It's time for the 2013 DABWAHA!
What's the DABWAHA?
It's our March Madness™- style tournament of romance novels, hosted by Jane from Dear Author and yours truly. The tournament began in 2008 which makes this our 6th annual tournament of books. Yay!
What's DABWAHA stand for?
It stands for AWESOMENESS. And the assurance that I should be allowed to name everything because I came up with the name. (It stands for “Dear Author Bitchery Writing Award for Hellagood Authors.”
What do we do?
Today, we announced the slate of nominees! Have a look.
We put together a selection of great books published in 2012 in eight different categories. The books are pitted against each other. Envision a cage match between books. Your votes determines who wins. The books compete until only one book is left.
You, the player, win by guessing which book will win each match. The person who makes the most correct guesses will win an iPad.
How come there are only 7 per category?
Because you (yes, you!) pick the 8th nominee in each category! We pick 56 of the 64 titles but readers, authors, and fans can nominate the last book in each category. This way if you think a book was excluded unfairly, you can nominate it and get all the other fans of that book to join the nomination.
We can nominate a book? Cool!
Yes. But Only 2012 Books Qualify. The book MUST have a publication date of 2012. No exceptions, no reprints. No paperback version of 2011 hardcovers.
Where is the nomination form?
So what do we do now?
Have a look at the slate of nominees, and ask yourself, What awesome book from last year should be in the last spot? Then, prepare ye to nominate. Make sure it's a 2012 book, y'all. You can also look at the calendar for the tournament to prepare yourself for voting.
Voting?
Yup. The winner of each round is determined by reader voting. Polls open, and voting commences! There's vote mongering, trash talking, and zany compliment wars on all forms of social media during the DABWAHA, too, so there's a lot of goofy fun to be had.
This sounds fun. What do we win?
PRIZES. Nice ones! The winners of the tournament – both the reader with the best bracket and the author of the winning book – win a big prize, and there are prizes for each round, plus prizes for random middle brackets, and prizes for the worst bracket of all. Lots of things to win – all provided by authors and readers, and Jane and Sarah.
Vote haggling, trading, trash talking, and all sorts of competitive behaviors are encouraged. “Lean in” readers. It is #DABWAHA time.
I think I need a nap.
So have a nap. Then get ready to DABWAHA!
Here are the Important Links:
- Where to Vote: http://dabwaha.com
- Where to Nominate: Nomination Form
- Where to Fill out the Pick Sheet: Pick Sheet – pre registration only.
- Where to feverishly recheck for results: Tourney Site
- The Schedule: http://dabwaha.com/2013-schedule/
I have to say that the description of one of the entries, Motorcycle Man, made me boggle. I get it that a romance guy may start as a jerk so he can reform etc. etc., but, good Lord. “Kane “Tack” Allen has a rule. He doesn’t employ someone he’s slept with. So when he learns he spent last night in bed with his new office manager, he quickly fires Tyra. ” How is he supposed to be forgiven for that?
The details on what constitutes bribery are here:
http://dabwaha.com/2013/03/11/…
Basically, anything that’s a prize for one person: not ok. Anything that can be enjoyed by everyone? All good!
Cleo: which book do you suggest?
I had books on my list that were f/f but alas, they were 2010 publication and as such ineligible. Darn it.
So, Laura, I hope you brought enough chocolate for the whole class 🙂
But Laura already promised to deliver Gilles Marini in a sack on my doorstep! Though I am willing to share.
I don’t know if this will make any difference, but I have recs for a possible GLBT slot:
1. Awake Unto Me by Kathleen Knowles (lesbian historical)
2. His and Hers and Hers by Nona Raines (menage romance)
3. The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth (YA/lesbian)
4. The Space Between Us by Megan Hart (menage novel)
I haven’t read the last two but I’ve seen positive reviews for both around romanceland.
Good luck to the nominees. 🙂
OMG, I just started readin On Dublin Street…it is not good for my peace of mind, that Braden guy! And he is a Scot!
Woke up to some very angry emails from Gilles Marini’s wife about this. “That was a one-time offer for Amanda only! Not for every single reader out there!”
Great. Just great. Once again the greedy masses have ruined it for the lucky one.
I guess it’s time for my back-up plan. Computer hackers *always* respond well to chocolate.
I am so excited for DABWAHA!!!! This is my first time participating and I am thrilled that I have read a good amount of the books.
I wanted to put a plug in for a write in nomination in the catagory NwRE:
Libriomancer by Jim Hines.
This book was fantastic. Anyone who loves books should read it. Here is a link to the SB review
http://smartbitchestrashybooks…
p.s. Jim Hines is the guy who recreates romance covers with himself dressed as the hero.
p.p.s.: I have no connection to Mr. Hines, just a fan.
What’d you have on your list from 2010? I’m curious!
One of my all-time favorite romance novels, Colette Moody’s “Parties in Congress,” has a 2011 publication date. Too bad, ‘cause I’d be nominating the hell out of that book.
Jim Hines is so awesome we should not only nominate his book, we should also give him some sort of special award for awesomeness.
I don’t actually have any suggestions – I was just soliciting ideas from others. And now I’m adding to my tbr list – thanks for the recs, everyone.
So I can count on your vote the write in nomination?:) I am excited for the 2nd book to come out. The world Mr. Hines has created is just brilliant!
My husband is reading it now, and is enjoying it.
So, I have read a grand total of 1 book on the finalist list (though my TBR list just about doubled in size). But, this competition sounds like a lot of fun. Can I fake my way through by reading reviews and guessing or is that completely pointless? (I would be a great voter to bribe as I have no opinions either way…just saying)
You could try checking GoodReads as well, it’s often in the book edition info.
I’m too late coming back to this (nominees announced already), but I did nominate Aftermath. Although for crossover, since it really isn’t a romance the way Jericho was. For the LGBT romance I picked Almost Heaven (Susan X Meagher), which I really didn’t expect to like but really did. For YA or novella I was sad Diemer’s The Dark Wife was 2011…
I have to choose at some point between Riveted and Duchess War??? NOOOOOOOO!
Very tough first and second rounds this year.
I have two thoughts:
1) I need to do some speed reading! I read all romance all the time, and there are still so many books I haven’t heard of or read yet.
2) I’m SO glad there’s a prize for worst bracket. Chickens pooping on squares do better at guessing these things than I do. How do I always, always manage to do significantly worse than random guessing?
For those of us who didn’t read the directions and entered twice, Dear Lord, forgive us. . .
That makes sense. I’m glad Aftermath got a nomination at all – Ann McMan’s a fantastic writer, and I loved Jericho. I’m also happy to get a rec for “Almost Heaven” – I’ve seen that but not picked it up because, like you, I didn’t think I’d like it. But I’m totally willing to give it a go, now! Next on my list is “Touch Me Gently” by D. Jackson Leigh, because my girlfriend just finished it…
I nominated Jae’s “Something in the Wine” for the LGBT romance category, which I’d recommend if you haven’t read it yet. It was really sweet – kind of a coming-out story but done really well, and I loved the characters.
If you have any other recs for lesbian romance, post ‘em here! I’d love to hear them!
Nominee “The Girl with the Cat Tattoo” is free on Amazon today.
Nice, thanks for the recommendations. McMan is indeed fantastic.
Almost Heaven didn’t sound like my kind of book because… you know, hillbillies. But I really liked the realism (I assume – I don’t know Appalachia), with very human characters. I came to appreciate that the choices I would make (diversify! low-cost index funds! beware instability in European financial markets!) weren’t right for the main character. The story would actually have been interesting even without the romance, but as written the romance is a very integral part.
I’m guessing we ended up with all m/m because the large majority of people on this site are straight women. We need more bi and gay women, and straight men 🙂
“I’m guessing we ended up with all m/m because the large majority of people on this site are straight women. We need more bi and gay women, and straight men :)”
Hear hear! ; )
#truefact