohol and drugs. This friendship continues throughout the decades until Doug’s final days. What a beautiful tale this was. I thoroughly enjoyed this well-written story. This is also my first MD Neu book and I’m looking forward to reading others from this author.

Drag queen befriends the Angel of Death. What a great premise! I loved this, particularly the relationship between Doug and Tad and the way it developed.

As for The Called, I racked up a wonderful, honorable mention, and the book was the 2020-2021 Rainbow Awards: Gay Paranormal Romance (Runner Up). Here is the honorable mention:

If there’s something I love reading in a story is action, mystery, drama. Add vampires to the mix and exciting plot, fantastic writing, and I’m happier than a pig in a mud pit. This book has all the above and then some. It’s the type of story that once you start reading, you can’t put it down, thus staying up until 5AM this morning and had to finish it once I got up. This is the third book I read from MD Neu and I can assure you, it won’t be my last. I loved Neu’s writing style, the world-building where it feels like you’re actually there, living the drama. The characters are amazing. The setting is simply fabulous, and the plot, well, read above. I highly recommend this story to those who love Vampires. Well done, Neu. Well done.

There you have it, T.A.D.-The Angel of Death joins Contact (A New World, Book 1) and Conviction (A New World, Book 2) as category winners and The Called joins The Calling as a Runner Up. I couldn’t be more pleased. What I learned from this entire experience is that I can’t let the negative voices drown out the positive voices. If I would have sat this year’s Rainbow Awards out, I would not have won or been runner-up and I would have continued to doubt the worth of, not only my writing, but the worth of both these wonderful books.

To celebrate, my publisher, NineStar Press, is offering 30% off all the winners and runner-up’s books in the 2020-2021 Rainbow Awards. NineStar’s Authors had an amazing showing in this year’s competition, so please click on over (click here) and check out all these wonderful books and support these authors and our publisher.

Until next time, have a great week.

2018-2019 Rainbow Awards

Winner.jpg

Happy Wednesday Scribblers have I got some amazing news to share with you this week. Over the last year several of my books have been part of the Rainbow Awards, and this weekend the award winners were announced. I won in several categories and received some wonderful Honorable Mentions, check it out:

The Calling - Two Honorable Mentions and came in third place for Best Gay Debut Book (click here to view all the winners).

Here’s what the judges said:

"This book, by far, was the best read. The emotional connection between the characters and story were paced very well and the story, as a whole, was awesome. I hated to see this end with no word if there will be more."

"I enjoyed this interesting twist on vampires, and particularly liked the idea of the choice of light or dark. The final showdown rocked, and had me turning pages. The characters are interesting, although they feel a little emotionally detached at times, yet this does mesh with the perspective of the MC narrator."

Buy the book here.

Contact-A New World Book 1- Two Honorable Mentions, Winner for Best Gay Alternative Universe/Reality & Sci-Fi/Futuristic, and came in twelfth place for Best Gay Book (click here to view all the winners).

Here’s what the judges said:

"This is a well written story and pulled me in from the beginning. I like sci fi stories that keep me wondering and this is just what Contact does. Can’t wait to see what happens in book two."

"An excellent book that I'd highly recommend to readers of the genre it had me laughing crying and praying for the characters. A book I thought about often for a long time after I'd read it."

Buy the book here.

Conviction-A New World Book 2 - Three Honorable Mentions, Winner for Best Gay Alternative Universe/Reality & Sci-Fi/Futuristic (click here to view all the winners), and came in third for Best Gay Book (click here to view all the winners).

Here’s what the judges said:

"I loved this story. It was fortunate that I had already read the first book Contact, as this next installment flows seamlessly into the next section of the tale. Todd is the perfect 'everyman'. I completely connected with the character, and Neu had me turning pages wanting to discover how he fairs in his precarious new position as an emissary to an alien race, and in his burgeoning new interspecies romance! There are a lot of parallels here to be tied to our current world, which made the book even more appealing, and without being preachy, really sent home the message of kindness, love, bravery and doing what's right. I highly recommend not only the book but the series."

"I read this book in one session. A well-rounded sci-fi story that I could imagine as a movie. "

"The two books in this series are easily among the best books I've read in 2019. They have everything I want from a Sci-Fi book. An emotional roller coaster with twists and turns and world building. They are excellently written."

Buy the book here.

As you can imagine, I couldn’t be more please. If you want to help me celebrate, you can share this news via the share button below. Let’s get the word out so folks don’t miss out on these award winning books. If you have questions or comments please share them below and I’ll jump back over and respond. As always don’t forget to share and like this post. Until next time have a great week.

Writing Update

I didn’t realize until today the last time I provided a writing update was in April.  So, let’s get you all up to speed on what is happening in my wonderful world of writing.

To start, I’m happy to announce, ‘The Calling’ will be published in January 2018 by NineStar Press it’s very exciting and honestly a little scary. It’s cool to dream this will happen then when it does, it kind of freaks you out.  There is a lot to do to get the story ready for publication as you can imagine.  If you have some time to check out NineStar Press here, they are a ton of wonderful books by some amazing authors and they are a good group of people to work with.

Next up, this year I have the honor of being a judge for the 2017 Rainbow Awards.  It’s exciting to be part of such an activity and I can’t wait for the award winners to be announced.  If you want to learn more about the Rainbow Awards check them out here.

Third, I’ve written a short story ‘A Dragon for Christmas’ its a cute short story and one I’m hoping to get published (fingers crossed).  Stay tuned.  In the meantime, you can read the blurb for ‘A Dragon for Christmas’ here.

On a more personal note, I’ve been busy working in the background on some new headshots and working with a few really good friends on how to not only market my novels but also myself.  It’s an interesting process one I didn’t think would be as difficult as it is.  It’s like this whole new world is sitting there and I need to figure out the best way to navigate it all.  So, as we move forward, you may see not only my photos change (may all that is fuzzy and warm take mercy on you when those come out), but also my website. There may be updates/changes to my Facebook Page and all of my social media as well.

Also, you’ll be happy to learn we are still doing our weekly meal in a box.  Its great and we still love it.  If you want to see pictures, let me know in the comments below, also, if you want an update on how we’re doing I’ll happily share.  There are some new developments.

Now more on the writing front, I’m still working on Book 2 of ‘A New World – Conspiracy’ and I’m working on a novella called ‘T.A.D.’. I’m about two-thirds of the way through ‘Conspiracy’ and ‘T.A.D.’ has its first draft finished and I’ve started the editing process so the writing is moving forward.  There are a few more stories that are floating around, but nothing nearly as far a long as these.

With respect to my blog, I’m changing my posting day to Mondays in hopes to get more traffic. I have to think about and pay attention to these things now.

Well that’s about it for this week.  Next week I have an exciting Author Interview coming up.  So, stay tuned.  I love to hear from you, so leave me a comment, drop me a line and remember to like, share and subscribe.  Until next week keep cool and #HappyPride2017