Romance Writers of America launches 2013 award finalists online series powered by Shindig

NEW YORK, April 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to connect America's most popular romance writers with their fans across the world, Romance Writers of America® (RWA) is launching an 11-week series of interactive video chat events highlighting 2013 RITA Award finalist authors. Fans will have the unique opportunity to meet one another and ask their favorite authors questions face-to-face in an intimate online environment.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110616/NY21721LOGO )

The series kicks off April 11 at 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT with RITA finalists in the Contemporary Single Title Romance category: Barbara Freethy, Barbara Hannay, Ruthie Knox, Kim Law, Roni Loren, Jill Shalvis, and Roxanne St. Claire.

To view a full schedule and to RSVP, please visit http://www.rwa.org/RITAchat. Follow RWA on Twitter @romancewriters (#RITAchat hashtag) and Shindig on Twitter at @ShindigEvents during the chats.

The events are free to the public, and only 1,000 spots are available at each of the weekly events.

Each week, one lucky participant will win a copy of the books in that week's spotlighted RITA category.

The RITA award categories are: Best First Book, Contemporary Single Title Romance, Historical Romance, Inspirational Romance, Long Contemporary Series Romance, Novel with Strong Romantic Elements, Paranormal Romance, Romance Novella, Romantic Suspense, Short Contemporary Series Romance, and Young Adult Romance.

For more information contact:

At Shindig: Jeri Rosenblum, 212-699-3655 or [email protected]
At RWA: Erin Fry, 832-717-5200 or [email protected]

About RWA

Romance Writers of America® (RWA) is a nonprofit trade association whose mission is to advance the professional interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy. RWA works to support the efforts of its members to earn a living, to make a full-time career out of writing romance—or a part-time one that generously supplements his/her main income.

Visit http://www.rwa.org for more information.

About the RITA Award

Up to 1,200 romance novels from 11 different categories are entered in the RITA Award competition each year. A novel may be entered either by the author or by the book's publisher in one of the 11 categories. After the first round of judging by published romance authors, the competition narrows to approximately 100 finalists. Once RWA announces the RITA finalists, a final round of judges evaluates and ranks these novels to determine the 11 RITA Award winners. The RITA Award winners are announced at the Awards Ceremony at the RWA Annual Conference. Romance Writers of America will announce the winners of the 2013 RITA contest at the Awards Ceremony at the 33rd Annual Conference in Atlanta, GA, on July 20. Finalists for the 2013 RITA Awards include, Angie Fox, Kresley Cole, Larissa Ione, Katie McGarry and many more! A full list of all the 2013 RITA Finalists can be viewed here.

About Shindig

NYC startup Shindig's patented technology enables uniquely interactive large-scale video chat events. On Shindig, anyone with a webcam-enabled computer can log in to attend a live presentation or talk. They can share the stage with the speaker and enjoy a personal face-to-face experience before the entire gathering, or mingle freely with other participants in private video chats. In short, Shindig offers the dynamics of physical events at internet scale.

Still in beta, the Shindig platform has been embraced by hundreds of prominent individuals and entities for "Video Chat Book Tours," and other events, both free and paid.

Recent Shindig powered events include the TEDx Fourth Anniversary Celebration, The New Music Seminar Upfronts and video chat book tours from Guy Kawasaki, Michael Pollan, Hugh Howey, Dan Ariely, Carla Hall, AJ Jacobs, and Scott Sigler among others. Highlights of past Shindig video chat book events can be found here.

To find out more about Shindig or to RSVP for upcoming events, visit www.shindig.com.

SOURCE Shindig