Any regular visitors to my blog will know that Bronwyn Parry has been very supportive of my own writing so I was delighted when she was nominated for a RITA Award this year. The RWAmerica Conference is in Orlando, Florida this coming weekend and the winner will be announced at the dinner on Saturday night 31^st July.  I’ll be cheering Sunday morning Australian time! I thought I’d ask Bron to talk about the RITAs so those of you who are new to the genre or haven’t heard of the award will get to know it a little better.

Bron, for the uninitiated, what does RITA stand for?

The RITA award is named after Rita Clay Estrada, who was the first President of the Romnace Writers of America, and a successful romance author. Although based in the USA, given the importance of the North American market, the Romance Writers of America is the major international organisation for romantic fiction, which makes the RITAs the premier award for the genre.

How is the contest judged?

In the first round, each entry is judged by five members of the RWA’s Published Author Network,  so it differs from some other contests in that it is judged by authors rather than readers – although I hasten to add, that authors are also readers! The finalists are announced in late March each year, and they are also judged by PAN members. The winners aren’t announced until the moment the envelope is opened, up on the stage at the gala awards night.

Who’s eligible to enter?

The RITA contest is open to both members and non-members of the RWA, for books published in the calendar year preceding the Award announcement – ie, the awards announced this year are for books published in 2009. Books must be in English, but books published outside the US (such as mine) are eligible to enter.

What does it mean to win?

Just being finalist is a thundering great honour – there can be up to 1200 entries, with potentially over a hundred in each category, so it means that five of my peers judged my book very highly. Each time I see my name in the romantic suspense category along with such wonderful and successful authors as JD Robb (Aka Nora Roberts), and Karen Rose, I almost have to pinch myself to see if I’m actually awake!

You won a Golden Heart Award in 2007 for AS DARKNESS FALLS. Describe that night for us with all the glamour and glitz. It’s the Oscars of Romance Writing!!

It’s a fantastic night – although somewhat nerve-wracking for finalists! But the experience of being a finalist in either the RITAs or the GH starts right at the beginning of the conference; every finalist has a ribbon on their name badge, and it’s amazing how everyone who sees that ribbon – in lifts, in coffee queues, wherever –asks which book, and which category, and offers congratulations. It does make one feel special!

On the awards night – the last night of the conference – the excitement starts brewing early. In 2007, I had an early dinner with friends before going to my room to ‘glam up’ – and it is fun to dress up for a special event! Finalists are seated in the front rows of a huge auditorium that seats around 2500 people – this is THE big night for romance authors, agents, publishers and other romance industry people. It really is somewhat like the Oscars – there’s even a red carpet for the finalists to walk along, and a small media contingent. Once inside, there are huge video screens above and on either side of the stage, lights spotlighting the stage, and looking from the front, seating stretching it seems forever down the auditorium. The buzz of conversation before the awards starts is so animated that you can almost see the excitement hovering in the air.

The Golden Heart awards are announced first, then the RITAs. Each category has a guest presenter, who reads the authors and titles of the finalist books, with photos on the video screens. Then there’s the envelope, and the nail-biting wait for the presenter to open it… then she reads the winner’s name seconds before it’s displayed on the big screens, the crowd breaks into wild applause, and the winner makes her way to the stage to accept the award with a brief speech.

After all the awards are announced, there’s a fantastic dessert reception, and for those who are clutching a Golden Heart pendant or a RITA statuette, there are a constant stream of hugs, congratulations, photos… until finally, late at night or early in the morning, one collapses into bed… and I know it took me a long time to sleep when I won the GH!

Unfortunately, this year I won’t be able to go to Orlando, but fellow RITA finalist Kelly Hunter lives in the same district as me, so we’re planning to get together for brunch on the Sunday morning, and tune in to Twitter and the RWA website to keep track of the announcements as the ceremony unfolds. Sunday morning in Armidale isn’t really a dress-up time, so it will be rather more low-key than Orlando, but we’re planning to have some champagne handy, just in case!

Bron, I’ll have my fingers and toes crossed for you, and for Kelly, come Sunday morning Australian time. Dark Country is up against novels by America’s finest Romantic Suspense writers and we’re very proud of you