My Contest Winning Books

Reviews are very important to all authors. A positive review can help to convince someone to buy a book.  There will always be negative reviews, but those are often outweighed by the many readers who appreciated the story.

Contests are helpful in selling books as well as long as the contests are reputable ones. Several of my books have been winners or finaled in contests, which is why I call myself an award-winning author--because I am. 

The first book of mine that was published, SEA OF HOPE, won the 2002 EPPIE Award Winner for Best Inspirational Novel.

HEAVEN'S BLUE was an EPPIE Award Winner for Best Inspirational Fiction.

PATRIOT'S COURAGE won the NEST Award (National Excellence in Story Telling) for Best Inspirational. 

THE COWBOY'S MIRACLE won third place in the Ancient City Romance Writers' Heart of Excellence Readers' Choice Award and was named a finalist in the EPIC eBook Awards. 

LOVE'S GIFT is a finalist for the Golden Leaf Award from the New Jersey Romance Writers.

THE KEEPER'S PROMISE was an EPPIE finalist for Inspiration Fiction in 2009. (This book was later released as THE KEEPER'S SECRET by Prism Lux in 2024.

IRONS IN THE FIRE was awarded Best Small Press Paranormal in the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Awards.

Those are the accolades for several of my books. However, there are far more reviews than awards. Most of my books are very inexpensive and some are available with Kindle Unlimited. Many are also available for free from Hoopla and Libby library apps. 

Take some time off and read a good book! 

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The Salt Mine

 Way back in 1973, I signed up for the Summer Study in Italy course, which was offered through Trenton State College—now The College of New Jersey. (I really hate it when colleges change their names.) A colleague of mine suggested the tour because she went on it and loved every moment of it. I signed up, saved my money, and when June came I flew off to France with the tour group. The course included six weeks in Italy, but there was initially a week in Paris and at the end of the tour, a week in Munich. 

The photo above was taken on that last week in Germany when we went down into a salt mine. Everyone donned special protective clothing and boarded a small train. The salt mine was large and to me, it smelled salty. 😆 It was a fun way to end our time together. After eight weeks, we all knew each other quite well. 

I took two courses on that trip, an art history course and a watercolor course. The credits transferred toward the graduate degree I was pursuing at Jersey City State College—now the New Jersey City University. (Why did they have to change the name?) 

It was the first time I was away from home for such a long amount of time and I was homesick for a while—until my cousin wandered into town. He was touring Europe that summer, too, and his mother instructed him to visit me. He showed me the letter she wrote to him as proof.😂

I brought my guitar with me, but also discovered the residenza where we stayed in Florence had a piano in the basement. I bought a crochet hook when we landed in Paris. LOL! Some things about me never change. Obviously, I had homework but I enjoy being busy all the time. I wasn’t writing any books at the time though I wrote many, many letters home. The internet hadn’t been invented and phone calls were practically impossible. I still have all the letters. Those are a real treasure to me. 

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I Did It!!!

I did it again! I wrote 30,000 words in the month of February on my current Work-In-Progress for the JeRoWriMo challenge. I still don’t have a name for the book but it is set in 1918 in New Jersey, which is one of my favorite places. 😊

The JeRoWritMo Challenge is a wonderful way to focus on writing. There are cheerleaders who acknowledge each writer’s success in typing out the words every day. It’s a wonderful way to push through and get the words down. 

I am very grateful to the New Jersey Romance Writers for hosting this challenge. 

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