SAFE THUS FAR: A 2022 Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award Finalist!

My latest published novel, Safe Thus Far, was a finalist for the 2022 Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award. Several of my novels have been nominees for the award in earlier years, and I was pleased that this book was a finalist.

My novel was in good company. The winner of this year’s Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award was Binding Us Together: A Civil Rights Activist Reflects on A Lifetime of Community and Public Service, by Alvin Brooks, a long-time Kansas City community leader and public servant. And the other finalist was Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S. Connell, by Steve Paul, who had a lengthy career as a reporter, writer, and editor at The Kansas City Star. Their books are both non-fiction.

I am honored to have Safe Thus Far, a historical novel written mostly to entertain readers, in the company of these well-respected men. (Though I am not ashamed to write fiction. The best novels tell stories as compelling as non-fiction. Truth is not revealed only through reality. As an attorney who had to design the story to fit the facts, I find it liberating to design the plot to illuminate the story.)

As I said during the Thorpe Menn award ceremony last weekend, the Kansas City writing community is generous and encouraging. I am privileged to be a part of it—from the Kansas City Writers Group led by Mary-Lane Kamberg and Deborah Shouse, to The Story Center at the Woodneath Branch of the Mid-Continent Public Library, to the Association of American University Women’s Kansas City Chapter, which sponsors the Thorpe Menn Award. Writing can be a lonely occupation, and these organizations make it easier.

Readers of this blog know that Safe Thus Far started as a NaNoWriMo project in 2020. That first draft was messy, but I spent several months editing it and cleaning it up. It’s encouraging to know it cleaned up well enough to be a finalist among books published by notable Kansas City area authors last year.

I am sorry to say that I doubt I’ll have a book to submit for next year’s Thorpe Menn Award. My current work-in-progress is proceeding more slowly than I had hoped. But I’d rather work to make it be of the same caliber as my earlier novels than rush it.

My thanks to all writers and readers who have encouraged me over the years.