The Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) held its annual conference last weekend, and the GCLS awards (“Goldies”) were presented on Saturday.
I woke up to an inbox full of e-mails, telling me “congratulations,” but giving me no clue as to what I had won since three of my novels had been shortlisted. The GCLS hadn’t posted the award winners yet, so I clicked through all e-mails until I got to messages from Jeanine Hoffman, a fellow L-Book author who attended the conference.
She e-mailed me on her iPhone during the award presentation, telling me Backwards to Oregon had just won a Goldie for historical romance. Her second e-mail told me that Next of Kin won in the category romantic suspense. By the time I got to her third e-mail, which let me know that Second Nature had won an award for best speculative fiction, I was in shock. A very pleasant shock, of course :-)
I can only say thank you to all the people who made this possible — my beta readers, test readers, editors, and my publisher, Roxanne Jones from L-Book, who accepted the awards on my behalf.
Here’s a list of all Goldie winners:
Anthology — non-erotica
And Baby Makes More — eds. Goldberg/C. Rose
Year’s Best Lesbian Fiction ’08 — ed. Fran Walker
Debut Author:
Keile’s Chance-Dillion Watson
October’s Promise-Marianne Garver
Waltzing at Midnight-Robbi McCoy
Dramatic/general fiction:
Detours-Jane Vollbrecht
Family Affair-Saxon Bennett
Gemini-Geonn Cannon
Erotica:
Attractions of the Heart-Cheri Crystal
Nights Kiss- Catherine Lundoff
Historical Romance:
Backwards to Oregon-Jae
Kicker’s Journey Loic Cloarec Hart
Mystery/Thriller:
Possessing Morgan-Erical Lawson
Veritas-Anne Laughlin
Who’ll Be Dead For Christmas-Kate Sweeney
Paranormal Romance:
Barking at the Moon-Nene Adams
Everafter-Nell Stark/Trinity Tam
Poetry:
Bird Eating Bird-Kristen Naca
In Praise of Falling-Cheryl Dumesnil
The Heart’s Traffic-Ching-in Chen
Romantic suspense/intrigue/adventure:
Next of Kin-Jae
The Scorpion-Gerri Hill
Thief of Always-Kim Baldwin/Xenia Alexiou
Short Story/Essay/Collections Non-erotica
Mean Little Deaf Queer-Terry Galloway
My Sweet Wild Dance-Mikaya Heart
Outsiders-K. Sweeney/ JD Glass/L Ames/S Smith/G Beers
Speculative Fiction:
Forever Mine-KD Williamson
Second Nature-Jae
The Veil of Sorrow-Crystal Michallet-Romero
Traditional Contemporary Romance
Keile’s Chance-Dillion Watson
Stranded-Blayne Cooper
Worth Every Step-KG MacGregor
Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award:
Beggar of Love-Lee Lynch
Director’s Award:
Rosa Moran
Trailblazer Award:
Ellen Hart
Congratulations to all Goldie winners!
You deserve it, Jae. It’s a pleasure reading your books. And I’m really happy for you. So, don’t you dare stop writing ;-)
Astrid
Thank you so much, Astrid. That means a lot. And, of course, I wouldn’t dare stop writing… since you know where I live :-)