I won the Emma On April 24, 2004. The awards were presented during an official Awards ceremony and banquet at The Marriott Financial District. The Emma is named in honor of Emma Rodgers who with the help of Ashria and Francis Ray gave birth to Romance Slam Jam in 1995 in Dallas Texas to demonstrate, The Power, Passion and Pain of Black Love. Emma Rodgers is Co-owner of Black Images Book Bazaar in Dallas,Texas. The conference was started to honor excellence in romance. It's the largest African American genre specific event for published and aspiring authors and readers.

Romance Slam Jam grew out of an early desire to recognize the authors of this remarkable genre and to celebrate their craft with their avid fans. The conference has grown from just a few to several hundred, and has welcomed writers and fans from more than twenty-five cities and four countries. 

The Emma works pretty much like the RITA, where published authors submit their books to be judged. I believe it's five copies. After the finalists are chosen by the first round judges, ballots are sent to everyone who has paid to attend the conference and they get to vote on their favorites in each category. That's the only difference from The Emma and the RITA. The votes are then tallied and the winners are chosen and the award is given at the banquet for each category. I am unsure how the process works for the unpublished part of the contest and cannot remember at the moment if I voted on that particular category or if it was chosen by the first round judges.

Romance Slam Jam also support writers and offers the chance for making contacts, networking support, solidarity, friendship and fun. Editors and agents are there taking appointments as they do for RWA Nationals. Of course, there are publishers there from most of the national houses with guidelines. There are workshops for both the published authors and the yet-to-be published. There are sessions where the reader tells the writers exactly what they like in their books and what they don't like.

By the very nature of the award, the stories must be about African Americans. I'm not sure that only African Americans are allowed to enter. As a matter of fact, one award was won by a writing team that consisted of one African American woman and one Caucasian.

As a winner of the Emma, I would tell a new writer to never give up and NEVER stop writing. If you love it and it's your dream, don't allow anyone to crush it. You have the power within you to keep going just keep the faith.

Share with us the day you were notified of your award.  

The day I found out about my possibly winning the award was the most incredible day that I can remember in a long time. Only a few have brought me more joy, my marriage, the birth of my son, and the day I first checked my book out of the local library. 

As an attendee of the conference, I was marking the ballot when lo and behold there was my name. I screamed, shouted, hugged my husband hugged my son, got on the phone and called my friends. Then I e-mailed Windy City (Naperville, Illinois chapter of Romance Writers of America). There was no official notification but I'm happy that it happened the way that it did. It totally took me by surprise.

You asked if Windy City helped in any way with this book, and the answer is a resounding YES! 

Several years ago when I wrote the book, I brought in a chapter for critique and was lucky enough to have Lindsay Longford in my group. She loved my opening, and that was it for me. I was not going to change it unless GOD told me to do it. 

I was also lucky enough at that time to have my first critique partner, Lauren Ford. She worked with me from the beginning to the end telling me honestly what worked for her and what didn't; asking questions as to why I'd done a certain thing and doing all the things that a good critique partner does. I now have two other critique partners, Barb Deane and Wendy Byrne, and I trust all of them explicitly. Kelle Z. Riley is also one of my critique partners but we don't do it as consistently as the others that I named.

Besides critiquing I have to also say that I received help in the title from Elysa Hendricks and I can't forget it was Elizabeth Rose Krejcik who first encouraged me to write a story with African American characters and to submit to Genesis. I will also have to say that it was Liz who encouraged me to continue long after I wanted to give up. 

So my remarks on having a writing group is a large resounding YES. I have been helped, encouraged, and refilled by all the women at Windy City, and I would not be where I am at this moment had I not been a member of Windy City.

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