I'm a Finalist

I finalled in the RITA for 2011.  This is a great honor and just so generally cool I am rendered pretty much speechless.

Black Hawk is one of eight in the Historical Romance category.

To wit:


Always a Temptress by Eileen Dreyer (Grand Central Publishing Forever; Amy Pierpont, editor)

The Black Hawk by Joanna Bourne (Berkley Publishing Group; Wendy McCurdy, editor)

(That's me.  Look.  There I am.  Me.)

The Danger of Desire by Elizabeth Essex (Kensington Brava; Megan Records, editor)

Heartbreak Creek by Kaki Warner (Berkley Publishing Group Sensation; Wendy McCurdy, editor)

The Many Sins of Lord Cameron by Jennifer Ashley (Berkley Publishing Group Sensation; Kate Seaver, editor)


Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Hoyt (Grand Central Publishing; Amy Pierpont, editor)

Silk Is for Seduction by Loretta Chase (Avon Books; May Chen, editor)

Unveiled by Courtney Milan (HQN Books; Margo Lipschultz, editor)


As you can see -- these are major players here.  I am taking my joy from the Finalist position in the gather-ye-rosebuds-while-ye-may school of reality.

What I'm doing ...

Picking up a meme here . . .  In this draft of the WIP of the Pax story, on page 77, going to line 7, the next 7 lines are:


Some man had a sweet lover waiting for him.  He wondered if she'd be sharing a bed tonight with somebody on Meeks Street.     

Let's get this over with.  The mug of ale was still full when he slid it onto the nearest table.  He set a coin beside it and picked his bag up, taking it left-handed so he'd have his knife hand free. 

Nobody looked up to see him leave.  It was a point of pride to him that nobody noticed.

He checked to make sure nobody followed him out of the Dog.  It was habit.  Just habit.  He had all the habits of a spy.







This is not a world-shakingly exciting passage, really.

Regency Pyrotechnica

What do Vauxhall, the court of Queen Elizabeth, Cuper's Gardens, (which is described intriguingly as "the scene of low dissipation . . . and the great resort of the profligate of both sexes" — rather like our local mall,) the celebration of the wedding of George III, and Kensington Gardens have in common?

Fireworks.  Big, bright rockets and Catherine wheels and crackers.  Fireworks were the sound and light show of the Eighteenth Century.  The extravaganza that marked all great and festive events.

Sometimes there was music.  You can listen to Handel's Fireworks Music, for instance, here.  I'll admit I was expecting something with more booms in it.


“.... fireworks had for her a direct and magical appeal. Their attraction was more complex than that of any other form of art. They had pattern and sequence, colour and sound, brilliance and mobility; they had suspense, surprise, and a faint hint of danger; above all, they had the supreme quality of transience, which puts the keenest edge on beauty.”
Jan Struther, Mrs. Miniver

Fireworks came out of China, like printing, dim sum and Bruce Lee.  The original fireworks date back to the Ninth Century or so.  They, were firecrackers made of gunpowder, stuffed into thin bamboo shoots.  Oddly enough, the original use of pyrotechnics was not warfare.  All this gunpowder was set off at the new year to scare away evil spirits.  It probably worked.

Knowledge of gunpowder arrived in the Middle East and Europe in the 1200s.  Marco Polo sometimes gets the credit, and why shouldn't he? 

Come by and see the rest here at Word Wenches.

Black Hawk. With Knife

Striking out at DABWAHA

Edited to Bring everything up to date --

I didn't make it through the second round of DABWAHA, which was kind of a disappointment. 

But I enjoyed playing.
 I continue to think of this as a kind of insidious video game.

There are still prizes for those who follow the contest and guess the next round of winners.

Go  here.