Wow, it's getting cold isn't it? Perfect weather for curling up with a beverage of your choice, sitting in front of the heater and consuming a nice spicy novel.
SARA Members have loads out there, and more to come.
 Anne Oliver has been nominated for a R*BY - Romance Writers of Australia's Romance Book of the Year with Her Not-So-Secret-Diary. Fantastic news, Anne! We wait with baited breath for conference when we hear of the winners. Now, SARAs should absolutely correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that Anne is staring down the exciting barrel of her third win, following on from her 2007 win in the short category with Behind Closed Doors, and 2008 with One Night Before Marriage. Way to go, Anne. Other SARA winners/finalists in recent years include Trish Morey and Elizabeth Rolls. Check the RWA R*BY archive for the full list.
Dy Loveday has recently received a contract for her fantasy romance, Illusion. Congratulations, Dy. Very exciting for you and we can't wait to hear more. Bec Sampson continues her winning ways with second place in the Young Adult section of the Connecticut Chapter of RWA 'The Write Stuff' contest, with 'Fake'. Big congrats to you again, Bec. In more awesome news, Amy T Matthews has been shortlisted for the 2012 Dobbie Literary Award with End Of The Night Girl. Fabulous stuff, Amy. Best of luck. See Lilliana Rose's blog for a list of her recently published poems. She's been a busy girl. Tamara Gill has signed a contract with Crimson Romance for her single title regency time travel romance, A Stolen Season, to be published later this year. You're on fire, Tam! Congratulations. Tamara's blog hop to celebrate the release of A Marriage Made in Mayfair is fast approaching, so get thee to her webbie to get a piece of the action. Here's a blurb for A Stolen Season: Archaeologist Sarah Baxter had a clear directive: travel back to nineteenth century London to retrieve the measuring device she left behind. But her bungled attempt at thievery left an English Earl dead and his brother bent on revenge. Sarah must once again go back in time to find the device and return to her own time before her tragic mistake puts a noose around her neck. Unfortunately, the only way to get close to the device is to befriend the very man who wants her dead.Eric the new Earl of Earnston was determined to catch the woman who killed his brother, but she'd disappeared without a trace. Twelve months on and there are still no clues to her whereabouts. As luck would have it, he finds a distraction. A new family have arrived in town and Miss Sarah Baxter is a delightful diversion among the stale debutantes in the ton.Sarah knows it is madness to seduce the man who would want her dead should he know who she was, but the Earl is an alarmingly persistent gentleman. Can Sarah procure the device without her secret being revealed? And what will the Earl do when he finds out the woman he’s in love with is not the woman he thought he knew.Until next time, happy reading. Emmeline.
Big congratulations to our SARA members who have made the bestseller lists for March:
Amazon US
Harlequin Presents Top 100
A Royal Engagement – Trish Morey + Others
The Ex Factor – Anne Oliver
Forbidden: The Sheikh’s Virgin – Trish Morey
The Heir from Nowhere – Trish Morey
Amazon US
Anthologies Top 100
To Sin with Scandal – Tamara Gill
A Captain’s Order – A Duke’s Command – Tamara Gill
Welcome to the latest edition of the South Australia Romance Authors News! Will you reach for a biscuit to go with that coffee, or do you still have some Easter Eggs left over, lucky you? Mine are all gone. Someone stole them in the night, then detoured by my wardrobe and sewed the sides of all my jeans in tighter. True story. Very exciting news to kick us off today - our very own Eleni Konstantine has had her paranormal romance novella, GATEWAY TO HELL, accepted by Musa Publishing. It will published under the Thalia line in the US summer. More details to follow, but suffice it to say, we're all very excited for Eleni, who does so much for both SARA and RWA as a volunteer. Congratulations, Eleni! Wishing you loads of success! We have some new cover awesome for you. Back in February, we congratulated Tamara Gill on her sale of A MARRIAGE MADE IN MAYFAIR, a regency novella, to Decadent Publishing. Well, there's a cover!  Tamara will also be conducting a month-long blog hop to celebrate this new release in June and July. Head over to her blog for details. To whet your appetite, here's the blurb for A MARRIAGE MADE IN MAYFAIR: Miss Suzanna March wished for one thing, the elusive, rakish charmer, Lord Danning. But after a frightful first season sees her flee to Paris, such dreams seem impossible. That is until she returns to London, a new woman, and one who will not let the ton's dislike of her stand in her way of gaining what she wants. Revenge on the Lord who gave her the cut direct and perhaps a little flirtation to show the mighty Viscount what he'll never have.Lord Danning unbeknown to his peers is in financial strife and desperate to marry an heiress. Such luck would have it Miss Suzanna March fits all his credentials and seduction is his plan of action. Yes, the woman who returned from Paris is stronger, defiant, and a little argumentative, but it does not stop Lord Danning finding himself in awe and protective of her.But will Suzanna fall for such pretty words from a charmer only after one thing? Or will Lord Danning prove to Suzanna and himself that she is more than his ticket out of debtor's prison?
 Lillian Grant is very excited to reveal her new cover in the Reigning Men series (You recall the Man WIth The Big Hat, do you not? If no, click on through...) Lillian says this about Male Review, "A nymphomaniac, octogenarian great aunt, a frigid mother and a BDSM themed male strip club, what could possibly go wrong?" Due for release with Liquid Silver Books, 28 May, Male Review is the sequel to Male Order and Volume Two in Lillian Grant's Reigning Men series. Here's what you can expect: Sam Stephens and Meg Riley are in love, and finally on the cusp of sex anytime, anywhere, anyhow. That is until Meg’s Great Aunt Maud, the octogenarian nymphomaniac, gets tossed out of the old folk’s home and moves in with them, closely followed by her polar opposite, Meg’s scarily frigid mother.
When Meg’s best friend Laura convinces Aunt Maud to invest in Male Review, a BDSM themed male strip joint, it seems to be just one more step along the path to madness. Laura’s last venture ended with Meg being arrested as a pimp. When former prostitute Michael is hired as the bar manager the whole thing is surely destined for disaster. He’s to blame for the crazies invading Meg’s home and even worse, he still has the hots for her.
If she wants to get her life back all Meg needs to do is find a new home for Maud, resolve the dispute between her warring parents, keep Michael at arm’s length and rescue her relationship with Sam before it disintegrates completely. Male Review appears to be just one more problem to deal with, but perhaps it could provide an unexpected solution.
It is with great delight and much cyber-squeeing that we congratulate our own Trish Morey on her 2012 RITA final with her novella, THE STORM WITHIN! The RITAs are the Romance Writers of America's award honouring romance fiction published in 2011. According to the RWAmerica website, more than 1,200 novels and novellas were judged in twelve categories in 2011. Hence, the excitement! If you aren't familiar with the RITAs, think the Oscars of published romance. It's kinda huge. Head over to Trish's blog to hear her final "call story", wherein a family member is sure that early-morning calls must be telemarketers and not heralds of great news from RWAmerica... Here's the cover of the book you need to get your hands on, in the US Presents version: And the Australian/NZ/UK Version, titled A Royal Wedding:
From Trish's blog:
I loved writing this story, a dark little Gothic number with a scarred Count living in a crumbling castle atop a craggy island riddled with old pirate tunnels and lashed by storms. What a setting! So much fun to be had when this reclusive Count is shattered out of his contempt for the world by Dr Grace Hunter, a young and talented conservator. I am so thrilled to bits that this story has finalled in such a prestigious contest.
Huge congratulations to Trish!
Welcome to the next edition of the SARA News. DId you head over to Antipodean SF last edition and read Eleni Konstantine's flash fiction, STRANGE BREW? No? All a bit hard? Well, have we got news for you! STRANGE BREW is now on AntiSF Radio! All you need to do is set it going, sip coffee and eat biscuits. Fabulous. ALl the hard work done for you. STRANGE BREW appears at about the twenty-three minute mark if you're having an espresso, or like me, are on a health kick again, and expect to be finished with your morning tea fairly quickly. Boohoo.  Lillian Grant's Mergers and Acquisitions has been nominated for The Romance Reviews for Best Contemporary Erotic Romance for 2011. What a coup! And like most of Lillian's books, the cover for this one is nom-nom. Head on over to The Romance Reviews to see the other finalists and cast your vote.
 Trish Morey, like many of us I imagine, has been thinking of Venice.
 Lilliana Rose has had another poem, ' Ball', published at InDaily.
 The February Bestseller lists are out! Congratulations to the following SARAs: Amazon USTop 100 Harlequin PresentsFiancee For One Night – Trish MoreyA Royal Engagement – Trish Morey + Other Amazon USTop 100 AnthologiesTo Sin with Scandal – Tamara GillA Captain’s Order – A Duke’s Command – Tamara GillMore at the Romance Writers of Australia blog
 And finally, if you've decided to work your way through the entire packet of TimTams (There's nothing wrong with that--we've all been there), then allow us to present some recent SARA blogs for your perusal. Eleni Konstantine
Bronwyn Stuart
Amy Matthews
Claire Baxter
Lilliana Rose
Tamara Gill
Emmeline Lock
Eleni has a new flash fiction story up on the Antipodean SF site this month. Check out Strange Brew.
Today, how about a short black and a tiny biscotti as you read the SARA NEWS? A big congratulations to Tamara Gill, who not only recently finalled in the RWA's Emerald Award, but has also sold her Regency Novella, currently titled A Marriage Made in Mayfair, to Decadent Publishing. Stay tuned for more at Tamara's website and blog. More congratulations are due to our bestsellers for January: Amazon USHarlequin Presents Series Top 100Fiancee For One Night - Trish MoreyThere's Something About a Rebel - Anne OliverThe Latin Lover: The Greek Tycoon's Inherited Bride / Back in the Spainard's Bed - Trish Morey + Others Amazon USRomance Anthologies Top 100To Sin with Scandal - Tamara GillIn other Trish Morey news, there's a new cover! Read more about DUTY AND THE BEAST at Trish's blog.
Well, another year is upon us. Isn't that exciting?
SARA members have ushered in the new year with a variety of great news:
Claire Baxter has had at least one short story included in an anthology produced by the publishers of the South African magazine, You. It contains their 40 favourite stories from the last ten years and is out now.
 Trish Morey has a new release: SECRETS OF CASTILLO DEL ARCO (HM&B Sexy). Trish has also received a fabulous review from RT Book Reviews for one of her new books; FIANCEE FOR ONE NIGHT, which is out in the US now. More on Trish's Blog.
 Lillian Grant got a 4.5star review from Book Wenches for MALE ORDER, aka The Man With The Big...Hat. More on Lillian's Blog.
Bronwyn Stuart has sold her historical romance, Scandal's Mistress, to Carina Press. Read about Bron's call story on her blog. Dy Loveday has had her short story, Game Play, accepted for an anthology by Wicked East Press. It should be available mid-2012. See more about Dy at dyloveday.comBec Sampson has finalled in the Southern Magic's Young Adult Section of the Linda Howard Contest for Excellence, with 'Lifer', and Linda Brown has finalled in the same competition in the Unique Genres Section with 'Enchanting the Duke'. Finally, Tamara Gill's TO SIN WITH SCANDAL made it to the Amazon US Top 100 Best-seller list again in December. Wishing you all a marvellous 2012!
Once again, we've got a sleigh full of news coming your way. If you have your egg nog and mince pie in hand (bonus points if you're wearing a santa hat), read on! Amy T Matthews' End of the Night Girl received an excellent review in the Speakeasy Creative Reading blog. Here's a snippet: " Far from being bewildering or aimless, however, the novel itself is needle-sharp. Matthews guides us through Molly's nights and days, moment by moment, plunging into her past as the opportunities arise. The result, somehow, is a satisfying novel about dissatisfaction, a precisely structured story of structural breakdown."Read on at the link above. End of the Night Girl has also been voted one of the Australian Book Reviews Books of the year. Rebecca Sampson and Bronwyn Stuart continue to share wardrobe items--namely, the contest getup. Bec took out the winners position in the Contemporary Series Romance Section of the Toronto Romance Writer's Catherine Contest with A FUTURE FOR ABBY. She also came first runner up in that contest's Golden Ticket Final Round. Both Bronwyn and Bec were finalists in the Spacecoast Authors of Romance Launching A Star Contest. Bron's BEHIND THE COURTESAN came first in the Historical Section, and Bec's A FUTURE FOR ABBY came second in the Series Contemporary section, and also finalled in the YA section with LIFER. Great news for Eleni Konstantine! Her fantasy short story, STORMY DIVIDE will be released with Musa Publishing in June 2012, via their Urania Imprint. In recent bestsellers: September - Amazon USAnthologies Romance Top 100To Sin with Scandal – Tamara Gill A Captain’s Order – A Duke’s Command – Tamara Gill November - Barnes & Noble (Borders US)Series Romance Top 100Best Friend…Future Wife – Claire Baxter Pregnant: Father Wanted – Claire Baxter Finally, wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May it be safe, fun and rewarding.
Thank you for your support in 2011, and we look forward to seeing you all in 2012!
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