I don’t like contests or competitions.

From spelling bees, science fairs, and athletic events in school, I entered only when required and usually lost.

Two years ago, an author friend of mine, Lisa Brunette, won the Book Readers Appreciation Group medallion for her book, Framed and Burning. She had won earlier for Cat in the Flock and, as we talked about her writing, she encouraged me to enter the competition.

Because of my aversion to such events, I kept putting it off. However, I knew when I finished writing my most recent novel, Through the Storm, that I had a winner.

In the novel, Neal Evans is in Nevada when he hears that an immense coronal mass ejection will soon slam into the Earth’s magnetosphere. Will it cause only beautiful auroras to dance across the night sky or will it throw technology back a hundred years? Politicians and scientists are still debating when Neal decides to act. As night falls, he has ten hours to drive home before the first CME strikes.  

His son, Drake, is a happy high school freshman. Conner, his older brother, has gone hunting, instead of watching over him while their father is away at the conference. So now it’s party time!

As the world sinks into darkness, Neal and Conner must confront a dangerous new world on their long journeys home. Drake, alone on the farm, must become a man even before he figures out his teen years.

Through the Storm was released in September of 2017 and finally in March of this year I entered the competition. 

Earlier this week I received a email from Geraldine Clouston, the president of IndieBRAG LLC, stating that my novel Through the Storm had been selected to receive a B.R.A.G. Medallion. Yesterday, I received the formal notification.

I can’t say that I enjoy contests, but I’m glad I entered this one.