Not What I Expected

Last weekend, I went to ScrivCon, the Writers' conference my publisher puts on each year. It was amazing, and I got to hug so many people I'd only met online before now. So, that was pure bliss for me. I love hugs. Quite a few of those people were authors I had edited for over the past few years. And that was really fun too. Because even though we'd worked together, we'd never met in person.
Fast forward to Saturday evening, and there was a gala and award banquet. Well, I didn't expect to win anything despite having three books up for awards and being in the list of finalists for Editor of the Year. There were just too many other great authors and books and editors. But I bought a fancy dress and planned to enjoy myself anyway. Sure enough, the winners were announced for the Book of the Year for 2020, 2021, and 2022, and my books were finalists, but not the top winner. The ones chosen were great books and I was fine with that. These were chosen by readers, after all. (We went that far back because we'd never done these awards before and were catching up from when the company started).
Well, moving on to 2023 and my book Window of the Heart was up for Best Contemporary novel. And my heart said, maybe. It was wrong, but that's okay. The book that won was one I had edited. ;)
Then, we moved on to the Editor of the Year finalists. I knew I was one, but let's be honest. So were almost every other editor in the company. Apparently, we all voted for our own editors. So, when they announced there was a tie between the top two ... and then said my name ... well, I was floored. Really?
I've been editing a couple of years now, and it's a lot of fun, despite being work. After all, I get to read all these other stories before they release. And help the author polish them up. But for some reason, I'd never considered that they might enjoy working with me as much as I enjoyed working with them. Apparently, they did.
So, I brought home a cute little award to set on my shelf. See it up there in the picture, next to my pile of edited books? There are actually a couple more I haven't received yet. And a few more that have yet to release. But it's a nice pile, isn't it? And I look forward to many more to come.
Strangely, I think I'm almost more proud of that award than I would've been if my book had placed (though that would've thrilled me too). But this is an award for me sharing the knowledge I've gained from my own writing experiences and passing it on to help other authors. And that's amazing.
What about you? Have you ever been surprised in a good way? Or won recognition for something you didn't even think about?