Writers don’t write books to win awards. Writers write books to share a message or a story. Winning an award, however, is for an author akin to spreading icing on the cake that took hundreds of hours to bake.

Recently the Rev. Orlando Addison, Holy Faith-Port St. Lucie, spread icing on his cake when he received the International Latino Award for the Spanish version of his novel, Ernesto Gamboa.

First released in Spanish in 2014, the book tells the story of Gamboa’s murder. Instead of moving into eternity, he still walks the earth, but is unrecognizable to family and friends. After attending his own funeral, Gamboa, who was murdered while giving a big speech on the Honduran Labor Day, reflects on his past and discovers that his predicament may have been foretold at his birth.

“I wanted to become a writer for two reasons,” Addison said. “One, there were no Afro-Honduran novelists, and, two, there were no Afro-Honduran heroes.”

Changing the perception of his people drove the second desire. Often Afro-Hondurans are portrayed in a negative light: “Poor, big noses, etc.,” according to Addison. He hopes his books will help educate people around the world and change that perception.

Addison, who has been in the United States for more than 20 years, has begun work on his next book about a priest who helps a person struggling with addiction.

The English version of Ernesto Gamboa released on Dec. 24 and, like the Spanish version, is available on Amazon.