My common-law wife’s mother, Glenda Wolin, won a best column-writing award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists:

Glenda Wolin, an assistant city editor and online columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, has earned first-place honors from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists for her column, The Ranchwoman.”This is incredible,” said Dan Balcar, Express-News senior online editor.

“Her writing is beautiful and of the highest quality. It’s no wonder it resonates so deeply with readers, as well as contest judges. It touches her readers in a special way.”

The award is significant, Balcar said, because newspapers of all sizes around the country compete.

. . .

The Ranchwoman tells how a city woman, over a five-year period, has adjusted to, and fallen in love with, life on her 64-acre ranch in the Hill Country near Blanco.

. . .

Selecting a nominee for the award was difficult, Balcar said, because there still are no criteria for what the “best online column” is.

“Is it the column that gets the most hits? The column that produces the most breaking news? Or is it the column with the best writing?” Balcar said.

“We chose the column with the best writing,” he said, “and the judges agreed.”

Congratulations, common-law-mother-in-law!