And the winner is… Me.

Fragments of the Heart won a GCLS Award, and I admit to being rather bemused about it.

I am practical. I’m also cheap. There are more nuanced words for it, but that’s the truth. Romance? Not my strong suit. Not even my weak suit. Not really a suit of any kind. To me, a good gift is one that’s practical. You don’t need another bag, but you definitely need a new dishwasher. Yes, even for your birthday. Maybe especially for your anniversary.

And so it was an enormous surprise when not only was I short listed for the award, but when my wife jumped on me at 8am on a Sunday morning (very early for me) to tell me I’d won.

Now, not only am I practical, but I also take a lot of time to feel stuff. Good stuff, anyway. So it wasn’t until after two cups of coffee that I began to get excited. (I won an award for Dark Haven under Brey Willows, too.) It was…surreal. It remains surreal. My, a rather non-romantic person, won an award for a romance. And a romance close to my heart, too.

It’s the first time I’ve written a neurodiverse character, and I grew extremely attached to her. I hope she’s still having fun out there somewhere, just being herself.

If you’d like to read Fragments of the Heart to fall in love and have some adventure too, you can find it here. And thanks for reading. It means the world to me.