James Osborne Novels

I’m very pleased to tell you that my short story collection and two novels have been chosen for awards in an international readers’ competition.

Encounters With Life—Tales of Living, Loving & Laughter, a collection of my short stories, was awarded first place in the Best Short Story open category.

My debut novel, The Ultimate Threat was awarded second place in the Best Thriller Novel category, and my newest novel, The Maidstone Conspiracy, tied for third place for Best Mystery Novel.

It’s an understatement to say it’s an exciting experience to be this fortunate so soon after my first book was published — in June 2015.

But I’m pleased the awards came from a remarkable organization. It’s a  non-profit group called Preditors&Editors.org, founded in 1997 to help readers and writers avoid the swindlers who, sadly, abound in the publishing and media production industry. P&E is part of a larger non-profit group that specializes in skill development for those in writing, music, poetry, art, video, photography, social media and a host of other creative fields. Assistance is provided regardless of an individual’s financial means.

This is the 18th year for the awards competition. Each year, readers and writers from around the world are invited to vote for their favorites in more than 35 categories.

Voters in the poll also presented me with a huge surprise – I was awarded third place in the Best Author category from among more than two-dozen finalists. I had no idea that someone had nominated me — still don’t know who it was — but I’m mighty flattered. It’s humbling to be included among best selling authors as well as a group of aspiring writers who I’m confident we’ll be hearing a lot more from and about in the years ahead 

I’m pleased that The Ultimate Threat was recognized. The motivation behind writing it was to raise a warning note. The story anticipates what could happen if the terrorist group ISIS was to lead an insurgency in North America, and how it could be stopped. Since The Ultimate Threat was written, some portions of the fictional scenarios envisioned in it have shown an eerie similarity to horrific events in other parts of the world. The spread of terrorist attacks even in recent months gives one pause.

As some folks may recall the novel spent several weeks on Amazon’s best sellers list. That success led to it being listed on the websites of Chapters/Indigo in Canada and of the US big box bookstore chains Barnes & Nobel and Books-A-Million, as well as the website of the mammoth retailer WalMart.

Finally, many folks who follow this blog were kind enough to vote for my entries, and I thank you, both for your votes and for letting me know. I am deeply grateful. Awards help to sell books, and most of us authors do appreciate that. 😉

Life is good!

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Image Credits: Three trophies courtesy of higherlogic.com via Google Images; award images courtesy of Preditors&Editors.com; cover of The Ultimate Threat courtesy of Endeavour Press Ltd., London, UK; covers of Encounters With Life and The Maidstone Conspiracy courtesy of Solstice Publishing Inc, Farmington, MO.