Book awards and other writing fun

Exciting news!

I learned a couple of weeks ago that 680 Miles Away is a finalist in the Religious/Spiritual Fiction category for the Colorado Independent Publishers Associations 2024 Book Awards. The award winners will be announced on September 19—you can be sure that if 680 Miles Away wins, I will let you know!

More exciting news!

680 Miles Away DID win an award in the Young Adult - Coming of Age category from Readers’ Favorite, an international book contest. Now I can officially call myself an award-winning novelist, which feels pretty cool.

Other writing fun

I polled you all a while ago about a potential pen name if I decided to work on a fantasy series. I’m still mulling whether a pen name is the right way to go, but I have indeed begun building the world for a fantasy series.

A writer in a writing community I recently joined (Inkwells & Anvils—check us out if you are a Catholic writer!) mentioned that J.R.R. Tolkien always started with a map, not with the story or characters. So I decided to try it out for myself. I found a great online tool called Inkarnate for making maps, and I have been having too much fun with it!

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy a little sneak peek of a couple of the maps I made.