It’s taken me three months to truly wrap my head around this news, but I’m so pleased to share that my romantic suspense, THE HUSTLER, is a RWA Golden Heart® Award Finalist!

Finaling in the Golden Heart has always been a pie-in-the-sky writing dream of mine, and I still can’t believe I got the call. I wish I could say I was oh-so-chill about it, but…no. Much blubbering ensued. There were tears.

This was the third year I entered THE HUSTLER, and I couldn’t be more pleased and honored to be a finalist. The past three years have been a rollercoaster with this novel, and I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times I was tempted to quit. But I decided to pull out this manuscript, dust it off, and give it one final round of edits before entering it into the Golden Heart for the very last time, and I’m so glad I did.

Moral of the story: don’t give up on your dreams! You never know when the sun is about ready to peek out from behind the clouds.

Huge congrats to all the other Golden Heart finalists! I’m looking forward to celebrating with everyone at RWA Nationals on July 24–27th in New York City.