Double Win

Woke up to a couple of good emails yesterday morning from PenCraft Book Awards. Both of my recent books, First and Next Time, won 1st Place in their respective categories! The former in Science Fiction and the latter in Romance - Fantasy/Sci-Fi. If you’re keeping track at home, Next Time won the PenCraft seasonal contest for 2024 Summer, but these new awards are for all of 2024. If you’re interested in checking them out, they’re linked from the main page of this site. I was surprised at winning for First, since it didn’t win when I entered the Fall 2023 portion of the contest. The emails said they host an awards ceremony next year, and as much fun as it would be to go to Vegas again (I loathe Las Vegas), I’ll probably have to pass. Also, they said that a large number of people entered but they didn’t have winners in some categories because the books didn’t meet their criteria for excellence. I was glad to see they listed 2nd and Runner-Up winners in both of my categories. That means I didn’t win by default but actually took the prizes for being the best. That maybe sounds a bit arrogant, but my point is that it’s better than winning by forfeit. Anyway, I’m incredibly humbled to win with both books I released in the last year. The competition in the marketplace is high and I’m grateful that my efforts have been recognized with these awards.