by Anna CampbellI had a lovely thrill last week. They announced the finalists in the Australian and New Zealand Romantic Book of the Year Awards (the R*BY) and my green monster, UNTOUCHED, is one of four finalists in the Long Romance category.
This not only means I have a chance at winning the spectacular glass trophy pictured on the left. It also means quite a lot of local publicity through Woman's Day, one of the sponsors, and the chance to write a short story for them. When I finaled last year with CLAIMING THE COURTESAN, my short story THE RETURN was published in the magazine, which is Australia's most popular. You can read THE RETURN here.
There's some really great books in the running this year. I'm flattered and proud to be counted in their number.
Here's a list of the other finalists:
SHORT SWEET CATEGORY: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
SHORT SEXY CATEGORY:
Miranda Lee - The Millionaire's Inexperienced Love Slave
Carol Marinelli - Expecting His Love Child
Trish Morey - The Italian Boss's Mistress of Revenge
Paula Roe - Boardrooms and a Billionaire Heir
LONG ROMANCE CATEGORY:
Karina Bliss - Second Chance Family
Anna Campbell - Untouched
Anne Gracie - The Stolen Princess
Elizabeth Rolls - A Compromised Lady
ROMANTIC ELEMENTS CATEGORY:
Maggie Alderson - How to Break Your Own Heart
Bronwyn Parry - As Darkness Falls
Suzanne Perazzini - Beneath The Surface
Suzanne Perazzini - Crash into Darkness
Congratulations to all the R*BY finalists and good luck for the winner announcements at the gala awards dinner at the Romance Writers of Australia conference in Brisbane in August.So that got me thinking about my best read in the last year. And I realized there were too many for me to choose just one. I wondered if you had a favorite recent read. I'm always looking to add to my towering TBR pile.
12 comments:
Congratulations Anna, I really hope you win. Untouched is a great read!
Anna,
It's terrific news about you finalling in the R*BY. So well deserved. Some of my fave authors have been nominated so I suspect I'll be smiling a lot on the night of the final announcement. As you know 'Untouched' is one of my favourite books so of course I'll have my fingers crossed for you.
As for a fave read in the last year - sadly that's impossible. Though that was the year I discovered Michelle Douglas (Harlequin Sweet author) and I love her books, but I also know there were lots of other new authors I enjoyed.
Annie
Seeing how you said recent read, that I can do. Picking one great one from the past year. . . uh-uh, no way, nope, can't do. ;)
Anyhoo, my last favorite, 5+ type of book (that wasn't a reread, since I do plenty of those, especially for a while now) was Vicki Lewis Thompson's Casual Hex. :)
And congrats! :)
Lois
Congrats, Anna!
There's no way I could name a favorite from last year. There were just too many great books.
My most recent 5 star read hasn't been published yet but I know Anna will agree with me that this is one magnificent story. I encourage everyone to hit the stores on July 7th to get a copy of Wicked Little Game by 2009 RITA finalist, Christine Wells. It's fabulous!
A terrific contemporary that I just finished is One Reckless Summer by Toni Blake. I highly recommend this one.
Huge congrats Anna Untouched is one of my favourite stories and always will be I loved Matthew and Grace and of course Wolfram. I have everything crossed for you.
I don't think I could choose a favourite I have read so many wonderful books one I just recently finished was Teresa Medeiros's Some Like It Wld very good and I also really love Karen Ranney's books.
Good Luck Anna
Have Fun
Helen
Good luck Anna--how exciting! (Though I did have to snicker when you called it your green monster!)
One of my recent recommended reads is Elizabeth Boyle's Tempted by the Night. It's about a year old, but I thought it was fabulous!
Thanks, Alaine. When I was unpublished, I was a bit of a contest junkie, and that doesn't seem to have changed ;-) It's always a thrill to final in something and this list this year is truly impressive!
Annie, it IS hard to pick a favorite, isn't it? I've really enjoyed some of Nicola Cornick's recent books, Kidnapped, Unmasked and Confessions of a Duchess. And I really liked Connie Brockway's return to historicals, Enchanted. I've also re-read some classics, thanks to my reviewing gig on Romance Novel TV, and I've got to say there's some bodaciously good writing out there in Romancelandia.
Thanks for the congrats. Go, you green monster!
Hi Lois! Isn't Casual Hex a clever title? She really comes up with some snappy names for her stuff. Would you believe I've never read a book by VLT? I'll have to remedy that immediately! Thanks for the congrats.
PJ, I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. I got to read WLG before it went to the editor so I was one of the few people in the world who knew just what a treat romance readers had coming up in July. It's a brilliant book, isn't it? I was utterly in love with Vane! I like Toni's stuff - must check out that one. Thanks for the congrats!
Actually, I've read a couple of great books by Tawny Weber in the last year and Sarah Mayberry and Kathleen O'Reilly. Had a bit of a Blaze kick going there for a while. What I like about those three is that they have such high stakes emotion along with all the hot stuff. That's an unbeatable combination in my book.
Thanks, Helen. As you know from other posts, I'm thrilled pink to be listed this year. It's such an honour and I really love the characters in Untouched too. Thanks for your recommendations - you're such a historical queen, aren't you, my friend? I love that you read so widely in the genre!
Elizabeth Boyle's books are getting some great buzz at the moment, Pamela. She's a lovely lady. I don't know if you've met her but she's great fun. Thanks for the congrats and the good luck. Someone got quite upset with me the other day for calling Untouched the green monster. They obviously can't hear the affection in my voice when I say it. It's just when you write a book, it takes over your life, just like a big monster living in your garage would. So I call all my books monsters! ;-)
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