Members of the RWA Board have the very pleasant task of contacting the finalists by phone to notify them, although its such a thundering honour to final, that they probably get ear damage from all the squeeing! The calls are supposed to start at about 8am on Thursday morning, US time – but since that’s the wee small hours Australian time, some of the board members phone Australian finalists early, while we’re still awake on our side of the world – although the finalists are supposed to keep it to themselves until the ‘official’ calling time begins.

Before I went to bed last night, there were already a few unofficial announcements on Australian loops, and I was thrilled to see two friends are RITA finalists, and to hear of at least three Golden Heart finalists. Australians are usually well-represented in the finalist lists, and this year is looking good, too!

Of course, I’d been hoping for the phone to ring all afternoon, as Dark Country was entered in the RITAs. But alas, it stayed silent. It was a slim chance, I knew, and I hadn’t been holding my breath. So I went to bed about 11pm, but lay awake for a while, finally drifting off at about midnight.

The phone woke me at 12.22am. And it wasn’t someone from Gordon’s work with a network breakdown. It was a lovely lady from RWAmerica, to tell me that Dark Country is a finalist in the romantic suspense category of the RITAs!

It’s now 1.30am, and I’m still grinning from ear to ear, and unlikely to go back to sleep for a while!

I’ll put up a full list of Australian RITA and GH finalists later today, when they’re all announced.

ETA: The full lists of finalists are now on the RWAmerica website – RITA Finalists and Golden Heart Finalists.

Super congrats to all the finalists in both awards! And special congratulations to the Australian finalists: in the RITAs, Elizabeth Rolls, and Kelly Hunter; and in the Golden Heart, Kylie Griffin, Vanessa Barneveld, Gabrielly Luthy, and Robyn Enlund.

That’s three Australians (including me) in the RITAs and four in the Golden Heart – what a great showing, Australia!

The great news is that Dark Country is a finalist in the 2009 Australian Romance Readers Awards , in the Favourite Romantic Suspense category. The ARRA web page has the full list of finalists in all the categories.

And, to top it off, I am a finalist for the Favourite Australian Romance Author of 2009 award. There’s some pretty wonderful competition though – and huge congrats to the other finalists!
* Angela Verdenius
* Anna Campbell
* Anne Gracie
* Christine Wells
* Denise Rossetti
* Keri Arthur
* Paula Roe
* Stephanie Laurens
* Tracey O’hara

ARRA members are currently voting to determine the winner – if you’re an ARRA member, don’t forget to check your email for the link to cast your vote. The winners will be announced at a gala dinner in Sydney in May. Many thanks to those who nominated me and Dark Country in the nomination round – I’m delighted to make the finals.

The not-so-great news is that we’re having internet connection woes, and will probably be offline for a few days. Our internet box has to be replaced, but they apparently disconnect the old one when the new one is shipped – and it will take probably three days to get here. So, we’ll be internetless from any time now, until it arrives. I can connect via my iPhone to check emails and do the basics, but it’s tricky to read and write on the small screen, so I’ll only be doing urgent things. On the bright side, I hope this will take away some distractions and give me more focus to write!!

I’m not quite sure where October went – whoosh! – but I did promise a giveaway draw for subscribers to my newsletter, as something of an apology for the newsletter software snafu in September. So, on Sunday, I’m going to draw one name from the list of subscribers, and that person will win their choice of a signed copy of BOTH my books, OR, if they already have both books, a gift certificate from a bookseller of their choice ($30US/$40Aus), OR a combination of a book plus a gift certificate ($15US/$20Aus). If you’d like to sign up for my newsletter, you can do so here (or click the link at the top of the page). I send out a maximum of one newsletter per month, and I respect your privacy and abhor spam, so I’ll never giveaway or sell your email address.

In general news, things have been quietly busy here. Most of my time is focused on writing book 3, which is moving along, although a little slower than I’d like. The hero, Mark, has been proving a little elusive; there’s a lot underneath his controlled public face, but he’s reluctant to let anyone see it. However, I’m now getting to know him much better, and finding out many interesting things about him – and so will the heroine, Kate

So, I’d better get back to it, and settle in for, I hope, a productive day of writing! I’ll leave you with a few images from my recent morning walks. Our driveway is almost a kilometre long, so down to the gate and back is a reasonable amount of exercise. This morning, though, I hitched a ride with Gordon when he left for work, and hopped out another kilometre down our road, to walk back home. The combination of recent rain and warm spring weather has given a burst of green growth – but I’m sure it will brown off very quickly.

Down the driveway

Old farm cottage

The neighbours cattle - who see few pedestrians!

The details are:
Date: Thursday 24th September
Time: 5pm to 6pm
Cost: free
Location: Ultimo Library, Level 1, 40 William Henry Street Telephone: 9298 3110
For more information, see the event listing on the City of Sydney website.

I’d like to acknowledge Vassiliki Veros and her colleagues at Ultimo Library and the City of Sydney who have done a great job organising this event at short notice. Thank you!

As Darkness Falls (UK Cover)

I find it interesting how different countries approach book covers, each taking a style that reflects the different readerships and the way in which the publishers are targetting the market. As I understand it, romantic suspense isn’t as big in the UK as it is elsewhere, so they’ve taken more of a thriller approach, without the emphasis of the Australian setting on the cover, which was a key element of the Australian cover. I really like both covers – the Australian, and the UK. The UK one, while it isn’t Australian, is very atmospheric. Here’s hoping UK readers will be tempted to pick the book off the shelf… and read on!

For my friends overseas, the book is now listed as available for pre-order at The Book Depository. I use The Book Depository a lot – they don’t charge shipping, and have good prices and fast service. There’s only 84 days to go until UK release date – 4 September.

I’m delighted to be in such great company – the full list of finalists is on the RWA website. The winners will be announced in August at the RWAus conference.

The Literary Feast is on Friday, 29 May, at 7pm at the Gold Coast Arts Centre; around 30 authors will be there, moving between tables to talk about books, writing and reading with the other guests. Tickets for the dinner are $75.

The following day, Saturday 30 May, there are a series of author talks at the various Gold Coast libraries. I’ll be on a panel at Broadbeach Library, at 10am, with authors Toni Jordan and Karen Foxlee. Our topic is writing a follow-up to a best-selling debut novel. (Technically mine isn’t a best-selling novel – not yet, anyway! But it’s doing quite nicely.)

The full program of events – and there are some great authors participating – is available as a PDF file. The author talks are free, but bookings are essential.

And, in a nice gesture, I received a parcel yesterday: Text Publishing, who publish Toni Jordan, had sent me a copy of Toni’s novel Addition via my publisher. It looks like a great read – as soon as my copy-edits are finished, I’ll delve into it!

The German sale has also been finalised, so that’s two parts of Europe where the book will be available in the future. There’s no US sale yet, but I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for that.

So, what do you need to do to be in with a chance to win? Simply use the form below to answer three easy questions – and you can find the answers in chapter one, which can be downloaded for free from the As Darkness Falls website.

The three questions are:

1. What is the name of Bella’s dog?
2. What is the name of Bella’s old home town?
3. What is the name of the Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) in charge of the case?

So, read chapter one, pop your answers in the form below, and press the ‘send’ button. Entries close at midnight at the end of the weekend of 11th & 12th October 2008 – and I’ll use western USA time, not Australian time. On the evening of 13th October, I’ll put the names of all the correct entries into a hat (or a bucket!), and ask my DH to draw out the winning entry.

Notes:

• Only one entry per person, please.
• I respect your privacy and will not use your email address for any purpose other than to contact you if you are the lucky winner
• If you live on this planet, no matter where, you can enter this contest.

Thank you to everybody who entered – this contest is now closed!

Thanks to everyone who came along! I do appreciate all your enthusiasm and congratulations.