Manassas author Belinda Miller shares news about her award for her book series the Ragwort Chronicles.
The Ragwort Chronicles, Along the Way: Roscoe’s Journey, by Manassas resident Belinda Miller has been named by the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group as one of the best indie books of 2016. Upon notification of the award, the author said, “I am humbled and honored to be considered amongst the most talented in the indie arena. Thank you.”
Along the Way, Roscoe’s Journey is a finalist in the Children’s Picture Book (ages 6-10) and Overall Design categories in the 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the world’s largest not-for-profit book awards program for independent publishers and self-published authors. The awards are judged by leaders of the indie book publishing industry, including many coming from long-standing careers with major publishing houses, to identify books that deserve to reach a wide audience.
“Our awards program is known as the ‘Sundance’ of the book publishing world,” says Catherine Goulet, Chair of the 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards program. The Ragwort Chronicles, Along the Way: Roscoe’s Journey, is a fantasy adventure book for elementary school children — the second of three in the Ragwort Chronicles series, and is complementary to Miller’s original series, “Phillip’s Quest.”
The characters are the whimsical Ragwort gnome-brothers of Brokenfell village, each with their own personalities, ideas and journey, but all with the same goal — to get to Twistedoak. The adventurous gnome, Roscoe, takes his journey from Brokenfell, through the Dark Forest and Bandersnatch Swamp. Along the way, he finds out about true friendship and the meaning of being “rich.”
Published by Winterfrost Publishing, the book features the brilliant illustrations of Canadian artist, Annie Wilkinson and was designed, formatted and printed by BookLogix of Alpharetta Georgia.
The number of self-published titles produced annually in the U.S. has increased dramatically, growing 437% from 2008 to 2013. The awards were presented on May 11 in a ceremony at Chicago’s Newberry Library. In addition to the grand prize winners, top indie books were named as winners and finalists in 70 publishing categories ranging from Action/Adventure to Young Adult.
A complete list of 2016 winners and finalists is available at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards website at www.indiebookawards.com.
