Gosh, that’s pretty! It’s the logo I’m allowed to use because Naked Edge is a finalist for Best Romantic Suspense in the Australian Romance Readers Awards. I was completely blown away. It was early and I hadn't had my coffee, so I sort of stared at the e-mail for a while.

Here's a full list of finalists, and you can see that I’m in very good company.

This news was followed in the evening by word that Naked Edge had won in several categories in RBL Romantica's 13th annual HUGHIE Awards. The categories include:

FAVORITE CONTEMPORARY ROMANTIC SUSPENSE/MYSTERY — Hell-to-the yeah! That feels wonderful!

FAVORITE TITLE — Well, I can't really take credit for that. It’s the name of a climbing route in Eldorado Canyon State Park that I simply stole because Gabe was climbing there when he saw Kat.

FAVORITE HEROINE — I managed to unseat Eve Dallas, who has long held this category, by a single vote. (I have on good authority that Gabe came close to unseating Roarke, as well.) I can't tell you what it means to me to know that others love Kat as much as I do. Writing a Navajo character and making her real, and not an “apple” wasn’t easy, and it was so important to me to do it right. At the same time, she needed to be a character readers could relate to, somehow, despite her different culture. So this tells me I succeeded at that. *sniff*

MOST TOUCHING BOOK — Not to sound silly, but this really touched me. I try to write emotional stories that rip reader’s hearts out and then give them back again. Yes, it is something of a goal of mine to make you cry, I confess.

UPDATE: For some reason, I forgot to list that Naked Edge tied with Guilty Pleasure by Lora Leigh for HOTTEST BOOK. That’s pretty amazing, because I don’t write erotica.

And I know for a fact now that Gabe came within TWO VOTES of unseating long-time RBL Favorite Hero Roarke. (Yes, the Roarke.) And that’s almost as good as actually doing it.

So today a big thank you goes to the Australian Romance Readers Awards, and a HUGH thank you goes out to all the wonderful woman at RBL Romantica.

I hope to catch up on yesterday’s posts shortly. I came home from the paper yesterday feeling almost unnaturally exhausted and just went to bed.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday!

COMING NEXT: A chat about Hard Evidence (Okay, so it will really be about Julian Darcangelo. I know that. I understand. I get it, really. You’ll give me no choice.)