Saturday, June 02, 2007

Editor's Choice Award (Fiction)

Yesterday afternoon SOJOURN won the top Editor's Choice Award for Fiction through ForeWord Magazine. Here's their press release:

Two books were named the Editor's Choice Prize winners, a distinction that comes with a $1,500 cash prize. The Editor's Choice Prize for Fiction was awarded to Sojourn by Jana Oliver (Dragon Moon Press, 978-1-896944-30-2), the first Science Fiction book to be chosen for this honor.

"This fascinating book is an intricate time travel tale involving journeys between 1888 Victorian England and the year 2057," publisher Victoria Sutherland said. "The book is lavishly researched, with over six dozen sources listed in the author's bibliography. It has already received recognition from other sources, and it is our pleasure to name it as this year's Editor's Choice Prize Winner for Fiction."

As I was in Dallas at A-Kon and my publisher was unable to attend the awards ceremony, Brian Hades of Hades Publications did the honors. He called me with the astounding news during one of the panels. It still hasn't fully hit home. While Brian was at it, he attended the Independent Publisher Book Award Ceremony last night and collected my Gold Medal. I certainly owe him as he has to haul all the loot back to Canada (grin).

And to add icing to the cake, Connie Ward's GRYPHON HIGHLORD, from Dragon Moon, won the Gold in Science Fiction. There was a lot of celebration all around.

Awards like these are a testament to the input of a lot of very good people. Sure, we authors pen the books, but if we aren't held to a higher standard by a critique group (you know who you are!), given excellent editorial input (in my case by Adrienne deNoyelles) graced with awesome covers (artists L.W. Perkins & Christina Yoder), vetted by great beta readers (Tyra Mitchell, Tina Rak, Ally Reineke and Judy Stock), proofed by Nanette Littlestone (an editor in her own right) and given full support by their publisher (Gwen Gades), you just got another book. Everything came to together on this one.

Thanks folks. This one is for all of you.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Start figuring out your price because the big guys are going to come knocking soon. The way you are going there is no stopping you! But no matter how far your star rises I will always remember you freezing your back sides off on the beach in the southern UK "because the light is best first thing in the morning". We had a great time and we have the pics to prove it. I was right about that and I am about this too. ;) Congrats AGAIN!!!

Jana Oliver said...

I will ALWAYS remember that morning at the beach. Creeping out of the B&B before dawn, the seabirds wheeling overhead and the fact my ears were numb and about to fall off since it was so windy. But, as always, you were right. The light was fabulous.

We'll see how this plays out in NY. Jim Butcher (Dresden Files) is from Des Moines. You never know.

tinal89 said...

CONGRATS!!!! It is well deserved and a long time coming!! I agree the big boys will be knocking on your door soon...make sure they come with a big check :)

BTW, LOVE the cover for Virtual Evil.