RITAs

So I got my RITA books in the mail, which of course, I’m not allowed to talk about.

In passing, why do we capitalize the word RITA? The award is not an acronym. It’s named for Rita Clay Estrada. Why don’t we just call it the Rita, like the Norton, or the Hugo, two literary awards named after genre luminaries? Inquiring minds would LOVE to know.

I’ve got one friend with fabulous RITA judge luck. Two years in a row she has gotten book she either planned to buy or had already read. Me, I tend to get books I would never dream of picking up on my own. But I’ve learned to be open-minded about this. Last year, I got a book I never would have dreamed of picking up on my own. It was a genre I don’t read, and more than that, it was a type of book in a genre that I REALLY wouldn’t read, and it was also a subsequent book in a series. Three strikes against it. It languished at the bottom of the pile.

And when I finally read it…. wowsa. I laughed, I cried…. Actually, I mostly cried. It was a tearjerker. I was so hoping that it would final, but alas.

Goes to show you, I guess.

I heard a great RITA judging story once. There was a multi-pubbed author judging the RITAs who got a small-press book that blew her away. She had previously been very skeptical about “these small press books.” Well, she obviously couldn’t contact the author, but later, she met her at a conference, and introduced the author to her editor. I don’t know if the author ever found out that the judge had read her book, but it both changed her mind about the small press system and let her find a great new author. I think the author writes for the judge’s publisher now.

I like that kind of sneak attack. I have recommended several authors I read through contests to agents, but I the authors in question knew where I was coming from…