I'm a finalist in DABWAHA! My feels, in gif form

So, the big news of the week…

STARTING FROM SCRATCH, pubbed by Carina Press, is a DABWAHA Finalist!!!!!!!!!!!!

What’s DABWAHA?  It stands for Dear Author Bitchery Writing Award for Hellagood Authors, an annual tourney founded by Dear Author and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Just like the NCAA Final Four Championships, the DABWAHA tournament has brackets to fill. Among the hundreds upon hundreds of romance novels that are pubbed each year, 64 books are chosen to compete for the most coveted honor of being the last book standing.  HOW books compete against each other will be in another FYI-type post, but for now I need to express my feelings when I read the email informing me that SfS had been chosen to be a part of DABWAHA. And I shall do it… in the form of gifs.

Dear Stacy,

Congratulations on being nominated for the DABWAHA, the tournament of romance novels run by The TBR LLC, Dear Author and Smart Bitches. We're kicking off our tournament on March 23, when readers and authors can make their bracket selections, but the announced categories are available at Dabwaha.com. Currently, Starting From Scratch has been nominated in the Novella bracket.

I've attached a graphic if you'd like to feature it on your website to tell the world that you're a finalist, and begin the fine tradition of trash talking. Congratulations again!

At first I thought: “Wait, what?”

I mean, it really confused me...

It was probably a joke. One of my writerly friends had to be pulling a fast one on me by getting my hopes up.  Yeah, that was it. Funny, dude. Real funny.

Then my inbox exploded with congratulatory tweets, and that meant only one thing.  SWEET BABY JESUS, IT’S REALLLLL!!!!!!!

As inconceivable as it was.

Naturally, this called for dancing:

And drinking:

And whatever this is:

Because really, nothing ever happens to me:

Word about being a DABWAHA finalist spread, and the inevitable happened.  Just when I was at the height of my joy:

Someone asked what STARTING FROM SCRATCH was going up against.

So I looked up my competition… 

Oh, my God.

OH, MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My little holiday novella is going toe-to-toe with huge, best-selling authors. They're juggernauts. 

Gladiators.

 GODS.

And then there’s me…

That's when I realized it's going to get ugly...

Needless to say, my mood took a turn for the worse…

The voice of doubt began to whisper in my ear:

Insecurity set in.

…and suddenly I wasn’t even sure what I was doing:

Clearly this is a recipe for disaster…

But then I saw the light.

It dawned on me how lucky I was to be included in this legendary battle of the best:

Sure, the competition is fierce...

...and I’m an underdog…

… but I’m going to it give my best shot by swinging for the fences, and trash-talk like a boss:

And for those who made it possible for me to be included in this year’s DABWAHA (you know who you are), thank you.

Seriously, thank you.

I'm going to do my best...

... and even though I won’t win, I’m just glad to be here.

Shut the fuck up, Vi, no one wants to hear your shit.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go celebrate being a finalist in DABWAHA. :D