Mar 10 2011
DABWAHA Time
It’s DABWAHA time petals (TM Laura Lee Guhrke’s Scandal of the Year). For newcomers, DA BWAHA is a tournament that Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches and Dear Author runs during the college basketball tournament. The college basketball tourney is called March Madness because of all the hoopla surrounding the event so please envision me throwing confetti around you while you read this post.
DA reviewers and Sarah have put together a list of finalists in 8 different categories. These can all be viewed here. This is where you start yelling at the referees (us) for being blind and missing the call and generally being incapable of calling a good game (if you’ve ever been to a sporting event this is de rigueur) . BUT! there’s hope because this year the 8th book in each will be nominated and voted by you the readers. Scoot yourself over HERE to do that until Saturday.
What comes next are the brackets. Between Saturday and midday Sunday, I will be working feverishly to seed and rank the books. Eventually all 64 books are placed in 4 regions, pitting the 64 votes against each other. This is the tourney site. Sunday you get to fill out your brackets.
Finally, you all vote. We host polls over at the DABWAHA blog in 12 hour increments. Trash talking and vote mongering is encouraged. The point is to win. (and get prizes like a poster sized version of The Perfect Play. INORITE?)
Confused? I’ll be online on Sunday for two hours beginning at 8 pm CST to assist you in filling out your bracket. You can email me jane at dearauthor.com or tweet me: @jane_l.
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Mar 10, 2011 @ 10:59:14
This is a lot of fun, even though I never come close to winning. I manage to do quite well during the first two rounds and after that, I’m history. I must be a glutton for punishment, I’m entering once again. Come on and be a Gleek of dabwaha.com.
Mar 10, 2011 @ 11:06:38
It’s baaaaaaaack! Huzzah!
Lauren Willig - News
Mar 10, 2011 @ 11:08:33
[...] March Madness time over at Dear Author and Smart Bitches Trashy Books! Instead of basketball teams, however, the DA BWAHA is played with [...]
Mar 10, 2011 @ 11:40:05
Okay, I have to ask… What in the world does DABWAHA stand for? My brain doesn’t handle acronyms very well, LOL.
Mar 10, 2011 @ 11:42:01
Jane, are you missing one of the GLBT books? There are only six listed, but 7 for everything. Or are they getting two reader choices?
Mar 10, 2011 @ 11:47:12
@Gina I believe it stands for Dear Author Bitchery Writing Award for Hella Authors. Or something. LOL.
Mar 10, 2011 @ 11:48:18
@jayhjay No we made a mistake and put a 2009 book in the bracket and rather than us putting up another book for the finals, we decided that we would fill the last two spots with reader noms.
Mar 10, 2011 @ 13:00:58
I’m surprised that neither Sarah Mayberry’s, THE BEST LAID PLANS nor HER BEST FRIEND were nominated. I loved them both, it was difficult to choose which one to nominate. :(
Mar 10, 2011 @ 13:24:11
I just wanted to make sure of something. The hardcover of Mary Balogh’s novella, A Matter of Time, was released on December 29, 2009. That would be ineligible for 2010. Correct?
Mar 10, 2011 @ 13:24:45
Didn’t La Bonne come out in 2007?
Mar 10, 2011 @ 13:27:57
@Brian My understanding is that the print version came out in 2010.
Mar 10, 2011 @ 13:28:20
@Kim Even though it is a 2009 date, it is considered a January 2010 release.
Mar 10, 2011 @ 15:30:24
Looking forward to it. Hope to improve my score from last year.
Mar 10, 2011 @ 15:42:28
I competed for the first (or was it second?) time last year and was utterly useless :) But it was such fun!
And for a poster sized version of The Perfect Play cover – I’m so entering! My second goal is to improve on last year’s score, which I have to say was…not good :)
Mar 10, 2011 @ 17:36:27
So, based on La Bonne, it’s print date, not first pub date? So if we put Exclusively Yours in print this year, it could be nominated again? Ha!
Mar 10, 2011 @ 19:32:38
Holy. I’ve read 4 of the m/m and 2 of all of the others. My goodness, how agency pricing and geographic restrictions have changed my reading selection since I got my e-reader.
Mar 10, 2011 @ 19:38:33
@Angela James Actually next year I think we are excluding any books edited by you.
Mar 10, 2011 @ 23:06:12
I’ve read all the m/m romances on the list and they were all excellent. How to choose between them??
Mar 11, 2011 @ 01:53:13
Okay, let the pimpage begin!
My nominations for 8th spot:
All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins for contemporary
In For A Penny by Rose Lerner for historical
Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews for PNR/UF
*I didn’t have any extra nominations for the other categories.
Mar 11, 2011 @ 07:40:59
@Jane: Oh snap!
But your bracket would be so lonely without me.
Mar 11, 2011 @ 10:06:40
Joanna Bourne’s The Forbidden Rose isn’t in the running? Wow, that just might have been my pick to win it all. I’m definitely nominating it.
Mar 11, 2011 @ 15:03:34
Ok, this is probably a stupid question, is there a difference between filling out our brackets and voting for the various winners? (is this one step or two?)
Are we picking who we liked the best, or who we think others will vote for? I am just confused how this works.
Mar 11, 2011 @ 16:36:56
@jayhjay: Jane can probably answer better than I can but based on my participation in previous years, you fill out your whole bracket first, and it is your prediction of which books you think will win.
Then after that phase is over and many people have filled out brackets, comes the voting phase. I think many vote for the book they believe deserves to win, but some probably vote for the book they predicted to win.
The voting happens in rounds and after each round, I believe, the points for the correct guesses in each bracket are tallied and the brackets ranked according to how close they came to predicting accurately.
I also think some correct guesses are worth more points than others? Not sure about this.
Sometimes there are prizes given along the way. At the end a big prize is awarded to the person with the most points awarded based on their correct guesses. The author whose book won the tourney also gets a prize.
There are probably clearer explanations of all this at the dabwaha site. Try this one here:
http://dabwaha.com/how-to-play/
Mar 11, 2011 @ 21:38:46
@Janine: Thanks Janine, that helps. I did read the site but I wasn’t fully understanding it. I guess once I get started it will all make sense. But your explanation helped a lot.
Mar 11, 2011 @ 21:50:04
@jayhjay: Janine essentially has it right. You fill out your bracket picking which book you think will win.
Once everyone fills out the bracket, the voting will start.
It’s step 1: fill out the bracket (which you can start doing on Sunday)
Step 2: vote vote vote. (and trash talk and try to torpedo the books you didn’t pick in your bracket and get votes for the books you did pick to win).
Mar 12, 2011 @ 15:17:16
Here’s a chance to vote early & often: I’ll toss my votes to the first two suggestions for GLBT & YA books.
Question: has a short story/novella ever won?
Unanswerable question: why don’t I remember there being a short story/novella bracket before?
Mar 07, 2012 @ 11:09:43
@Jane:
Thank you, my mind bogged after the DA :)