SK author Macomber wins Quill award

Port Orchard author Debbie Macomber accepted a Quill Award last Tuesday night in New York City for her novel “44 Cranberry Point.”

The award for romance writing, presented by Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell, is a first for both Macomber and the recipients of awards in the 19 other categories. Last week’s black-tie gala event marked the first-ever “Quills.”

Hosted by NBC’s Brian Williams with a special appearance by Quill award-winner Jon Stewart, 20 awards were presented, with awards as decided by American readers.

The Quills Nominating Board is made up of approximately 6,000 invited booksellers and librarians, who worked to develop a list of nominees from English language books published in North America and marketed to the United States between Aug. 1, 2004 through July 31, 2005.

Nominated books had to have starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, be a part of Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Program, BookSense Picks, Borders Original Voices, or have been on the bestseller lists of Publishers Weekly, Book Sense, Barnes & Noble, and Borders.

Readers voted on the five nominees selected by the Nominating Board in each of the 19 categories and Book of the Year from all nominees in all categories.

The book of the year award was presented by Brian Williams and went to popular author J.K. Rowling for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

Macomber said she was completely surprised by her award.

“I had such difficult competition,” Macomber said, including Nora Roberts.

According to Macomber, the event was a lot of fun and she’s honored, but she’s unsure about what the award will mean to her career.

“They had a red carpet,” Macomber said, “and lots of photographers.”

She was even interviewed by “Today” show host Al Roper.

“I think because it’s such a new award everyone’s trying to figure out how to promote this,” Macomber said.

One of her most popular series, the five Cedar Cove books, are based on Port Orchard.

“Cedar Cove is Port Orchard,” Macomber said in an interview last Spring. “JJ’s on the Bay is ‘DD’s on the Cove’ in the books. Tweten’s Lighthouse Restaurant is ‘The Lighthouse.’”

Even the covers of the novels are based in reality.

“All of the covers are based on homes in Port Orchard,” Macomber revealed.

The fifth book in Debbie’s Cedar Cove series, “50 Harbor Street,” was published in September by MIRA Books and was No. 2 on the New York Times bestseller list.

She is currently working on her sixth Cedar Cove novel.

“It’s a wonderful series,” she said, “and for that I thank Port Orchard.”

For more information on Debbie Macomber, visit www.debbiemacomber.com.

For more information on the Quill Awards visit www.quillsliteracy.org.index.html.

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