Sunday, July 19, 2009

I WON!

I won the RITA for Best Regency Romance of 2009.

21 comments:

  1. Was in a no-wifi zone all weekend,and just returned to hear the news!

    MASSIVE CONGRATS!!!!! to you and 'The Hand' both

    Well deserved and I adore your cat picture! Just sad that I didn't get to attend and have a chance at an autographed copy *forbears nobly and bravely*

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  2. Congratulations Jo! And a well-deserved victory!

    /Sara E.

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  3. Anonymous2:42 AM

    Squee! Congratulations! It's well-deserved!

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  4. So what did you say in your acceptance speech? You do get to do acceptance speeches right? *is unfamiliar with RITAs format*

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  5. Brianna3:12 AM

    Congratulations!! I loved My Lord and Spymaster and am so happy that the judges could see what an awesome book it is.

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  6. Woo hoo! Congratulations! Confetti!

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  7. I'm such a fangirl, I actually followed the results on Twitter and squeed in the privacy of my living-room! Knowing you feel protective of MLAS, I imagine it's especially sweet.

    Wait 'til they see Maggie and Adrian! *g*

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  8. Congratulations!!!!!!! So excited for you!!!

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  9. Congrats, Jo! How exciting for you and so deserved!

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  10. I was totally happy dancing for you!

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  11. Congratulations, Jo! A well-deserved prize for a wonderful book!

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  12. Dear All --

    You are so very kind. Thank you so much. I am so pleased and overwhelmed and delighted.

    The RITA ceremony has about 3000 people there in a grand ballroom,
    all of them sitting in rows and rows of chairs and looking down at this little stage in the far distance.

    (How do they get 3000 people to come look at this without giving them food? Though they give them food afterwards, of course.
    But still ... would YOU come to hear thirty people get up on stage one after the other and gasp and stammer and weep and thank their editors and agents and families and stare like deer caught in the headlights?)

    Since nobody can see the stage
    the helpful technicians at RWA have set up huuuuuuge TV screens. Those puppies must be 40 feet high.

    They show every pore on the faces of the RITA winners, (or Golden Heart winners,) when they get up to speak. This is reality TV.

    AAAARRRRGGGGHHH.

    I do not say I would rather face a firing squad, because, of course, I would not.

    I think.

    But anyhow ... there I was and I had just found out I was NOT going to get a RITA for Spymaster's Lady, having lost out to the excellent and wonderful Pam Rosenthal whose work impresses me so much it is almost not like losing at all to lose to her ...
    (though not quite,)
    and I am now relieved because the ordeal is over and I am not going to have to mount the scaffold ...
    ah ... podium ...
    and can now relax,
    and they say My Lord and Spymaster.

    So I drop my glasses, without which I cannot see.
    Anything.

    And I drop my very short speech, which I have written in big letters on a piece of paper,
    and which consisted of only five people to thank,
    not because I am stingy but because I didn't think I was going to be able to say anything at all.

    So they are gone somewhere in the darkness below my chair.

    And I have to walk up on stage and make that set of acks.

    I do not actually remember much of what happened after this point. It was so horrible my mind has repressed it.

    I do not AT ALL remember standing there and staring out at THREE THOUSAND PEOPLE and saying the right words, but I have been assured by people who wish me well that I did just that and that I did not make a fool of myself.

    This is good.
    This is very good.

    I understand they played the theme from James Bond for the 'walkup'.

    No memory of this.

    So, anyhow, getting the RITA is like being beaten with long, flexible bamboo poles and at the same time being tossed in a blanket while someone plays La Traviata in your ear on a penny whistle. And when you come to the other side you have this beautiful gold statue which I am going to put on the shelf over my desk.

    It's heavy, and the gold quill the lady holds is fragile and it would be suitable for knocking burglars over the head with.

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  13. Woot! Yahoo! Congratulations! So very, very well-deserved!

    Betty Navta

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  14. @ M -- I take the photos from the lolcats site (in case you are thinking I took these lovely pictures myself.) When I am writing along and I Can't Stand It Another Minute, sometimes I go by the lolcats site to relax.

    And then, there's cats-in-sinks and Too Cute.

    I am such a sucker for animals.

    @ Sara E and Brimfire -- Thank you so very much. I have still, two days later, not quite realized that I actually won.

    @ Moth -- You do get to -- indeed, you really HAVE to -- make an acceptance speech. Some folks spoke at length.

    I just said, "I'd like to thank my editor, Wendy McCurdy, of Berkely Publishing, and my wonderful agent, Pam Hopkins, of Hopkins Literary Agency. I'd like to thank my husband, Leo, and my children, Karen and Douglas."

    That was it.
    I gather i did manage to get that out.
    I feel fortunate in not messing up.

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  15. @ Brianna -- I was not exactly thinking about winning, because I was more hoping for a finalist spot.
    But I thought it would be with TSL.

    When I was entering I asked myself if I should bother to include MLAS as well.
    Good thing I did.

    @ Dee and Deniz and Precie and Chey and Kaige and Cat and Betty and Phyllis --

    (wild, mad waving)

    Thank you so much.
    (sniff)

    @ Annie -- the RWA National Conference is wonderful and winning the RITA is even more wonderful ... but I didn't get ANY work done.

    Now I must glue myself to the computer and work to make up for five or six days of not working.

    The MAGGIE ms MUST be finished in nine days.

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  16. Dear Jo,

    Totally deserved. Congratulations.

    Deb

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  17. Hi Deb --

    Thank you so much. I am incredibly pleased about this.

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  18. Well deserved. I'm so happy for you.

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  19. Hi mizwaller --

    Thank you so very much.

    And sorry to get back to you so late. I've been finishing up the MAGGIE manuscript -- trying to get it in by a deadline of August 1. That didn't leave me time enough to scratch.

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