Fan favorites Jill Shalvis, Jodi Thomas, and Karen Rose were among the RITA Award winners at the Romance Writers of America conference in New York City on Friday night. The RITAs are given annually to published books with romantic plots or elements. Their sister awards, the Golden Hearts, are presented to manuscripts by unpublished authors. The presentations capped the week-long RWA annual conference held in New York.
Several of the winners expressed surprise at finding themselves up on stage. Sherry Thomas, whose novel His at Night won the RITA for best historical romance, said it was the "category of death" and she never thought she would be the one to emerge alive. Trisza Ray, Golden Heart winner for paranormal romance, teetered up the steps and declared, "I wore five-inch platform shoes because I did not expect to win."
Ray fought tears as she described a personally and professionally difficult year and fervently thanked the romance writing community for supporting her. Nearly every winner mentioned the invaluable support and encouragement of a parent or spouse; so many thanked their husbands that one attendee was later heard telling another, "You'd better buy yourself a mail-order husband because single women never win RITAs!"
Contemporary series romance RITA winner Karen Templeton emphatically dedicated her award to every category romance author who has been asked when she's going to write a real book. Jo Anne Banker, the contemporary series romance Golden Heart winner, said, "RWA is what happens when you put eight thousand women together. There is so much power in this room."
To close the evening, Sharon Sala received the Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award. In a moving speech that had the audience both laughing and sniffling, she honored her family's many storytellers, recalled the first novel that she boxed up and hid "because it sucked," and declared, "There is nothing more powerful than a woman with a purpose."
As always, the ceremony was glittering and glamorous. Over 2,000 attendees filled the banquet hall at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. This year's conference theme of "Bright Lights, Big Stories" was reflected in the show tunes used as incidental music during the ceremony, though at times the effect was more brash than romantic. Bestselling author Meg Cabot emceed the event, interspersing the award announcements with film montages of heroes both real and fictional. After considering firefighters, teachers, pioneering feminists, and comedians, she declared writers to be the biggest heroes of all. No one seemed inclined to disagree.
The full list of winners can be found at the RWA web site:
http://www.rwa.org/cs/2011_RITA_GH_winners
