I’ve had to stay quiet about this news for some weeks, but it’s finally the day for the official announcement and publication in the Australian Woman’s Day magazine:

Dark Country is a finalist in the Romantic Elements category of the Romance Writers of Australia’s Romantic Book of the Year!

Although coordinated by RWAustralia, the R*BY is judged by readers, not writers, so it’s wonderful to know that Dark Country resonates with the people who matter most! Huge thanks to all the readers who took the time to judge R*BY entries and provide their feedback – it wouldn’t happen without you!

The winners of the four categories will be announced at the awards dinner at the Romance Writers of Australia conference at Coogee on August 14th.

Congratulations to all the finalists – there’s a fantastic list of books there! And a special shout-out to fellow Aust Outback Romances author, Fleur McDonald, who is a finalist in the same category as me, and also to Kelly Hunter, my good friend who lives in my area, and is a fellow RITA finalist this year. The full list of finalists isn’t up on the website just yet, but here it is:

Short Sweet Category:
Sharon Archer – Marriage Reunited: Baby On The Way
Sharon Archer – Single Father: Wife And Mother Wanted
CC Coburn – Colorado Christmas
Emily Forbes – Wanted: A Father For Her Twins

Short Sexy Category:
Amy Andrews – A Doctor, A Nurse: A Christmas Baby
Robyn Grady – Bedded By Blackmail
Kelly Hunter – Playboy Boss, Live-in Mistress
Tessa Radley – Billion-Dollar Baby Bargain

Romantic Elements Category:
Fleur McDonald – Red Dust
Tracey O’Hara – Night’s Cold Kiss
Bronwyn Parry – Dark Country
Katherine Scholes – The Hunter’s Wife

Long Romance Category:
Sophia James – Mistletoe Magic
Stephanie Laurens – Mastered By Love
Stephanie Laurens – Temptation And Surrender
Christine Wells – Wicked Little Game

Great news – I was notified yesterday that Dark Country is a finalist in the 2010 Daphne du Maurier contest!

The Daphne du Maurier Award for excellence in mystery/suspense is run by the Romance Writers of America Kiss of Death Chapter , and there are six categories for published books; Dark Country has finalled in the Single Title Romantic Mystery/Suspense category.

It’s a wonderful honour to be a finalist in this prestigious contest; for romantic suspense writers, it’s second only to the RWAmerica RITAs and the ITW Thriller Awards in the international contests. So, I’ve been wearing out my smile muscles (again!) since reading the email yesterday.

The winners of the Awards are announced on Thursday 29th July at the RWAmerica conference in Orlando; the Kiss of Death Chapter hosts a wonderful Death by Chocolate party that evening (and wow, is there serious chocolate!), and the Awards are announced at the party. Sadly, as I think I’ve mentioned before, I won’t be able to attend the RWAmerica conference this year, due to upcoming major surgery, but I’m sure all my fellow finalists and KOD members will have a fantastic night! Hopefully, I’ll be recovered enough to indulge in some chocolate to share the celebration, albeit from a considerable distance! (Hmmm… there’s a Max Brenner Chocolate Bar not far from the hospital – I may have to send Gordon out to bring me a little treat!)

The full list of finalists is below – my congratulations to all of them! It’s fantastic to be included in such a list of great authors, and my thanks go to the judges and contest coordinators for making the contest possible.

CATEGORY (SERIES) ROMANTIC MYSTERY/SUSPENSE
Trusting a Stranger by Kerry Connor
The Christmas Stranger by Beth Cornelison
Burning Secrets by Elizabeth Sinclair
Cold Case Affair by Loreth Anne White
More than a Man by Rebecca York

HISTORICAL ROMANTIC MYSTERY/SUSPENSE
Alaskan Renegade by Kate Bridges
The Club by Sharon Page
From Waif to Gentleman’s Wife by Janet Justiss
The Nude by Dorothy McFalls
The Rake’s Inherited Courtesan – by Ann Lethbridge

INSPIRATIONAL ROMANTIC MYSTERY/SUSPENSE
Against All Odds by Irene Hannon
An Eye for an Eye by Irene Hannon
A Prisoner of Versailles by Golden Keyes Parsons
Final Exposure by Roxanne Rustand
Scent of Murder by Virginia Smith

MAINSTREAM MYSTERY/SUSPENSE
Missing Mark by Julia Kramer
Urgent Care by CJ Lyons
Warning Signs CJ Lyons
Breakneck by Erica Spindler
The Girl on Legare Street by Karen White

PARANORMAL ROMANTIC MYSTERY/SUSPENSE:
Midnight’s Master Cynthia Eden
A Highlander of Her Own by Melissa Mayhue
Desire Untamed by Pamela Palmer
Heart Change by Robin D. Owens
Dragon Moon by Rebecca York

SINGLE TITLE ROMANTIC MYSTERY/SUSPENSE (TIE)
Fatal Secrets by Allison Brennan
If Looks Could Chill by Nina Bruhns
Feel the Heat by Cindy Gerard
Untraceable by Laura Griffin
Dark Country by Bronwyn Parry
Hunt Her Down by Roxanne St. Claire

Schwarze Dornen, the German edition of As Darkness Falls, translated by Carsten Mayer, is now available from Blanvalet, so a huge welcome to German readers!

Sadly, I have forgotten most of the German that I learned in High School, so I won’t mangle a fine language by attempting to use it – however, I have added a page for Schwarze Dornen, with the publisher’s description, and there is a link to download the first chapters from the Blanvalet website.

Although I haven’t (yet!) been to the German-speaking areas of Europe (other than a brief stopover in Vienna), I have met many wonderful German visitors while travelling in regional and outback Australia – so I do hope that German readers enjoy visiting Dungirri in the pages of Schwarze Dornen.

The Australian Romance Readers Awards dinner last night was a wonderful night – beautiful venue, great food, fantastic company, smooth organisation – I had a fantastic time!

And to top it all, I came away with this:

A huge thank you to the ARRA members who voted for Dark Country, to the ARRA committee who organised the awards, the award sponsors, and to everyone who was there to share a special night with!

There’s been a lot of activity on romance blogs and networks the past couple of days. The annual Romance Writers of America conference will be on in the last week of July, with the gala Awards night on the 31st. The conference is huge – about 2000 writers, publishers and agents, hundreds of workshops, many booksignings (including the huge 550 author Literacy signing), and countless meetings and other events. It was to have been held at the amazing Gaylord Opryland resort near Nashville, Tennessee… but last weekend, Nashville and surrounding areas received 13+ inches of rain over two days. There hasn’t been much on the Australian media about it, but most of Nashville, including the Gaylord, was flooded, with heart-breaking loss of life and damage to property and livelihoods.

By Tuesday morning, Australian time, the Cumberland River hadn’t quite peaked, but it was already clear that the damage to the Gaylord would render it – along with many, many other business in Nashville – out of action for months. I’d like to give many kudos to the Gaylord staff, for notifying RWA members so promptly of the necessary cancellation, even while many of them must have been struggling with the personal effects of the flooding. And huge kudos to RWA staff and Board, who faced the daunting task of finding an alternative venue for a huge conference in less than three months, with special requirements – when such venues are usually booked years ahead. I’m sure they haven’t had much sleep!

Less than forty-eight hours after being notified of the Gaylord damage, RWA has announced this morning that they have secured an alternative venue – the conference will be held at the The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Florida. The quick notification of the new venue will enable conference attendees to make new arrangements more easily. I’m sure that there’s still a lot of work ahead for the RWA Board and staff and the resort staff in adapting existing plans to the new venue and arranging the many requirements for a conference such as this – a years’ work pushed into less than 3 months will be a challenge – but the RWA staff and Board have done a fantastic job in dealing with the situation already.

Am I going to the conference? My chance of going is quite slim, but I’m still clutching on to the sliver of hope. It’s a huge thing to be a RITA finalist, and I’d love to be there at the awards night. But I can’t go unless the aneurism is stabilised, and I can’t have the next procedure for it until the blood clot is gone… I’ll be seeing the neurosurgeon the week after next, and having an ultrasound to check the blood clot status about then. If it’s clear, and if the neurosurgeon is happy to go ahead with the occlusion, and if it can be scheduled quickly, and if I come through the procedure without complications… then I might be able to go to Orlando – assuming that I can find the $$!!

So, it will be a long wait before I know if I’m going or not. In the meantime, my thoughts are with all those affected by the flood devastation in Tennessee and surrounds, and my appreciation goes to the RWA Board and staff for the tremendous efforts in reorganising the conference.