Things I learned this weekend: Driving through the state of Illinois is a long, long, LOOOOOONG process. Mystery author J.A. Jance is one of the most gracious human beings on the planet. There are a lot of wonderful, gracious people on this planet. I am a dork when it comes to public speaking situations where I’ve been caught off-guard.
I discovered the final lesson on Saturday, August 26th at the Killer Nashville Awards Dinner when my unpublished novel was honored with first runner-up for the 2017 Killer Nashville Claymore Award. The image on the left is the hardware, the image on the right is moi – I think this is the part of my speech where I declared my love for every Minnesotan in the room at the banquet. (Surprisingly, there were several Minnesotans there.)
To say I was gobsmacked is a total understatement. And while I wasn’t totally unprepared (I’m glad that I got to give some shout outs to the Sisters in Crime and to Mystery Writers of America), my time at the podium was a bit of an out-of-body experience.
The official list of 2017 award winners can be found here. I am grateful to Clay Stafford and his team of staffers who put on the Killer Nashville conference. It was an incredible experience and is a huge milestone in my writing career.
michellekubitz 
This elevator going UP.
I hope to read it in print VERY soon. You are most definitely rising.