Saturday, November 4, 2017

4 Gold for Honey! Will Rogers Medallion Awards #HoneyBeaulieu


A Tale of Two Winners
by Jacquie Rogers

Honey Beaulieu must have taken exception to something Will Rogers said!
There's nothing like going to Texas this time of year.  It's snowing back home in Seattle but today it was 93 degrees in Flower Mound, TX.  Guess which I prefer!  Of course, another draw to Texas was that we have wonderful friends and family here.

The instigating factor for coming to Texas, though, was the Will Rogers Medallion Award banquet.  The first two books in the Honey Beaulieu - Man Hunter series, Hot Work in Fry Pan Gulch and Sidetracked in Silver City, finaled in the Western Humor category.  Woohoo!  The committee chose four finalists and my books were two of them, so I figured I had a lock on the bronze.  

However, the probability of a bronze medal wasn't the reason I wanted to attend.   I could hardly wait to meet the head honcho and the founder of the awards, Charles Williams.  We did meet and I can assure you that he's just as kind and friendly as I thought, and he has a great sense of humor.  

Charles Williams, founder of the Will Rogers Medallion Awards
with me, Sassy, and Honey.  Honey too quite a liking to him.
The first day, at the Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering booksigning, I met Gene Helmick-Richardson.  So did Honey.  They seemed to get off to a bit of a rocky start but by the end of the doin's, they were best of friends.

Gene Helmick-Richardson knows when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.
Did I mention our Texas hosts?  We were lucky enough to stay with one of my best friends who, unbeknownst to her, started off as one of my mentors.  I studied her books to figure out this writing gig, and I was beyond thrilled when she contacted me that first time.  Yes, I was her fangirl!  That would be the awesome and talented Caroline Clemmons.  At this point, you might say we're a mutual admiration society. LOL  

Our Halloween photo courtesy of Snapchat.
So good people and good fun.  What could be better?  Um, well, winning.  Imagine my surprise when both my books won gold medallions!  And also Camp Rogers Press won two!  To be honest, Mr R should've picked up the Camp Rogers Press medals, but I was all too happy to cart them back to the table myself. 

Mr R recorded it on my phone.  It was his first time ever recording anything on a smartphone so all in all, the video turned out pretty well.

Caroline and Hero, Mr R and I were all flying high that night.  We had a delicious steak dinner and met some really nice people.  What a grand time!

The four of us went back to Caroline's house, yammered half the night, and went to bed.  The next morning, we found out that Caroline's book Grant Me the Moon had won the International Digital Award (sponsored by the Oklahoma RWA) for Short Contemporary Romance!  That was so wonderful--two winners in the house.  Our husbands didn't quite know what to do with us. LOL.  We were yipping and dancing through the living room.  It must have been quite a sight.


But we did slow down long enough to get our photo together.


Let me tell you, that sure went well with our bacon and eggs.

Mr R and I will be headed back to Seattle in a few days.  I can't tell you how much I'll miss Caroline.  I really would like to stash her in the car and take her with me.  Then again, if it keeps snowing up north...  


If you're on Snapchat, friend me!  My handle is jacquierogers.  You can get videos of Sassy's latest updates there.  And goofy pictures of her scribe.

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