RuBY award for The Clothier’s Daughter

The Romance Writers of Australia Romantic Book of the Year awards were announced last night, and I’m over the moon that The Clothier’s Daughter won the Historical Romance category.

The Romantic Book of the Year Historical Romance Winner - Bronwyn Parry, The Cothier's Daughter

The awards are usually announced at a gala dinner at the Romance Writers of Australia national conference, but like so many other events in this year of Covid it had to move online, and so the awards were announced on YouTube. No sparkly party dress for me as it was so cold, but I did find a sparkly tiara to wear with my woolly jumper and jeans while watching the awards!

A couple of weeks ago, the finalists were all asked to video a short acceptance speech in case we won, with each of the category winner’s speeches included in the awards presentations. It was rather weird to record as if I’d won when the winners weren’t announced until last night but here is my little speech:

The full list of winners is:

Novella – Georgia Tingley, Whistler Wonderland

Speculative Fiction – Anna Hackett, Heart of Eon

Romantic Suspense – Leah Ashton, Outrun the Night

RomanticElements – Rachael Johns, Just One Wish

Historical – Bronwyn Parry, The Clothier’s Daughter

Contemporary Romance – Fiona Macarthur, The Desert Midwife

Congratulations to all the winners!

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Virtual book reading

Over on Facebook, my friends Jenn J McLeod and J’aimee Brooker started a new group, Boredom Busting Books, inviting authors (mostly Australian) to post videos reading from their books, since none of us can go to book events in libraries, bookstores and festivals at present. I wasn’t courageous enough to do a live video as some authors have, but I finally recorded one, reading an excerpt from The Clothier’s Daughter. So if you’d like to watch me and listen to some of the story, here it is. It’s about 9 minutes long. I even put on a dress, instead of my old jeans and t-shirt that I usually wear at home.

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Stay home and read

The spread of the Covid-19 virus will be a challenge for all of us. I’m fortunate that I live out of town, that I work from home anyway, and that G is retired now. Although I’ll miss my volunteer work at Saumarez and the Folk Museum, staying at home for the winter won’t hit us as hard as it will many others.

My thoughts are with those in hospitality, tourism, the performing arts, and many other professions that will be hit hard, as well as all those in the health sector who are working with such dedication to help those who fall ill.

For those of us able to stay home, it will be a quiet time – unless you have a household of children! (In which case, may your sanity last while you adapt and may it become a time of closeness for your family.) Although I still have writing, research, and some online tutoring to do, I’m planning to also catch up on some reading and DVDs, and to sew up a portion of my fabric stash. I hope you all have plenty of uplifting activities to occupy yourselves with if you’re staying home.

I know that not being able to go out to work is going to affect many people’s income (including mine). So I’m dropping the e-book price of The Clothier’s Daughter for a while, to $2.99 USD, $4.99AUD. It’s a good long read, so it will distract you from virus news for a fair few hours!

Image of a Yorkshire waterfall and the book cover for The Clothier's Daughter. Text reads 'Bronwyn Parry's gripping historical novel of love and suspense. Stay home and read e-book sale until April 16! Just $2.99 US; $4.99AUD (or less)'

Buy links: Amazon.com; Amazon.com.au; Other e-book stores

Unfortunately I can’t drop the price of the paperback in bookstores as it’s Print on Demand and I make less than $1 on paperbacks sold through Amazon, Book Depository, Booktopia etc. However, I do have some copies left in stock and have reduced their price, so you can order a signed copy from me if you wish.

In good news for overseas readers, I’m in the process of getting unsold foreign rights reverted from my publisher for the Dungirri and Goodabri books, and I’ll be independently publishing US editions in the next couple of months, once I have new covers, new formatting, and have edited for a US audience. They’ll be available in e-book and paperback. And yes, it’s my intention that the covers for each series will have a similar style so that they look good together!

I have intentions of being more active on social media, and updating this blog more often, with reading recommendations, maybe a video or three, and whatever else I can think of that might interest readers. But of course I’ll also be writing, because I know the next book is the most important activity I can do!

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Valentine’s Day Giveaway

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, I’m offering a giveway on my Facebook author page of 5 ebook copies of The Clothier’s Daughter. But I know not everyone is on Facebook, so if you’d like to enter to be in the draw, you can comment on this post. The contest is open until midnight, California time, on Valentine’s Day – which is Saturday evening, Australian time.

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ARRA Awards and A Romantic Rendezvous Ticketpalooza!

March is going to be a wonderful month! I’m thrilled that The Clothier’s Daughter is a finalist in the Australian Romance Readers Awards in the Favourite Historical Romance category and the Hartdale Brides series isa finalist in the Favourite Continuing Series category – now that’s faith, when there’s only one book in the series out so far! It’s an awesome list of finalists and I’m incredibly honoured to be among them, and grateful to the readers who nominated my book. The winners will be announced at a gala dinner in Sydney on Saturday March 7th. The awards dinner is always a great night, and readers are very welcome to come along and celebrate your favourite books of 2019. More information and tickets are available here.

The very next day, on Sunday March 8th, I’ll be participating in A Romantic Rendezvous, a book-signing event in Sydney, also hosted by the wonderful folk at the Australian Romance Readers Association. I’ll be there alongside authors like Darynda Jones, Susan Donovan and host of other fabulous authors including Anne GracieCathryn Hein – Author, Fiona McArthur Simpson, and Kelly Hunter. And … drumroll …thanks to ARRA, I have a ticket to give away to one lucky reader on Valentine’s Day. What better Valentine’s Day gift could I give you than the opportunity to discover some new romance books and authors? 

If you don’t live in Sydney, don’t worry, there will be five events – Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide – and you can win a ticket to the event of your choice! All the details on these event, including the authors signing at each one, are available here: http://australianromancereaders.com.au/events/arr2020/.

To be in the draw, please comment on this post (or on my Facebook post) and let me know what your favourite, or most recent, romantic read is. Feel free to share this post with all your friends – if I receive more than 50 entries I’ll be able to give away a second ticket! So spread the word! I’ll draw the winner on Valentine’s Day and announce them here.

The more who come along on the day, the more fun we’ll have. (If you don’t want to wait to see if you’re the winner, tickets start from $20 and are available for purchase now at Trybooking <https://www.trybooking.com/562019>.)

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