All right, there are a few awards I figured I’d never get, and I got both of them this year—one was the Western Writer’s of America Spur Award and the other is the Mountains & Plains Independent Bookseller’s Association (Regional Book Award - Fiction) Novel of the Year.
    The MPIBA fall meet back in 2004 was the first event I ever attended, I mean the first, and I learned a lot—namely, how to behave like an author or at least pretend. Viking/Penguin had been kind enough to send a couple of cases of THE COLD DISH, the first in my Sheriff Walt Longmire series, to the event. Basically, I was supposed to hand out ARCs of a book that wasn’t going to be available 'till January and wondered what that was all about … Like I said, I had a lot to learn.
    Booksellers were kind, taking a novel from some cowboy who looked more like he should have his hind end on a horse rather than espousing on literature. They asked me questions for which I was sorely unprepared, outrageous questions like, “What’s the book about?”
    I’d stand there for a few long seconds thinking about a novel I’d been formulating for the last decade and with that sum of collective knowledge, say, “It’s about a sheriff who …”
    Suddenly a hand would rest on my shoulder and the patient voice of Eric Boss, ace sales-rep for Penguin USA would intone, “It’s a character-driven mystery, literary in nature …” And would go on from there. By the time the day was over, booksellers would ask what the novel was about, and I would dutifully and proudly proclaim, “It’s a character-driven mystery, literary in nature …”
    I learned a lot at my first MPIBA conference, but the most important thing I learned was that I liked talking to readers and bookstore owners about books, especially my books. It was a revelation, and one I’ve continued to enjoy. Bookstore owners would take the novels, and I’d sign them and ask them where their store was. They’d demure and assure me that I wouldn’t know the location of places like Wheatland, Wyoming. Whereupon I would assure them that not only did I, but that the Brown Derby Café (now closed) is a great place for a burger.
    I still remember New York e-mailing and asking me if I was really doing a signing at Wheatland Mercantile Booknook-Gunsmithing-and-Quilting Supply?”
    You’re damn right I was, am, and do, every year.
    I still remember how happy I was when THE COLD DISH earned a Booksense nomination simply because as readers go, this was the cream of the crop—people who really knew books. Imagine how happy I was when DEATH WITHOUT COMPANY, KINDNESS GOES UNPUNISHED, and ANOTHER MAN'S MOCCASINS did, too. My streak has continued with THE DARK HORSE, even as the honor has changed to IndieNext.  
    I’ve been fortunate enough to have had numerous successes with my books, but I still remember the geographic area that made it all possible, all those booksellers that said to their customers about an unknown author’s series, “It’s a character-driven mystery, literary in nature …”
    No group I owe more to or respect as highly.

Thank you,
Craig Johnson
www.craigallenjohnson.com