Dear Author Test Blog

Welcome to the brand new Borders blog for Romance Readers. We’ve convinced Borders that they needed a blog space for readers by readers. At the True Romance blog, you’ll get the newest information about the hottest books straight from the editors and authors. We’ll be giving away copies of books (early peeks). But most importantly, we’ll be providing a place for readers to come and talk about romances. What the love and what the don’t. What they can’t wait to see and what they wish would never be published again.

One thing that Sarah and I know is that romance readers love a good debate as much as they love their books.

Stay tuned for more content from editors, authors, and other readers on the internet. We will be reposting reader reviews left for romance books here at the blog as well as answering questions from readers about upcoming books, seeking out authors in their natural habitats, and generally nattering on about the great world of romances. We hope you join us in our quest to get everyone to read a romance. (and hopefully love it).

Most importantly, we want to hear from you. There are a ton of ways to get»

Last winter, I posted that I would love to hear from readers, writers, bloggers about why they read, write and blog. Bev Stephans was one of the first to come forth and share her story with our community about why she reads.

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I don’t have a blog and I don’t write books, but I love to read and I love to talk about what I read.

I have been reading since I first learned how in school. My Dad used to take me to the library once a week and it was a magical place. All those books and I could only choose a few each time. In time, I had read all the books at my reading level and started on the next level.

Then we moved and we had a library nearby that I could walk to all by myself. What a treat. This wonderful library not only had more books than the previous library, but they had a marvelous doll’s house that I spent hours looking at.

Then we moved again and there was no library nearby. I was devastated and started stealing my mother’s paperbacks to read. Some were romances, but most were mysteries. My mother loved Perry Mason stories»

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

(I could not have written this post without the help of Maili aka McVane and her near encyclopedic knowledge of the history of internet community on romance)

One thing that does not get enough acknowledgment is how past communities on the internet have blazed new trials in romance criticism and readership involvement in books. Michelle Buonfiglio’s piece about good communities and bad communities wasn’t just a swipe at Smart Bitch Sarah but it was an indictment of all communities that foster robust discussion. It raised old and tired arguments and worse dismisses or refuses to acknowledge the communities that formed the foundation of internet communities that we have today. The main reason why internet is good for romance? Because the community keeps us loyal to and passionate about the romance genre and that results in greater sales. The basis for my post today is threefold:

1. to honor and give due to those who went before us.
2. to recognize that critical discourse leads to strengthening of the community.
3. to enforce that romance needs an internet community of vibrant, contrary, smart readers.

A week ago I pounded out an article that I was going to offer up as my guest blog post for the Love of Reading Book Fair. It was all about how tension between print reviewers and bloggers is unnecessary because blogging fills the niches that print reviewers don’t have the space or inclination to service.

Yesterday I pulled it up to polish a bit and realized it that it was dullness personified. I figured that if there were new readers from the Book Fair, I didn’t want them to get the idea that romance was full of sex and boring. What kind of representative would I be? I put away the article to bore you with another day because I’m all about treating the regulars right.

To those who might not be familiar with Dear Author, we love romance books. We love the stories that end happily. We love the stories with the pink covers. We love the stories that have, wait for it, sex.

I decided to write about my affection for reading love, sex, vampires and the escapist factor of paranormal/fantasy books that are purportedly dominating the market today. (This seems to be debunked a bit in the recent Business of»