Congratulations to everyone who won an award at the Romance Writers of America (RWA) national conference last weekend.

Rosemary’s Romance Books in Brisbane was awarded the Steffie Walker Bookseller of the Year Award. According to the RWA website, this award is given to a bookseller “who provides outstanding service to romance readers and demonstrates notable support of romance authors and the romance genre.” Awesome win.

The other Aussie winner is Stephanie Laurens for Best Novella.

RWA sponsors the the RITA^®, arguably the genre’s most prestigious award. Here’s a list of the winners:

A Mother’s Wish by Karen Templeton (Best Contemporary Series Romance) — Excerpt
Danger Signals by Kathleen Creighton (Best Contemporary Series Romance: Suspense/Adventure) — Excerpt
Hell Week by Rosemary Clement Moore (Best Young Adult Romance) — Excerpt

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Gratuitous use of a still from Mr Darcy's pond scene in Lost in Austen (via lovestoknit at Flickr)

If you thought zombies were blasphemous to Pride and Prejudice, beloved classic of romance literature, check out this hilarious Twitter parody by Mad over at Under the Mad Hat.

Here are some snippets:

MrsB: A Mr Bingley–worth 50,000 followers a year–has joined Twitter! He’s brought a friend, Mr Darcy–worth 100,000 followers a year! Pls RT

… LizzieB: @JaneB If I could love a man who would love me enough to take me for a mere 50 followers, I should be well pleased…

LizzieB: @JaneB …but such a man wouldn’t be sensible & I could never love a man who was out of his twits. LOL

… CubicleSurfer: Does anyone know what #Bingley is and why it’s suddenly the no. 1 trending topic?

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History Lesson 3 by Sanja Gjenero (via stock.xchng)

Today’s SMH reports that the Productivity Commission is likely to recommend the removal of parallel importation restrictions (PIR) on books to Australia.

If this happens, despite the Productivity Commission receiving a majority of submissions in support of retaining all or part of the current restrictions, it will be clear that the loudest voices in the media have prevailed.

It helps, of course, if your lobby group includes former NSW Premier Bob Carr, and former ACCC chairman Allan Fels.

Lobbying for cheaper prices

Carr has written several editorials in support of an open market for books, citing affordability and availability to children. It’s ironic that local authors of children’s books believe they’ll be one of the hardest hit by an open market. This is because illustrated children’s books are more expensive to produce due to their larger, non-standard formats, and because authors have to split the royalties with illustrators.

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Skin Trade by Laurell K Hamilton (Anita Black, Vampire Hunter, Book 17)

I have some good news and some bad news about Skin Trade, the seventeenth book in Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. The good news is there are only 2 properly defined sex scenes in the whole book, and the bad news is there are only 2 properly defined sex scenes in the whole book.

OK, so I’m conflicted about this series, but I keep buying the damn books soon after their release, just not in hardback anymore.

Anita arrives at her office to find a head in a box sent by the vampire Vittorio (the stripper-killer in Incubus Dreams) from Las Vegas and is on a flight there within hours. When she arrives, she finds that her preternatural reputation has preceded her and she is held for several hours, having to justify her powers, humanity, knowledge and skill to the local law enforcement. Given that she is known for living with the Master Vampire of her city and her ties to the shapeshifter community, the cops’ suspiciousness towards her seems reasonable, but it reads like short, pretty little female Anita manfully holding her own in a pissing contest with the big boys, and it slows down the book’s pacing.

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Abandoned Book by swotai (via Flickr)

If you’ve been following the debate on the parallel importation of books in Australia, The 7.30 Report ran a segment yesterday on the debate. Unfortunately, it didn’t look past the usual rhetoric surrounding the issue.

In fact I don’t think the segment even highlighted all the main arguments on either side or the parallel importation debate. I’m particularly frustrated by the final comment from Allan Fels, former ACCC chairman, Dean of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government:

It’s also claimed that Australian books in fact are priced much the same as the rest of the world. I don’t agree. But if it is true, what have we got to fear from removing the import restrictions?

What we fear is that change might actually harm the industry,

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Photo by kesh (via morgueFile)

Regular readers might have noticed that the Book Bizzo hasn’t been posted in the last few weeks. I originally came up with the idea of a weekly news round-up because I thought it would be easier and faster to do than posting each item separately. As it turns out, I was completely wrong. The time it takes to put a Bizzo together is equivalent to posting a review. So after some deliberation, I’ve decided not to keep going with the Bizzos on Saturday. (Although I have a quick round-up in this one—mainly for Aussie romance authors and book news.)

I’m tossing up alternative ways to post news items. In the meantime, I post interesting items as I encounter them on my Twitter feed, so feel free to follow @BookThingo. I try to post mostly on topic, although it wouldn’t be Twitter if I didn’t digress occasionally. I might start posting shorter, more frequent round-ups on the blog, but we’ll see…

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Branded by Fire by Nalini Singh (Psy-Changeling Series, Book 6)

Branded by Fire was one of my most-awaited novels of the year, and it has definitely been worth the wait. The sixth novel in bestselling author Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series is packed with political intrigues, explosions, beloved characters, and a surprisingly strong romance that’s placed firmly at the centre of the story.

Mercy is a DarkRiver sentinel, the frontline defence for her leopard changeling pack. She has an awfully strong itch, and it seems the only one who can scratch it is Riley Kincaid, a lieutenant for the neighbouring wolf pack, SnowRiver. That’s assuming she doesn’t scratch him first. Mercy and Riley are equivalently ranked soldiers in different packs, and neither is used to giving up control.

Alpha vs. alpha

For Mercy, it’s a particularly painful dilemma. As a sentinel, as a dominant female, her chances of mating are slim. She could never be attracted to a weaker male, and yet her leopard nature may never accept a dominant mate. Worse, she’s attracted to the wrong changeling. As in wrong pack. And she’s attracted in a big way. So is he. Also in a big way.

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I’ll begin this review with a caveat: The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns isn’t the sort of book I’d normally buy without skimming first. But when the publisher emailed me to offer a review copy, I was happy to give it a go. This is the debut novel for author Elizabeth Leiknes, and I wanted to like it, but the story hit too many of my pet peeves and left me feeling like it could have been so much better.

When Lucy Burns was a child, she made a deal ‘To Whom It May Concern’: save her sister’s life, and Lucy will be forever in their debt. She’s been dealing with the devil ever since. In exchange for fulfilling her material and cosmetic desires, Lucy becomes a Facilitator—someone who lures damned souls into the devil’s pit, which, as it turns out, is accessible from Lucy’s basement. It’s an interesting premise (and it immediately reminded me of Kathleen O’Reilly’s The Diva’s Guide to Selling Your Soul), but Lucy as a character starts to unravel for me early in the story.

Sympathising with the devil’s henchwoman

Leiknes sets Lucy up as a sympathetic character trapped into working for the devil

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A page-turner despite its flaws. Fans of the series won’t want to miss this book, even if it is somewhat darker than the others.

I have a confession to make: Although I have been a long-term reader of this series, when the books started being released in hardcover first, I lost track of it while waiting for the paperbacks. So when I received a review copy of Dead and Gone, I had to catch up with All Together Dead and From Dead to Worse. Each book brings major changes to Sookie’s world and I find trying to pick up my place in the story without remembering what happened in earlier books disorienting so I wouldn’t recommend reading the books out of order or as stand alones.

This review contains spoilers from earlier books in the series.

Werepanthers and vampires and fairies, oh my!

Dead and Gone is the ninth book in the Sookie Stackhouse (aka True Blood, aka Southern Vampire) series and picks up two and a half months after From Dead to Worse. Sookie is in a relatively strong position, with favours owed by the new King of Louisiana and the local werewolf pack, as well as having her own fairy godmother, not to mention 2 powerful witches as housemates. And then there’s the added advantage of being able to read human minds. The story begins with the Great Reveal—in other words, the Weres are following the vampires’ example and are coming out of the closet to the human world.

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So I went a little nuts and saw 6 movies at the Sydney Film Festival…

Breathless

A violent, emotional movie about a small time Korean gangster who beats up people for a living. He has serious anger issues thanks to the trauma of domestic violence when he was growing up. One day he meets a smart-talking teenage girl, and somehow they form a kind of kinship due to common backgrounds that neither is aware of. The movie shows his growing relationships with her, his best friend and gangster boss, as well as his sister and lonely nephew, and how he comes to terms with different issues in his life.

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