This morning I was combing through my emails, hurrying to get off responses to Europe before their day ended while deleting the hordes of accumulated spam. I was just ready to hit the delete button when I realized this was an important email the I really should read.  At first, I thought it was a marketing gimmick, but then I realized it was the real thing—an announcement that The Vintage Club was selected as an International Book Awards 2014 Award-Winning Finalist in the Fiction: Thriller/Adventure category. The Vintage Club was selected from over 1200 titles worldwide.  Here’s a link to the announcement.

I’ve always envied those authors who put “Award Winning Author” next to their name.  No longer. That’s now me.

Yes, I know it’s not like receiving an Oscar, but it is like receiving an award from the Sundance Film Festival for best film.  And I’m just as thrilled.  Fifteen years of mulling over plot lines and characters has finally paid off.  It is so gratifying to not only win an award, but to receive great comments back from readers who loved the book and want to know when your next one is coming out.  Hopefully that will be soon.

Thanks to everyone for making this happen, especially for my family for putting up with me hacking away at my laptop on Friday nights with the lights on while they tried to watch their movie, and to Koehler books for all their help in making The Vintage Club a reality.