Thank you—We won the SBA First Book Award

Last night is still a blur, but I wanted share our acceptance speech-or at least what we planned to say and what I vaguely remember we actually said:

Thank you, everyone.

We’d like to say thank you to Saskatchewan Book Awards for this award. And O’Reilly Insurance and the Cooperators for this award. We’d also like to thank our fellow nominees-we are honoured to be in your company.

Thank you to Heather, our awesome publisher and editor, for all your help. We adore her. She was even editing this speech with the red pen she brought.

Thank you to Creative Sask for all their generous support. Thank you to Donovan Bergman and the people at Friesens. Special thanks to our first editor, Nathan Mader.

Angie: I’d like to thank David… /(At this point we looked at each other and I mumbled something. I also may have given her a hug…I’m not sure)/.

Then, Angie continued: I’d like to say happy birthday to my sexy date. Thank you to every good person and teenager who crossed my path and lead me here tonight. And a big thank you to the Creator.

David: I’d like to thank my Kate and my kids Anna and Peter… /(At this point, I felt the emotions rising in my throat and my voice cracking and I said, “I’m getting verklempt,” which was true and accurate and I use a lot because of SNL and Mike Myers but had to confirm later was the actual Yiddish word.)/

Lastly, we’d like to thank all our first readers, our friend and family, and all those people who supported us early on.

And that was it.

Afterward, we met a lot of people, signed some books, had fits of uncontrollable smiling, and posted a lot of things on social media. Then Ang convinced my wife and I to go out to a bar and watch a swing band-which even lead to some dancing. (As I write this, I am operating on only 4 hours of sleep.)

I really want to say thank you again to all of you fine people who come to our blog and read our books. You are the reason we keep writing. We love to entertain, making your heart race from Charlie and Tony’s adventures, getting you to laugh at their banter and wisecracks, or simply finding enjoyment in reading about two teenagers trying to do the right thing.

Thank you.

The official announcement of the award can be found on the Saskatchewan Book Awards website.