ON MARCH 6TH, my novel had its book birthday (Look how it’s grown!). It’s been a wild year, to say the least. You never know how readers are going to react to your work—that baby you nurtured and fought with for so long. Occasionally, you get a trollish comment like “The main theme … is homosexuality. Yawn.” Really?Yawn? Recently, though, I received an email from a reader who told me that, because of her job, she’d struggled to find time to read and to focus when she reads. She went on to say that she spent an entire Sunday sinking into Dodging and Burning and that it “broke her heart” in a good way. These days, focusing on anything for more than an hour is a triumph. That my novel might draw someone in and hold them for a day validated all those Sundays I spent writing it. More than that, it renewed my hope that reading can be a refuge, that a book—by whomever—can help us navigate the blur of sound bites rushing past us every day.

Speaking of validation, I heard some wonderful news this winter: Dodging and Burning received a Barry Award nomination from Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine for Best First Novel and a Lambda Literary Award (“Lammy”) nomination for Best Gay Mystery. Now commences the waiting and the nail-biting. I’ll hear about the Lammy in June and the Barry in October. Of course, I want to win, but my fellow nominees have written some fabulous books. Check out the lists and check out ALL the books!