RITA® Finalist!
Maybe I’m a little late with this news, but better late than never, right?
Back in March, I was hard at work on my copy edits for The Merry Viscount when the phone rang. I often let calls go to the answering machine, but this time I thought, Hey, it’s March 21. That’s the day the RITA calls go out.
So I picked up the phone just in case it wasn’t a telemarketer and, to my happy astonishment, the person on the other end was the charming Priscilla Oliveras, Romance Writers of America® Board member and fellow Kensington author–you can learn more about her here–calling to tell me that What Ales the Earl, the first book in my Widows Brew series, is a finalist in the contest’s Historical Romance: Short category. (You can see all the finalists here). I was, of course, happy to hear that, but I was even happier to use that good news to wrangle a few more days with my edits!
The RITA winners will be announced on Friday, July 26, at RWA’s annual conference, which is in New York City this year. The next day, Saturday, July 27, there will be an enormous book signing from 3-5 pm. It’s open to the public, there’s no entrance charge, and all sales go to benefit literacy organizations. I’ll be there—along with a couple hundred other romance authors. You can find the details and the list of authors here. If you’re on Facebook, the event page is here.
Closer to home—and sooner—on May 18, I’ll be at the Gaithersburg Book Festival in Maryland, just north of Washington, D.C. This year I’m on a panel with Charis Michaels chatting about historical romance. We’ll be speaking at 2:15 pm at the Edgar Allan Poe Pavilion and signing books at 3:15. You can find all the festival details here. I’d love to see you if you’re in that neck of the woods.