I Did Not Get A Phone Call

Shockingly enough, I did not get a phone call on Monday to tell me that my book was a finalist for the RITA awards.

For those of you who are not romance junkies (like me), the RITAs are the awards that the Romance Writers of America (RWA) gives out to published romance novels and novellas every year. Think of it as the Oscars of romance.

This year about 1200 books were entered in a number of categories. Those books were culled down to a handful of nominees. The winners in each category will be announced at the RWA’s national conference in the summer. Monday was the day the RWA called the nominees to let them know that their book had moved into the final round of judging and were up for the awards.

I did not receive a phone call. Neither did approximately 1,152 other people.

It didn’t especially surprise me that I wasn’t nominated. The competition is stiff and the writers are all excellent. In fact, if I’d actually gotten a call, I would have lost control of my bladder right there in my cubicle at work. That would have been a little awkward.

On the other hand, I did carry my cell phone around with me all day. Readiness is all.

Was I disappointed that I didn’t get that phone call? Maybe a little. Although opinions may vary, I love my book and the acknowledgment would have been wonderful. It would have been like a Cinderella story, or like Britain’s Got Talent. Without Simon.

On the other hand, I was actually able to enter the contest. How cool is that? I had a book published and I was able to enter it in the RITAs. Awesome, man.  Just frickin’ awesome.

I also had the extreme pleasure of seeing another Carina Press author get nominated. Fiona Lowe was nominated for Best Contemporary Romance for her book, Boomerang Bride. I was so happy for her that I about started crying.  However, I did retain control of my bladder.

Mostly.

I have to tell you how exciting it is for me to be involved with Carina at this time. After all,the imprint has only been “live” for about two years. And they’ve already had a book on the NY Times bestseller list with one of Shannon Stacy’s novels. Now Fiona has the first direct-to-digital nomination for a RITA. Wow. It’s fun to be at the beginning of things.

So, congratulations to all of the RITA nominees! Now I breathlessly await my letter telling me how my book scored with the judges. I’m both interested to see it, and a little nervous.

Maybe Simon is lurking out there after all…