Sorry, I just discovered that this post had never gone up. So even though it’s late, I’m posting it now.

ARRA is the Australian Romance Readers Association, and each year they hold an awards night. This year it was their tenth annual awards night—congratulations ARRA!— and was held in Sydney. I flew up to attend.

I was a finalist in several awards, and was thrilled to win three — Favorite Historical (Marry In Haste), Favorite couple in a romance (Emm and Cal from Marry In Haste) and I was delighted to be named Favorite Australian Romance Author — for the third year running.

For me the day began when I met up with friends and fellow authors in the hotel. We sat around, chatting, catching up, talking books and reading and solving the problems of the world. Then we raced off to change into our outfits for the dinner.

It was a fun night. I was seated with ARRA Debbie and Heather, two representatives from Booktopia (a fabulous Australian on-line bookstore (e and paper)) who were co-sponsors of the evening, and a couple of my friends — Kelly Hunter and Keri Arthur, who both won awards! There they are in the pic. on the right.

I caught up with some wonderful readers, too. Unfortunately I can’t post pics of them all, but here’s one of me with the lovely Helen Sibbritt, one of the ARRA stalwarts, who reads and reviews an amazing number of books, and at the same time is a fabulous wife, mum and grandma. 

It’s  tradition at this event to have a “bling-off” but the judges surprised us all when they chose not “bling” but a fabulous skirt, with historical designs. So pretty. Here it is, with Lisa from Booktopia wearing her winning romantic skirt.

The full list of winners is here.

The winners of the 2017 Australian Romance Readers Awards were announced last night at our Awards Dinner in Sydney. We started the announcements off with our Members’ Choice awards:

• Strongest Heroine: the winner was Cressy Knight, The Long Paddock by Alissa Callen.
• Favourite Couple: the winner was Emmaline Westwood and Calbourne Rutherford, Marry in Haste by Anne Gracie.
• Favourite New Romance Author: the winner was Amanda Knight.

In the main categories the winners were:

• The Favourite Paranormal Romance for 2017 is Silver Silence by Nalini Singh. This award was sponsored by Hachette Australia and was presented by Rebecca Saunders.
• The Favourite Sci-Fi, Fantasy or Futuristic Romance 2017 is Blood Kissed by Keri Arthur. This award was presented by Pamela Diaz.
• The Favourite Short or Category Romance 2017 is Casey by Kelly Hunter. This award was sponsored by Harlequin Australia and was presented by Kate Cuthbert.
• The Favourite Historical Romance 2017 is Marry in Haste by Anne Gracie. This award was sponsored by Hachette Australia and was presented by Rebecca Saunders.
• The Favourite Contemporary Romance 2017 is Twist by Kylie Scott. This award was sponsored by Allen & Unwin and was presented by Amanda Knight.
• The Favourite Erotic Romance 2017 is Team Player by Cate Ellink. This award was sponsored by Booktopia and was presented by Tracey Mills.
• The Favourite Romantic Suspense 2017 is Heart Breaker by Shannon Curtis. This award was presented by Brooke Moody.
• The Favourite Continuing Romance Series 2017 is the Psy-Changeling Trinity by Nalini Singh. This award was sponsored by Harlequin Australia and was presented by Sue Brockhoff.
• The Favourite Australian Romance Author 2017 is Anne Gracie. This award was sponsored by Booktopia and was presented by Tracey Mills.

Thank you to everyone who came along to the dinner and made it such a success, and particular thanks to our event sponsor, Booktopia, as well as the award sponsors. Congratulations to all the winners!

I’ve just posted a report of the RWAust. conference over on the Word Wenches, but I wanted to post more photos of the fabulous costumes that people wore to the cocktail party that always kicks off our conferences. We always have fun, and there were so many brilliant costumes that I couldn’t fit on the wench blog, so I brought them here. Even so, this is only a small proportion of them. 

This year it was a “royalty” and “Tuxes and Tiaras” theme as the conference hotel is one where royalty has stayed when in Sydney — including Prince Charles and Princess Di when they were still together. But people riffed off that theme in all kinds of great ways — from the glamorous to the silly. Guess what direction I tend?
Yes, so this is me, in my evil queen outfit — the tiara is a cheap one onto which I glued rubber rats, snakes and spiders and “jools,” I made the necklace as well, so those spiders are attached.

The three zombie brides below (Clare, Tanya and Kerry) won a prize for their outfits, as did “Prince” (TJ Hamilton) and in the middle is the new RWAust President, Joanne Boog.

Not everyone dresses up, and that’s fine — this is about fun, not pressure, and in this pic we have a gorgeous bride in her own wedding dress, a “lady-in-waiting” kind of outfit, or maybe she’s dressed for a garden party, and someone who is dressed up gorgeously  but not in costume as such. And they all look beautiful.

Here’s two agents and two authors , looking very glam and gorgeous.

And here’s a lineup of authors, including one from the USA and one from New Zealand. And believe it or not, that redhead in the middle claimed to be Megan Markle. LOL.

Here’s a snap of the crowd — and don’t you love that a member of Chinese royalty is represented, as well as someone possibly from Queen Victoria’s court?

Here’s a little piece of pure glamor and good taste. Doesn’t she look gorgeous? Definitely a visiting royal, possibly from a Scandinavian country.

And what royal gathering would be without Princess Fiona, (Fiona Marsden) who this weekend took out a positive fistful of prizes, including the NZ Koru, the RWAust Emerald — twice! — and I don’t know how many more.  Congratulations Fiona.

Below her is a fabulous couple stepping straight out of Wonderland — the mad hatter and the Queen of Hearts, looking scarily in an “off with her head” kind of mood. And what a brilliant riff off the “royalty” theme. 

There could so easily have been a whole tribe of Princess Di’s — which would have been hilarious — but the variety and inventiveness of these costumes just blew me away.

And to end, a good queen/evil queen photo — I’ll leave it to you to work out who is who. And is that supposed to be a corgi? I don’t think so. LOL

It was a brilliant party, so thanks to Harlequin for sponsoring it,  to the RWA conference committee who organized it, and to all the wonderful people who attended, making it so much fun.

BOOK BUB SALE! For North Americans: my book, THE PERFECT KISS, is on a BookBub special for $1.99 for a short time (until March 25). 

“This magical romance not only warms your heart, it raises your temperature too” (RT Book Reviews).  

Here are the buy links:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
iTunes
GooglePlay
Kobo