Ever heard of the Golden Heart Awards? If you exist outside the world of publishing, you might not have. The Golden Heart is a yearly award that honors excellence in unpublished romance manuscripts by Romance Writers of America®. This year, more than 1,000 manuscripts were judged in 10 different categories. The number of finalists in each category is dependant on the number of entries that category receives, but on average there are eight finalists per category. To see a list of finalists for this year, go here.

Some of you may not know this, but I was Golden Heart finalist back in 2007 with my manuscript, MAKE ME BELIEVE. That manuscript didn’t win the GH in romantic suspense, but it DID go on to sell in February of 2008 and was retitled STOLEN FURY, which became my debut release. And for those of you who follow me and my books, you know that STOLEN FURY was nominated this year for RWA’s prestigious RITA Awards, which promotes excellence in the romance
genre by recognizing outstanding published romance novels and novellas. As a romance writer, I can tell you finaling in either the RITAs or the Golden Heart is a big deal. Both the RITAs and the Golden Heart Awards will be given out the same night, at RWA’s 30th Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida on July 31, 2010.

Many writers who final in the Golden Heart go on to sell–not just the winners–so it’s always fun to see who finaled (or won) and watch their careers take off. A few of my favorite authors who were once Golden Heart finalists include:

Terry McLaughlin
Bronwyn Parry
Kris Kennedy
Robin Kaye
Trish Milburn
Linda Castillo
Jane Porter
Christina Dodd
Kristin Hannah
Jo Davis
CL Wilson
Courtney Milan

In honor of this special recognition, for the next 10 weeks–until the RWA National Convention in Orlando–I’m going to be spotlighting two Golden Heart finalists per week here on my blog. These writers don’t have books out on the shelves yet, but something tells me you’ll be seeing these names in the future. The spotlights will run Tuesdays and Thursdays until the end of July when the winners will be announced in Orlando. I hope you enjoy getting to know some of these GH finalists and pass the word around. The first spotlight will go up tomorrow!