Comments on: Celebrate Romance Report 2008

By: linnea sinclair

linnea sinclair — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:59:47 +0000

[...] a cup of coffee and make yourself nice and comfy, because I’m going to be lookinrosario.blogspot.comCelebrate Romance Report 2008 Last year Karen W, long time romance reader and author of the review blog ???What I??m Reading and [...]

By: DS

DS — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:11:42 +0000

…. Blaze Historicals. The first book, BOUND TO PLEASE by Hope Tarr will be out in July 2008. It’s set in Scotland, and features a highland laird (the heroine) who kidnaps the hero in order to give her the child she needs to hold onto her keep. And it’s absolutely wonderful! Hope really outdid herself.

I don’t mean to be rude, but that doesn’t sound in the least interesting.

By: K. Z. Snow

K. Z. Snow — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:48:11 +0000

Fascinating report…and one that might help explain my own books’ receptions.

I’ve been noticing that my first Ellora’s Cave fantasy (which just expanded to a duology, which will soon be a trilogy) has enjoyed steadier sales and more accolades than my other titles. This trend has had me mystified. I wrote the first story on a lark, because I loved the concept of world-building and the fresh challenge of adopting a new voice to suit that world. But I honestly thought the project might fall flat; wasn’t sure there would be much of a market for erotic fantasy romance.

Hmm. If dragons are still “in”, maybe my antic imagination steered me in the right direction. For a change.

By: Sarah Frantz

Sarah Frantz — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:20:35 +0000

Karen (and others), FWIW, you might want to invite some academics next time. Your panels sound great and sound like they might be the type of thing romance-positive academics can help with as well. We’ve got a listserv (there’s a link at Teach Me Tonight) where you could solicit panels or just general input. There are lots of romance critics who are very good speakers and who could do what’s known as the town/gown crossover really well–make presentations that are appropriate both for educated lay people as well as academics. Because to me CR sounds like a fabulous conference that’s slightly more academic and slightly less purely author-focused like RWA or circus-like like RT. It sounds like a great whole “industry” conference: readers, writers, publishers, readers….critics?

By: Jade Lee

Jade Lee — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:13:29 +0000

CR just gets better and better, IMO. I had a BLAST this time. Truly, I have not had so much fun at a conference ever! Plus–lucky me–I seem to have lucked out and hit the right waves. I’ve got both Dragonborn out now and a historical Blaze coming out next year!

By: PJ

PJ — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:22:29 +0000

Karen, Gannon and I have been blogging about and talking up CR at the many blogs and message boards we frequent. There is a lot of interest from readers and authors alike. We’ve promised to pass along CR 2009 dates, places, etc. as soon as the information is released. Hopefully, they will also pass the info along and we’ll get it out there to more readers who can attend next year.

By: PJ

PJ — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:18:25 +0000

Great summary of the conference, Karen. I attended CR for the first time this year. I wouldn’t have known about it either if I hadn’t been told by a friend who had attended in the past. It was wonderful and I would encourage all readers of romance to try to attend future conferences. I’ve never been to an event where I was so warmly welcomed and where the authors are so accessible. It’s highly unlikely that readers at other, larger conferences would have the opportunity to hang out until midnight eating pizza, watching comedy videos and talking about everything under the sun in a suite with authors Cathy Maxwell, Linnea Sinclair, Stephanie Bond, Jacquie D’Alessandro, Wendy Etherington, Cindy Holby/Colby Hodge and Jennifer St. Giles or spend an afternoon with Sabrina Jeffries and Vicki Lewis Thompson talking about kids, books, husbands and our childhoods but that’s exactly what happened at CR. Scenes like that happened all weekend at CR and that’s what makes it such a special event. It’s a casual conference where everyone can relax, talk books and get to know each other. Karen and the rest of the planning committee really excel at their task.

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:51:14 +0000

Thanks for all the great comments! We’ll have an official announcement for next year’s conference in a month or two, once we’ve made the hotel arrangements, but the plan is to have it in March and in the West – we’re looking at Portland and Denver. Sorry it won’t be as close to you next year, GrowlyCub – I was sure I posted about it on RRA this year, because I post there pretty regularly, but I must have forgotten to send in an update. Our web site is crspring.com – it hasn’t been updated since the conference, but the new stuff will be up there eventually. You can also sign up for our newsletter there, so you don’t miss anything!

I think CR is a really unique conference – I’ve been to RWA and RT, but as a reader, I like CR the best. It’s so much more laid back and informal (and no cover models!). The conference was originally started in 1998 by Margie Wilhelm, but Leanne, Cybil and I took it over four years ago, when Margie couldn’t do it any more and it looked like it was going to die out.

None of us are really “bloggers”, which is probably why the conference doesn’t get as much coverage on the blogs as it should. I’m not a writer (in my real life, I’m a nerdy scientist) and I find “blogging” a little mysterious – we should probably be more proactive in getting coverage on the blogs, but every time I think of writing up a blog entry promoting CR, I get tongue-tied (or the typewritten equivalent…) But I hate that there are people who don’t know about CR who would enjoy it!

By: GrowlyCub

GrowlyCub — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:00:19 +0000

Jane!

I’m all for supporting CR. I years past this was the busiest part of the (cat) show season and I was never available. I was thinking about attending RWA in SF, but since I’m really not involved on the professional side, I just don’t know and RT, well, the less I say, the better. Although I would have probably tried to fly in for the book signing if my parents weren’t coming across the Atlantic for their first visit in 6 years.

I’m still pouting that CR happened 5 hours from where I live and this year I finally had time and I just didn’t know about it…

Karen, I assume you haven’t selected a location yet for next year? But is there a date?

By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:45:56 +0000

GrowlyCub – I’ve read a couple “paranormal” Blazes and they haven’t been very good. The paranormal aspect is totally tacked on and in the brevity of the book, everything gets the short shrift.

As for CR, I’ve known about it for years, but I haven’t really thought about going, but it might be exactly the right thing for readers/bloggers,etc. It’s clear that there is some resistance to readers interacting with authors at RWA and RT is definitely not my thing so perhaps we should make a commitment to supporting this reader oriented convention.