Novelist wins hefty Grace Irwin Award
MISSISSAUGA, ON—Mags Storey spent the 60 minutes or so it took to drive from her Newmarket home to The Word Guild awards gala in Mississauga telling her husband why she wouldn't win anything.
Instead, Storey won three awards for her debut novel If Only You Knew, starting with the Romance Book of the Year and Young Adult Book of the Year categories. She capped the night off by winning the first ever Grace Irwin Award—beating out about 30 other books to be deemed the best book of the year. The award honours the late author, classics scholar and minister Grace Irwin, a former recipient of The Word Guild's Leslie K. Tarr Award for lifetime achievement.
"I was in shock," says Storey about winning the $5,000 award. "I was up against a lot of really good books by pastors and theologians, other novelists who wrote really good, serious, in-depth books on helping us progress with our faith.
"Compared to them a little romantic teen fiction didn't seem anywhere near as important so I thought a more 'important' book was going to win."
Storey began writing when she was about 10 and living with her family who were missionaries in the Middle East. Without access to "good books" she began writing her own. Eventually she began a career in journalism—she's currently ChristianWeek's Ontario correspondent—and started writing the award-winning teen romance/mystery/suspense novel more than 10 years ago. The turning point came after hearing Tony Campolo challenge his listeners to serve God with their lives.
"I walked away thinking 'I know I'm meant to write novels, but I'd settled for a career in journalism because it's safe,'" recalls Storey. She asked God to inspire her and later that year, at the annual Write! Canada writers' conference Storey scribbled the beginning of If Only You Knew in a notebook.
"It (went) through several different titles—and several different drafts—but there are some bits at the beginning of the book that I actually wrote in my little notebook sitting at Write! Canada," says Storey.
Once written, it took about four years to find a publisher. Storey was rejected by about 10 to 15 publishers, including one who took "three passes" at the manuscript before finally rejecting it.
Calling the Irwin award win an honour, Storey also sees it as a validation "for all those of us who are out in the world going 'I'm not important enough to make a difference.'
"I received such a hard time from people who knew I was writing this book who said, 'Why not write a serious book?' or 'You're better than writing a teen book, why don't you write an adult book?' as if teenagers were less important than adults.
"It's a validation, not just for me but for what I believe in and care about," says Storey.
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