Jun 21 2011
In 2009, the Lambda Literary Fund changed the criteria for entries to their literary awards. Rather than reward great books with LGBT content, the Lammies now require LGBT authorship as well: “it should be noted that the Lambda Literary Awards are based principally on the LGBT content, the sexual orientation of the author, and the literary(…)
Jun 14 2011
Last month, Sunita sent me a link to a book inspired by a schoolteacher in Paris named Daniel Pennac. Pennac had created a readers’ list of rights to encourage young people to read. This list was combined with illustrations by Quentin Blake and then published. The U.S. version has only black and white illustrations, but(…)
Jun 7 2011
WARNING THERE WILL BE SOME SPOILERS FOR SHADOWFLAME by Diann Sylvan, a July 2011, release. I recommended her 2010 release but this book was the inspiration for this piece. In February, we posted a guest piece by author Julia Spencer-Fleming entitled Julia Spencer Fleming on Infidelity: Adulterer. Cheater. Unfaithful. Home-wrecker. Other woman. In romance,(…)
Jun 2 2011
After I read Kiss of Snow, I started to re-read the entire Psy series. I did so because in reading Kiss of Snow, I began to form a picture of Kaleb Krychek in my mind and I had to go back and figure out if the previous mentions of him fit the crystallizing image. This(…)
May 31 2011
Publishing is undergoing a real seismic change. Agents are publishing, authors are banding together to form publishing houses, publishing houses are buying deals direct from the author (and thereby cutting out the agent), Amazon is changing the formulation from the Big 6 to the Big 7 and paying hefty sums to sign marquee authors, and(…)
May 24 2011
A while back I was tweeting about m/m novels with a couple of m/m writers. I mentioned that my least favorite explanations for why women read m/m romance was “If one man is good, two men are even better!” Both of the writers agreed, and we moved on to other topics. I went back to(…)
May 17 2011
With the RT awards handed out and the RITA awards coming up, I’m struck by the omission of romances that don’t hew to the one man-one woman formula. Two years ago, I wouldn’t have noticed, let alone felt annoyed. While I’ve read erotic and BDSM novels for at least a couple of decades, I(…)
May 10 2011
Since last week, there has been an increased interest in romances featuring Navy SEALs. The Washington Post and Glamour magazine both took a stab at what makes these archetypes popular with readers but they only skim the surface. “They have all of these abilities that the average guy doesn’t even have,” White said. “They appeal(…)
May 3 2011
see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz! I think my distaste for cliffhanger endings were born and fostered over the past ten years of reading. Much of reader response can be measured by the expectations the reader has when embarking on her reader journey. When one is a(…)
Apr 26 2011
Apr 20 2011
Note: This reader emailed me yesterday and wanted to share this story with me. I didn’t think it belonged in the comments even though the topic of this piece is on point. I also thought we should post it today rather than allow another week to pass because of its relevance. Without further ado, from(…)
Apr 19 2011
Notice: the comments below discuss rape and rape fantasies. In Lisa Kleypas’ “Blue Eyed Devil”, Haven is brutalized by her husband. He rapes her, beats her, and throws her out of the home. When Haven confesses of her past to her new love, Hardy, he responds that he’d go after her ex and “when I(…)
Apr 12 2011
People who know me know I’m hyper-sensitive to the portrayal of India and Indians in romance novels, especially British India in European historicals. Eileen Dreyer has a new trilogy, the second volume of which features an English heroine who accompanied her military officer father around the world, including campaigns in India in the early 1800s.(…)
Apr 5 2011
As I was reading the latest Susan Elizabeth Phillips book, Call Me Irresistible, I was struck hard by how many of SEP's heroines suffer seemingly endless humiliation and degradation over the course of our acquaintance with them. And because of this, they have been bittered to a certain degree. Rachel, in Dream A Little Dream,(…)
Mar 27 2011
Last week I blogged about value as differentiated between price. Many other readers chimed in with their own value scale. What I read in the comments to last week’s post and that of Nadia Lee’s post is that a) readers will pay a lot for authors that they love and b) readers are reluctant to(…)
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