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Yep, it’s true: Dodging and Burning won a Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel at Bouchercon this year. The award is named for the “mystery cat” of T.S. Eliot fame and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International. I’m so thankful to Janet Rudolph, editor of Mystery Readers Journal, and to all the readers who supported my book.

When I accepted the award, I mentioned how amazed I was that so many readers were willing to embrace a mystery about a gay WWII photographer. Later in the conference, minutes before the Anthony Awards were announced (which I was also nominated for, so I was very jittery), a woman approached me and told me she’d been trying to find me. She wanted me to sign her copy of Dodging and Burning and personalize it for her son and his partner. She remarked how she’s been a proud PFLAG mom for many years and how happy she was that a crime novel like mine—a mystery about queer life—had found such visibility.

I was moved. She—a mother with a gay son—felt more visible because of the award, because of my book. There are many wonderful LGBTQ crime authors writing amazing stories. I hope we will ALL continue to gain visibility and offer our readers the opportunity to feel seen.