The San Francisco held Award Ceremony of the International Latino Book Awards this last weekend of June 27 is one of those fantastic memories that will stay etched in the minds of my wife Lynda and mine for the rest of our years. (Baring Dementia) But I believe that somewhere in the folds of my brain, they will remain.

We stayed at the Park 55 18th floor with a beautiful view of the bay and the fireworks after each Giants game. Lynda secured a wheelchair as soon as we arrived and it was to  be my method of transportation back and forth to the Mascone Center where the ALA, American Librarian Association was having a their annual convention. What luck! My publisher Thornton Sully of A Word With You Press took a booth all four days of the convention and on Sunday, after I won the Mariposa Award for Best New Author and placed second as Best Novel, a feat more prestigious than it might sound, as the contest had over 1800 entries and 192 judges and still ranked Raw Man that high.

As he has since my book release party, Victor Villasinor kept close eyes on me and along with Jonathan and Isabelle Friedman, he a Pulitzer Prize winner and both, the most loving and nurturing two people I have met since my first encounter with Thornton Sully who gave me the confidence, and team to make this manuscript at first titled Youth In Asia, into Raw Man, the book that has propelled me into the world of literature.

As I write in the epilogue, “Twenty-two veterans commit suicide every day in this country. If this book helps touch one life, it has done it’s job.

rm