Monday, March 26, 2007

2007 RITA and GH finalists announced

Today was a much anticipated day in the romance community, as finalists for the 2007 RITA and Golden Heart awards were announced this morning. Calls went out to nominees yesterday, so there was already quite a buzz as many authors announced that they or someone they knew had finaled throughout Sunday.

For those not in the know, the RITA award is the highest honor a romance writer can win. It's the Pulitzer of the romance industry, and the black tie awards ceremony is the culmination of RWA's four day National Conference held each summer, with awards this year being presented in Dallas, TX on Saturday, July 14.

1,100 books were entered this year, and were narrowed down to 100 books split over 12 categories. There are many established names on the list, such as Nora Roberts (writing as JD Robb), Kathleen Eagle, Kristi Gold, Susan Mallery, Susan Wiggs, Mary Jo Putney, Julia Quinn, Anne Stuart, Linda Lael Miller and Lisa Kleypas. Finalists will be judged by their peers.

RWA’s Golden Heart contest honors the best unpublished manuscripts of the romance genre. Aspiring writers entered almost 1,100 manuscripts over ten categories, which was then narrowed down to around 70 finalists. Finalists will be judged by some of the top editors in the industry.

Two fellow Divas have finaled in the GH, Kristen Painter and Gina Welborn, and another, Gemma Halliday, is a double nominee for the RITA. Good luck ladies!

Some of the nominees I'll be rooting for this year include:

Best First Book:
Spying in High Heels by Gemma Halliday
Dorchester Publishing, Making It - (0843957352)
Leah Hultenschmidt, editor

Best Contemporary Single Title Romance:
Aussie Rules by Jill Shalvis
Kensington Books, Brava - (0758211392)
Kate Duffy, editor

Best Short Contemporary Romance:
House of Midnight Fantasies by Kristi Gold
Harlequin Enterprises, Silhouette Desire - (0373767285)
Patience Smith, editor

Novel with Strong Romantic Elements:
Spying in High Heels by Gemma Halliday
Dorchester Publishing, Making It - (0843957352)
Leah Hultenschmidt, editor

Complete list of nominees:

2007 RITA finalists
2007 GH finalists

1 comment:

Unknown said...

To all of those nominated, congratulations much success. To be on the list must truly be an honor.