2018 Spur Award - Best Western Romance Novel

Friday evening, I got an email from the publisher of The Promise Bride congratulating Gina and me on winning the 2018 Spur Award from the Western Writers of America for "Best Western Romance Novel."

Uh...I didn't even know we entered.

I'll spare you the details (although if you want to read about them, you can visit my author blog post here) and say only that these past few months I've contemplated giving up writing pretty much every day. I can't express how much I needed some good news.

To celebrate, I made two identical cards - one for my writing partner and one for our editor - using a free Cricut cut, some CTMH paper and stamp (both current and retired), and an MFT die cut.

I searched "My Images" in Cricut Design Space for a boot, and this one came up as free. Sweet!! It didn't have the spur, so I created that by altering a square, circle, and star from the shapes button. The spur itself is a star that I copied, pasted, and then rotated one 45 degrees before welding both together. I cut everything with CTMH cardstock in Peacock, Linen (both current), Saddle, and Barn Red (both retired).

The scallop and stitched frame is from My Favorite Things. I tried it in plain white, but I liked the card much better with the added oomph of the Peacock cardstock frame.

The sentiment is from a retired CTMH Cricut bundle called Artiste. Technically, the sentiment should be "Brava" since the recipients of the cards are both women, but I didn't have that stamp. I had this one. Close enough. I stamped it in Peacock ink.

Part of what makes this win so remarkable is that The Promise Bride is an Inspirational story, meaning it comes from a Christian worldview and doesn't include any descriptions that would make my mother blush. That's atypical for a "Romance Novel." The coolest thing, though, is that I can now call myself an award-winning author. You might see some of my social media accounts begin to reflect that. **Big cheesy grin**

Until next time,
Becca