DAPHNE WINNER!

Conference Season #1

I can’t believe I forgot to update this page with my biggest news yet!

Where Shadows Lie, book one of my Shadow Play series is the First Place winner in the Mainstream Thriller category, AND overall unpublished division winner for the 2022 Daphne du Maurier award!

I am SO very honored that they loved my spies!

Wow. It’s been over a month and I’m still choked up when I recall it.

Being in DC was incredible in and of itself. It felt awesome to be back out in the world. We spent the first day of conference touring the International Spy Museum, which was awesome! I could spend a whole week in there and still have things to explore. Two hours was not nearly enough. I have so many pictures of everything from Mata Hari’s costume to the genuine Kiss of Death, the KGB lipstick gun the RWA Suspense chapter named itself after.

Once we completed our mission at the museum, we headed to lunch at National Harbor, where I realized hey, I think I blow this place up in book two lol! (I do.)

The ceremony was…I don’t have words. I wore neck-to-toe sequins, totally not my style, but Hannah pointed it out as something my little girl would choose, and you know what? My kid’s got style. I felt—and looked—like a star on the red carpet and that was just the dress! Being chosen for this award is both so humbling and so exciting at the same time.

It’s no secret how I struggle with confidence in my writing, and this was step one in dispelling any doubts I have left that—dammit woman—I deserve this.

Thank you, again, to the contest committee for choosing my spies, my amazing editor Ryan Steck, and my friends/family who have supported me and kept me moving forward, even when everything else was falling apart.

Love you all!

JJ