Book Awards

My romantic sci-fi novel, A Heaven for Toasters, won second place in the 2020 International Digital Awards in November 2020.

My children’s book Whisker Smile (available only in Greek for now) won the prestigious IBBY award in April 2020.

My children’s book, Runaway Smile, won the Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award, in the Young Adult Fiction category in 2015. It was also a finalist in the 2015 International Book Awards, in the Children’s Fiction category and a ‘Children’s Fiction’ Finalist in the 2015 Independent Author Network Book of the Year Awards.

Musiville is an award-winning finalist in the Book Excellence Awards. Check out the list of winners and my feature page on their site!

Emotional Beats was an award-winning Distinguished Favorite in the 2017 Independent Press Awards in the Writing and Publishing category. It was also an award-winning finalist in the 2019 TopShelf Indie Book Awards.

Pearseus: Schism was a Noveltunity Book Club winner.

Pearseus: Rise of the Prince was selected as one of the 100 Indie books you should read before you die by Caleb and Linda Pirtle.

Infinite Waters was voted one of the Top 50 Indie Books for 2015.

Most of my books in the Pearseus and SSF series have reached #1 in various Amazon sub-genres.

The short story, “I Come in Peace,” was a winner in the Invasion competition by Cube publishing in Greece, 2009.

Blog Awards

Thanks to the wonderful people who visit my blog and have voted for it, I have been awarded the following awards:

J.U. Scribe has nominated me for the Mystery Blogger award, created by the, well, enigmatic Okoto Enigma. I was then nominated once more by Reality Decoded. I’m grateful to both for the kind nomination.

My author buddy, Charles E. Yallowitz, has nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award, as has Sa of Culture Shocks and V.M. Sang.

The always kind Suzanne Joshi of Musings on Life and Experience has nominated me for the Champion’s Award.

Susan of Susan’s Personal Blog very kindly nominated me for the delightfully cute Seal Of Approval Blogger Recognition Award.

I was first nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award by Shannon A. Thompson, then by Tim Hemlin, followed by the wonderful Kyrosmagica, Matt and his cats, Toni Pikes, Viv Drewa and Making of an Author. This is the first time anyone from the feline family has nominated me, so it’s particularly flattering. Lastly, I was nominated by Late to the Theater – my go-to place for all things TV/movie – and the amazing Viv Drewa, aka Owl Lady.

The very talented Robin Gott nominated me for the Liebster award, followed by SK Sandhu and the amazing Lauren Jeffrey. I actually went the extra mile for Lauren, as she had a particularly fun selection of questions. You can read my answers here. Simon Farnell also nominated me, which was really nice of him.

The lovely Marlena Hand first nominated me for the Very Inspiring Blogger, followed by Sally Sue Ember, Dale Furse, Carly Compass, JJ Spina, The Planetary Defense Command, Crime Writer Sue Coletta, The Owl Lady (aka Viv Drewa) and the wonderful C. E. Robinson, who was particularly inspired by my awards page.

C. E. Robinson has also kindly nominated me for the Premio Dardos award, the Encouraging Thunder Award and the Tour through Blogland. You can read my creative process here.

The very, well, kind not to mention talented) Erika Kind has nominated me for the Creative Blogger Award, the Brotherhood Of The World Award, the Premio Dardos award and the Starlight Blogger Award. The rules for the latter are pretty simple: Include the logo of the award in a post or on your blog (please never alter the logo). Please don’t delete this note: the design for the STARLIGHT Bloggers Award has been created from YesterdayAfter. It is a Copyright image you cannot alter or change it in any way; just pass it to others that deserve this award. Copyright 2015 © YesterdayAfter.com – Design by Carolina Russo.

Speaking of the Creative Blogger Award, Plain Jane of Family Rules also nominated me, as part of the 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Me challenge.

Two authors nominated me on the same day for the Blogger Recognition Award: Aurora Alexander and F.E. Feeley Jr.

Last, but by no means least, Tina of Diotima’s Ladder nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award, followed by Amanda Clemmer of Finish that Novel, Smorgasbord, the Planetary Defense Command, Erika Kind, CuppaJoeAndThou and Melissa of Today, You Will Write (formerly, They Walk By Night).

I believe I have to share a few things about myself now, and nominate some of the many wonderful people whom I follow.

Random facts about me

1. We have three pets. Basta got his name because he’s as stubborn as they get. Perro, because he’s always following me around and licking my fingers. I think everyone will agree this suggests a serious personality disorder. Which is why his nickname is “silly cat.” And Izzy,  rescue dog whose rescuers called her that because of her supposedly easy nature. A great misnomer, if you ask me, but there you have it. And no, we didn’t consider calling her, “Gato.”
2. I started this blog to promote my books. Soon, I realized that blogging was fun even when not mentioning my books, so I changed its focus into sharing my experiences from this crazy journey that writing has been. My new emphasis has been on being fun, being helpful and being real. People have responded to this in an unexpectedly kind way, as witnessed by my awards, and blogging has turned into a passion of its own.
3. I met my wife, Electra, at a vet. Which is appropriate, as we both love our four-legged family. After a few years together, we got tired of sleeping in and she introduced me to the love of my life, our daughter.
   
4. I love photography and had an exhibition at the Elephant House in Edinburgh once. Thankfully, my father-in-law bought all photographs, thus ensuring its success (I love this guy).
5. I photograph dead people. Accidentally. Or at least it would appear so. This picture was taken as I was snapping shots at a client’s Bed and Breakfast, in Edinburgh. What came out surprised me. I later found out they’re called floaters, apparently. I should probably not have been so surprised: Scots do take their ghosties pretty seriously.
6. I wore a kilt for the first (and last) time at my PhD graduation in Edinburgh. To my relief, turns out that Scots do wear underwear underneath.
7. Both Electra and I are masters of disguise, as this selfie clearly demonstrates. Clearly, we are criminal masterminds, and no one but our own mothers could possibly recognize us.
8. Contrary to popular belief, it does snow in Greece. In fact, there’s a number of ski resorts in the country. This photo, however, was taken outside our home.

Not enough facts about me? You can continue with more fun facts on my Liebster award page.

My nominations

I’m following hundreds of excellent blogs, and yet I’m supposed to come up with a handful of them for this. So, I’d like to apologize in advance to everyone not mentioned here. This is but a tiny, random sample of the many wonderful people I follow, in no particular order. And if you wonder why I’m listing so many, well, I’m undecided. Also, I’ve been nominated several times for each award, right? Finally, because I can, so there 🙂

1. Charles Yallowitz
2. Chris McMullen
3. Tara Sparling
4. Susan M. Toy
5. Kylie Betzner, aka LitChick
6. Toni Betzner
7. Chris the Story-Reading Ape
8. Viv Drewa
9. Kindle Ninja
10. J.J. Spina (Jemsbooks)
11. D.G. Kaye
12. Linnet Moss
13. Lori Scafer
14. MT McGuire
15. Effrosyni Moschoudi
16. MMJaye
17. My train of thoughts
18. Nat Russo
19. Terri Herman-Ponce
20. Ali Isaac
21. Barbara Barbex
22. Dave Higgins
23. EJ Frost
24. Dylan Hearn
25. Connie Flanagan
26. Erika Kind
27. John Howell
28. Pamela Beckford
29. SK Nicholls
30. D. Wallace Peach
31. Let’s Cut the Crap
32. John Fioravanti
33. C.E. Robinson
34. Sally Sue Ember
35. Helen Jones
36. Patrick Jones
37. Michelle Eastman
38. Michelle Clements James (Macjam)
39. Marigold
40. Michelle Proulx
41. Problems with Infinity
42. The Blonde Writer

As most awards have similar rules, anyone who’s on this list may select any one of the above awards (with the exception of the RRBC one), and:

1. Display the logo on their website/blog
2. Link back to this page
3. Answer 7 questions about themselves
4. Nominate another 7 people

Thank you in advance for participating! 🙂