THE SAINT Wins the RITA® for Best Erotic Romance
Hello Sinners!
I'm home from New York City with the best souvenir I could ask for -- a shiny new RITA® statue for THE SAINT, Best Erotic Romance from the Romance Writers of America.
Winning a RITA is a huge honor, and I'm quite frankly still in shock. I have no memory of the few seconds between the moment when they started reading the nominees' names until the moment I start walking up to the stage. I lost ten seconds of time. To quote Søren in THE SAINT, "I might have entered a fugue state."
In my acceptance speech I thanked my editor Susan Swinwood, my agent Sara Megibow, RWA for adding the Erotic Romance category and my husband Andrew Shaffer. And somehow I ended up thanking Prince Harry probably for just being Prince Harry. As we were asked to give speeches only a minute long, I did have to leave out some people who I need to thank. They are...
Beta reader: Karen Stivali
Freelance editor: Cyndy Aleo
Assistant: Robin Becht
All three of them gave me invaluable insight and help with a VERY tough re-write of THE SAINT. I can't thank them enough. Also Amanda Usen, Alyssa Palmer, Jenn LeBlanc, and, of course, Andrew Shaffer who have been beta readers for other books in the Original Sinner series. The series would have suffered if not for the help of all my wonderful brilliant beta readers.
Thank you to Father James Martin, SJ, whose books on the Jesuit life proved wildly helpful when writing THE SAINT.
Thank you to my family, especially Mom and Dad, for always supporting my nerdy pursuits growing up and never ever censoring what I read as long as I was reading.
And of course, thank you to Honeytoast and Buckley Cat for keeping me company during the long lonely writing days.
I was nominated with four other world-class romance writers. Thank you to Elia Winters, J. Kenner, Lynda Aicher, and Talia Surova for being so lovely and wonderful and kind. Read them!
Huge congrats to the lovely Michele Arris who won the Golden Heart for Erotic Romance. I can't wait to read her book!
And now to thank the most important people of all--my readers. If you all hadn't bought THE SIREN, THE ANGEL, THE PRINCE, and THE MISTRESS, I would never have gotten the opportunity to write THE SAINT. Thank you for buying the books, reading them, pimping them to all your friends, and reviewing them. You all keep the series alive and kicking. I couldn't have written this weird naughty wicked wild eight-book series without you. I thank you and Nora thanks you and Kingsley thanks you and Søren thanks you. Kingsley also spanks you but that's Kingsley for you.
Two weeks ago I tweeted about how cool it was that Kingsley had won a Lambda Literary Award for THE KING and Nora had won an RT Editor's Choice Award for THE SIREN. Wouldn't it be cool if Søren won a RITA for THE SAINT? What can I say? It's the power of Søren...
How's THAT for the Unholy Trinity?
I had a wonderful time at RWA. So great to meet Janice Maynard and Carla Neggers and hug Tessa Dare and Courtney Milan and have dinner with Rose Fox and talk shop with Shoshanna Evers and get silly with Trent Hart and go on a boat tour with Jenn LeBlanc and discuss Honeytoast's mental state with Suleikha Snyder. A good time was had by me.
Oh, and we went to a Mets game. #BaseballButts
Thank you, RWA! Thank you, NYC! Thank you, Harlequin Mira! Thank you to my beautiful readers!
