May 17, 2010

The 2nd Annual Australian Romance Readers Association awards

I attended the ARRA 2nd annual awards dinner. My alter ego, Tracey O’Hara, was nominated for one of the awards.
But that’s not why I went.

Last year I attended the first ARRA convention. I had such a great time. I met many readers and being a reader myself, we spoke the same language. I also feel that it is very important to attend these events where you get to meet and talk to people who buy and read my books as well.

Nalini Singh signing my copy with Kate Cuthbert looking on expectantly
So now to the big day. It all actually started a few days before when I started challenging some of the ARRA girls to a “bling off”. I was wearing a very shiny dress and had some blingy jewellery as well. I was all set to be unofficial winner of the most blingy. And that’s when it all went so wrong.

First of all we started off to Sydney at 5am. Around 2 hours into the drive, I realised that I had left my beautiful shiny dress, hanging wrinkle free, in the closet.

DANG!!! DOUBLE DANG!!!

Not to worry – Rosie from Fangtastic Fiction came to the rescue and brought in some stuff for me to try on. Between her black sequin top and my stuff – I still managed to get rather blingy. But poor Rosie was rushing so much to get me something to wear, she locked herself out of her house. Boy do I feel bad.

Kandy Shepherd and her Contempory award
The positives, though, far out way the negatives. I had lunch with fabulous double award winning, Nalini Singh, and the rest of the girls from the ARRA committee. Then my roomie, Erica Hayes, arrived and we got all fancy and made our way down to dinner. On our table, we had fellow Harlequin Spice Brief author Cathleen Ross; contemporary author Kandy Shepherd; Urban fantasy writers Keri Arthur and Erica Hayes; and finally the fabulous HarperCollins Australia reps Melanie and Rachel.

The award winners are announced on the ARRA blog. And a fabulous time was had by all. And there was an amazing chocolate mousse for dessert.

I will definitely be going again next year. It is such a good time and such a pleasure.
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8 comments:

  1. Mel TeshcoMay 17, 2010 at 9:56 PM

    that looks like such fun Tracie,
    wish I could have gone =)

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  2. TracieMay 17, 2010 at 11:14 PM

    my only regret is that I didn't get more piccies. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Emily MayMay 18, 2010 at 4:33 AM

    It looks like it was a fabulous dinner, Tracie! Thanks for posting the link to the blog, too. Congrats to all the winners!

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  4. Sharon ArcherMay 18, 2010 at 6:36 AM

    Bummer on leaving your glad rags at home, Tracie! Especially since you were all set to blitz the Bling-off!

    Sounds like a terrific evening! You were obviously far too busy enjoying the moment to want to spend time behind the camera!

    Congratulations to all the ARRA winners!
    :)
    Sharon

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  5. Rachel BaileyMay 18, 2010 at 9:42 AM

    Oh, wish I could have gone! Maybe next year. In the meantime, I'll satisfy myself with living vicariously through your photos and snippets.

    Got any more photos, Tracie? I especially want to see the bling you ended up wearing. =)

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  6. Rachel BaileyMay 18, 2010 at 9:46 AM

    Meant to say, don't Kate, Nalini and Kandy all look gorgeous? Looks like a great night.

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  7. Anna HackettMay 18, 2010 at 12:09 PM

    Hi Tracie --
    Sounds like a great night! I LOVE Nalini's series...I'm impatiently waiting for her next book.

    Glad you managed to re-bling (-:

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  8. Kandy ShepherdMay 18, 2010 at 10:32 PM

    Hi Tracie, wasn't it a fun night? Beautiful venue, wonderful food and, of course, fabulous company. You looked great in your borrowed finery. In fact, I was too busy admiring your earrings to notice much about your dress except that it looked good!

    ReplyDelete

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