Hi fellow readers and writers! You never know what you’re going to get when you sit down to write a book. Most of us hope to just finish it. Others hope to sell it and become rich and famous. There are a whole lot of writers that end up in between, or closer to expectation #1. Certainly, we raise the bar as we go through the process. I felt a huge sense of relief—and satisfaction—when I finished Ace on the Hill. But then a new worry started to foul up my mood: what if no one read it? And if they did, what if they didn’t like it? AND…even if they did say they liked it, are they telling me the truth! ;-) This is why writer’s get labeled as neurotic. It’s also whey they (shouldn’t I use the pronoun “we”?) feel comfortable with expectations.

After receiving some promising feedback from friends and family, I dedicated to submit Ace on the Hill into several competitions. Well…so far…I don’t want to jinx anything, but the results have been better than I expected. My debut novel was just named the winner in the Coming of Age category at the 2023 Best Indie Book Awards (BIIBA). In addition, it recently earned four prizes for fiction at BOOKFEST 2023 (Autumn).

I’m happy to share this news with you, especially if you’re a fellow writer. Stay at it, and stay level headed no matter what anyone says.

And If you’re a reader and haven’t yet had a chance to pick up a copy, I’d be grateful if you’d check it out.

Thanks for stopping by.

JCW