Blogging from RWA National, Part 2: I Dub Thee . . .

Marissa and I have talked about the various aristocratic titles such as duke, countess, marquess, and baroness. At times too, if your loving papa did something useful to the government (fight off an invasion, pay off the national debt), he might be honored with a knighthood. There were Knights of the Order of the Garter and even Knight Commander of the Bath, each with insignia, garments, and traditions. Your dear papa would be honored at a select ceremony before his peers, and the knighthood conferred by the Prince Regent himself.

We writers have a few traditions of our own. Each year, at its annual conference, Romance Writers of America honors authors for their service to readers, that of writing the best romantic books published the previous year. We also celebrate the best manuscripts by unpublished authors. We dress in our finest, attend a lavish ceremony that seems on par with the Academy Awards, and applaud the work of our peers.

So, Nineteen Teen congratulates all the winners of the 2009 Rita Awards, but especially Rosemary Clement-Moore (Best YA novel for Hell Week) and Tera Lynn Childs (Best First Book for her YA Oh. My. Gods). We also congratulate all the Golden Heart winners, especially Shoshana Dawn Brown (Best YA manuscript for Stage Fright). You can find the names of all the winners here.

And Marissa and I would also like to apologize to anyone we missed this morning at breakfast! The buffet set up was not what we expected (okay, neither of us had seen anything like it before!), so it’s quite possible you didn’t find us in all the hullabaloo. But if you’d like to win one of our darling fans, we’ll be offering chances all through August. Look for more about our trip to the Nation’s capitol next week.