RWA RITA AND GH Weekend Edition

Seekerville would like to congratulate the
Romance Writers of America,
2010 RITA and Golden Heart finalists!

A special shout out to our friends of Seekerville! We'll be rooting for you!

For those of you not familiar with RWA; Romance Writers of America is the largest organization of romance writers in the world. RWA began in 1980 in Houston, Texas with 37 members. Today RWA has over 10,000 members, of which over 2,000 are published in novel length fiction. RWA also has an operating budget of one million dollars.

This year Nashville, Tennessee will be the location of the RWA National conference celebrating RWA's 30th anniversary. On Saturday July 31, 2010, the RITA and Golden Heart winners will be announced at a gala formal event featuring dinner and the awards ceremony.

The RITA:
The award itself is a golden statuette named after RWA's first president, Rita Clay Estrada, and has become the symbol for excellence in published romance fiction. Up to 1,200 romance novels from 12 different categories are entered in the RITA competition each year. A novel may be entered either by the author or by the book's publisher in one of the 12 categories. After the first round of judging by published romance authors, the competition narrows to approximately 100 finalists.

The Golden Heart:
1,200 romance manuscripts are entered in the Golden Heart ( into one of 10 contest categories) each year by writers who have not accepted a publishing offer for a work of original fictional narrative prose of 20,000 words or more. In the preliminary round, the manuscripts are read and judged by General RWA members, who narrow the field down to approximately 100 finalists. The final round of the contest is judged by acquiring editors from romance publishing houses.

Seekers and friends help Linda Goodnight
celebrate her 2008 RITA inspirational win.

And The Winners Are:


Tuesday: Avoid Cliches! Sandra Leesmith's Tuesday post winner of a Seeker book of their choice is Teri Dawn Smith who chose Black Hills Blessing by Mary Connealy.


Wednesday: Glynna Kaye's post was U.R. A Writer, MD: Time for Your 1st Quarter Check Up. Winner of Give ‘em What They Want: The Right Way to Pitch Your Novel to Editors & Agents,is AJ Hawke.


Friday: Babies & Books (It's a Boy!) by Ruth Logan Herne. The winner of Winter's End is Marilyn Brant.




Next Week In Seekerville:


Monday: Publishing professional, writer, and friend of Seekerville Patty Hall is our special guest today.



Tuesday: RITA and Christy Award winner Francine Rivers interview is featured in Seekerville today. Stop by for a chance to win a copy of the first book in a two part saga, A Mother's Hope, part of the Marta's Legacies Series from Tyndale House. For a sneak preview you can watch the book trailer here.




Wednesday: April Contest Update in Seekerville. The prize vault is OPEN!



Thursday: Steeple Hill Love Inspired debut author, Audra Harders is your hostess today.



Friday: We welcome back, multi-published historical author, and three-time RITA nominee, Cheryl St. John.

Gail Gaymer Martin with Pam Hillman, 3 time Golden Heart finalist
(GH Hall of Fame inductee), at RWA 2006 Atlanta.

Save The Date:


April 7: Desert Breeze Publishing author K. Dawn Byrd.


April 16: Revell author, Janice Hanna Thompson , returns.


April 23: From Books & Such Literary Agency, Janet Grant.


April 28: Waterbrook Press author Mona Hodgson.


April 29: Zondervan upcoming author, Melanie Dickerson.

The 2005 GH Inspirational Finalists (Tina, Myra, Janet & Julie)
at Nationals, Reno, Nevada.

Seeker Sightings:



Until April 3, A Passion Most Pure (and LOTS of other free books) are being offered on Amazon for FREE DOWNLOAD for Kindle, PC, Mac, i-phone and Blackberry. Julie is currently running a contest on her website where you can win a signed copy of her upcoming release, A Hope Undaunted (or any of her books) by simply downloading this free book, telling others about the free download, signing up for her newsletter or FaceBook Fan Page and blogging/tweeting/or sharing with FaceBook friends. All details can be found at the bottom of the home page of her website at http://www.julielessman.com/.

Random News:

• Check out this Novelists Inc. interview with agent Meredith Bernstein of the Meredith Bernstein Literary Agency.
  

• Love Inspired Assistant Editor, Emily Rodmell blogs on the Harlequin Blog.

• RWA University is coming!

• Galley Cat Interview with Agent Paige Wheeler of Folio Literary Management.

• Should I Hire a Freelance Editor? : Rachelle Gardner, Rants & Ramblings

• 21 Tips To Get Out Of the Slush Pile by James Plath (Writer's Digest)

Have a great writing and reading weekend.