…. 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.

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.

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!

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?

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.

Another factoid that came up – Silhouette Nocturne requires its authors to write super-alpha heroes. One author – I can’t remember which one – said Nocturne told her that they’d only accept her book if she made the hero more of an “arrogant alpha”. She didn’t want to change it and ended up selling it elsewhere.

Note to self: You’re no longer in any hurry to read Nocturnes.

Interestingly, all of them said that a lot of readers like unconventional heroes, but publishers could be resistant to them.

Seems like this is what readers and authors always run into, isn’t it? I wonder if there’s a way for readers to make this known to publishers in such a way that one of them might actually take a chance on a book featuring an unconventional hero.

Another factoid – dragons seem to be really hot right now. Vicki Lewis Thompson, Jade Lee, and Rosemary Laurey all have dragon books coming out, and I think there are other authors who are writing dragons too. I don’t really get the appeal, but it seems to be “the thing” right now.

Are these the romantic fantasy subgenre’s answer to the Temeraire books, which are more alternate history than romantic?

The conference was great fun this year. We’re still talking about what’s going to happen in the future – we want to continue, but do we need to change things in order to attract more readers?

Well, considering I’ve been a hardcore romance reader for two years and this is the first time I’ve ever heard of the CR conference, I’d say you should consider raising your profile substantially. Of course, I read only a few blogs regularly (Dear Author, Smart Bitches, Romancing the Blog), so maybe I’m not looking in the right places. But I never heard anything about this conference, and it sounds like it’s been going on for a few years. Certainly, it sounds more geared to the thoughtful reader, since RWA National is geared for writers and the RT convention seems too silly for me (costume ball? NO THANKS).

I just wanted to jump in here and thank everybody for their enthusiasm for 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.

There will be three more Historicals in 2009 by Jade Lee, Betina Krahn and Jacquie D’Alessandro.

Thanks.

Brenda Chin
Senior Editor
Blaze

Didn’t Joanne Rock release a Historical Blaze last year? Just checked, it was a bit of a time travel thing– Hidden Obsessions. I guess they were testing the waters with it and it was a success.

Thanks for the report.

I’m on many romance/erotica related yahoogroups (and administer the RRA-l successor) and didn’t see a mention on any of them.

I’m really disappointed that I missed it since I’ve wanted to attend CR for years (I seem remember that the conference was usually held later in the year, so I didn’t even think about looking for it this time of year).

Please feel free to promo CR on RRA-l.

I’d love to attend next year!

Also, yay for the 94-year-old woman in the nursing home.

And ditto on the Blaze Historicals!