Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Poll is closed.  Results are as follows.  See the updated standings at the Official DA BWAHA site.

Thanks to our sponsors, Paperspine & Harlequin.

The NCAA Games don’t start until Thursday, so we are extending the deadline for the 2008 DA BWAHA bracket entry until midnight Central time tonight. So click early and click happy. You can read all the details here and enter your bracket picks on the tournament entry page.

Several people have asked why their picks don’t show up in the standings immediately. Don’t worry, it’s not you. The picks are emailed and then uploaded in batches to the software so that the tracking and scoring elements can work their magic. And, as Jane said today, “I want to make special mention that if you are an author, you are a) entitled to fill out a bracket and b) no one will know unless you want people to know. Because this contest is for readers and as I have heard, authors are readers too.”

Yeah. You like romance? Start clickin’. Voting will commence soon, both here and on Dear Author. 

It’s time! And IT IS ON. Dear Author and the Smart Bitches present the DA BWAHA Tournament.  We have fielded a slate of 64 “best” books in 8 different categories: 

• Young Adult


• Paranormal


• Erotica/Erotic Romance


• GLBT


• Historical


• Contemporary


• Novel With Romantic Elements


• Category

Today through Wednesday 7 am EST, you are allowed to fill out your bracket.  The bracket is found here. 

On Wednesday, you’ll begin to see polls, both at Dear Author and at the Smart Bitches, pitting different pairs of books against each other.  The goal, when filling out the bracket, is to guess which book is going to win each poll.  The winners of the polls advance against each other until the final poll contains the last two books, one of which will be the 2008 DA BWAHA Book of the Year. 

You will need to enter a tiebreaker number (anything from 1 to 1000) in case your bracket ties with someone else’s bracket. Our tie-breaker will be the total number of entries we receive.  Please use the threads both at Dear Author and here at the hot pink hall of Bitchin’ to bemoan our picks, to engage in speculation regarding the winners, and to generally have a good time.

Welcome to the 2008 DA BWAHA. 

It’s March Madness time which means brackets, spoilers, and, of course, romance books!  Admittedly, the last element of the list is a rarely known component of March Madness, one that is often lost amongst the basketball hoopla. Which is so wrong, we will do all kinds of crazy shit to make it right.

We thought it was time to shine a light on the major, but forgotten, player.  This year, Dear Author and the Smart Bitches have combined their internet foo to bring you the DA BWAHA tournament.  (That would be the Dear Author-Bitchery Writing Award for Hellagood Authors for the acronym challenged).

It is a tournament of books that will be held during this month of March to determine THE ONE BOOK THAT WILL RULE THEM ALL. (No comment on which book will bind them. That’s kinky, and we don’t go there on the first date.)

This tournament will be run exactly like the NCAA Collegiate basketball tournament. If you’re not familiar with bracketology, March Madness, or the absolute insanity that is the NCAA basketball playoffs, hold on to the seat of your pants. 

We’ve tallied all the votes (and DAMN were there a lot of votes!) and we are happy to announce the winners of the First Annual Smart Bitches Trashy Books Bitchery Writing Award for Hellagood Authors!

I’d like to say, there were a LOT of close categories, so when you think to yourself, if you are not a winner this year, that it was an honor to be nominated, chances are you also almost kicked the ass of the winner - this voting was way tight, yo.

If you are a winner, please, contact me at with your name and postal address, so that I can mail you your prize, for use in writing your next novel:  a fine, handcrafted, hot pink ostrich quill pen, made by the fine folks at Feather.com.au in Cairns, Australia. We Bitches go around the globe looking for appropriate prizes for our fine Bitchery authors.

And, of course, what SBTB contest would be complete without a button for your website announcing how utterly cool you are? Each category has a handmade-by-SB-Candy-and-her l33t-Photoshop-skillz graphic for use on your site - so right-click-and-download, por favor, and use to announce your fabulousness!

And without further ado, here are the results!