Because ARRA members just wanna have fun. (And read!)

The Awards dinner was excellent. I’d never heard of Cello’s Restaurant before, but it’s a beautiful venue—although the lifts are a challenge if you’re the least bit claustrophobic. High ceilings, chandeliers, and even a grand piano to the side—it’s just reeked of old world romance.

If you follow  us on Twitter, you’ll know that Tracey O’Hara issued a challenge that eventually resulted in a call for a bling off at the Australian Romance Readers Awards dinner. And do you know what I love most about my fellow ARRA members? They said, Bring it!

You can see photos of the bling off here and here. (I’m missing a lot of blinged out people, though, so let me know if you have any more links!)

Sadly, I got carried away and left my outfit shopping so late I turned up to dinner, well, quite UNfashionably late. Others also suffered for the sake of bling and leather, with stories of shoes superglued to the kitchen floor, the case of the killer heels, and last-minute (more)

Anna Campbell took out the top prize in last night’s Australian Romance Readers Awards, held last night at Cello’s Restaurant in Sydney.

Campbell was voted Favourite Australian Romance Author of 2009 and also won Favourite Historical Romance for her fourth novel, Captive of Sin.

The night was a bonanza of wins for Australian authors, with Paula Roe, Kandy Shepherd and Bronwyn Parry taking the prizes in their categories.

Roe won Favourite Short Category Romance for The Magnate’s Baby Promise. Shepherd won Favourite Contemporary Romance for Love is a Four-Legged Word. Parry won Favourite Romantic Suspense for Dark Country.

New Zealand author Nalini Singh, who was also the guest speaker for the event, won Favourite Continuing Romance Series for her Psy-Changeling books and Favourite Sci-fi, Fantasy or Futuristic Romance for Angel’s Blood. (more)

Romance Book of the Year finalists

The Romance Writers of Australia has announced the finalists for this year’s R*BY Awards:

Short Sweet
Claire Baxter — The Single Dad’s Patchwork Family
Melissa James — A Mother in a Million
Marion Lennox — His Island Bride
Fiona McArthur — The Midwife’s Baby

(more)

Romance authors in the media

Australian romance author Anne Gracie was interviewed on the 9am show with David & Kim (click on Entertainment, then Books).

Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan, the women behind popular romance blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and authors of Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels, were interviewed by Alan Brough on ABC Radio in Melbourne. Hilarity ensues.

Coming not so soon

I’ve been told that the Australian release date for Anna Campbell’s next novel, Captive of Sin, is December 16. Just in time for Christmas, but still so much longer than the US date. I don’t know if I can wait that long, to be honest. I haven’t seen any images of the cover yet.

Parallel import restriction debates continue

The Productivity Commission was due to hand in its report regarding restrictions on the parallel importation of books to Australia on Wednesday, but they’ve asked for and have been granted an extension until June. Until then, I expect we’ll hear more about the issue in the media. For some good arguments from both sides: (more)

Swan & Edgar bar (via the Booktagger blog)

First things first: Happy Mother’s Day to all you mums, nannas and mums-to-be! I hope you enjoyed a good breakfast in bed and that the kids’ arts and craft project churned out something useful or appealing or edible or easy to hide. :-D

Apologies for slacking off last week with the Bizzo, but this one is absolutely chockers with good romancey stuff, so I hope it’s worth the wait.

ARRC09 audio recordings

Audio recordings from the Australian Romance Readers Convention in February are now available. Click here for more information and an order form.

International Association for the Study of Popular Romance

The IASPR is offering yearly, 5-yearly and lifetime memberships. Click here for more information. The IASPR, University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, and the Romance Writers of Australia are sponsoring an academic conference on Popular Romance Studies. (more)

Untouched by Anna Campbell

You see, it’s like this: remember how horrible the hero of Claiming the Courtesan was and how much he lacked any sense of gallantry or consideration in the first half of the novel? Well, that’s because Anna Campbell saved it all up for Matthew, the hero of Untouched. Matthew embodies pretty much every trait I typically love about Regency heroes—sometimes perhaps too much—and it’s no wonder that Untouched won the ARRC award for Favourite historical romance for 2008.

On her way to meet her cousin, Grace Paget is abducted and wakes up to find that she’s been mistaken for a prostitute and is expected to be a sex slave to Matthew, the Marquess of Sheene. Although Matthew seems like a kind man, he can’t help Grace because he himself has been held captive for 11 years by a greedy uncle who doesn’t wish to relinquish control of Matthew’s fortune. At first, Matthew suspects that Grace has been sent by his uncle, but as he realises that she’s truly an innocent victim in his uncle’s machinations, Matthew struggles to resist their growing attraction.

Grace begins to understand the horrors that Matthew endured at his uncle’s hands. (more)

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Are zombies the new vampires?

If you’re over vampires and werepeople and, yes, even angels, the new trend in paranormal romances may well be … zombies! A book titled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (US | UK) is due for release on April 1. The tag line is: The Classic Regency Romance – Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! You can read an interview with co-author Seth Grahame-Smith here (the other author being, of course, Jane Austen). Says Grahame-Smith:

when you take a look at the original book, it’s almost as if, subconsciously, Jane Austen is laying out the perfect groundwork for an ultraviolent bone-crushing zombie massacre to take place.

…there’s this zombie onslaught that’s been going on for years and Elizabeth Bennett has spent her whole life training to become a highly efficient killer of the undead, as has Darcy. It’s more about a love story between two headstrong independent zombie slayers. (more)

This is a round-up of ARRC09 and is not in chronological order. If you want to read more anecdotes, check out the liveblog. Click here for a list of ARRC09 posts and liveblogs .

Gala dinner

I wasn’t sure what to expect at the gala dinner, but there had been some discussion in the ARRC Lounge as to what people were wearing. Opting for a little black dress, I arrived just as the entrees were being taken away. Oh, well. I didn’t have much time to nibble, anyway, because as soon as I sat down I was immersed in book conversations left, right and centre.

I was seated with Vassiliki, my librarian and my fellow blogger Marg from Reading Adventures. Also at our table were authors Jess Dee and Lexxie Couper, two readers from Sydney, one from Malaysia, and another lady who was too far away for me to have a proper conversation with. Obviously, we mostly talked about books. I was seated next to an erotic romance reader, so I asked her for recs. I think she said Anya Bast, and possibly a few others that I can now no longer remember. (more)

This is a round-up of ARRC09 and is not in chronological order. If you want to read more anecdotes, check out the liveblog. Click here for a list of ARRC09 posts and liveblogs .

I’d love to say that ARRC09 started off with a bang, but true to form, I had barely brushed my teeth when Maggie Nash made her welcome address. I had hoped that Wandergurl would be there–particularly since we were supposed to be liveblogging the event–but she sent me an SMS to say that she registered then went back to bed. We are not morning people. Wandergurl did catch the tail end of MaryJanice Davidson’s keynote speech and said that she was funny.

What do academics really think about romance fiction?

I was eager to hear the panel discussion on what academics think about romance, but I only caught the tail end of the Q&A. The panel included Karen Simpson Nikakis, author of the Kira Chronicles and Head of Program of NMIT’s new Bachelor of Writing and Publishing degree. (more)

ARRC update

The Australian Romance Readers Convention is less than two weeks away, and as part of the lead up to this event, the ARRC committee has been running a Reader Challenge. If you’ve registered for the convention, don’t forget to drop by the ARRC Lounge, read the entries, and vote for your favourite (hopefully one of ours *g*). You’ll need to be signed up to the ARRC Lounge to vote. This week’s round ends tomorrow, and next week is the final round, so if you’re planning to enter, you need to get your reviews in to Bek this weekend.

The ARRC website also has a guest blog for authors supporting the convention. It seems everyone is jealous of our summer. All I can say is that I hope nothing happens to the air conditioning that weekend! (more)