-Frances's first novel, Fairy Senses: Book One of The Key to Embralia has placed as a finalist in both the Young Adult Fiction and Science Fiction categories of the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

- Graduation from Carnegie Mellon with High Honors and Completion of a Senior Honors Thesis in Poetry (2005)

- Honorable Mention in Carnegie Mellon’s Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Writing Awards (2005).

- 2005 recipient of the Donna Grear Memorial Award, given to one Carnegie Mellon student each year for excellence and dedication to the craft of writing.