Yesterday was a good email day. I checked my email expecting nothing out of the ordinary and was rewarded with the best kind of news. The Christine Stewart Time Travel Series had received two additional awards from Indies Today. Escaping Home finished as a finalist in the 2021 book awards, and Finding Home received an honorable mention.
Needless to say, I was beyond thrilled! Being recognized for your work is the best feeling in the world. This is the eighth award the series has received, and believe me when I tell you, no one is more surprised about that than me. I am forever grateful to my readers, because without you none of this is possible.
Some people say there are varying degrees of prestige attached to each literary award. I disagree with that. I think all awards should be appreciated equally. Receiving an award means a panel of judges and reviewers took their valuable time to not only read your book, but critique it as well. Were the characters engaging? Was the dialogue realistic? How was the pacing? They consider all these things and much more. So to the judges who’ve read my series, I say thank you. Thank you for giving me your time and opinion.
I start my final read through of Passport to Yesteryear today. That may not sound like much to do, but trust me, it is anything but easy. This is the point where I agonize over every word. Can I make a sentence better? Does what I’ve written move the storyline forward? I find this stage more difficult than writing the first draft. Plus, I’m looking for typos before it goes to my editor on Tuesday. Why look for typos when that’s what the editor does? For the same reason people clean before the house cleaners show up. I’m sorting out my grammatical dust bunnies.
Speaking of which, I must get to it. This book isn’t going to read itself. For those of you not working today, it’s the weekend, people. Go do something fun. Or if you can’t do something fun, just relax. Might I suggest picking up a good book? 🙂