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!