Congratulations to RITA and Golden Hearts finalists!

The 2009 finalists for the RITA and Golden Heart awards have been announced by the Romance Writers of America. A number of Aussie authors made the list, including:

Vanessa Barneveld for the Golden Heart for Young Adult Romance (Call Me Crazy)
Lilian Darcy for Contemporary Series Romance (The Children’s Doctor and the Single Mum)
Barbara Hannay for Contemporary Series Romance (Adopted: Outback Baby)
Stephanie Laurens for Historical Romance (Where the Heart Leads), Regency Historical Romance (The Edge of Desire), and Romance Novella (The Fall of Rogue Gerard in It Happened One Night)
Nalini Singh (because NZ is close enough!) for Paranormal Romance (Mine to Possess)
Christine Wells for Regency Romance Historical (The Dangerous Duke — which I’ll be reviewing soon!)

(List of Aussie authors filched off Bronwyn Parry’s blog.)

Coming soon

Nalini Singh mentioned in her blog that Slave to Sensation is coming out in ebook format in July. (Speaking of Singh, Angel’s Blood is currently #1 in Galaxy Bookshop’s bestseller list.)

As Darkness Falls by Bronwyn Parry comes out in mass market format next week. (Check under Competitions for details on how to win your own copy of this great book.)

Finally, Harlequin is launching a Young Adult line, Harlequin Teen, in August.

Competitions

• Celebration! Contest! — Win an As Darkness Falls prize pack from Bronwyn Parry (I can’t recommend this book enough. You can read my review here.)

RUTA Awards

Much fun is being had over at Ann Aguirre’s blog. Ann has announced that planning is under way for next year’s inaugural Romance Up The Ass Awards, sponsored by Ann, The Smart Bitches, and Larissa Ione:

The RUTA celebrates all the books that don’t follow the rules. In Romance Up the Ass, we will cheer the foul-mouthed, sexually confident heroine.

Go visit Ann’s blog to suggest categories (NSFW). My oh-so-classy contributions were: Most Magical Hoo-ha, Most Creative Weapon Wielding Technique, Mojo of Mass Destruction, Best Use of Tongue, and Fiercest Arse Kicker.

And other random stuff…

Marg from Reading Adventures has awarded us the Proximidade Award—our first blog award, yay! Thanks, Marg. :-)

This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY—nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandisement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this text into the body of their award.

(I reworded that slightly—I couldn’t help it!) In turn, I’m awarding (in alphabetical order):

• EH at Erotic Horizon
• gnomeangel
• Holly at The Book Binge
• Keira at Love Romance Passion
• kmont at Lurv à la Mode
• Marg at Reading Adventures because, hey, she totally deserves it!
• Tez at Tez Says
• Zeek at The Way I See It

The Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of 2008 has been awarded to The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-miligram Containers of Fromage Frais. According to The Bookseller (via The Book Depository Blog):

The author? Well, that’s a little more complex. For the listed author (Professor Philip M Parker) is no expert in the field of dairy product packaging. What he is, is a genius. Or a monster, depending on your point of view. For he has invented “a method and apparatus for automated authoring and marketing”. I.e. a machine that dispenses with those inconsequential things knows as authors. According to the New York Times, he plans to use it to produce romance novels. Which begs the question, isn’t that what James Patterson’s been doing for years? I’m joking of course.

Save the date

31/3 — Kate Legge at Readings Hawthorn, 6.30pm | Bookings: 03 9819 1917 or events@readings.com.au
31/3 — Q&A and booksigning with Wendy Harmer at Berkelouw’s Newtown, 6pm | Enquiries: 02 9557 1777‎
2/4 — Wendy Harmer at Readings Carlton, 6.30pm | Bookings: 03 9347 6633 or events@readings.com.au
3/4 — Celebrate the life of Dorothy Parker at Bell’s Hotel, 8pm (dinner at 6.30pm) | Bookings: Jacqui Horwood on 0449 703 503 or jacqui.horwood@gmail.com ($10/$5)
9-13/4 — Swancon 2009 at All Seasons Perth ($160/140)
9/4 — Trudi Caravan at Osborne Park Library, 11.30am
18/4 — Richard Morgan at Scarborough Library, 5pm
8/5 — Richard Morgan at the Melbourne Science Fiction Club, 9pm
21/5 — Richard Morgan at Galaxy Bookshop, 5:30pm
23/5 — Richard Morgan at Gaslight Book, 3-4pm
27/5 — Richard Morgan at Pulp Fiction, 6.30pm

Book Bizzo is a weekly omnibus of news items, events, and other interesting tidbits related to books, and especially the Australian romance book industry. You can find past Book Bizzo posts here.

Did we miss anything important? Got a book event coming up? Feel free to send tips, press releases, and any other interesting links to kat@bookthingo.com.au.