I was sitting in a meeting at work last Friday when my friend Jaime Wright texted me a photo with a simple word: CARA!!!!
I vaguely knew that the Christy annoucement was coming up. I was prepared to celebrate with my friends who would receive the nods that their books had finaled. My sharp inhale of breath and quick exit from the room with collapse into a crouch in the hallway was a clear indicator to anyone who saw me that I did NOT expect to be a finalist.
Then Jaime called and got to listen to me hyperventilate outside. I’m sure anyone watching thought I was hyseterical — because I was barely holding it together. Only later did I learn that Jaime was also a finalist in the Mystery/Suspense/Thriller category along with Lynette Eason and Kate
My husband and I talked about it last night.
I know who I am. My identity doesn’t change with a nomination or the lack of a nomination. It doesn’t shift with finaling or not. I could tell you the couple of awards I entered this same book in and the deadlines I missed this year. The fact it didn’t make the list in those disappointed me, but it’s part of life. Many good books are written and published each year. Yet I won’t pretend that finaling doesn’t also fill a temporary corner of my soul. It’s just very temporary.
I love The Accused. I brainstormed the germ of the idea for this book with my then editor Jocelyn and Tricia Goyer in January 2020 at the American Library Association Midwinter meeting. Then the world shut-down and the wheels fell off. Then Kregel bought the series, and as I was ready to start this book, a similar tragedy happened on our campus. I called my editor Janyre and said we had to rearrange the order of these books. I don’t want anyone to think I had this idea because of this tragedy. I had to finish the idea for The Vanished and write the book in less than three months to stay on deadline — over Thanksgiving, finals, and Christmas. I love that book, but it tried to kill me. The Accused was fun to write. It’s my most like a John Grisham/Lisa Scottoline true courtroom drama…and I had been planning to write it for years by the time I got to.
That’s why this feels so extra special. It’s also my first Christy final for a full-length novel.
The authors and books I’ve finaled alongside are fantastic, so when I dash to Nashville for the Gala Awards dinner I’m going to celebrate with them and my other friends who finaled in other categories. It will be a very quick trip. But I will enjoy every moment of celebrating great fiction.
To celebrate, I’d love to gift a copy of the series to a reader. All you have to do to be entered is use the form below.