A fine romance: part deux

Back on March 28 I wrote that the Romance Writers of America had nominated some mystery authors and lamented: "Author Hank Phillippi Ryan received two nominations: ... one for Romantic Suspense and one for Best First Book. Sadly, both of Ryan's books, Face Time and Prime Time, currently are listed as Permanently Out of Stock at the publisher. Both books were published less than a year ago. Go figure."

Well, since then Ryan's publisher has discovered that Ryan is a find and will be reissuing both Prime Time and Face Time next fall in anticipation of Air Time, Ryan's third Charlotte McNally mystery, hitting bookshelves in September '09 . Not only that, they will be reissued under Harlequin's MIRA imprint (originally they were available as Next editions).

The news is good for Ryan as the Next titles are fairly disposable (they are even dated with the month and year of issue like a magazine) while MIRA has shelf life attached to it.

According to Ryan, September '10 will bring us Drive Time, so her fans can expect some more romantic mystery for a couple of years.

See, people ... those awards nominations sometimes pay off.

A fine romance

Romance Writers of America has announced its nominees for its annual RITA Awards. The golden statuette named after RWA's first president, Rita Clay Estrada, is awarded in a number of categories. What we are concerned with here are the Romantic Suspense Finalists. They are:

2008 RITA for Romantic Suspense Finalists
Die for Me by Karen Rose
Grand Central Publishing, Vision - (0446616915)
Karen Kosztolnyik, editor
Ice Blue by Anne Stuart
Harlequin Enterprises, MIRA - (0778324788)
Margaret O'Neil Marbury, editor
Ice Storm by Anne Stuart
Harlequin Enterprises, MIRA - (0778325008)
Margaret O'Neil Marbury, editor
Prime Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Harlequin Enterprises, Harlequin NEXT - (9780373881352)
Ann Leslie Tuttle, editor
Speak No Evil by Allison Brennan
Ballantine - (9780345495020)
Charlotte Herscher, editor
Traceless by Debra Webb
St. Martin's Press, - (0312942222)
Jennifer Weis, editor
White Heat by Cherry Adair
Ballantine/Ivy, - (978-0-345-47644-9)
Charlotte Herscher, editor

What I find so fascinating about this list is that not only are the publishers and ISBNs listed but the editor of each book is named. The editor? To hear some big-name writers tell it, their books come out full blown masterpieces -- editors have nothing to do with it. That the RWA acknowledges the writer's need for a good editor is worth an award in itself for the RWA.

Special note: Author Hank Phillippi Ryan received two nominations: the one for Romantic Suspense and one for Best First Book. Sadly, both of Ryan's books, Face Time and Prime Time, currently are listed as Permanently Out of Stock at the publisher. Both books were published less than a year ago. Go figure.

For all the nominations, go to: http://www.rwanational.org/cs/2008_rita_finalists