With Scott Green, Colonial Williamsburg's "Benedict Arnold." Photo courtesy of Steve Sheinkin.

Back in June 2011, well before I was making a living as a writer, I got an email from Deirdre Langeland, my editor for The Notorious Benedict Arnold, which had come out the previous fall. The subject line said, “Very good news.” The first line (I just checked) was: “Before I tell you this, I have to swear you to secrecy. This info is not to be shared for another week or so, so NO SHARING!” Then she told me Arnold had just been selected as the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winner for nonfiction. Minutes later, I got an email from my then-agent, Ken Wright: “This is MAJOR. You know that, right?”

Rereading these notes, I’m struck by the tone—they were excited, but also talking to me like I was a little kid! And I was, in publishing years. As I prepared for the ceremony, I tried to remember if I’d ever spoken to a roomful of adults. Definitely at my bar mitzvah, which went badly. I lost my speech and had to wing it and later found the folded paper beneath a seated aunt.

The Horn Book event in Boston was better. I talked about my passion for this very nerdy thing I was starting to figure out how to do, and Roger Sutton and everyone at the Horn Book—everyone in the place—made me feel so welcome and encouraged. As Ken said, it really was MAJOR. I’ll never forget it!

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