Optimist that I am, last summer and fall I entered Matinicus (the first book in my Maine Island Mystery Series) in every award I could find and wisely kept quiet about it. As a writer, the corrolary to keeping mum about a new book project is keeping equally mum about award contests, lest the dreaded "So how are you coming with that book?" morphs into "So did you ever win that contest?" And when you've entered an international competition and are up against thousands of other writers, you have to be insane to think you could possibly win.
Until, quite amazingly, you do.
This past winter I was pleased to learn Matinicus had been named Honorable Mention for Fiction in the 2012 New England Book Festival Awards; then last week I learned it had snagged a 2013 Bronze Ippy for Northeast Regional Fiction. A few days ago I also received word the book was named the Winner in the Mystery Category of the 2013 Indie Book Awards. I am humbled and very grateful.
The lesson for me in all this? Dream big, beleive with every ounce of your being, and work way beyond hard to make it all come true.
