Reading To Judge…
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
Some of you might know that it’s RITA judging time. Every year the Romance Writers of America sponsors two contests, the Golden Heart for not-yet-published authors, and the RITA for published works. The RITA is the “Academy Award” of our industry, intending to honor the best of the best of the previous year, in several categories.
Anyway…this is a peer-judged contest. Authors volunteer to judge a “panel” of entries, with books mixed from various categories. This year I’m judging eight books, from three different categories. That’s as specific as I’m going to get… 
I’ve found a couple of really good ones in the mix, which excites me. But I was mulling it over as I scored the books, trying to pinpoint why those particular books worked for me so well, when a couple of the others–just as competently written–didn’t.
I think for me it all has to come down to whether I am sucked into the story and drawn by the characters enough that the writing almost disappears. I don’t notice the bad (unless it’s really bad!) I don’t stop and admire the amazingly good. I’m one of those readers who just finds writing that distracts me from the story…distracting!
I think that’s why I’m not an Oprah book fan. If I’m pausing every paragraph to admire the way the words are put together, that means I’m not thoroughly engaged by the story. Which, in my opinion, means the book–no matter how well written–doesn’t entirely work for me.
So, I’m wondering, what is it that makes a book a winner for you? Do the beautiful words and images matter? Is a beautifully written book as important to you as one that tells a terrific story? Since I consider myself a storytell rather than a wordsmith, I really would like to know how the reader-on-the-street fells about this!
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The winner of Jane Porter’s Flirting with Forty is Comment #2 Heather Harper! Congrats, Heather! Email me at: carlyphillips @ mac.com (no spaces) with your snail mail info and I’ll send it to Jane!
