2008 RITA Awards: Dead Girls Are Easy Wins "Best First Book"!

Now I know what Cinderella must've felt like; slipping into a beautiful dress and beautiful shoes, then whisking away to have all her dreams come true! No pumpkins for me, though... I got a beautiful golden statue instead! (Though I did, at one point, almost lose a shoe!)

Saturday night, August 2nd, was one of the absolute highlights of my life, when my name was called during the 2008 RITA Award ceremony, and my debut novel, DEAD GIRLS ARE EASY was awarded Best First Book by Romance Writers of America!

Here I am with my wonderful, fabulous editor, Erika Tsang (do we look happy, or what? LOL) Erika is an Executive Editor at Avon HarperCollins, and part of what made me so happy is knowing that I didn't let her down - she took a chance on a quirky story by a brand-new author, and she helped me turn an offbeat idea about a spunky former Goth girl who sees dead people into the very best book it could be.

What's really special about the RITA awards is not only that it's the "gold standard" for the industry, but that it's judged by other authors, people who do what I do every day and know all the time and effort that goes into it. There's something pretty amazing about being told by a jury of your peers that your very first novel was something special!

Even better, my Prince Charming was right there by my side for the whole thing! I'll share more pictures on the blog later this week so you can see how cute he was. ;-) For a girl who never even went to the prom, the entire evening was pretty awesome! :-)