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Awarding the Dabwaha Prizes!

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Oh, this is the fun part – awarding all the prizes to the finalists, second place finishes, and the random brackets who get a spiffy prize, too!

Let’s get started, shall we?

The bracket in 2nd Place in Final Championship: fv_angela! You win a Kindle Fire 8.9″ 32GB, donated by Jaci Burton.

The much-coveted Wooden Spoon prize for worst bracket: AMJ! 

You win a $50 LUSH gc, a $50 TeaForte gc, signed copies of MelJean Brook’s Iron Seas series, including print anthologies (Burning Up, The Iron Duke, Heart of Steel), trade copies of Riveted and upcoming Enthralled Anthology (available in July) , plus Desperately Seeking Shapeshifter, by Jessica Sims, and Girl’s Guide to Man Hunting, and Care & Feeding of an Alpha Male by Jessica Clare, donated by MelJean Brook and Jessica Clare.

Random Middle Bracket prizes are given to… random middle brackets. In 224th place? 568th? No worries, people are awesome so we have prizes!

The bracket belonging to Sciley wins a $20 Amazon gift card and a signed set of the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy books donated by Jennifer Estep.

The bracket belonging to Sarah Wynde wins a $20 Amazon gift card and a signed set of the Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy books donated by Jennifer Estep.

The bracket belonging to cbackson wins a $20 Amazon gift card and signed copies of Karma Girl and Hot Mama (trade paperback versions) in the Bigtime paranormal romance series donated by Jennifer Estep.

The bracket belonging to bookslave2 wins a set of the Colbana books - Blade Song & Night Blade -  ebook or print, reader’s choice & $15 GC to Amazon or BN, from author Shiloh Walker/J.C. Daniels.

The bracket belonging to moonsurfer wins a $25 gift card to Dawn Addonizio’s jewelry store.

The bracket belonging to Nicole Helm also wins a $25 gift card to Dawn Addonizio’s jewelry store.

The bracket belonging to JMaureen wins all of Carina Press’ March 2013 releases: Bonds of Need by Lynda Aicher, The League of Illusion: Prophecy by Vivi Anna, Hunger Awakened by Dee Carney, A Fine Romance by Christi Barth, Tactical Strike by Kaylea Cross, Magick by Moonrise by Laura Navarre, Lethal Business by W. Soliman, Soul of Kandrith by Nicole Luiken, Cards & Caravans by Cindy Spencer Page, Most Likely To Succeed by Kate Davies, Pooka in My Pantry by R.L. Naquin, and Lord of Secrets by Alyssa Everett. Plus, the bracket owner will also receive the Carina Press titles nominated for the 2013 DABWAHA, all provided by Carina Press.

The bracket belonging to LisaLisa wins a prize pack from author Vivian Arend that includes signed trade copies of the first three books in the Six Pack Ranch series and a $100 Amazon or B&N giftcard, winner’s choice.

The bracket belonging to GirlyNerd will receive the Kickass Historical Romance Prize Pack, provided by Sara Lindsey, last year’s DABWAHA winning bracketologist, Tessa Dare, and Courtney Milan. The prize pack includes: a signed paperback set of Tessa Dare’s Spindle Cove series, including 2012 RITA Winner A Night to Surrender, DABWAHA 2013 Nominee A Lady by Midnight (plus signed card for free download of the Spindle Cove novella and Tessa Dare STICKERS!); a signed paperback of Sherry Thomas’s 2010 RITA Winner Not Quite a Husband; Courtney Milan’s The Novella Collection, including DABWAHA 2013 Nominee The Governess Affair, and DABWAHA 2013 Nominee The Duchess Wars (winner’s choice of digital format); signed paperbacks of Sara Lindsey’s Weston family novels; and a Romance Novel Magnetic Poetry Kit to write your own naughty interludes and happily ever afters.

The bracket belonging to I Wear Stetsons Now signed copies of Coveted and Kept from the Coveted series and a $20 Amazon or BN gift certificate, winner’s choice, from Shawntelle Madison.

The bracket belonging to Melody1228 wins a cupcake prize package from TBR LLC (aka Jane and Sarah).

The bracket belonging to Southernraeder also wins a cupcake prize package from TBR LLC (aka Jane and Sarah).

Hot diggity, we had TWO 2nd Chance Tournament Winners.

Spoony wins an iPad mini (16GB wifi) with digital copies of the Kowalski series, donated by Shannon Stacey.

AND!

Socrates31, you ALSO win an iPad Mini (16GB wifi) donated by Jen Frederick.

Congratulations to all the prize winners, and big bouquets of sweet-smelling and everlasting thanks to everyone who provided a prize for this year’s tournament.

If you’re a winner, expect an email from us shortly – or you can email Sarah at sarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTTYcom to unleash all the excitement you’ve got.

Thank you!

The Bribes, The Videos, The DABWAHA

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The best part of the DABWAHA is always the trash talking, the vote mongering, and the creativity that is unleashed to gather votes and try to advance to the next round. This year’s creative offerings are no different: grade A excellentness!

Sarah Morgan and her son created a video for Once a Ferrara Wife: 

Link!

ETA: Ros Clarke is leveraging the power of baby animals and hot dudes to attempt the trouncing of Morgan’s book:

Link!

Jeannie Lin is promising some seriously awesome dancing should she advance to the next round:

Link!

And Molly O’Keefe is also behind a video asking for support by warning of…great chaos:

Link!

But wait – there’s more! Susanna Kearsley’s helping O’Keefe, too – it’s book training time!

Link!

Laura Florand is offering some seriously dangerous threats – and adorableness – as she tries to gather votes for TWO books:

Link!

And Dawn Addonizio is ready:

Link!

And Astrid Amara also has a video bribe…with THREATS! OH NOES!

Link!

Lest you think there are only videos offered as creative requests for voting, get ready for All The Temptation of the Writers!

Ruthie Knox is not messing around: she has voter guides, side-by-side comparisons to the books her books are facing, PLUS promises of deleted scenes, extra epilogues, and other terribly tempting things. Battle of the Bad Girls? Knox is ready.

But the real temptation: “If Room at the Inn advances to round 2, I will post the first chapter of my first manuscript, Rebound. As is. With all the embarrassing newbie mistakes left in.”

 Duuuuuuude.

Kit Rocha is promising deleted scenes featuring Jared & Ace over at Facebook. As in she’s making said promises at Facebook, not that Jared & Ace got frisky at Facebook. Though who knows, maybe they DID. It is a deleted scene. Could be ANYTHING.

But Kristen Callihan is not without her own ammo:

And she’s offering up her own unpublished material:

And then there’s Tessa Dare, who is lining up a whole buffet of what she calls ‘incentives’ to gather votes:

She is not monkeying around here, yo.

It is ON. Get ready for voting, and good luck!

Final Four Redux. Round 1 of 2. Midnight to Noon CST

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Unfortunately, we had some major errors with our polling yesterday, and we need to redo all the polls.

Plus, when we went back to recalculate our reader nominated winners, we found that there were two results that had been flagged as spam, but that received  considerable number of votes. So below is the new Final Four based on spam nominations and technological curiosities.

Please vote again – our apologies!

2012 GLBT Finalists

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GLBT

Congratulations to the GLBT finalists – now with bonus cover art!

Laurels, Prizes, and Congratulations

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If you hear someone in the greater Chicagoland area humming “We are the Champions,” make sure it’s not Julie James because Something About You is the winner of the DABWAHA by a decided margin. Congratulations to Julie James, and to Courtney Milan for making the championship round a lawyer-vs-lawyer trash talking spectacle. Motions were filed. Motions were made. Hell, movies were made.

But in the end, it comes down to one champion, so big congrats to Julie James and Team SAY.

And now, it is PRIZE TIME. Please email Sarah at sarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTcom with your contact info (your mailing address, specifically) so we can start getting the prize mania started!

To Julie James: a brand new 16gb Wifi iPad. Woo hoo!

To the winner of the DABWAHA with the best bracket: Shawntelle Madison, 635 Points with a 63% pick percentage. Interestingly, she did not pick the champion correctly. Shawntelle also wins a brand new 16 gb Wifi iPad. Way to go!

Shawntelle was also the winner of the Final Four – her bracket was unbeatable in the end. For the Final Four prize, donated by Cindy Hwang and Berkley, Shawntelle will receive ARCS of
DRAGON BOUND, Thea Harrison;
BREAKING POINT, Pamela Clare;
THE CHASE, Erin McCarthy;
CHOSEN BY BLOOD, Virna DePaul;
SUMMER AT SEASIDE COVE, Jacquie D’Alessandro;
FOLLOW MY LEAD, Kate Noble; and SAVAGE NATURE, Christine Feehan,

Plus she will receive ALL the Berkley Sensation and Heat March titles as a prize:
PRIMAL BOND, Jennifer Ashley,
HIDDEN AWAY, Maya Banks,
A LOT LIKE LOVE, Julie James,
SWEET AS THE DEVIL, Susan Johnson,
WICKED SEDUCTION, Jade Lee,
DEVIL’S OWN, Veronica Wolff,
ACCIDENTALLY CATTY, Dakota Cassidy,
PLEASURE ME, Monica Burns,
DEAD ON DELIVERY, Eileen Rendahl,
ANY WICKED THING, Margaret Rowe,
and SURRENDER TO ME, Shayla Black.

We have a Wooden Spoon prize for the worst, most brokenest bracket. Congratulations to Jora Jacobi, who only had 2 picks right. Way to win a kickin’ prize!

The Wooden Spoon prize for the worst bracket is really awesome this year. Author Stefanie Sloane has donated a prize that is most soothing: a $25 iTunes gift card, sinfully scented Tocca Stella candela, 12 piece box of Fran’s Chocolates assorted truffles, and a tin of Harney & Sons gourmet tea set the mood for you to relax and enjoy a signed copy of Sloane’s debut book, The Devil in Disguise. Thank you to Stefanie Sloane, and congrats to Jora for winning!

The winner of the Second Chance tourney: Frances McDermott, who had 446 points with a 93% pick percentage. She also picked the champion correctly and only had one pick wrong (she picked Dark Road to Darjeeling over Cold Magic).

For winning the Second Chance tourney, Frances wins a Kobo reader, and a $50 gift card to the Kobo store, courtesy of the fine, fine folks at Kobo. Frances will also get to pick which color reader she’d like. Congrats to Frances and thank you, oh fine, fine Kobo Folks!

The worst bracket of the Second Chance tourney belonged to Veronica Desangles, who had a 7% pick percentage and 10 points. You also get a prize! From Laura Baumbach and MLR Press, a MLR Bag with five print titles – Notturno by ZA Maxfield, These Haunted Heights by Ally Blue, Conquest by S.J. Frost, Mexican Heat by Laura Baumbach and Josh Lanyon and Death by Misfortune by AM Riley, along with a plastic trade paperback book cover and some fun swag items. Plus, you also receive a copy of print title OUT THERE IN THE NIGHT along with a tote bag, t-shirt and mouse pad that go with it.

But wait, there’s more! We have a few prizes to give away for random bracket entries and for folks who did a supreme job of helping us promote the DABWAHA to the point where people we didn’t know asked what the hell it was.

To Cara McKenna, a fine prize from author Jennifer Estep: $50 Amazon gift card, copies of SPIDER’S BITE, WEB OF LIES, VENOM, along with an e-ARC of TANGLED THREADS in my Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series, and an e-ARC for TOUCH OF FROST, the first book in her Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series that comes out on July 26.

To Kwana Jackson, a prize collection from authors Marie Sexton and Theresa Meyers. From Sexton, a copy of her latest ebook, and from Meyers, a copy of her new book The Truth About Vampires, and a mug filled with chocolates to go with your reading adventures.

To Elyssa Papa, Kate Elliot, Amy Atwell, Romancing Rakes, and Silver James: we have items of inspiring quality for you: a poster-sized version of the cover for Jaci Burton’s “The Perfect Play” courtesy of Berkley. Let us know where you put YOUR Jed Hill: the kitchen? The laundry room? The gym?

Thank you to our intern, Lillian, who was an incredible help to us for the entire tournament. Big huge thanks to our sponsors this year: Avon Romance and Carina Press.

Mad props go to Jane for being the database mastermind and bracketologist.

And most of all, thank YOU for making the DABWAHA so much crazy fun this year. You’re awesome. We’ll see you next year for the 2012 DABWAHA – until then, happy reading!