Darkroom Named 1st Place Winner in the 2011 Forward National Literature Awards
I learned today that my book DARKROOM won 1st place in the Forward National Literature Awards in the Mystery Category. What an honor and pleasant surprise! It’s been quite a journey for this book, which I wrote back in 2011 right after losing my job of nearly a decade, which I had been so blessed with.
To the onlooker, this should have been one of the darkest periods of my life. Unemployed in a depressed economy, having in the past five years up till then lost my mother to ALS, and my wife’s mother to cancer, I could easily have succumbed to a victim mentality.
But at the same time, I had just gone to a new church where I found myself filled up with hope, faith, and love by many people who I now count as my life-long friends and extended family. I learned never to speak negatively into my future, but to speak hope and faith. Not just to speak it, but to believe it. And faith without action is dead faith, so whatever I was believing for (a breakthrough, a new career, etc.,) I needed to commit to in my thoughts, words, attitudes, actions, and choices. Otherwise, I’m just fooling myself, right?
During the time in which I wrote DARKROOM, I found myself completely inspired by a writing flow unlike I had ever experienced. It did help that I had a lot more time to write, but it was so much more than that. It was during this time that I found my calling: To write books that entertain as much, if not more so, as any NY Times bestselling author, and to edify my readers into finding hope in their lives–the need of which I became keenly aware during this time.
I’d like to thank the people at the Forward National Literature Awards for this honor, and all my wonderful family, friends, and fans for all your love and enthusiastic (almost evangelical, in some cases) support! Most of all, I want to give God all the glory, because I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that DARKROOM could not have been written without the divine providence and inspiration.
PS: Please click the “like” and/or any of the sharing buttons to help spread the word!
Thanks!
Joshua Graham is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, winner of the International Book Award and Forward National Literature Award. His thrillers include DARKROOM, LATENT IMAGE and BEYOND JUSTICE, and TERMINUS. Graham's works have been characterized as thought-provoking page-turners.
Legal Notice: All information on this website and blog are from Mr. Graham's personal experience and insight and should not be viewed in any way, directly or inferred, as qualified professional advice.
All creative writing on this website or Mr. Graham's books: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. (novels, short stories)