Today’s a big day in the romance writing community – it’s the announcements of the finalists in the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Awards for unpublished manuscripts, and RITA awards for published manuscripts.

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!

Although reading itself is a solitary activity, there’s a phenomenal range of social activity around reading. People talk about books with friends and family, lend books, comment on or review books in blogs and online forums, and many, many people are members of book clubs or reading groups. Reading groups vary from group to group, from formal and scholarly to primarily social groups that might, or might not, get around to actually discussing books – and all points in between! Some groups focus on ‘literary’ books, others read across a range of genres. I know of several people who are members of more than one reading group, enjoying different aspects of each group.

This vibrancy around books is wonderful, and integral to the role of books, reading, and storytelling in our culture. Despite all the ways in which authors and publishers can promote their books, word-of-mouth and recommendation from friends are still the among the most important influences for readers choosing a book to try. I think that’s a sign of a healthy society

The only thing that saddens me is the subtle (and often unsubtle) pressures about which books are ‘worthy’ of reading. This isn’t confined to the literary pages of  newspapers,  or the halls of universities, but seeps down through our society so that people are often hesitant to talk about reading ‘popular’ fiction, for fear of censure or ridicule. That’s NOT good.

I believe popular fiction, including genre fiction, is every bit as worthy of discussion and analysis as ‘literary’ fiction. It may not concern itself to the same conscious degree with themes, language, and Big Ideas, but authors use a wide range of skills, story conventions, ideas, and mix them with imagination to create something unique. Certainly some have more ‘skill’ or ‘originality’ than others and some more consciously use literary conventions. Popular fiction tells us a lot about ourselves, as individuals and societies, and the vast majority of it CAN stand up to analysis and reveal layers beyond the story itself. I’d love to see more popular fiction on high school curriculums. For example, Australian thriller writer Matthew Reilly’s books would not only be appealing to teenage boys, but would make a great starting point for discussions about masculinity, leadership and courage – as well as for analysis of novel structure, pacing and story development, as Reilly purposely uses a film-like structure for his books.

I know of at least one book club/reading group that will be reading my second book, Dark Country, this month. With input from my publisher and a friend or two, I’ve put together some reading group notes for both As Darkness Falls and Dark Country. They’re designed as  ideas for starting points for discussion, not as definitive analysis of the book. You and your group may have different perspectives and read the book far differently from me, which is perfectly natural! A book is as much about what the reader takes from it as what the author thinks they’ve put into it I’m interested in the whole reading-text relationship, so if you have discussed either book, I’d love to hear what you thought of it, and what you read into it.

And if your reading group is reading either book, and you’d like me to send bookmarks and/or signed bookplates, then have one member of the group contact me with the details via the contact form on the About page, and I’ll arrange to send them.

Just a quick post to report in from Brisbane. The IASPR conference is going brilliantly – and it’s wonderful to be spending time with people and discussing the genre and books in general. There’s been some great papers, including two very different critiques of the Twilight books, which have generated much discussion and thought. I love the conference banner, but I can’t find an image of it to share – it’s got the famous sculpture (The Thinker? The Philospher? Not sure of its name) with the slogan: Romance – Think About It.

There was a brief and positive segment on the conference on the ABC news last night – you can view it here.

The day before the conference, IASPR president Sarah Frantz and I took a day trip to Lamington National Park and then to Currumbin Sanctuary. It was a great day out, followed by dinner with Sarah, Eric Selinger and his lovely family (visiting from Chicago for the conference), and Sarah Allwood from Canberra. Then there was also dinner out last night with some of the conference delegates – so it’s been a full-on, but inspiring time, with much lively discussion and debate. There’s another full day today, then this evening the RWAustralia conference starts with the opening cocktail party.

Here’s Sarah, at Currumbin sanctuary, feeding the rainbow lorikeets:

I’m rushing around getting ready to leave for Brisbane in an hour or two, for the IASPR and RWAustralia conferences. I’m driving up today, and tomorrow, the wonderful Sarah Frantz (IASPR President) and I are going to do a day trip from Brisbane to Lamington National Park. I’ve always wanted to explore some of the hinterland behind the Gold Coast, and Sarah is interested in birds and wants to see what she can of Australia in the short time she’s here, so it should be a lovely day out. And I’m sure there will be much lively discussion about the romance genre, as well!

The IASPR (International Association for the Study of Popular Romance) conference is on Thursday and Friday, and I am very much looking forward to it. It will be the first gathering in Australia of scholars and others interested in popular romance, and the program is packed full or what, I am sure, will be fascinating and thought-provoking papers and discussions.

The RWAustralia conference starts (for me) on the Friday evening, with the cocktail party, and then runs all weekend. My publisher, Bernadette Foley, and I are presenting a workshop on Saturday morning about negotiating the author-publisher relationship. Then there’s a great lineup of workshops and keynotes, as well as the chance to meet and catch up with many friends and fellow writers. Plus the Awards dinner on Saturday night, where the winners of the Romantic Book of the Year Awards will be announced – always a special night, but especially so this year, as As Darkness Falls is a finalist in the Romantic Elements category.

I’ll be driving home on Monday, and maybe catching up with my sister for coffee along the way. Then I’m home for two days, before I head off to Melbourne!

Needless to say, with all this travelling and conferencing, the blog may be a little quiet – although since I’ll have the iPhone, I may be able to send some short blogs and iPhone photos – we’ll see!

So, to keep my regular readers entertained while I’m away, here’s a few photos from recent afternoon walks:

Our road, heading into the neighbour's paddocks

Our creek paddock - and possibly the site of the original hut

Late light on the trees - a natural Monet effect!

My walking companions (or gratuitous dog photo!)

I’m delighted to spread the word that the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance is now up and running. People interested in the study of romance in fiction, film, television, etc are invited to join the IASPR – the membership fee is $25USD for the year. The IASPR is sponsoring a conference in Brisbane in August this year, and apparently there are also plans afoot for a conference in Brussels next year.

As a new organisation, the IASPR is also seeking to raise some funds to support scholars travelling to conferences, and to assist in honorariums for keynote speakers and other similar expenses. To that end, Eric Selinger, one of the founders and a regular contributor to the blog, Teach Me Tonight, has invited people who would like to support the work of the Association to donate in the ‘It Takes Two’ campaign; in honour of your favourite romantic couple (real or fictional) donate $2 or more by clicking on the ‘Donate’ button on the IASPR website. Donations can be made by credit card through Paypal, or there’s a snail mail address on the blog link here. Eric very generously matched the first $250 of donations; I believe the fund has now raised around $700 in just a couple of days – which is great, but since international travel is expensive, it would be even better if more could be raised to assist scholars, especially young scholars, to attend conferences. There is some great research now being undertaken on the romance genre, and an academic conference in Princeton University last month generated a great deal of interest – including positive media interest.

I’ve joined the Association, and have also donated $20 in honour of one of my favourite couples, Barbie Cazabon and Jack Fascinatin’ Kippilaw from D’Arcy Niland’s classic 1957 Australian novel, Call Me When the Cross Turns Over. It’s out of print now, and not a well-known book to the current generation of readers, but it’s worth trying to find a copy in a second-hand shop. The ‘cross’ of the title is the Southern Cross, familiar constellation in the night sky for we southerners, and the book is set in the 1950s, in the gem fields and outback of New South Wales and South Australia. It’s not genre romance, and many would regard it as a Literary novel (the author also having the literary advantage of being white, male, and (sadly) deceased), but it has one of the strongest love stories in it that I have read, and both Barbie and Jack are well-drawn characters, tough as the harsh land they live in, and passionate with it. I’ve read it a dozen times or more, and can still cry in the black moments. (But be assured that the end will have you smiling, so hang in there!)

I love the opening description of Barbie:

“Her name was Barbie Cazabon, and she was brought up in a man’s world. She was dug out of this country and she’d be dug back into it. Some are like that. They belong nowhere else but in the land that bred them.”

I didn’t realise until years after I’d first read some of Niland’s books that he grew up in Glen Innes, a town in the region I now live in. Another of his books, The Shiralee, features many towns I’m familiar with – although they have changed since the 1950s. (Well, some of them have, anyway!) Australian readers may know that D’Arcy Niland was married to writer Ruth Park, and her books are definitely worth reading, too, including her autobiographies, A Fence Around the Cuckoo, and Fishing in the Styx.

I think Barbie and Jack from Call Me When the Cross Turns Over have been on my mind lately because we leave on Sunday for the outback – and will be passing through some of the places that Barbie travels through in the book – including Coober Pedy, Oodla Wirra, and Broken Hill. It’s amazing country, out there, and I love it – can’t wait to be on our way!

So, to get back to the topic of the post, if you’d like to join the association, or make a donation in honour of your favourite romantic couple to support it’s work, please do go and visit the website.