I went to the Oregon Book Awards.
I drove for six hours.
I spent money on a hotel.
I curled my hair.
I did not win.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter what a judge picked. What matters are the emails, the messages, the conversations I’ve had with readers, who appreciated and loved the book.
It’s still hard not to win, though.
The woman who won my category was really surprised. She didn’t write a book until she retired. This is her first book, and she self published it. So, that is pretty great, and I’d rather lose to someone like that than some of the big name authors who were there.
What do you do with defeat? You can’t control what people think of your writing. I’m happy with Geography and I wouldn’t change one word of it.
Onward.