Uptown Thief wins top Independent Publisher award

I haven’t written for a while, because I got some exciting news to write about, and I didn’t quite know how to put my thoughts and feelings into words. Which folks know is rare for me. For so many years, I have been that writer who perservered. I wrote when I had no audience. I wrote when I had no agent. I wrote when I had no book deal. I wrote when I had no time. I wrote through all the adversity and rejection, and I have forged myself into a #ShePersisted sort of shape. Sometimes so much so that when the good things come along, I don’t know how to celebrate or even quite how to share the news.

*whispers excitedly* “I won a literary prize!”

Many of the most well-known prizes have big price tags or authors have to be nominated by a Big Five publishing house. Or they dismiss genre fiction. But the Independent Publisher (IPPY) Awards are for books published by indie houses and University presses and self-published work. And I won gold in the Urban Fiction category.

I’m really proud, because I wanted to make a contribution to Urban Fiction, and I believed I had, but it’s really moving and humbling to have that contribution recognized.

And I’ll be going to New York City for the awards ceremony at the end of this month. And it falls on 5/30, the exact same day that my 2nd book, THE BOSS comes out. So right now, it feels like my writers life is charmed. I’m inspired. I’m delighted. I’m grateful. It still sneaks up on me sometimes. Wow, I won…

So congratulations to all the IPPY award winners this year, and a shoutout to all the writers out there who persist, despite tough times and discouragement. Keep writing. Keep. Writing.

Special thanks to award-winning novelist Toni Ann Johnson, author of REMEDY FOR A BROKEN ANGEL, who encouraged and inspired me to submit my book for prizes!