And the Nominees Are…

Excitement plus in the romance writing world today! RWA gradually released the 2011 nominations for the RITA and Golden Heart Award and it set off a frenzy at the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood. Our Jamie Michele kept up a live blog as the finalists were notified and announced.

HUGE congratulations to all the finalists, including some very special people I know: Sharon Fisher (GH), Shoshana Brown (GH), Sara Ramsey (GH), Shelley Coriell (GH — I’m seeing a very cool pattern here with the ‘S’ names!), Anne Barton (GH), Gwynlyn Mackenzie (GH), Laurie Kellogg (GH), Lindsey Brookes (GH), Laurie DeSalvo (GH), and Simone Elkeles (RITA). Enjoy the ride, ladies! Can’t wait to cheer you all on at the July ceremony in New York!

Going by the small sample of entries I judged, it was a tough competition! For those of you who entered but didn’t final (or were disqualified due to postal kerfuffles!), congratulations to you, too! It takes a lot of work and courage to enter a full manuscript in what is known as the most prestigious contest for romance novels. I know it’s disappointing to miss out — many deserving people didn’t final — but pick yourself up, be happy for those who made it, and go work your tail off for the 2012 contest. Better yet, concentrate your energies on polishing and submitting to editors or agents. The fight to get published isn’t over yet! Mark March 29 on your calendar. At the Ruby-Slippered site, we’ll be commiserating with those who didn’t make it, handing out much-needed hugs and chocolate.

Now, I’m off to the beach to work on rewrites…and I’m considering changing my name to Sanessa — LOL!

Book # 6 – Finished!

I spent a looonnngggg time thinking about it, talking about it, procrastinating over it, writing it, but now my superhero cheerleaders from outerspace book is finished! It’s my sixth book (and fifth YA). I don’t think writing gets any easier, do you? The cheerleaders will spend some time recuperating and then I’ll tackle the interesting part—revision.

In other news, I’m very excited about my friend and agency sistah Sharon Fisher‘s transformation into a published author! As part of a two-book deal, Tor Books (Macmillan) will publish her GHOST PLANET, a romantic sci-fi novel. The book was a finalist in the 2009 and 2010 Golden Heart and it’s fabulous to see it win the ultimate prize. Congratulations, Sharon!!!!!

This Thursday, March 17 (Friday afternoon Aus time), I’ll be blogging at the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood about that old manuscript you have lurking under your bed. I’ve got some ideas about what you can do with it besides using it as a dust-bunny trap.