Of awards and rewards

It was the Mills and Boon Voice of Africa romance writing competition that turned my attention to writing romance ‘proper’. Before that moment, any romance had been strictly confined to my wobbly love life rather than anything that might end up in print. But in 2011, I thought to myself, maybe give this a try. And I won. I was out skating with my sister when the editor of Essentials mag phoned to tell me this fabulous news. Admittedly, I was pretty useless for the rest of the day.

In May this year I decided to enter the first ever Imbali awards, a ROSA (Romance Organisation of South Africa) award that recognises excellence in romance writing. Saturday night the winner was announced by multi-bestselling, multi-award winning dynamo Mary Jo Putney at ROSACon2016. Hells bells, said winner was me. 

Anyone who knows me, knows that despite having had some luck with raffles and things in the past, I generally don't win anything. So I’ve been doing rather a number of happy dances since that announcement on Saturday.

Writing is very much its own reward. But to be acknowledged as well. Marvellous. Delighted. Overwhelmed.

And the fabulous award itself? Next to my Catwoman statue, of course.