Once Upon a Bookcase Has Been Shortlisted for a UKYA Blogger Award

Last month, I discovered I was longlisted for the UKYA Blogger Awards, and was so over the moon. How incredible that our UKYA blogging community has been noticed and is now being acknowledged by having publishers, publicists and authors want to give us awards for what we do, and that I was included with the 33 other bloggers on that list.

I'm finding this post very difficult to write, because I'm struggling to find the words. Finding myself on the longlist was such an unbelievable high, and I was so amazed. On Saturday, the shortlists for each category were announced, and I discovered I'm on the shortlist for the Champion of YA award. I am completely overwhelmed, I can't tell you. I really hoped I would be on a shortlist for something, but I never actually believed I would be.

Once Upon a Bookcase is quite small; it will have been running for six years this March, but it's a simple fact that my blog isn't as popular as some of the other UKYA blogs, I have fewer readers and even fewer commenters. This has never bothered me, because I enjoy what I do and if I reach even just a few people, then I'm doing my job. But because Once Upon a Bookcase isn't that popular in the great scheme of things, I never thought I stood a chance to get shortlisted. It makes me think that perhaps the awards is less about how many people you reach, but the work you do as a blogger? And to have publishers, publicists and authors think so well of me and what I do on my little corner of the Internet to shortlist me for an award is so astonishing, I can't even begin to describe what I'm feeling.

And to be shortlisted for the Champion of YA award specifically... there are no words. I adore the YA category, I read more YA than I do anything else. It's in YA that I recognise myself, where I feel most at home between the pages. YA moves me, it amazes me, it bowls me over and it keeps me thinking and changing my perception. I shout from the rooftops about it, I'm so passionate about it, because it's so bloody good! And be shortlisted for a specific award for talking about a category of books I love so much... it's unbelievable. It's amazing, and I am on such an emotional high right now.

To every single person who nominated me, and then voted for me to get this far... thank you. I am so beyond grateful. This is such an achievement for me and my blog, something I'll always have, and I am just so overwhelmed. I can't tell you how much this means to me.

Genuinely, thank you.