#AWW2012 wrap-up and a great big THANK YOU

It’s been an exciting year for those of us who have been actively following and participating in the Australian Women Writers Challenge. Throughout the year, the challenge has been cited in literary magazines and media both within Australia and internationally. (You can read some of the highlights here.)

In total, I reviewed 18 books by Australian women writers this year. This seems a fairly low number, considering romance fiction authors are predominantly women. (In my defence, I read much more than than 18 books, but I only listed the ones I reviewed.) I also wrote a piece on romance fiction and feminism at the AWW blog, which you can read here.

I’m signing up again for 2013, but with a couple of differences:

1. The AWW blog will become more collaborative in 2013, and I’ve volunteered to be the contributing editor for romance fiction. This means I’ll be doing monthly round-up posts around romance titles reviewed for AWW.

2. I’m aiming to double the number of AWW reviews I post—so my aim is to review at least 36 books. In fact, I’ll be trying my best to review every AWW-eligible title that I read next year (with some overlap in 2012, as I’ve already read advanced copies of 2013 releases, plus I’m playing catch-up on a few reviews).

With the explosion of locally published and authored romance titles, I have a feeling I’ll have my work cut out for me.

And as this will be my last post for the year, I’d like to thank you for supporting Book Thingo, whether you’re a commenter, a lurker or a Twitter-er. Blogging is a little like talking to a brick wall, and even though we’ve been blogging for a few years now, it still kind of amazes me when I meet people who actually read what we write. So thank you so much for coming back for more. :-)

I hope you have a wonderful start to the new year, and may 2013 bring you joy, peace and an abundance of literary delights.