I'm very happy to announce that my book, The King of Casinos: Willie Martello and the El Rey Club took the top prize in the biography category at the 2014 International Book Awards!

This is a huge honor, especially for a first-time author. The IBA issues prizes for major publishers, independent press, and self-published works. It judges all books equally regardless of the publishing house and there were over 1200 entrants in a wide variety of categories. You can get the complete results at their website.
http://www.internationalbookawards.com/2014awardannouncement.html

As a reminder, I'll have a booth and an exhibit at the June show and I'll be giving a seminar on Friday. I really hope to see a lot of familiar faces and meet a lot of new readers. This award really helps reassure me that it was a story worth telling and one with so much more appeal than a simple local history book. It's a national story that won an international award and I look forward to seeing you all at the show.