So many things have happened with my novel Lost on the Prairie since it was announced as the nominee for two awards earlier this month that I needed to do a blog post just to draw everything together so I don’t forget about anything.
When Lost on the Prairie was published a year ago it made the bestseller list at McNally Robinson Booksellers for thirteen weeks in a row. Yesterday thanks to the news about my award nominations it was there again.
When I was shopping at McNally Robinson Booksellers last week I stopped to take a photo of Lost on the Prairie in a special display with some of the other Manitoba Book Award nominees. I feel honoured to be in their company.
I had such a good time on May 12th when I was invited to talk about my novel in a presentation to a group of seniors at my church Bethel Mennonite. I brought along some family memorabilia related to the novel and was delighted at all the folks who came over to chat with me about the various items and buy my book.
Esther Matz a successful novelist in her own right wrote this lovely article for our church newsletter about the event.
May 16th was British Columbia Book Day and my publisher Heritage House which is based in Victoria included Lost on the Prairie in one of the graphics they used to publicize the day.
Bob Armstrong was kind enough to give my award nomination a mention in his weekly column in the Winnipeg Free Press.
My wonderfully supportive publisher Heritage House created this graphic to announce the news about my award nominations and ………….
the Manitoba Book Awards created a great graphic as well to announce my nomination for the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award.
Jordan Ross from The Carillon did a feature about poet Sarah Ens and myself. Both of us grew up in the regional area the newspaper serves and both have been nominated for Manitoba Book Awards this year.
I have been learning how helpful becoming an award nominee can be. Prior to my awards nominations being announced The Winnipeg Public Library had only three copies of my book. But………. now they have 22 copies of Lost on the Prairie and those copies have 18 holds on them.
I am so grateful to my publisher Heritage House and in particular my marketing manager Monica Miller for all the work and effort they put into creating the submission documents for these awards, and to all the great organizations and groups who fund both the Manitoba Book Awards and the Manitoba Young Readers Choice Awards.
I am grateful to McNally Robinson Booksellers, Common Word Bookstore, and the gift shop at the Steinbach Heritage Village Museum for selling Lost on the Prairie and of course to all the people who have bought my book.
Other posts……..
What Next? 
Congratulations MaryLou! How very exciting and well deserved nomination! I really enjoyed the book and bought an extra copy to give away. Take care, Lois Siemens
>
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Lois. I am actually in Saskatoon right now and have been visiting Auntie Vi every day. She is doing as well as can be expected.
LikeLike