applause-2 by Multiple fragments of tissue (via Flickr)
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!)
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Angel’s Blood giveaway winner: KayTee
The winner of our first book giveaway is KayTee, who recommended Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series:
The world building is great but not too overwhelming and the two possible heroes (or should I say anti-heroes) are compelling and keep us guessing if they are the good or bad guys or both. These books make me feel I am with Mac on her journey and it is very easy to get lost in the story.
KayTee, I’ve sent you an email, but in case you don’t get it, please email me your address and I’ll pop the book in the post for you next week. Thanks to everyone else who entered: Marg, Jessica and Lisa. We really shouldn’t be adding any more books to our TBR piles, but I think we’re going to have to try some of your recs, you’ve made them sound so good!
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Lost in Austen (DVD)
Pride and Prejudice time travel shenanigans
Tomorrow night, ABC1 will screen the first part of Lost in Austen, a British mini-series in which a 21st-century reader swaps places with Elizabeth Bennet and finds herself inadvertently changing Jane Austen’s story. It sounds fabulously fun, and the SMH provides some background to the series. Lost in Austen has become one of Britain’s best selling DVDs, with talks of a film adaptation. Click here to watch a preview of the show.
Ebooks in Australia
Thinking of buying an ebook? David Frith at Doubleclick has a good round-up of ebook options for Australians. The BeBook seems to be the cheapest option, although Frith seems to have missed the products sold by DA Direct (which, according to a reader at ARRC, will be selling more ebook readers through their Melbourne store).
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MOO cards (see Flickr for more)
I totally forgot to announce this before I left for ARRC, but we had some MOO cards made to give away to people we met. Wandergurl was very good at handing hers out, whereas I kept forgetting. So anyway, here they are in case you missed out. (If you want one, let me know!)
ARRC Round-up
More ARRC round-ups are appearing on the blogs, and I’ve collated links that I know of:
Gnomeangel — Adventures with a bleeding heart
Reading Adventures — Reminiscing about ARRC09 – Saturday
Tez Says — Tez in the City, Part II
Bronwyn Parry — ARRC09
Desirabelles — The Australian Romance readers conference 2009
Erica Hayes — tha kikass convenshun, we haz it
Paula Roe — Aussie Romance Readers Convention ‘09
Publishers Weekly — This, that and the Other Thing Monday
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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.
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ARRC update
If you’ve registered for the Australian Romance Readers Convention, don’t forget to vote for your favourite reader review (hopefully you’ll like the review of Claiming the Courtesan in the fifth round *g*). You can read the entries here, and voting ends tomorrow.
The ARRC website 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!
Check out the Melbourne Leader article on the convention: Romantics converge in Melbourne for novel convention. This time next week, we’ll be in Melbourne! *happy dance*
Book events
The National Library of Australia in Canberra is holding a speed dating night for book lovers on Friday, February 20. You’re invited to bring your favourite book to use as an ice breaker and meet other book lovers. The event is open to all book lovers—not just singles.
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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!
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Photo by circulating (via Flickr)
Every fortnight we’ll be posting a collection of news items, events, and other interesting tidbits related to books, and especially the Australian book industry. This first issue is bursting at the seams because it includes stuff from last year that I’ve been meaning to post. After this issue, we’ll be aiming to post current news and events as we hear about them. Click here for a list of Book Bizzo posts.
Book launches, events, and authors
Tempt the Devil by Anna Campbell was released last week, and there’s an interview of Campbell at Down Under Desirabelles. I WANT this book!
Bronwyn Parry’s second book–I assume it’s the loosely connected sequel to As Darkness Falls–will be out in September. A mass market paperback version of As Darkness Falls will be available in April.
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As Darkness Falls by Bronwyn Parry
The first I heard of As Darkness Falls by Australian author Bronwyn Parry was a small blurb in the Dymocks Booklovers catalogue. I was intrigued because it sounded like a romance (just because the catalogue says it’s romance doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be genre Romance), it’s set in Australia, and it looked meaty. When I finally got my hands on the book, the cover promises: “If you enjoy reading Nora Roberts you will love…” That is a big call, I thought, especially since it’s the author’s first novel. But after reading As Darkness Falls, I think it really is a book that Nora Roberts fans might like. It’s a shame, then, that so few Australian romance bookstores have it in their catalogues.
As Darkness Falls centres on Detective Isabelle O’Connell, who has isolated herself from society to recover from some serious personal trauma resulting from an investigation into a child killer. Not only had she been unable to find the killer in time, she had been unable to protect a local suspect from falling victim to an angry mob. But when she receives a visit from Detective Chief Inspector Alec Goddard informing her that another girl has gone missing in her hometown of Dungirri, Isabelle is compelled to go back home and help solve the case.
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