The RWA Rita Awards!

Congratulations, Anna Hoque on winning the autographed copy of Kate Perry’s Chosen by Desire! This is a wonderful series! I’ll send you an e-mail to get your snail mail.

I’m moving back to my historical collection and will be giving away Lorraine Heath’s Promise Me Forever. When I go to the Romance Writers of America national conference, I have the pleasure of sitting next to Lorraine at the literacy signing (Heath, Haynes, you get the picture), and Lorraine always has a Rita finalist flag on her table. So you can imagine just how good this book will be! As always, to be eligible for the drawing, leave a comment, and you must type in your email address. I’ll also add you to my newsletter for updates on all the fun stuff and releases, too. I’ll announce the winner on my next blog in two weeks!

So let’s talk about the Rita. This is the award given out by the Romance Writers of America for outstanding romance fiction. Think of it as the Oscar of romance. There’s even a cool gold statue for the winner of the category! I’ve been nominated once, for Somebody’s Lover. And of course I entered Fair Game and Yours for the Night this year, too, so I hope you’ll cross your fingers for me. The interesting thing about this contest is that you are judged by your peers. So to enter the Rita contest, you also have to judge the contest, though not in a category that you’ve entered. I have just finished reading my panel of Rita books and judging them. Of course, I can’t give you specifics until the finalists come out, but once that’s announced, I can make some recommendations for you based on what I read. I have read some books though that were not part of my Rita books, and I can make some recommendations from those. I just finished Hot as Sin by Bella Andre. I loved it! It was a great follow-up to Wild Heat, and I can’t wait for the next book in the series of hot firefighters, Never Too Hot coming in May. I also read Loving Luke by a new author, Jenny Andersen. Loving Luke was also wonderful, about a man coming home after a being imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit.

What have you been reading recently, something new, an old favorite?

And here’s my usual promo. Take Your Pleasure will be coming out from Loose-Id.com on April 13th! And as I promised, here’s the cover! Oh my God, isn’t it gorgeous, sexy and classy. It’s done by Croco Designs. I love it! Drop by the website to read an excerpt. I’m also blogging Wed, March 17, on MysteriesandMargaritas , so be sure to drop by!