This weekend, authors from across the country gathered in the Willowick Room at the Golden in Nugget in Lake Charles to attend the PenCraft Book Awards. For an author struggling to build a readership, attending an awards ceremony to receive recognition for a book you have written is a dream come true.
BURNING BRIGHT was named Best Book of Winter 2023 in the category of Young Adult General Fiction in PenCraft’s new Seasonal Book Awards contest. The title is worthy alone, but being accompanied by a shiny gold plaque makes it seem even more of an accomplishment. While this the award may seem oddly specific, the honor means a great deal to me. Total strangers who read or write for a living thought my book worthy of recognition. BURNING BRIGHT is in the running for the PenCraft Best Book Award of 2023. We’ll have to wait a while to see if it wins, but for now, this honor confirms that I am on the right path as a writer.
You’d think the more books I write, the more confident I would get in my story-telling stills. While I am much more assured in my ability to finish a manuscript than I was when I first started out, many of the same fears and doubts still plague me. Will my writing be good enough? Is my story engaging? Are my characters compelling? As a writer, it is a never ending struggle to believe in my own work.
This award is literally a shining reminder that I am an author worth reading.
The ceremony was also a wonderful opportunity to spend an evening with a group of like-minded individuals who are pursuing their own writing dreams. It was wonderful hear the other authors speak about what inspires them to write, their journey to becoming an author and their writing process. My TBR (to be read) pile just increased dramatically because now I want to read all the books that were highlighted at the ceremony.
More than anything, this weekend was confirmation that anyone can achieve their dreams. Hard work, unflagging determination and just a little bit of crazy…it all is necessary to pursue your heart’s desire, even if you’re the only one that can imagine it. Write that book, learn that instrument or go back to school for that degree. You never achieve the things you don’t attempt. If this woman who almost flunked 7th grade English class (sentence diagrams are their own brand of evil) can win an award for her book, just imagine what you can achieve.
Happy Wednesday📚💕