Monday, March 13, 2017

Thoughts & Feelings on Winning 1st place, Romance, Los Angeles Book Festival

In 2012 my young adult novel, The Sound & the Echoes received an honorable mention in the Los Angeles Book Festival. As I looked over the winners list this time, I thought, "I know I didn't win this time, I know it, I know it..." And still typing "Looking Glass Friends" into the Ctrl F box, I suddenly saw my novel's name appearing on the screen.

No mistake. My pen name is beside it.
And...holding my breath...Winner! I'm the 1st place winner. 

Silence. Then...too embarrassing to elaborate, but I did make my dogs jump. 

It's strange to even write this, because I wasn't sure the book would appeal to romance readers. The story is literary and its physical aspects come, not secondary to the mind, but as its completion and corollary, rendering even the sex poetical and literary.

I am very grateful to the judges at the Los Angeles Book Festival for the happiness I feel. I knew Looking Glass Friends was good (it took many, many years of writing for me to get this far); but I wasn't sure others would think as I do. I feel harmony between my love of literature and readers out there. It's such a fantastic realization.

Los Angeles Book Festival 2017 Winners List: http://www.losangelesbookfestival.com