I’ve always been one of the luckiest people I know.

As it relates to my writing career, that has manifested itself in the form of nominations and awards, including two noms this year — the 2021 Silver Falchion Award for Best Suspense Novel and 2021 Best Thriller Book Award for best political thriller.

But neither of those compare to what happened yesterday.

A nominating committee of the Texas High Plains Writers — the longest continuously active writing club in the state and one of the oldest in the country — named me the organization’s 2021 Writer of the Year. (Full disclosure: I served as president of the THPW this year; the committee that chose the award neither included me nor was picked by me.)

To put this into a bit of perspective, actively writing members of the THPW include: New York Times and USA Today bestseller Jodi Thomas; NYT and USAT bestseller Linda Broday; bestselling and award-winning author Jennifer Archer; and more than a dozen others whose novels and short stories have been published, most with more titles to their name than mine.

If I’m fortunate enough to earn any more accolades for my writing, none will ever top this one.