A meme for Aussie Author Month.

If you’re keen to participate in Aussie Author Month but have left it until the last minute, we’ve created a meme to get you started. All you have to do is to copy and paste everything below this paragraph into your own blog and follow the instructions. Enjoy!

(I’ve copied the list here if you want to start with a clean copy of the meme.)

How many Aussie romance authors do you know?

Australia is home to a lot of talented authors in the romance genre. Here’s a list of romance authors from the Romance Writers of Australia website. How many authors do you know?

Authors in BOLD are authors you’ve tried at least once.
Authors UNDERLINED are in your To Be Read pile.
Authors in ITALICS are authors whose work you’re planning to try soon.
Mark autobuy authors with an asterisk (*).
If an author has written a keeper for you, add the book title next to the author’s name.

This meme was created to celebrate Aussie Author Month 2011.

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Join us for a month-long celebration of Australian authored works of (mostly romance) fiction.

For the entire month of April we’ll be focusing on books written by Australian authors, and most of them will have romantic elements because we’re all about the lurve!

Yes, an entire month! If you don’t find at least one Aussie author you like this month, we’ll…we’ll…we’ll eat our blog. You know. If that were possible.

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Archangel's Consort by Nalini Singh (Guild Hunter, Book 3)

A solid instalment in the series, despite the exhausting intensity of the romance and a slightly underdeveloped external plot.

This review was originally submitted as an entry for the ARRC2011 Reader Challenge and was selected to be in the final round.

Archangel’s Consort continues the story of Elena, former Guild Hunter and newly made angel, and her lover Raphael, the archangel of New York. Vampires are breaking their Contracts all over the city and archangels are showing signs of madness. Either an old foe is targeting Elena, Raphael’s greatest vulnerability, or an ancient power is awakening—one that Raphael will have to confront but may not be able to vanquish.

Newcomers to the Guild Hunter series shouldn’t find it difficult to pick up the basic characteristics of the world that Nalini Singh has created. The violence is graphic, but less so than in previous books. The power struggles between angels may get confusing, but it’s easy enough to follow the external plot even without fully understanding these nuances.

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Where She Went by Gayle Forman

A moving story about heartache, anger, grief and love that was very hard to put down.

We normally don’t publish reviews before the release of a book, but due to next month’s focus on Australian authors, I’ve pushed the date forward for this book. If it’s not yet available in your bookshop, I hope you check again next week.

I won’t lie. I read the ending first. And it’s a good thing I did because Where She Went is an emotional, tear-jerking delight of a read, and it would have been a shame if I’d passed it up.

Twenty-one Adam Wilde is at the peak of his career—multi-platinum rock star, stalked by press, half of a celebrity couple—and he’s on the brink of a breakdown. He’s popping anti-anxiety pills, he loses it in front of a tabloid reporter and he barely even talks to the rest of the band.

Three years ago, his childhood sweetheart, Mia Hill, dumped him without explanation. A gifted cellist, Mia survived a horrific crash that killed her parents and younger brother, and although Adam was an integral part of her recovery, one day she just let him go.

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Book Thingo gets a new logo and is featured in today’s March Madness Spotlight.

I don’t know what’s going on because I can’t seem to stop blogging today! This one will be quick, I promise.

Book Thingo gets a new look

You like?

Thanks to Ala Paredes for the logo design, and Jennifer Wu for some extra tweaks.

All blame for the garish purple shading and weird back-to-front image goes to me. Because, come on, we don’t have romance cred without that slightly horrifying splash of purple. You know it’s true. ;-)

(You’ll notice that the logo on Facebook hasn’t changed. This is because Facebook is ridiculous and refuses to obey commands.)

March Madness spotlight on Book Thingo

Today we’re the featured blog at historical romance author Ashley March’s blog. March is hosting March Madness, a month-long celebration of historical romance. As part of the feature post, she wants to know your favourite Australian authors of historical romance. There be prizes (although they may only be for US commenters—please check.)

Australian authors Marion Lennox and Kelly Hunter have been named finalists for the 2011 RITA Awards, the Oscar equivalent for romance authors.

Marian Lennox is nominated for her Christmas with Her Boss (Sweet Romance). Kelly Hunter is nominated for Red-Hot Renegade (Sexy). They will competing for the 2011 RITA for Contemporary Series Romance.

Hunter was at the Australian Romance Readers Convention when the finalists were announced. She was recognised by Anne Gracie in front of a very appreciative convention audience.

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Aussie Author Month starts on Friday

Don’t forget to let us know if you’re participating or are interested in participating in Aussie Author Month in April. Click here for more info. Check out the banner on the right. Props to the lovely Alex of Le Canape for the design.

You can find a list of all the participants here.

Book Thingo will be posting reviews, featuring Australian authored books and maybe-hopefully author Q&As. I’m working through the emails I’ve received from authors who want to participate. Feel free to follow up if you’re expecting a reply.

Sydney romance book group

Some UTS students who read romance have formed a reading group. Their next meeting is on Friday at 6pm. Contact @Hesitent_Sarah via Twitter if you’re interested in coming along.

#specfic chat on Twitter

As part of Read It 2011, an online reading group run by the NSW Readers Advisory Working Group, there will be Twitter chat around speculative fiction. The chat starts at 8pm AEST. The hashtags are #specfic and #readit2011. No need to sign up—just turn up and join in.

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You can find the full archive of the #arrc2011 tweets at What the Hashtag?! but if you’re after the live tweets from the author sessions and convention events, here’s an excerpt from Friday to Sunday.

These are in chronological order (oldest tweets first), but I’ve had to strip out the dates and times because WTH uses Pacific time and doesn’t match the time at ARRC. Let me know if something doesn’t make sense. (I was going to format this more prettily, but…it’s long!)

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Demonstrating a distinct local bias, Australian romance readers awarded their favourite authors at a the Australian Romance Readers Convention on Saturday night.

For the second year in a row, historical author Anna Campbell won the award for Favourite Australian Author. Campbell also picked up the award for Favourite Historical Romance—which might as well be called the Anna Campbell Award because she’s won it every year since the awards began—for her latest book, My Reckless Surrender. Campbell is published by Avon/HarperCollins and was one of the keynote speakers at the convention.

New Zealand author Nalini Singh picked up three awards. Singh won Favourite Paranormal Romance with Bonds of Justice, part of her Psy-Changeling series. The series, set in a future featuring humans, psychics and changelings, also won the award for Favourite Continuing Romance Series. Her urban fantasy book, Archangel’s Consort, the latest book in her Guild Hunter series, won the award for Favourite Sci-Fi, Urban Fantasy or Futuristic Romance. Singh is published by Gollancz/Hachette in Australia.

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To follow the live tweets from ARRC, search for #arrc2011 on Twitter, or check the transcript at What The Hashtag. You can find all the ARRC-related posts on Book Thingo here.

The Australian Romance Readers Convention started off with an intimate gathering of readers and authors at the Swiss-Grand, Bondi Beach. The Swiss-Grand is a 4.5-star hotel across the road from Bondi Beach. It’s tucked into a side street so there are no noisy crowds spilling over from the mains strip along the water. The rooms are really small suites with a small lounge area.

As expected, it was a much smaller crowd than the one we saw in Melbourne in 2009. The upside to this was that it way easier to chat! By the end of the night, people were having pockets of conversation in small groups. There was a larger crowd sitting outside, and I think it’s where many of the authors were.

A couple of people have reported a Kiss of Snow ARC sighting. But apparently it’s now locked in a safe. So close and yet so faaaaar!

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