RITA® you say? Who is RITA® you ask?

The RITA® Award is given by the RWA (Romance Writers of America) for excellence in published romances in various (12) categories each year. This is a peer-judged contest similar to the Oscars ® or similar to Nebula® in Science Fiction or the Edgar® for Mysteries. Right now the excitement is building among the romance writing community because the winners will be announced at the upcoming RWA Conference in Orlando on July 31!!  Around here, the Sisterhood is pretty excited because one  of our Jaunty Quills is nominated, too!!!  The finalist novels and novellas are among some of the best romances on the market,  so some of us thought it would be nice to share that info with readers who are always looking for a good romance to read.

My favorite categories are those I read the most of — Historicals and Regencies. (I know – I am hopelessly caught up in history for both my reading and my writing!)  These categories include all lengths from short to long and this year have some recognizable and some new names in them. Let’s talk about the Best Historical Romance category today!

The finalists – announced in late March are: Wicked All Day by Liz Carlyle, With Seduction in Mind by Laura Lee Guhrke, To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt, Make Me Yours by Betina Krahn, Knight of Pleasure by Margaret Mallory, The Lone Texan by Jodi Thomas, Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas and Taming Her Irish Warrior by Michelle Willingham.

Ooh – all the major places that we historical romance lovers like to read about are covered – a wide selection of time periods and locations including England(Victorian and Medieval, too!), Scotland, Ireland, India and Texas…LOL!

Betina Krahn, Jodi Thomas, Liz Carlyle and Laura Lee Guhrke are mainstays in historical romances, Elizabeth Hoyt is making her mark (and writing as Julia Harper too!)  while Sherry Thomas and Margaret Mallory are relative newcomers. Michelle Willingham is well-known to category historical readers for her many wonderful historical romances published by Harlequin Historicals. Betina and Jodi and Liz are past RITA® winners while Elizabeth,  Sherry and Laura Lee have been finalists before. Michelle and Margaret are RITA®….ahem….virgins! So a wonderful collection of storytellers are being honored for their excellent writing and readers get the best of it all – we get to enjoy their work!

To get into the spirit of things — Let me know if you have read any of these nominated books or these nominated authors before? Plan to? Do you want to guess who is going to win the RITA? Go ahead post your guesses and I’ll pick one commenter and give them a copy of their choice — any of the finalist books in this category — along with a copy of my new release, THE MERCENARY BRIDE, too! And as a special ‘extra credit question’, the first person to post the name of the Jaunty Quill who is a finalist this year will win another prize!

FYI — results will be updating all evening as they’re announced from the ceremony so check the RWA website throughout the evening to find out — www.rwa.org

Terri is thrilled to see the second story in her Knights of Brittany trilogy on the shelves – THE MERCENARY’S BRIDE is a July release from Harlequin Historicals and available in print and digital formats. She just turned in the third book which should be a Spring, 2011 release. Her May release, “A Storm of Love” in the Kensington Brava trade release, UNDONE, is still available. For more info, please visit her website at www.terribrisbin.com or stop in at the booksigning at this weekend’s RomCon Romance Convention at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Denver, CO or at the  HUUUUUUGE Booksigning at the RWA Conference at the Swan&Dolphin Resort in Orlando (aka DISNEY WORLD – Wooooohoooo!) on July 28.