A former elementary school teacher, cooperative learning played a key role in my third-grade classroom. The banner suspended from the top of the front wall captioned the theme in our learning environment—“Compete with yourself; cooperate with each other.”

This week in real time:

July 12th – The cutoff in voting for authors who are semifinalists in the “Golden Box Books Quill Award”. I sure hope my Contemporary Women’s Fiction novel, ‘An Enlightening Quiche,’ is one of the finalists announced on August 1st.

http://www.goldenboxbooks.com/golden-...

Nevertheless, cooperation and comradery in the Indie author community got it nominated. The judges who read my book nominated it one of the semifinalists. I’m very grateful and honored my book is amongst an impressive roster.

The way I roll, it was very difficult for me to ask for the popular vote, though I recognized I had to in order to make the most of a golden opportunity. Fortunately, one could vote for more than one book which enabled me to give a shout out to those few books I’d read and reviewed.

By and large, cooperation and comradery are prevalent among those who comprise the Indie community. I’m always glad to cast my vote for a book at the request of a fellow Indie if I’m familiar with it from author takeovers, or its reputation among readers precedes it.

Oftentimes, it’s cooperation and comradery among fellow Indies that keep our books in the public eye. Only another writer knows the anguish and struggle to publish and market a book despite the vagaries of life which compete against us to do so. Only another writer understands the importance of mutual support while seeking recognition. Whether or not my book wins any award, pales in comparison to my self-respect in the Indie community.