Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary

Got a book you want to talk about? Frustrated with a book or series? In love with a new one? Found a buried treasure? An issue that keeps popping up in the books you are reading? Just want to chat about stuff in general? Post away.

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Dear Ms. Haynes:

I hadn’t read you before and honestly, I didn’t think I would like this book. The reason for this isn’t grounded in any good reason, but a fairly superficial one, but I’ll articulate it in case other readers make these snap judgments.

I had started the book Fortune Hunter and read about three pages. It featured an ugly duckling of a heroine who was fat. I skimmed through it and found that the heroine wore a size 8 and decided that the book wasn’t worth reading. I also think these covers don’t help. There’s a huge difference between embarassing and bland, Penguin Art Deptartment, and these covers and the hideous new Joey Hill cover, fall into the bland.

Sorry, back from the cover tangent. In any event, because I received this book for free, I started to page through it and by the end of the second chapter, I was hooked. The story starts out a bit ordinary and predictable. Heroine (rich girl Trinity) comes home and finds her husband of six months in a shower going down on a big chested bimbo. She …

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I would like to develop an “If You Like Series” here at Dearauthor. Essentially, I want to build a library of cross referenced authors so that if a reader is searching for a particular read and likes a particular author, she might find a new author to glom onto.

I’m trying to do a better job of recommending authors to other people (and would love to be able to add at the end of a review, an “If You Like” segment). The idea is that we start out a thread with a very popular author like Susan Elizabeth Phillips and we talk about what we like about her books; what, if any, threads of commonality there are about the books; what heroine/hero tropes are in the books; and then, what other authors write books in a similar vein.

If we kind of flesh out what we like about a particular author, then we might be able to give better recommendations. Does that interest you? Would you be willing to participate? Drop a note as to what you think.

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Barbara Bauer, named one of the publishing industry’s 20 Worst Literary Agents, has sued over 19 bloggers and website administrators for allegedly defaming her. The New Jersey Star-Ledger has reported on it, in part because Bauer is a local resident. Wikipedia and Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America website have been named as well as Preditors & Editors. I’m glad that Wikipedia lawyers are getting involved. They have alot of experience in this realm. To date, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has begun to be interpreted fairly broadly to immunize websites from the actions of its commenters (and in Wikipedia’s case, the actions of the webizens who edit it).

The individuals responsible for editing and commenting, however, do not have the same protections. The problem I think for Bauer is in defamation suits, an absolute defense of libel is the truth. Any of the defendants would have the right to prove that Bauer had no good reputation from her own acts. Her whole life will be under the microscope now ala Roger Clemens and his multitude of affairs that are now seeing the …

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Dear Mrs. McInerney,

Since it doesn’t look like I’m going to get to Australia any time soon, your book will have to serve as a travelogue of sorts. The Australian Tourism Board can use it as a reason why people should fold themselves into tiny airplane seats for an ungodly number of hours. Screw the koalas, people should read “Upside Down Inside Out” to prime them for a visit Down Under and to watch two nice people fall in love.

When I read the back blurb, I had visions of Aussie Chick Lit which thankfully this book isn’t. One reason I’m getting tired of the traditional CL style is the pratfall laughs. Let’s watch the heroine make a cake of herself preferably in her undies! No, not so much my humor style anymore and not what’s found here. I enjoyed the subtle, gentle humor sprinkled throughout the story. And the fact that both Eva and Joe can take a joke as well as dish one out.

I loved the chance to “see” Dublin, the Irish countryside, Melbourne and South Australia. I take it you’ve had the – ahem – pleasure …

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What’s this you say? I read quite a few blogs outside the romance blogosphere and many of the big ones have a daily open thread where the commenters drive the bus. I thought we would test out an open thread here at Dear Author.

The rules for Author Promo Night Open Thread are as follows:

• The book has to be released in that month (i.e., anything released during the last week of April would be a May release)
• You can post for yourself or you can have a friend post for you if the idea of posting about your book paralyzes you .
• No self published authors unless you write romance. No, I am not a POD hater, I am just thinking about the manageability of the thread.
• Think about the readership. I.e., does your non fiction book about psoriasis really fit?
• This one is more of a guideline than a rule, but be smart about your comment because if it is just a link to your website and the title of your book, I doubt you are going to get any interest.
• DA reserves the right to delete the post if it promotes objectionable content (i.e., no daddy/daughter incest recommends

…

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In light of the recent occurrences at NCP in which the publisher took a partial from an author and inserted it into an anthology without her permission and allowed others to finish the story for her, again without her permission, I wondered what impact that had on readers.

Whenever I hear of a publishing fiasco, I am torn in two. Half of me feels terrible for the authors in the situation that they are in and the other half feels frustrated with the authors. Now, I think the situation that Somers finds herself in right now is fairly unique. Unless the contract specifies that a work is shall not to be used without the permission of the author unless it is for the specified contracted purpose (i.e., novella, inclusion in a specific anthology, or full length work), the contract term may be vague enough that NCP could do with it what they want. It might have taken alot of foresight to have avoided that nightmare.

I heard from one source that NCP sales have actually increased for some authors since news of its issues have come to the forefront. Is it possible that the increase could be …

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Dear Ms. Smith:

When I read the setup for this story, I had to read it. I love the reunited lover storyline. Olivia and her husband, Reign, have been separated for over thirty years–since their wedding night in fact. Reign, a vampire, bit Olivia and turned her against her will. She was angered and betrayed and tried to kill him. When she failed she fled and they’ve not had any contact since.

Olivia receives a note that her nephew, who she raised as a son, has been kidnapped and the ransom for his return is Reign. Olivia goes to Reign and explains the situation (except the ransom). Reign agrees to act as her husband to ostensibly search for Jmaes in exchange for conjugal rights. Olivia doesn’t care. She’s more than willing to trade her body for the life of James.

I liked the core of the story alot. Reign isn’t exactly remorseful for his actions, but in the results of them. He would do anything to make it up to Olivia and win her back even if he doesn’t trust her. I didn’t mind that Olivia …

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Welcome to Query Saturday. Individual authors anonymously send a query to be read and critiqued by the Dear Author community of authors, readers and industry others. Anyone is welcome to comment. Published authors may do so under their own name or anonymously.

Readers, though, the way that I look at it is this: Would the hook itself interest you in reading the book. If yes, what interests you and if not, what would you change to make it more appealing?
***

I would also like to preface this query by adding that this story has a dual, intertwining timeline that also pretzels into a second book, although this book is a stand alone. I’m also looking for book name suggestions. I am an expert in antique clothing- my business. Should I mention this?

Dear Editor X—,

Can love’s obsession exist from beyond the grave?

In my romantic time travel adventure novel, —(unnamed), my heroine, lingerie photographer Cassandra — and hero, dashing French inventor Gaston —, discover the power of love can conquer even the boundaries of time. This completed, 90,000 word novel I believe would suit your “title” line.

Hurtled through time by a cursed broach, Cass awakens in 1904, inside the murdered body of …

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Dear Ms. Cumbie and Ms. McClanahan,

Your first book was a delight, second I haven’t read, third was a disappointment and fourth I almost didn’t read. Ha. Let that be a lesson to me. From the blurb, I knew that this would be more comedy and mystery than romance and in the last book I had decried the lack of Buddy Overstreet and Vic Martin. I also realized that I’d probably be in for lots of culture clashes between the good ole girls from west Texas and the people of New York City. Both of these didn’t thrill me. But by gum you pulled it off and had me laughing even as the management of the Anson hotel whimpered at the damage unleashed in the wake of Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin – hair dressers extraordinaire and PIs still in training.

If “Shoes” had only been an ‘us vs them’ treatment of the differences between small town west Texans and brash Yankees, I’d have gotten tired of it pretty quickly. But I love the way you two have everyone pretty much end up laughing with each …

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In August, I believe, the long awaited story of ACHERON will be released. In celebration of this, St. Martin’s Press is offering one of the very first Dark-Hunter novels, Seize the Night, in a free e-Book download. You have to give up personal information (not height and weight thank goodness) and in exchange you will receive an email with a download link.

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I remember Joanna Bourne first was mentioned to me last summer at the RWA convention in Dallas. I was told that this is an author to watch. Unfortunately the books weren’t going to be released until January so in googling, I found that Bourne had written a book, Her Ladyship’s Companion, a gothic romance in the early 80s. I ordered it and at the time, it only cost me a few dollars. They are now selling for $49.50 and up at Amazon. I think it says something about Bourne’s writing that her first book is now suddenly a collectible. She’s a writer to watch, someone whose work, even on her worst day, makes the historical genre better. Her third release, My Lord and Spymaster, is in stores now.

***

Oh man. This takes me back. The first book.

It was a sweet Regency with gothic elements … and doesn’t that tell you this was not just precisely recent?

This was …

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Kindle is working with Princeton, Oxford, Yale and the UC to put some of their textbooks into ebook format so that a student can order and download the book directly from the Kindle. How much savings that will represent for a student is unknown. I tried to always buy used textbooks to save money so unless the textbooks are drastically reduced in digital format, I wonder how much of a dent this will make.

Via Gizmodo.

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Thinking of the past month and wondering if you should have bought a June title? All of the June titles at Books on Board are 25% off. Here’s some titles you might have missed from our June recommends.

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Dear Ms. Heath:

This is the first book of yours I’ve read in probably 4 years or so. I really liked your Western historicals and was disappointed when you moved to write Regency romances. It’s clear, though, that you aren’t going back West so I decided to give your books another try.

Some of the story relies in cliches (Devil Earl named Lucian?) and contraventions (independent society miss?) and some rises above it. On the whole, it’s a better historical than most on the market but there were issues that prevented me from embracing the book wholesale.

Catherine’s best friend’s husband needs killing and unlike Jane Krakowski and Lauren Holly (Dixie Chick’s Goodbye Earl) they can’t do it themselves. Catherine seeks out Lucian Langdon, Earl of Claybourne, a man who grew up with a band of thieves and who is purported to have murdered his own uncle. She offers him money to kill someone for her but refuses to tell him who it is.

Lucian declines. He has no desire to kill anyone and in fact tries to explain to Catherine that killing someone would take a piece of his soul. …

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A little pimpage for my friends this morning.

Keishon, at avidbookreader.com, is having a giveaway of the hardcover release by Julia Spencer Fleming, I Shall Not Want. This is the 6th book in the series and has a very strong romantic undercurrent so if you like romance and mystery, this is a good fit.

Dionne Galace, author and blogger, has resurrected the serial for romance readers. She first introduced us to Bettie Sharpe and is now running a serial of her own. I haven’t had an opportunity to read it yet, but look forward to doing so this evening.

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Lidija Haas, columnist for the UK Times, takes a stab at interpreting the question of why romance hasn’t achieved a measure of respectability commesurate with its genre fiction counterparts like science fiction or mystery.

The genres that have made the leap — John le Carre’s spy thrillers, J. G. Ballard’s science fiction, Raymond Chandler’s detective stories — have the same sweaty, mass-market paperback past as romantic novels: churned out swiftly and regularly, repeating their familiar structures with the details changed for novelty’s sake, they have all been sneered at by the literary establishment, and devoured in great quantities by loyal addicts and bored train travellers. One thing holding popular romance back may be that it is aimed so explicitly at women.

Haas refers to it as “Love Lit” which I kind of like. Sometimes you have to rebrand things in order to make a perception change. For example, I’ve heard that chick lit is not a term to be uttered within the walls of the publishing house. It’s women’s lit with a lighter flair or young women’s lit.

They are reclaimed for seriousness; seriousness is arguably the better for it. Yet one staple of genre fiction, the

…

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Dear Mrs. Townend,

When I read the description for your newest book, “His Captive Lady,” all I truly noticed is that it’s a medieval and set in the fens of East Anglia. It’s not until I began reading it that it dawned on me that it’s also a Saxon vs Norman story featuring a Saxon maiden and a Norman warrior. It was with a sigh of relief that I realized it was different from the other 1001 books with this combination of lead characters. For one thing, Erica is an outlaw on the run and despite the fact that Wulf is, yes, a bastard, he’s also half Saxon and more willing to use his head and negotiating skills to bring peace than just randomly hack at things with a sword.

Sweet baby Jesus but Erica was determined to end the generations old blood feud! That might be taking things just a little too far for modern sensibilities. I’m firmly with Wulf on that one. But, having said that, I’ve got to admire her courage for being willing to go just that far. As Guthlac says, …

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Sydney Somers, a former NCP author, released an alert regarding a New Concepts Publishing release. Somers wrote three chapters of a full length novel that was never released but was contracted by NCP last summer. Today, the three chapters has been converted into a novella and inserted into an anthology with two other authors. Somers neither authorized nor condoned this anthology and has no knowledge of what it contains other than possibly her first three chapters in some form.

The anthology, Howl for Me, is the same title of the book Somers was contracted for this past summer. She urges her readers to “not buy this release assuming it is a finished project of mine.”

I’ve heard of some pretty shoddy publishing actions, but this seriously has to take the cake. Can you imagine how horrible it would be if a publisher took a proposal an author wrote and packaged it into an anthology with no opportunities for rewriting or editing and no information as to how your work is being transformed, but still sold under your name? I’m aghast at the chutzpah of NCP and I wonder how many authors will be eager to …

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Dear Ms. St. Claire:

This is the 7th installment in the BulletCatcher series comprised of five books and two novellas. Generally, I’ve liked each one of the installations. A lot of the times I think how well I like one of these books depends on how well I respond to the main characters.

Then You Hide is a continuation of a trilogy of books designed around three sisters, separated at birth. The mother of each sister is in prison for killing another woman. She claims she didn’t do it and has convinced the head of the BulletCatchers that their help would be worthwhile. In addition to the Bulletcatchers attempting to solve the mystery of the murder, they are also attempting to save her life. The mother has Leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant.

Each sister has a tattoo on the back of her neck. The Bulletcatchers have been dispatched to find the sisters, locate the tattoo, and report back. It is believed that the tattoos might hold some clue to the murderer.

Vanessa Porter heads down to the Carribean to search for her best friend, Clive Easterbrook, who hasn’t …

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British Bestselling author Philip Gardiner is going to have his own reality TV show to be aired on Sky and Freesat. The show will be called “Gardiner’s World and will see the author interviewing cutting edge researchers and authors on history, propaganda and secret societies. He’ll also be featuring fresh musical talent and other entertainment in this alternative chat show. ”
This sounds more like an Oprah type talk show than a trainwreck that you just can’t help yourself from watching (i.e., Newlyweds with Jessica Simpson and Nick whatshisface). or Kitchen Nightmares. That actually might be pretty funny. A Gordon Ramsey-type author who browbeats wannabe authors on a regular basis.

“You know what a period is, yes? and sentence structure which is noun-verb, yes?”
“Yes”
“Then f-ing use it for once in a g-d-mn while!”

We’ll have to see if BBCAmerica will air it.

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According to a report from the Association of American Publishers, book sales have fallen in April a slight amount (3.5%) to $272.7 million. Year to date sales are flat at $2.183 billion. I’ve decided to start keeping a spreadsheet although I’m not certain how it will look in final form (suggestions from accounting folks welcome).

The usual suspects are seeing increases such as eBooks and Adult trades. The most fluctuating market in 2008 seems to be the Children’s Hardcover. I’m not sure whether you can blame that on a lack of a Rowling book or not. Adult hardcovers are taking a pounding, falling for the third month in a row. Via ShelfAwareness

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Dear Mrs Belmond,

When I finished reading “A Rather Curious Inheritance,” I knew there ought to be more about Penny Nichols (who is aware of the silliness of her name) and Jeremy Laidley (her sort of English cousin) after their show of interest in each other and in combining the actually rather lovely inheritance from their recently deceased great aunt Penelope. I had to wait a year and a half for it but you delivered with “A Rather Curious Engagement.” Once again you use the backdrop of plumy London, the sunny Cote D’Azur and this time add the elegance of a luxurious classic teak 1920s yacht to the story as Penny sniffs out then solves another mystery. At least Jeremy is getting good at spotting the gleam in her eye which signals he’d better get in gear to help her or risk being left in her dust.

I’m sorry to say I found it very slow to get started. You didn’t info dump about the first book to get new readers up to speed and refresh memories of those who’d read it. But the long drawn out way you …

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Dear Ms. Dimon:

Hard as Nails is an anthology that takes place inside a house that is being rehabbed. The first story is an architect working on the project, the second is of the lawyer to the construction company and the third is the project manager of the rehabbing project. All three books feature smart dialogue and innuendo laden exchanges that are both funny and sexy. What I thought set the stories apart was how well the emotional conflict fit into the short story length.

This Old House

First up is “This Old House” wherein Cole Carruther’s is sent to roust a squatter from a new home that has been purchased to rehab. Aubrey Matheson isn’t really a squatter but she pretends that she can’t allow her aunt’s house to be sold on the grounds that the aunt is old and Cole took advantage of her. In reality, though, Aubrey is looking for something in the house. Cole is happy to keep Aubrey in the house while she explores so long as his body is on her map.

There’s a weird dynamic in this story as Cole puts on a hard …

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Dear Ms. Bourne,

I was enthralled with the first half of your recent book, The Spymaster’s Lady. A smart hero, a plucky (in a good way) heroine and beautiful prose had the book well on the road to being a solid A for me. Unfortunately, in the second half of the book the heroine underwent what seemed to be a radical personality transplant, becoming incredibly, implausibly naïve and helpless. Further developments and revelations in the latter part of the story brought my grade down even further – the second half was a C (it would’ve been lower if I hadn’t still been impressed with the prose), and my grade for the book ended up averaging out to a B. A respectable grade, but one that didn’t really reflect my frustration with what felt like the sabotaging of a story that the potential to be great.

My Lord and Spymaster is loosely related to The Spymaster’s Lady; the characters of Doyle and Adrian from the earlier book both appear in the latter one. I found that their inclusion was not the only similarity the books shared; I ended up having many of the same issues with My …

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more cat pictures

I just watched the first episode of Bones which I downloaded from iTunes. I’d been thinking about watching it for some time and was holed up in the basement working on a project and thought that running the show while I was working would be a great way to pass some time. Before I downloaded it, I googled the show and saw that David Boreantz said that what made the show were its relationships

“For me, I’ve always maintained that the show was the [Booth-Bones] relationship, maintained that the show was about the characters and I maintained that the show is about the two of us learning through the crimes and that journey that we take,” he said. “That, to me, is the most important part.”

After watching the first episode, I agree. The characterization of Bones was forced in places (the ‘I don’t know what that means’ meme got a bit tiresome). The mystery was resolved in about two seconds. I couldn’t decide if I liked the eccentricities of the secondary characters or whether their quirkiness fell under “trying to hard.” …

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According to a survey of members of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research, good sex lasts between 3 to 13 minutes. Anything from 10-30 minutes (and I suppose longer) is “Seriously, Houston, we’ve got a problem.” I guess that’s why they call it fiction.

Thanks Rebecca for the linkage.

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CollegeDegrees.com has compiled 100 links for making reading on your Kindle more fun such as the frightening guide for taking apart your Kindle and the helpful tips on reading your gmail on the Kindle.

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Dear Ms. Saintcrow,

While I haven’t finished your Dante Valentine series, I enjoyed enough of what I read to seek out the first book in your new Jill Kismet series. I’ve said in the past that I do like reading about unsympathetic characters provided they’re compelling and the text doesn’t want me to believe the character’s destructive behaviors are healthy and idealized. It’s when these things diverge that I often have the more violent reactions to books, like flinging them across the room. When a character is unlikeable, I want them to face the results of their flaws. I don’t want to read about them getting pats on the head for a job well done because chances are the job was not well done and they should be facing repercussions. So having read your Dante Valentine books, I knew what to expect in this regard. Unfortunately, I also learned I have my limits.

Jill Kismet works as a hunter, taking down demons and bringing in the possessed to be exorcised. Six months ago, her mentor was betrayed and killed by his lover. She’s been trying to live …

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Dear Mrs Justiss,

“A Most Unconventional Match” lives up to its name. I fear that the back blurb won’t give readers much enticement to choose it over any other Regency set historical though. When I first read it, I thought, “hmmmm, okay. Sounds….nice.” Which I would guess is not the “gotta buy this now!” response you’re looking for from potential readers. Yet, as the story progressed I found myself hoping others will give it a try.

Large, handsome Hal Waterman is a man who stands out in a crowd but one who takes no pleasure from doing so. He has more than the usual Regency hero’s nonsensical reticence to step into the parson’s mousetrap. He actually has a reason. Left fatherless at a young age, Hal had to endure his beautiful mother’s scorn for his awkwardness and stuttering. Then he gets treated to years of her matchmaking with ruthless determination. It’s no wonder he tries to avoid her though I do wish he wouldn’t tar all women with the same brush. I was happy to see him quickly come to his senses about Elizabeth, a woman he had misjudged then and continued …

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A friend of mine emailed me this past week asking me for information about how to buy her sister a gift of ebooks. Her sister had a Sony Reader and my friend wanted to buy books from Fictionwise because unless you had a Sony Reader, you couldn’t actually buy a Sony Reader compatible book. I tried to explain the tortuous way in which she could install MS Reader, then Converlit GUI, then buy the books, then convert them to some format that could be converted again to Sony Reader compatible. I think she and I gave up somewhere in the fifth email.

Digital rights management (DRM) had stymied this friend in buying a couple of books for her sister’s e Reader. DRM is just something that publishers can’t give up. (It’s hard to say whether the push for DRM is stronger from the authors or the publishers so for now I’ll just lay the blame at the door of the publishers.)

There is also the concern around the giving away of free ebooks and whether that will lead to a consumer class devaluing literature to the point that they expect ebooks to be free. Giving away …

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Dear Ms. Andre:

I’ve often wondered why sports stars are not the subject of more romance books. The men fit the standard mold: aggressive, wealthy, dominant, ambitious, usually in possession of totally hot bodies. As I read the few sports related fiction books I can find, I am more convinced that the reason is because so few authors actually know about sports to effectively write a sports related hero.

Game For Anything features the SuperBowl winning quarterback, Ty Calhoun, ordered to undergo an image makeover by the new team owner of The Outlaws. A top image consultant, Julie Spencer, is brought in to effectuate the makeover. Julie and Ty went to high school together and on graduation night, Julie, the school’s rich good girl, gave up her virginity to poor football hero, Ty. After an explosive night, Julie runs off and the two don’t see each other again for ten years.

Julie’s impression is that all jocks are dumb and has only watched one football game in her life. Ty still feels like he can’t quite shake the dirt off his feet despite all his success and Julie represents both …

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another test – pay not attention.

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Welcome to Query Saturday. Individual authors anonymously send a query to be read and critiqued by the Dear Author community of authors, readers and industry others. Anyone is welcome to comment. Published authors may do so under their own name or anonymously.

Readers, though, the way that I look at it is this: Would the hook itself interest you in reading the book. If yes, what interests you and if not, what would you change to make it more appealing?
***
Submission:
Dear _____,

Special Forces Captain Tom Deverane has just started thinking about how to spend his retirement bonus when HQ assigns him one last mission: rescue a civilian woman stranded on a planet on the verge of violent civil war. Someone has pulled some serious strings to get her plucked out of the hot zone by Deverane and his team.

Andrianda Markriss isn’t about to pack up and leave Zulaire just because of Deverane’s orders, though. Deverane’s never met anyone so hard-headed- or so appealing. Just as he manages to persuade her to leave with him, rebel fighters infiltrate the village to brutalize and massacre everyone. Andi, Deverane, his team, and two other survivors manage to escape the slaughter, and are forced …

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Dear Ms. Brooks,

I had initially become interested in reading this book after seeing it listed at Fictionwise as a pre-sale item. Right after that it dropped off their site and the possibility of an ebook seemed to vanish into thin air. Don’t know what happened with that but when I spotted it in my local Waldenbooks – and on sale! – I clutched it to my bosoms and headed for the cashier. It turns out to have been an excellent purchase.

On page 195 of my copy, you have a character neatly summarize what I think is the main theme of the book. The fact that I’m about to hand type half a page of text shows how meaningful I think it is.

“You’re right, I said. “It would be something, to be back there, when the haggadah was till just some family’s book, a thing to be used, before it became an exhibit, locked up in a vitrine…”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Raz said. He was poking at the vindaloo suspiciously. He served himself a scant spoonful and loaded the rest of his plate with dal. “It’s still doing

…

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Jill asks Inspirational Author, Linda Goodnight, what her favorite commandment is and Rita nominated Goodnight engages in a little (video manipulated) trash talking of the other inspy writers. Jill also insults Jordan Dane’s sexuality. Hilarious as always.

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Mariah Stewart has penned over nineteen novels, been on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. She’s been a RITA finalist, received the Award of Excellence for contemporary romance and was recently inducted into the New Jersey Romance Writers Hall of Fame. I think I’ve read at least half of Stewart’s books and she does an excellent job of balancing romance with suspense. I’ve enjoyed her FBI books as they’ve all seemed so authentic with smart mysteries. Her latest release, Mercy Street, is no different.

***

My first sale almost didn’t happen.

I’d written that first book mainly to prove to myself that I could write – and finish – an entire novel. I’d started several that never got past the third chapter, so for me, the challenge was to finish one. Of course, one of the reasons why it took me so long was because I didn’t know how to type, and since a friend had assured me that however lovely my Palmer method handwriting might be, the manuscript would have to be typed …

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Marjorie Liu, author of the soon to be released, The Iron Hunt, has been writing for Marvel Comics in starting in August, her books will be relanuching the NYX X-book series featuring mutant teens living homeless in the streets of New York City.

You can read more about the creative team’s efforts in this IGN interview.

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Dear Ms. Cabot:

This is the third in the Queen of Babble series featuring Lizzie Nichols, a wedding dress restorer and designer. I’ve read the first one but not the second (I have no explanation for not reading the second). The book begins with Lizzie confused about an encounter with her good friend, Chaz, and about the end of her relationship with French dreamboat, Jean Luc. (Is French dreamboat redundant?) Jean-Luc shows up unexpectedly in New York and brings with him a huge engagement ring and before she can say yes (or no), she finds herself engaged to Jean-Luc.

As Jean-Luc’s fiancée, though, certain things aren’t quite up to snuff like her Midwestern background and her dreams of a backyard wedding. Jean-Luc expects her to conform herself to fit in with his aristocratic family and then there is his reluctance to live in New York and his affinity for a job in Paris.

Lizzie doesn’t understand why everyone including Chaz and the maid of honor isn’t thrilled with her. She’s even taking flak at work from her co-workers (who kind of hired themselves) and her socialite client who is …

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Last year I kind of did a live blog from RWA using Twitter. This inserted hundreds of 2 sentence blog entries onto DA. It annoyed some people. So in preparation for this year, I’d like to hear what readers would want in terms of liveblogging the event.

I didn’t go to many seminars last year, instead I went to signings. I am thinking of foregoing the signings this year to attend some seminars. If I did attend seminars, what ones are you interested in hearing about?

I heard some people were irritated by the name dropping, i.e., I’m standing next to Judith McNaught or stuff like that. Is that beyond boring?

So, please let me know what you would like to see in terms of content and accessibility of the liveblogging of the 2008 RWA Event. Thanks guys. Don’t be afraid to be critical!

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Random House employed Zogby International to do a survey of over 8000 readers. Only 15% of the readership seems interested in ebooks which is good for the brick and mortar retailers. Other interesting tidbits:

• Most readers buy by the cover (no surprise).
• Nearly half of readers shop at independents.
• 66% percent of online purchasers buy from Amazon versus 10% from Barnes and Noble.
• 62% browse online for books with 31% depending on online reviews.
• 60% rely on suggestions of family and friends and 49% on book reviews.

The entire survey and results can be read here.

Via Teleread.

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O’Reilly, a non fiction technological publication, is going to start selling a “select number of books as a bundle of three ebook formats (EPUB, PDF, and Kindle-compatible Mobipocket) for a single price — at or below the book’s cover price — starting in early July.” These books will be sold without DRM and it will only be a select few. I would love to see a romance publisher like Harlequin experiment with this. It would go along way toward alleviating some technological hurdles for readers.

Via Mobileread.

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Dear Ms. Gibson,

After Jennie did a review of “Not Another Bad Date,” I saw her grade and mentally wilted a little. In fact, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to read it at that point. But after starting, and stopping, a horrible historical – asshole hero plus virgin martyr widow! – I thought, “why not?” It can’t be any worse, right? Ouch, I think I’ll stop that line of thinking at this point. Anyway, I picked it up ::shrugged:: and dove in.

I’m just going to recap what I liked and, unfortunately, what I didn’t like. I love Zach’s interactions with Tiff. Bra shopping, make-up, boys! oh noes. He’s trying – and floundering – but trying. I found it totally understandable that Tiff doesn’t want another woman in Zach’s life. She didn’t have him in hers for years and now he’s her only parent. Any other woman would be The Other Woman to her.

As well, Adele’s interactions with Kendra make sense. They’ve not spent a great deal of time together so they’re not immediately best buds or totally in synch about what Kendra wants for breakfast. Kendra and Tiff …

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A battle between the publishing side and the retail side is forming overseas. Amazon has stopped selling new copies of some Hackette Livre UK’s most popular titles such as books from Stephen King, James Patterson, and Alexander McCall Smith. Amazon lists the books but the only way to order the book is through the second hand seller market. The “buy” button is gone from these pages. Hachette says that Amazon is doing this to force Hachette to give up a greater percentage of the profits.

It will be a serious test of fortitude for authors and publishers to take a stand against Amazon. I tell you that if the publishing industry took a stand in the US against Amazon for arbitrarily removing the “buy” button from author pages, I would delete Amazon from our site as well even though it would represent the loss of the only revenue Dear Author receives.

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Larry Townsend, a famous GLBT author of The Leatherman’s Handbook and its sequel, The Leatherman’s Handbook II, has sued a number of booksellers for infringing on his copyright by selling copies of his books. Townsend had originally been self publishing and self distributing until he made an agreement with Nazca Plains for distribution. Townsend and Nazca Plains got into a dispute over unpaid fees and have decided to sue the bookstores for the illegal profits.

I’m guessing that Nazca Plains might not be a deep enough pocket for Townsend. It’s certainly an interesting copyright question. As Townsend’s lawyer notes, the copyright law is an intentless one meaning that the booksellers don’t have to know that they are engaging in infringement in order to be infringers.

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CNN digital biz takes a look at the growing ebook phenomenon and cites the advantages such as instant gratification and disadvantages such as the inability to easily rip a book into a readable e-format. Most of the article is nothing that we haven’t heard before.

The part of the story that I found most interesting is the “next frontier” of e-reading devices such as eink color screens and more selection and an e-reader with a keyboard. I would love to see the latter because it would make my reviews so much easier to compose.

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MSNBC decided to run a poll about romance novels in conjunction with its feature of fiction writer Danielle Steele. Why MSNBC jumps from Danielle Steele to romance, I’ll never know but it just goes to show how culturally illiterate the MSNBC poll writers are.

Apparently MSNBC believes that romance books are still called “bodice rippers.” Hello, MSNBC, the 80s called and they want George Michael and your poll writers back. See, bodice rippers don’t identify romance books anymore. It’s man titty. Can you get that right? Let’s have culturally relevant insults. It works better, you look smarter and it makes it harder for us to make fun of you.

And perhaps you haven’t heard yet, but millions of women spend nearly a billion dollars on romance books each year which means you are pissing off a huge segment of your viewership. Rock on with your bad, deluded, out of touch selves.

Links to other bloggers who think you are as stupid as I do:

• Smart Bitches (with new poll)
• Barbara Vey’s blog with an alternate list of poll answers

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Dear Ms. Banks:

I know you have a list of books you think I should read that you wrote and books you think I will despise but I can’t recall where this one fell on the list. Nikki has wanted JT Summers for as long as she remembered wanting a man but she’s always been too young or too much his best friend’s little sister. Fresh out of college, Nikki returns to her hometown with one person and that is to claim her man. Unfortunately, JT still sees her as off-limits no matter how grown up he finds her. His list of why not’s include age, promise to N’s brother to keep her safe (which presumably doesn’t mean shagging her brains out), and not tying her down to a small town filled with small minded individuals.

The ‘why nots’ are in a fierce battle with the ‘hell yes’s’ his body keeps erupting with.

The efforts Nikki goes to seduce JT is quite humorous and JT inevitably succumbs although he puts up a good fight. Strangely, though JT misinterprets Nikki’s intentions and not wanting to tie her down insults …

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Dear Ms Novik,

I’m so glad I waited until now to read “Empire of Ivory” even though I’ve had a copy in my hot little hands, well actually piled on top of my TBR heap by my computer, for months now. Something told me to wait, to keep it in reserve until closer to the date when book five will be released. But after the emotional roller coaster of this book, I think I’ll need a little while to process, digest and prepare myself for what’s in store for Laurence and Temeraire.

I can’t imagine anyone being able to just pick up the series at this point without having read books 1-3. There’s so much history all ready. So many great characters we’ve met, so much world building you’ve already – for lack of a better term – built up. I think new readers would be floundering as well as missing so much of the richness that makes reading these books such a delight.

The journey of Temeraire and his crew from China is at last over – and from my last letter you know that I found parts of that just …

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This is hilarious. These women are in it to win it. Oh and if anyone has the story about the Nora Roberts/Susan Elizabeth Phillips smackdown, I want to hear about it in the comments. Even if you have to make it up, I want to hear about it.

Link here if the embedded video doesn’t work.

There’s something wonderful about these homegrown videos. My vote for the Contemporary Rita would be Holmquist Holquist but I admit to actually not having read any of the other finalists so my vote is pretty invalid but, hey, we should have a poll for the RITAs. Will start that tomorrow.

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