Awards — Diary of a Fic Fiend - The Official Blog of Author Kilby Blades

I Was Just Nodded For my 50th Award! "Spooning Leads to Forking" is a Finalist in the Golden Leaf!

Huge thanks to New Jersey Romance Writers for honoring Spooning Leads to Forking as a finalist in the 2020 Golden Leaf Contest in the Romantic Suspense category. This honor is particularly sweet because it's my 50th award and my first award for Spooning Leads to Forking. All of my books are a little autobiographical. In Spooning Leads to Forking, heroine Shea is a food critic (I used to be a food, wine and travel writer myself.) It was a great time in my life and I loved reliving it through writing the book.

Awards and AccoladesKilby BladesOctober 4, 2020AwardsComment

"Love in an Elevator" Just Won its First Award!

Last night, I was so busy wrangling the littles and cooking a dinner I wouldn’t even get to eat myself (long story) that I missed a call I would much rather have been taking from Fenley Grant. It was the best kind of call from someone with a strange number: a call to tell me I’d won something. Not a free three-night stay in Las Vegas if I agree to listen to a brief ::cough::not brief::cough:: sales pitch—something far more awesome than that.

I’m excited to share that early chapters of my brand-spanking-new manuscript, “Love in an Elevator”, just finaled in the Great Expectations Contest put on by North Texas RWA! I know, I know—it’s not good that I just put a 1989 Aerosmith song in your head…

Awards and AccoladesKilby BladesFebruary 27, 2019Awards, Love in an Elevator, Crocodile Tears Comment

"Crocodile Tears" Wins 2nd Place for Fiction with a Central Romance in the Rudy Awards!

I'm not the kind of author who is blessed with plotbunnies that will yield straightforward books. My work is complex and doesn't always fit clearly into a single category. Snapdragon was a doozie to write, but even more than Snapdragon, I've struggled with Crocodile Tears, my unpublished manuscript that's gone through quite an identity crisis. I haven't said much about Crocodile Tears yet--what you should know is that it deals with a multi-generational family feud. When the hero's father dies and leaves the daughter of the enemy family half of his multi-million-dollar fortune, my hero and heroine are forced to get to the bottom of the family feud.

Awards and AccoladesKilby BladesAugust 8, 2018Awards, Crocodile TearsComment

Four Books. Four Awards. And an Amazing time in Denver at RWA 2018!

It's hard to even know how to begin this article. My experience at RWA this year is a lot different from my first year in Orlando in 2017. Not knowing anything about anything that first year, I blindly followed the advice of my book bestie, L.G. O'Connor. I signed up too late to have secured appointments with agents and editors, and, either way, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go traditional. But I was sick of sitting at home in my bathrobe, writing and swilling coffee. It seemed a good opportunity to get out of the house. So I went. I attended workshops. I had, literally, no place to be. I met other authors. I visited the overwhelming swag room. And I watched nominees walk across the stage to accept RITA Awards.

RSJ Emma Awards for Diversity in Romance Honor Kilby Blades as Best Debut Author

I'll admit it--it's been a tough year for me in terms of discovering truths about the industry--and, by that, I mean coming to some realizations about how far we still have to go with respect to promoting diversity in romance. I certainly knew that we were underrepresented--that it seemed more difficult for diverse authors to get traditional publishing contracts and, if we get them, to have good experience with our publishers around marketing and promotion. I did not know until recently about a litany of other issues--from earning retail space, to being dropped from publishing, to problems with book displays and shelving, to serious issues with the RITA Awards.

Awards and Accolades, DiversityKilby BladesJune 20, 2018Snapdragon, Chrysalis, Awards, DiversityComment

Oh, Golden Lemon Awards, thank you for understanding that "Best Lemon" just isn't good enough...

Thank God for Twitter. If not for the big T how would I have found out about The Golden Lemon Awards? Now, it looks like this is its first go-round for these awards, but I can already tell they will be totally perv-tastic. How do I know this? Because it is asking fans to nominate lemony award categories they'd like to see as a precursor to nominating fic!

GreenPumaJanuary 7, 2010Awards, LemonsComment

What fic finds you nestled all snug in your bed while visions of Carlisles and Edwards dance in your head?

It's Bellie and Eddie time, folks. And the Winter 2010 round has something new and brilliant: "Story that Haunts Your Dreams". This is a category dedicated to fic that pwns you so hard you have to read it again. And again. And again. A fic that hurts so good you can't stop thinking about it, not even in your sleep.

I rarely go back and read entire fics (especially since I'm into a lot of lonnnng multi-chapters), but I certainly go back for individual chapters and scenes. When I think of who I will nominate for this category, here is a list of juicies that definitely haunts my dreams:

GreenPumaNovember 30, 2009Awards, recommendations Comments

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