I went to Celebrate Romance once and found it so enjoyable. Some day, I’ll go again.

BTW, on the historical heroine discussion…I don’t find strong heroines anachronistic at all. Every era of history has a kick-ass heroine of sorts–Cleopatra. Mata Hari. Annie Oakley. Molly Brown. Grace O’Malley. Catherine the Great. Those are just off the top of my head. For every woman who made it into the history books (no easy feat since men don’t really like this type of woman and therefore, is loathe to write too much about her or her contemporaries), there were probably hundreds if not more who had similar personalities, dreams and attitudes.

That said, has anyone read Elizabeth Thornton’s historical, ALMOST A PRINCESS? That heroine was very happy with her station in life, but was still incredibly strong. Very much the lady. Making a heroine historically accurate doesn’t mean making her a doormat, IMO. I’d take an anachronistic strong heroine over a supposedly historically accurate simp any day. I’m reading a Victorian by Betina Krahn right now and the heroine is very smart and adventurous and from what I know of this time period, very accurate. Rare? Maybe…but still accurate. Not every woman was spanning the globe in search of archealogical treasures, but some were and that’s good enough for me.

Mine just got cut to 95k from 100k. I wrote one at 104k. My editor was more than a little concerned. In the actual book, it got compacted to 308 pages! I joke that production punishes me–the longer I write, the smaller print and the less the white space. :-P

One question, though: How do readers find out who is editing a particular author along with the info necessary to contact them?

One way might just be to e-mail the author; I can’t imagine that information would be protected in any way. I wouldn’t give out my editor’s e-mail address, but I would give snail mail contact (and the chance of an unsolicited e-mail being read would be iffy).

Another way would be to contact the publisher, and ask.

One question, though: How do readers find out who is editing a particular author along with the info necessary to contact them?

I need to clear up one bit of misinformation, though. I’ve written more than a dozen stories for Ellora’s Cave, and in only one of them did I start with a sex scene. I did that only because the plot demanded it. In all the rest, it can take a while to get to the first sex scene. In one of my books the first sex scene doesn’t come until halfway through the book. (There is a lot of foreplay before it, though.)
Because the EC books are focused on sex, and its plots are usually built around the sexual relationship, it’s true you have to get it started fairly early. Who would read a suspense plot that didn’t have anything threatening happen until halfway into the book?

Blaze recommends that you have a sex scene within the first 50 pages, if I remember correctly.

Nope. I’ve written for Blaze since the very beginning. I’ve never been required to write any number of sex scenes, or place them anywhere in the book.

2. I’m watching Eva Gale and Jane’s conversation about historical accuracy and am finding it interesting. I think there’s a balance that some authors hit and others miss. For me it’s not necessarily about being a blue stocking or suffragette in the wrong time period, it’s about the reality of how someone outside of convention would have been accepted. Too far out of the norm and a woman probably would have been ostracized beyond redemption, not that that wouldn’t make an interesting book, but at the same time they wouldn’t then become the darling of society.

Authors emphasized that while they passed along comments from readers, the comments had a lot more impact if they came directly from readers.

Yes, yes, yes.

Suffragettes were few and far between in the Regency days.

No, there were not many suffragettes in regency days, but I’m saying the spirit of that type must have been around. I’m also not saying that she had to be a bluestocking. There can be a quiet resilience and strength that gets goals accomplished. I haven’t read a regency in–I have no idea the last one I read. Maybe Stephanie Lauren’s Cynsters? I glutted and then never picked anuother one up.

And, I agree with what you’re saying. But although you loved that Quinn book, I bet there were some people who backlashed that the heroine ‘Just wanted a family’.

One thing really struck me: the suggestion by some of the attending authors that readers email/snailmail the publisher and let their opinions be known. I totally agree!

Publishers and editors spend a lot of time trying to figure out what the reader wants. Sadly their single biggest indicator of trends is dollars-in-the till–which is all about what has sold before. There’s nothing wrong with that; publishing is a business after all, but numbers are stats, dead things indicating what was rather than what could be. Readers wants and opinions–particularly if there are enough of them–supersede them by far. I would like to visualize an editor going into a sales meeting with a printout of reader feedback along with last month’s sales report when she/he tries to get acceptance for a new work. And I’d like to think those opinions would make a difference in identifying fresh directions. They sure wouldn’t hurt!

Thanks again for such an interesting post,
EC Sheedy

It looks as though Cam’s going to be the hero of Kleypas’ next book, Mine Til Midnight. In an interview with Michelle Buonfiglio at Romance Buy the Book she says:

I’ve just finished my first historical for St.Martin’s, titled “Mine Till Midnight,” and the hero is Cam Rohan, the sexy and mysterious character who appeared in “Devil In Winter.”

So clearly St. Martin’s are quite happy for her to have him as a hero.

In terms of length, I personally prefer a longer novel. However there is much to be said for a tightly written work where every word counts. We are not living in the age of Dickens when you got paid by words. Perhaps some of these authors should evaluate whether they are being encouraged towards a shorter book simply because they had a few that could have ended at least 50-100 pages earlier?

Also, interesting to hear what Lisa Kleypas had to say about Avon. Andrea at the Suzanne Brockmann message board reported that during last night’s signing Kleypas told the readers that she wanted to put Daisy and Cam together but Avon (or her editor) “refused to let her have a Gypsy hero” (as the reader stated).

I thought Kleypas’ comments on the AAR board
showed something interesting about the direction historicals have taken:

I think and hope the success of Devil In Winter on the bookstands was a sign of changes happening in the historical romance marketplace. It seemed for a while that the lighter, less intense romances were more in demand than the darker ones, and that as a result there was sometimes a “homogenized” feeling to the available selections. I enjoy both varieties, but I’ve always felt that a deeper, more intense romance novel can reach different places in your heart than the lighter ones . . . and readers certainly deserve to have a choice. I think (and this is just my opinion) that no matter what the genre or subgenre, readers right now are asking for an intensity of experience, that they would rather authors err on the side of “too much” rather than blandness.”

One author mentioned that Ellora’s Cave requires that their books start with a sex scene.

Is this true?