I couldn’t be happier that The Fishers of Paradise won the inaugural Kerry Schooley Book Award at last night’s Hamilton Arts Council Literary Awards. Congratulations to all the nominees and to Diana Walsh for her win in the non-fiction category for Empty Cradle, and Miranda Hill for taking the fiction prize for her short story collection, Sleeping Funny. As M/C Robert Howard reiterated, what a validation it is for writers to be nominated for awards. I drew a complete blank halfway through my thank yous. I remembered afterwards I wanted to thank the three fabulous independent bookstores in Hamilton–Jaime at Epic Books, Julie at J.H. Gordon Books and a special and huge shout out to Tracey and Kerry and the rest of the gang at Bryan Prince, Bookseller for always supporting me and The Fishers of Paradise and my other books.