Awards

I'm an Oscar junkie. I love this time of year when the Oscars are announced. Okay, so I'm a bit of an award junkie. I also love reading about all the book awards when they come out too. I will admit this. This year when the Oscar's were announced I was excited that there was an 82-year-old up for a supporting actor award. I thought to myself, maybe I'll win an award with one of my books when I'm 82. I still have lots and lots of time to write lots and lots more books. (Well, not that much but quite a few years.) I'm determined to still be writing in my eighties. There are so many awards in the Children's literature categories. Silver Birch, Red Maple, TD Children's Literature Award, Norma Fleck Award and then there is the one I was nominated for (my only nomination to date), the Golden Eagle Award in Alberta. The list does go on. When I got my nomination I immediately thought, they only picked my book to have a book that the boys can read. Talk about confidence. And there are all the awards for mystery novels. I only have one mystery novel out and, like Angelina Jolie this year, it's not award material. The Crime Writers of Canada has the Arthur Ellis awards and they will be announced in the spring. I put my book in for first novel but it wasn't nominated and rightly so.
I always wonder how the people who win the "big" award right away, after the first book or the first big movie feel. Probably a bit overwhelmed. I saw the young girl, Ellen, from Nova Scotia who played in the movie Juno on Oprah--she was humble and honoured and did look like stunned that she was up for an Oscar. My editor--who actually quit her job at Lorimer to write full-time, wrote her first book Johnny Kellock Died Today and it was up for numerous awards, including the coveted TD Children's Literature Award. I was proud of her. She's a great editor and great writer. I know she felt honoured too.
Awards are something our society loves.
Maybe I will win one before I'm 82.
I'll keep writing!!!!