Before being published Steve twice won the annual fiction contest of State Bar of Georgia. In June 2005, he was selected by the Georgia Writer’s Association (based on The Romanov Prophecy) as its Author of the Year. Then, in October 2005, the Amelia Book Island Festival bestowed on him their first Stellar Award. The Charlemagne Pursuit was selected as one of the 5 Best Thrillers for 2008 by Library Journal. In 2010 the Amelia Island Book Festival made him their first Literary Leader. In March 2011, Steve received the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award from the University of Scranton. During 2012 and 2013, the American Library Association chose Steve as their national spokesperson for Preservation Week. For 2013, several awards came Steve’s way. The first was the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, given by Poets & Writers each year. Next, International Thriller Writers gave Steve its coveted Silver Bullet award. Both of these were in recognition of Steve’s work for historic preservation. The final honor was the 2013 Human Writes Award bestowed by The Anne Frank Center to a writer “whose body of work explores relationships and the ideas and ideals that have become synonymous with Anne Frank.” In 2015, Steve was named Author of the Year by the Cobb Library Foundation (the Carol and Jim Ney Literary Award). A 2010 NPR survey named The Templar Legacy one of the top 100 thrillers ever written. Suspense Magazine named The Lincoln Myth one of its Best Books for 2014. The Patriot Threat was chosen by the Audio Publishers Association (its Audie Award) as the best Thriller/Suspense audio production of 2015. In October 2017, Steve was honored as the 2017 Writer of the Year by the Florida Writers Association. Then, in November 2017, he and his wife, Elizabeth, received The San Jacinto Star Award (Texas) for their philanthropic work with History Matters. The Lost Order was chosen by RT Book Reviewers’ as the 2018 Thriller of the Year.