The 2009 R*BY Awards

by Anna Campbell

I 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.

Celebrations!

By Anna Campbell

I've had a very exciting month and to cap it all off, I found out at the end of March that both of my books finaled in the RITA Award Best Regency Historical Romance category. The RITAs are like the romance Oscars and they're awarded every year by Romance Writers of America at a huge and very glamorous ceremony that marks the end of RWA's annual conference, which this year is in San Francisco.

Of course I'm going to be there and of course I haven't got a dress yet! When I was an unpublished author, I used to dream about one day maybe having a book in the running for a RITA - which was saying something as I had to cross the barrier to publication first and that seemed completely impossible at times! Now both CLAIMING THE COURTESAN and UNTOUCHED have been nominated. Pinch me! I don't believe it's real!

Congratulations and good luck to my fellow finalists and also to the unpublished writers who finaled in the Golden Heart, the world's most prestigious contest for unpublished romance manuscripts. You can find a complete list of RITA finalists here and a complete list of Golden Heart finalists here. I'm so looking forward to cheering for all these great writers in July!

This week, I got to celebrate the news with some local writer friends at the lovely Stamford Plaza Hotel right on the river in Brisbane. Here are a couple of photos. Photo one, me! Photo two clockwise from left: Allison Rushby, June Monks, Anna Campbell, Tina Clark, Amy Andrews, Rowena Cory Daniells, Sandy Curtis, Denise Rossetti.

Apologies to all those people who tried to enter my Great Spring Cleaning Contest after my blog here last month. There was a hiccup (all my fault!) and details weren't yet up when I posted my piece on luck. The details are well and truly there now, so I hope you'll come over, answer a simple question and enter. It's a great prize this month - four signed books, Annie West's FOR THE SHEIKH'S PLEASURE, Marion Lennox's RESCUE AT CRADLE LAKE, Christine Wells's SCANDAL'S DAUGHTER and Stacey Kayne's BRIDE OF SHADOW CANYON. Good luck!

Have you had any wonderful news to celebrate lately? Let us know so we can celebrate with you!

Christmas Presents with Anna Campbell

Sometimes a Harlequin Presents is all that will fit the bill when it comes to what I want to read!

I was hoping for a reading binge over the Christmas break. Didn't quite happen, sadly. Real life got in the way. But I did manage a few days ago to snatch a day and a half where I read nothing but Harlequin Presents! Ah, what bliss! Those crazy titles! Those high stakes plots! All that operatic emotion! Just what I felt like.

I started with an author whose work I hadn't read before. Sarah Morgan's The Brazilian Boss's Innocent Mistress (see what I mean about those crazy titles? Sheesh!). Really great story about a woman unjustly accused of embezzlement and the growling alpha male who decides to make her pay for her 'crimes'. Grooviest element? Probably the hero's glass mansion in the middle of the Brazilian rainforest. Seriously cool! Almost James Bondish. Will definitely read Sarah Morgan again. This was great.

Then a great Lynne Graham. I've long been a fan of this writer - her Prisoner of Passion is one of my all-time favorites. This one was called The Petrakos Bride. It had all those elements I look for in a Lynne Graham - an overbearing hero who finds himself flummoxed when he falls in love, a match of opposites who somehow find common ground, great sexual tension. A lovely Cinderella story just right for a post-Christmas romance binge.

Then a feast of two wonderful Jane Porters. I love Jane's work - she manages to pack more emotion into a 50,000 word book than most writers manage over a 10-volume series. These two were no exception. There was The Latin Lover's Secret Child and Hollywood Husband, Contract Wife. Both cut right to the heart and were beautifully written with such passion (and I don't just mean the passion in the bedroom, although there's certainly plenty of that!).

My binge ended with a debut book by Jennie Lucas called The Greek Billionaire's Baby Revenge. Another classic presents although with some unusual elements that added a piquant edge to my feast. Russian gangsters and Las Vegas entrepreneurs, how fantastic! And again lots of passion.

So thank you, Presents authors. You gave me just what I wanted in spades.

Do you ever find yourself in need of a fix of Harlequin Presents? Are there any authors you turn to at such times? What appeals to you about Harlequin Presents?

Summer in Australia

It's always slightly surreal to talk to my Northern Hemisphere friends at this festive time of year. A lot of them (although I have it on good authority that Alabama at the moment should be called Ala-balmy, it's so warm) are getting all the stuff I see on Christmas cards. You know, snow and ice and frost and robins and people rugged up in their winter best.

Down here in Australia, it's sweltering. And this year, we're having a proper wet season. Or at least we are in the part of Queensland where I live. This is a good thing (in spite of the inconveniences) as we've had the worst drought on record for longer than I can remember. Brisbane, the nearest major town, has been on water restrictions since Noah was a pup. Which means my place is a very popular destination for visitors - just so they can wash their car, something they haven't been allowed to do in Brisbane for years! Really puts you in your place when visitors arrive, say hello, and then start reaching for the hose so they can wash months of dust off the vehicle!

It's the time of year when everybody starts to slow down. It's our long summer holiday as well as Christmas. Everything is a bit crazy up until 25th December and then we all settle down for lots of junk food, visits from friends and family, long days of cricket on the TV, lots of swimming - beach or pool - repeats on TV, the enticing aroma of barbecues sizzling in every backyard.

My Christmas plans involve attacking my to be read pile. It's been growing exponentially over the year. I haven't stopped buying books but I've been so busy, I haven't done nearly as much reading as I usually do. There are so many treasures waiting for me, I'm drooling at the mere thought of getting my hot little hands on it. And believe me, in this temperature, hot is exactly what my hands are!

I've included a lovely photo that my neighbour Anne took of the flowering gum tree in my front yard. Isn't it gorgeous? And the perfect colors for Christmas, wherever in the world you are. And that's how I'd like to finish. Happy Holidays to everyone, no matter where you live. May your 2008 be blessed with much love, good health, great happiness and truckloads of good books!

Best wishes!

Anna x

Just a Second! by Anna Campbell

Hey, Leena, it's been a while since I blogged here although I often check by to see who's talking on Tote Bags. Thanks for inviting me to talk about my second historical romance Untouched which comes out on 27th November.

It's interesting having a second book on the way. I wonder if it's like having a second baby. Not having children myself, I can't comment with any real authority but I wouldn't be surprised if there are similarities in the way you feel. You THINK you should know a lot more than you actually do!

It's still just as exciting to mark those moments along the way to the book appearing on the shelves. The editor's final approval. The cover (that's always exciting - and isn't Untouched's cover gorgeous?). Its appearance on Amazon. The first reviews coming in. Thankfully, all glowing so far, touch wood, throw salt over my shoulder, sacrifice rubber chickens under a full moon!

But it doesn't really seem real until it's up there in a bookstore and someone can wander in and buy it. And even then, because I'm in Australia, I have to wait for friends of mine to take photos of it and send them to me!

Untouched is a dark adult fairytale with elements of Beauty and the Beast and The Sleeping Beauty. For people who enjoyed Claiming the Courtesan, my debut historical romance for Avon, it has a similar atmosphere but very different characters and story.

In the meantime, amongst all the excitement, life goes on. Because I've just got my third book into Avon, I've since been busy doing all the things I didn't do while I was writing. But I'm really looking forward to having some time off over the Holidays to catch up on my TBR pile which currently rivals Everest. Just to mention some of the books waiting for me - the newest J.R. Ward, the newest Nalini Singh, The Secret Swan by Shana Abe, Harlequins by Yvonne Lindsay, Trish Morey, Tessa Radley and Robyn Grady. And that's only counting the top few in the tottering pile. I might have to take the phone off the hook!

What books are you looking forward to snuggling down with over the Festive Season? And a very happy Thanksgiving to all my North American friends!

Best wishes!

Anna
www.annacampbell.info