Aussie Author Month 2012

We’re back for another month-long celebration of some of our favourite local authors!

After last year’s success, we’ve decided to participate in Aussie Author Month again. For all of April, we’ll be focusing on Aussie authored books with a (mostly) romantic bent. The event ties beautifully with another huge initiative we’ve been supporting—the Australian Women Writers Challenge.

So if, by the end of April, you still haven’t discovered some great new Aussie romance authors, it won’t be for lack of trying on our part!

(Note: BDB fans need not despair. We’ll still be updating the cheat sheets and posting and reviews of Tohr’s book. I’m reading it now!)

Official site

There’s now an official blog for Aussie Author Month. Or you can follow us on Facebook. The Twitter hashtag is #ausbooks.

Fundraising (not for us!)

As part of Aussie Author Month, we’re hoping you’ll consider donating to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF). The ILF provides books and resources to indigenous communities in order to improve literacy among those in remote and isolated regions.

You can make a donation via GoFundraise.

Please note that none of the Aussie Author Month participants will be collecting money directly. All donations should go through GoFundraise, who will send the donations directly to ILF. You can read more about their process here.

Blogging schedule

Believe it or not, we’re a little bit more organised this year and have already scheduled at least two reviews per week for this month. This means there will be an increase mail notifications and Facebook activity for those of you who subscribe via email or follow us via Facebook.

We’ll be running the quickie series for authors again, although probably not to the same extent as last year—it took a lot of work and we were a little swamped, to be honest.

And, yes, there will be free books!

Wanna join us?

The more the merrier! Feel free to just join in the spirit of the month, or you can officially sign up here.

If you’re a romance blogger or tweep, or if you write a romance-related post during the month, please let us know in the comments or via email. If we get enough of a momentum,, we’ll post a weekly round-up of romance-related Aussie author items here on Book Thingo.

Aussie author recap

There’s no better way to show why we’re participating in this initiative than to showcase Aussie writing talent. Here’s a recap of all the reviews we’ve done of books by Australian authors so far. Enjoy!

Keepers
Red-Hot Renegade by Kelly Hunter (romance)
Affection: a memoir of love, sex and intimacy by Krissy Kneen
On The Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (romantic elements)
The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta (romantic elements)
Steven Herrick — Slice: Juicy Moments From My Impossible Life (romantic elements)
Toni Jordan — Addition (romantic elements)
Dominic Knight — Disco Boy (romantic elements)
Melina Marchetta — Saving Francesca (romantic elements)
Bronwyn Parry — As Darkness Falls (romance)
Ann Somerville — Remastering Jerna (romantic elements)