Da Bwaha

Dear Author and Smart Bitches are Romance review sites where they talk about Romance and genre books. They hold a competition for the fans every year -- the melliflously-named Da Bwaha.

In Da Bwaha, folks pick the 2008 book they like best.
They also pick the book they think is going to win the competition.


This is two processes.
Separate processes.



(See the diagram to the right for the philosophical overview.)






Apparently in sports competitions there is a kinda bracket thingum to show eliminations in different rounds.




(see bracket to the right.
Daunting, isn't it?

This is used by jocks, though, so it cannot be too hard.)


Da Bwaha does this for books.
It is very clever of them.


Part One of Da Bwaha works like this:


Folks use a set of those brackets to guess which book is likely to be the more popular
when it goes mano a mano
against another other book.


(Last year I couldn't figure out how it worked. This year I figured it out.)


I am getting smarter and smarter.











If you want to enter the elimination tournament and take a guess as to who is going to win the popular vote, you go here.

You have to do this before Wednesday March 18, which is three days from now.

If you want to vote for the books you like
you have to register before March 18.
I think.

(Ahh ... you may have to switch to firefox and disable scripts and light a votive candle to make the site work. I know I did.)

Anyhow, when you finally get to the page to load -- which may work first shot, who knows? -- you go to the left column and pick your favorite from each of the pairs.

Your pick will just automatically show up on the next round competition
which is in a box just to the right.
Then you pick favorites in that second round box.

There are six rounds and you keep picking till you get to the end.

-- Then you go to the top right and put in your handle and your e-mail address.
-- Finally, you go down to the bottom of the page and click where it says, 'select picks'.

This allows you to move on to
(Remember, I told you there were two parts.)
Part Two:

which starts on March 19, which is next Thursday.

You will be able to pick the books you actually like.
That voting will take place here.

You have to register to do this. I don't know what the deadline for registration is. But I think it is March 18.


Here are the books

• You Know Where to Find Me by Rachel Cohn
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Graceling by Kristin Cashore
• On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
• Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
• Need by Carrie Jones
• My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger
• Impossible by Nancy Werlin
• Flat Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy
• Blue Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas
• Just One of the Guys by Kristan Higgins
• Scream for Me by Karen Rose
• Tribute by Nora Roberts
• A Virgin River Christmas by Robyn Carr
• Blame it on Paris by Jennifer Greene
• Unlawful Contact by Pamela Clare
• Hidden by Eve Kenin
• Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione
• Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs
• Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh
• Demon Bound by Meljean Brook
• The Darkest Pleasure by Gena Showalter
• King of Sword and Sky by CL Wilson
• Dark Desires After Dusk by Kresley Cole
• elicious by Sherry Thomas
• Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas
• The Spymasters’ Lady by Joanna Bourne
• Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran
• Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase
• Price of Desire by Jo Goodman
• Broken Wing by Judith James
• A Lady’s Secret by Jo Beverly
• A Christmas Wedding by Tracy Wolff
• Public Scandal, Private Mistress by Susan Napier
• The Chef’s Choice by Kristin Hardy
• Unleashed by Lo
• he Money Man’s Seduction by Leslie La Foy
• Redeeming Gabriel by Elizabeth White
• Shaken and Stirred by Kathleen O’Reilly
• His Secret Past by Ellen Hartman
• Wicked Burn by Beth Kery
• The Mark of the Vampire Queen by Joey Hill
• Seduced by Magic by Stephanie Julian
• Show and Tell by Jasmine Haynes
• Undercover by Lauren Dane
• Be With Me by Maya Banks
• Forbidden Fruit by Eden Bradley
• Tempted by Megan Hart
• Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
• Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn
• The Sharing Knife: Passage by Lois McMaster Bujold
• The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
• The Serpent’s Tale by Ariana Franklin
• Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews
• Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs
• Kushiels Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
• Rough, Raw, and Ready by Lorelei James (Samhain)
• Uneven by Anah Crow (Torquere)
• Collision Course by K.A. Mitchell (Samhain)
• Love Ahead by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux (Dreamspinner)
• Handyman by Claire Thompson
• Mexican Heat by Laura Baumbach and Josh Lanyon (MLR)
• Lord John and the Hand of Devils by Diana Gabaldon
• Captain’s Surrender by Alex Beecroft

I would say that is a lot of books,
but they are all -- at least all the ones I've read -- great books.

(cough) I'm in there, about halfway down. (/cough)


Edited to add --

I just wanted to add something really neat that I just discovered about that list of books and writers above.

Bit of background: In lots of writer websites, if you click on the link you can go to Amazon and buy their book and the author makes a couple small coins of money.
Enough to take the kid out for a popsicle maybe.

Writers operate mostly on what is technically called 'a small profit margin' or 'no appreciable money at all', so the price of a popsicle is welcome.

When you put up a link to somebody's book, you can send folks to their website,
(and the author maybe ultimately makes a trickle more profit on their book,)
or you can send folks straight to Amazon,
(and you make the little trickle of profit.)

You see that list above?
Dear Author and Smart Bitches have linked to the author websites.