Friday, March 25, 2016

ROMANCE WRITERS CELEBRATE THEIR BIGGEST DAY WITH CONTEST FINALISTS




As Laurie mentioned on Wednesday, today is one of the biggest days in the romance world calendar: Romance Writers of America’s® RITA® and Golden Heart® contest finalist announcement day. It’s our equivalent of an Academy Award, the highest honor we can receive as romance writers, for one of our books to be named a finalist in either the RITA® contest (for published writers) or the Golden Heart® (for unpublished writers).

The competition is fierce for a spot on the final roster of no more than eight titles per category, from Paranormal (where SFR competes) to Inspirational, Romantic Suspense to Historical. (Entries are typically capped at 1200 for the Golden Heart®, for example, and up to 2000 novels are entered in the RITA®.)

On announcement day, those who have entered sit on tenterhooks, waiting for that all-important phone call or email to tell them their books have been anointed. Believe me, it’s a nerve-wracking process! By 2:00 p.m., Central Daylight Time, all the finalists will have been notified and the list is published on the RWA® website http://www.rwa.org. (If you want to follow the craziness live, as Laurie mentioned, the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood is hosting their party live here.

For the finalists, the flurry of excitement is just beginning of course. After all, in the end, there can be only one—winner per category, that is. Those winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony at the RWA® National Conference in San Diego on Saturday, July 16.


In the meantime, huge congratulations to all the finalists, for both Golden Heart® and RITA® from all of us here at Spacefreighters! Do your happy dance! Enjoy the joy and attention as you approach the National Conference in July. You deserve every minute of it!

Cheers,
Donna


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