Archive for April, 2009
POPULAR ROMANCE STUDIES
An International Conference
August 13-14, 2009
Brisbane, Australia
Sponsored by
The International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR)
University of Queensland
Queensland University of Technology
Romance Writers of America
For decades, scholars have studied popular romance, whether in romance novels, films, comics, or other media. They have studied its sexual politics and aesthetic structures, its audiences, its authors, and the industry that produces and distributes it world-wide. For the most part, however, they have done so in isolation, divided by boundaries of nation, genre, and academic discipline.
On August 13-14, 2009, the University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology will host “Popular Romance Studies: an International Conference,” to be held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Romance Writers of Australia. Scholars from Australia, the United States, and elsewhere will convene for this event, which will take place on the QUT campus (Thursday) and at the University of Queensland’s Fryer Library, home to a remarkable archival collection of Australian romance materials.
We are interested in papers on romantic love in the popular media (print, film, music, etc.), now or in the past, anywhere in the world. Topics addressed might include:
- Romance on the World Stage (texts in
…
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance – Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Auto-buy for me
Jane Austen and zombies? This
is my dream come true.
 At first, I’m puzzled.
Why is Jane Austen sharing
copyright with Seth?
Public domain book
But I read and it is clear
more ripoff than new.
The text, dialogue
word for word what Austen wrote
…with minor changes.
This book reads more like
wild usage of “Find/Replace”
tool in MS Word.
At first, this is cute.
Men are judged by number of
kills, not money. Nice.
Darcy is a catch
Because he is a master
of zombie slaying.
The Bennett daughters
act the same, talk the same
but they are…ninjas.
My eyebrows? Raised but
I still read. Netherfield Ball?
Invaded by dead.
Darcy slights Lizzy
Instead of laughing it off,
she wants to…gut him????
This is where you start
to lose me. Despite Bennett
bloodthirst, I press on
But when Darcy asks
Lizzy to dance with him,
the story has changed.
Instead of the Austen
version where she declines, she
gives him ‘cut direct’
I realize at
this point that Grahame-Smith?
Doesn’t know his Jane.
I don’t mind a spoof
Of beloved author. BUT.
You missed the basics.
Give the cut direct?
MAJOR deal in Regency.
But no one here blinks.
I realize that it’s
A bit silly to get mad
over a detail.
But missing that small
detail showed me …
Two important pieces of news have developed about the Google Book Settlement. Â First, the court has granted an extension on filing papers for opting out of the settlement. Prominent authors like Patricia Briggs and Kresley Cole and Meljean Brook have opted out but I also know that major agents have advised their authors to NOT opt out (there is no opt in. If you do nothing, you will be part of the settlement).
Second, the Department of Justice has opened an inquiry into the antitrust ramifications of the settlement. Â Maybe by the time that a court does rule on the GBS, the Supreme Court will have determined whether a settlement can include orphaned works. Â
Articles re this:Â
The LA Times held a panel this past week on the issue of publishing.
The panel, moderated by the Times book editor David Ullin, included former PW editor-in-chief, publishing consultant and author of So Many Books, So Little Time Sara Nelson; Richard Nash, former head of Soft Skull Press; Otis Chandler, founder of the Goodreads Web site and Patrick Brown, Vroman’s Books’ webmaster and blogger engaging in a sometimes adversarial conversation about the profound changes that challenge the core of book publishing, how writers and readers connect, and how books are bought and sold.
The panelists discussed the meaning of gatekeepers, supply chain issues, and technology. The small summary is worth a read.
The Rake’s Intimate Encounter by Ann Lethbridge
I’m still not sure I completely understand the set-up of this novella. I realize it’s a prologue, so to speak, for Lethbridge’s historical series for Harlequin but even so I felt like I was dumped midway into a story without any map to point me in the right direction.
Anthony Darby has accompanied his friends (the characters of the forthcoming novels, if I’m guessing correctly) to an exclusive club where the ladies of the ton can live out their greatest fantasies. I know I’m probably the least knowledgeable about historicals of any of the Dear Author bloggers, but something about that rings false. Please correct me if I’m wrong. It might have helped to get more background into the club’s existence and its owner, but I can only assume that’ll be explored in one of the forthcoming books.
At any rate, Tony is skeptical about the whole thing and doesn’t intend to indulge himself despite his friends’ encouragement. That is, until he meets Margaret, the widow of a Russian count. Their attraction is instantaneous and they waste no time acting upon it. What makes their rapid capitulation interesting is that …
Dear Mrs. Hoyt,
 Your books work for me. What else can I say? I believe in these characters. I believe in the circumstances you place them in. I believe the ways you make them act. I want them to find happiness and when they do, I’m thrilled. When Jane sent out a DA email asking for our recommendations for May, I realized I, once again, needed to get off my ass and read. I just now finished the book and am happy as a clam at high tide.
Sir Alistair Munroe thinks his life is the way he wants it. Living alone, except for a surly, lazy manservant, in a dirty castle in a remote part of Scotland while he works on his latest book on the flora and fauna of the British Isles. Therefore, when a woman with two children presents herself at his door as his new housekeeper, he knows she’s lying. He doesn’t want her or her children in his life, thank you very much, now go away.
Helen Halifax can’t afford to let this beastly man turn her way. On the run from her former …
RWA has approved a Special Interest Chapter for writers specializing in LGBT romance. The website for the new chapter is here.
Congratulations to everyone who worked behind the scenes to get this chapter up and running and to RWA who approved it. The group has 39 members and their goals are:
- to promote excellence in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender romances
- to help members become published in LGBT romances
- to be an advocate within the industry for our genre
- to be a resource to our members and others on writing and the publishing industry
Interested writers can contact LGBT at membership@rainbowromancewriters.com if they would like to become members of RRW. They can also email Jade Buchanan directly at jade.buchanan@yahoo.com.
 Loading ... I’m working on an article of author online promotional dos/donts. This issue came to my attention by a reader who participates on the Amazon Discussion boards. The reader has been noticing an increase in author participation on the boards. The problem is that authors aren’t adding insight into the discussions but see the discussion threads as opportunities for self promotion.
For example, a reader posts that she is looking for a book set in a certain time period and unknown authors come forward suggesting their own books. From my email:
A recent post at the Romance boards at Amazon tried to address the issue as well, with mixed opinions from said authors. Here’s a recent post at the historical boards where the poor poster was inundated with them and tried to tell them to stop and they just kept coming and coming. Some of the posts are so poorly written you have to wonder how bad the book is.
How do you feel about this?
Dear Ms. Enoch:
 I’ve really enjoyed this Notorious Gentleman series which started with After the Kiss and ends with Always a Scoundrel, a book that csquared deemed one of your best in years. I agree. This is a book that had my emotions in my throat nearly the entire time. It was dark, evocative, and moving.
Lord Bramwell Lowry Johns is the second son of the Duke of Levonzy. He lives off his gambling winnings and his allowance, although, the latter is an unreliable source of income as his father is prone to cutting Bram off regularly. Bram actively courts his father’s disapproval. The two have been at odds since Bram was 16 years old when the Duke told Bram he was a disgrace and Bram set out to prove the Duke correct. He contacted Kingston Gore, the Marquis of Cosgrove, and allowed Cosgrove to lead him down every path of licentiousness. For years and with the tutelage of Cosgrove, Bram has tried to bring disrepute onto the house of Levonzy. His goals were slightly interrupted when his two best friends entered the First Royal Dragoons …
Dear Mr. Gill,
 It must be demon possession month because this is the second young adult novel I’ve read that features such a premise. I believe this is your debut and since I hadn’t heard of it before the box containing it landed on my doorstep, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Even now I’m still not sure what I think about it but one thing’s for sure: I absolutely love your voice.
Eunice “Bug” Smoot hasn’t led a charmed life. Her father ran off before she was born and her mother died in a fire when Bug was a child. She went to live with her great aunt, Auntie Pearl, and grandfather, Papa C, after that but when her great aunt died, things fell apart because her grandfather wasn’t the most responsible person in the world. And that’s putting it mildly.
But ever since Papa C died, Bug’s lived in one dump after another, delivering pizzas to make a living. Unfortunately, she’s behind on rent and her landlord comes to collect, threatening her with eviction if she doesn’t pay up. That’s bad enough but then she discovers that her classic Cadillac — which …
In an effort to keep up with the Jones (Amazon), Barnes & Noble has launched a digital audio bookstore. I’m not an audiobook aficionado so I can’t speak to whether the prices are a good deal. The digital downloads are mp3s which means that there are no DRM restrictions such as there are for Audible.com content (owned by Amazon).
The interesting part about the PW article regarding this was the last sentence:
Later this year, B&N is expected to launch an e-bookstore, following its acquisition earlier this year of Fictionwise.
If BN opens its own ebookstore, will Fictionwise totally fade away? Will eReader which is owned by Fictionwise? And does the development of the BN ebookstore explain the decline of quality in service at Fictionwise currently?
Dear Ms. Ashley:
 As a satisfied reader of your Regency pirate series, I was definitely on board to try your new late Victorian book about a hero who suffers from Asperger’s. The barbaric aspects of a growing medical tradition and the increasing urbanization and complexity of British society are a perfect fit for a story that explores the sometimes narrow gap between obsession and madness. And in a genre where love is often portrayed and expressed in extreme measures of desperation, the fit is very fine. So it should be no surprise that I enjoyed The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, both in its unusual choice of hero and its deft use of many solid genre conventions.
Lord Ian Mackenzie has been out of the asylum for only a bit longer than Beth Ackerley has been widowed. Ian’s father had him committed at the age of nine, ostensibly for his uncontrollable rages, inability to meet another’s gaze, and obsessive tendencies. Beth’s husband, an East End vicar, left his young wife in roughly the same state he had married her in: poor. Although her maternal grandfather was a squire, Beth hardly grew up in comfort, and …
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Dear Ms. Buonfiglio:
This is not a traditional review, per se, but I could imagine no other appropriate way to respond to the public posting of your recent presentation at the Princeton Romance conference, especially since you seemed to make a fundamental distinction between your Romance B(u)y the Boook blog (RBTB) and the rest of the online Romance community. In the spirit of intellectual exchange, as one of those readers and bloggers in that great morass also known as NOT-RBTB, as a formally trained literature scholar working on genre Romance within the larger context of scholarly pursuits, and as someone who is not afraid of a little “heat” in the online community, I feel compelled to offer a different perspective.
First of all, congratulations on your new gig at BN.com – presumably one of the “big gigs with major companies” to which you refer in your talk. You are obviously and rightfully proud, and I do not want that to go unacknowledged. As you point out yourself, we all have as much to learn as we potentially have to teach, and it is …
The big news today was that Amazon acquired Stanza, the premiere reading application for the iPhone. Lexcycle promises that it is not going to drop any of the existing partners (despite that they are in direct competition to Amazon). Others around the web, however, are very concerned.
Teleread.org has some great coverage including how Amazon may force companies to either produce revenue or be forced out of the picture (as opposed to providing free access to public domain works) and how the government may want to take a look at the burgeoning monopoly that Amazon is creating. “[D]o we really want this one company to dominate so much of the book business?” asks David Rothman. Mike Cane points out 6 succinct reasons why this is bad for the consumer, the market, and basically the future of ebooks.
This isn’t an #Amazonfail, though, it is a publishing fail. It’s time to throw open the competitive doors by taking the lock off of ebooks and by adopting one decent digital publishing standard.
This account of the Princeton Romance Conference, Love as the practice of freedom? which took place on April 23 and 24, 2009. This account is from reader, Karen W, who helps organize the fabulous Celebrate Romance seminar, wrote this up for another group and I asked if I could repost it. I’m sorry I missed the seminar. It sounds fascinating.
****
I just got back from a romance conference in Princeton – this was an academic conference that had presentations from scholars, authors and bloggers, called “Love As The Practice of Freedom? Romance Fiction and American Culture”. I heard about the conference from a friend, and we thought it would be a chance to see each other before I moved, as well as hear some of the talks. (Plus, it was free, and we both had Friday free.)
Several people are blogging about it – Sarah from Smart Bitches was there, as well as Sarah Frantz from Dear Author, and it’s also been covered at the Teach Me Tonight blog. But I thought I’d post about what I thought, in case any of y’all were interested. Some of the talks were a little too “academic” for …
Dear. Ms. Thomas,
 This is the second novel of yours I’ve read and I’m just as, if not more, impressed. Realistic setting, believable characters, conflict that is centered on the hero and heroine and, I can’t believe I’m saying this, two young children I adored. I think I need to go take my temperature after writing that last bit.
Amy Olson’s back is to the wall when Matt Cartwright drives into her life. Appearing out of the blue one morning, with a stock trailer behind his fancy fig, she can’t imagine why he’s at her ranch. Unless he’s another person her dead husband owed money to. But if so, why has he brought three mares with him?
No one has wanted to board horses with her since her husband’s last purchase, the cutting horse with the impressive pedigree, went loco and kicked Ben in the chest. With no income, no job, a mortgage on the ranch, two young daughters and still saddled with Ben’s remaining gambling debts, her only hope is to get some training in order to obtain a job. What she’s going to do with Son of Sunshine, she has no …
Sourcebooks has bought the rights to redistribute a brand spanking new Laura Kinsale book. This book is set for a February 2010 publication date and it’s title is currently under discussion. The following backlist titles are also being republished by SourceBooks.
- Midsummer Moon
- Prince of Midnight
- Seize the Fire
- Uncertain Magic (forthcoming May 2010)
According to the New York Times, individuals can no longer display their eruditeness by the cover of the book they pretend to read on the subway if the Kindle takes over. The Kindle or Sony is discreet and anonymous with only the reader knowing exactly what she is reading. Because of this, people can no longer make snap judgments about whether the reader is worth knowing based on the book jacket. This is a cause for concern, I guess.
Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. New York Times Bestelling Novelist Kerrelyn Sparks is on her 7th book in the “Love at Stake” series for Avon with the April 28, 2009, release of Forbidden Nights with a Vampire.
***
My journey on the road to becoming a published author veers a little off the beaten track because my initial start turned out to be a false start.
When I first began writing, I gravitated toward historical romance because that’s the genre I grew up reading. At the time, my sons were playing a James Bond Nintendo game, so I heard the James Bond theme song nonstop for several weeks. I got to thinking, hmm, a James Bond type spy during the American Revolution with all sorts of fun spy gadgets! I wrote the book, blessedly unaware that I’d have a tough time ever selling an American-set historical. Meanwhile, a brand new editor in New York was also blessedly unaware that she’d have a tough time marketing an …
Saturday was my last day and there were no panels for the day, only events. Â The two events that I attended were the booksigning and the Mr. Romance competition.Â
The booksigning was really large, although not as large as the RWA literacy signing. Â There were digital authors with their print books and traditional published authors placed side by side. Â Smart Bitches was sent with 25 books and sold out. Â Alyssa Day brought cookies for Sarah and for me!
Â
Sarah and I met with Sue Grimshaw after the signing and before Mr. Romance. Â Borders is doing well. They had great sales numbers for romance last month and she feels like they are in a good position for the future. Â We talked about Borders.com and how she wants to make Borders a place for readers, focused on what they are interested in and providing a platform for readers to interact with each other. Â Sue is a very reader centric person.
Maybe in a nod to past criticism, Mr. Romance was surprisingly free of naked man titty. Â There were only 7 contestants this year. Â All of the expenses including the costumes the men wear are born by them. Â Some are able to get sponsors, …
Michael Perry, editor of Inkling Books, wrote an editorial on why he officially objected to the Google Book Settlement.
Meljean Brook, author of the Guardian series, wonders why Google couldn’t have asked for permission first before scanning and why Authors’ Guild is pursuing this settlement which requires authors to opt out.
Epublishers Weekly has a video presentation of the various ereaders.
$100-$200 tablet laptops might be hitting the market soon. These tablet laptops are said to be based on the Android (Google OS) platform.
PW reports that Mark Gompertz will be Simon & Schuster’s new executive vp of digital publishing given that ebook sales are “growing faster than anticipated.” Â Perhaps Gompertz will reduce the outrageously high pricing of the digital equivalents of the mass market books. Â At the editor panel in RT, Grand Central stated that it was having quite a bit of success with its low priced ebooks.
Penguin has inked a deal to sell ebooks in China and has announced that ebook sales are 7 times the level that they were a year ago. Â The sales are expected to be around 1% at the end of the year.
The Internet Archive moved to interve in …
I spent some time attending panels on Friday. Â
The first “panel” I attended was actually a reader party hosted by Ann Aguirre, Lauren Dane, Megan Hart, Anya Bast, and Cynthia Eden. It was very popular. When you entered, you were handed a soft tote bag (one of those recyclable kind) full of swag. I think that each bag contained 5 or 6 books, several bookmarks, and a t-shirt. The party activity was answering 25 questions about the authors. In order to get the answers, you had to go and interact with the authors. I thought it was a very clever way of engaging the readers.
After the morning party (which did have food and drink for those who follow my twitter feed and now know that I am fairly obsessed with eating), I attended the Dorchester Spotlight. Â For those who enjoyed the Shomi line and were wondering what happened to it, the line has been folded in Lovespell and Leisure. Â Leah Hultenschmidt has more information on her blog.
Some highlights include:
- Dorchester’s current releases are available in Sony & Kindle digital formats but the goal is to make them available in more formats and to digitize the backlist.
- Dorchester
…
Welcome to First Page Saturday. Individual authors anonymously send a first page read and critiqued by the Dear Author community of authors, readers and industry others. Anyone is welcome to comment. You may comment anonymously.
***
This time it was easy to spot the low space between two granite outcroppings. By pure luck, hunting for wild asparagus last week, Mal had discovered this opening on the other side of the first hill east of the settlement. It led to a clearing where a clump of scrub brush displayed a miracle in its spindly branches: a dense net of blackberry vines thick with fruit, still green and knock-you-back sour.
Every day since, she’d worried over that treasure ripening and vulnerable until she could get away again. But the fruit was untouched and black as a crow’s eye. She stifled a joyous yelp and swallowed a berry fat with juice. Her hunger, which never truly went away, had gotten worse since the bleeding started.
“Your Ma’s gonna beat you for eating before you bring those in,” Mikal ignored the thorns that tore at his bare arms and legs as he too shuttled more berries into his mouth than his …
Thursday morning, Sarah and I held our blogging panel. Â We actually thought the panel started at 2:30 but we saw Heather Osborn, editor from Tor, in the hallway and she mentioned that she would see us soon at the panel which started at 11:30! Â Sarah and I owe Heather a lot of thanks for saving our bacon.
We started out the panel talking about some technical aspects of obtaining a domain name. Â (Sarah likes Name Secure). Â We encouraged authors to make their blog and website look like the author that they want to be and not the author that they are now, meaning that even if they are aspiring, try to make their site look as professional as possible.
We discussed the need for authors to limit the information that they put out online. Â If an author invites intimacy by sharing personal details, then readers will not know where the lines are. Â I talked about Laurell K Hamilton as an example of how oversharing can lead to uncomfortable speculation about personal life.
Sarah announced that authors do not need to have blogs and I agree completely. Â If an author does not like blogging or finds it difficult, it often shows. Â Instead, we believe …
Film review: Firelight (1997)
Grade: A-
Genre: romantic period drama (UK/USA)
Â
Dear William Nicholson,
I was challenged to find and review a period romantic film that isn’t an adaptation. I was all for it until I discovered finding the task wasn’t as easy as I thought.
All I could find were the adaptations of works by Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Margaret Mitchell (Gone With the Wind), Baroness Orczy (The Scarlet Pimpernel), Barbara Cartland, Oscar Wilde, Frank Yerby (The Foxes of Harrow and The Golden Hawk), Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (Les Liaisons Dangereuses), E.M. Forster (Maurice, A Room With a View), Anya Seton (Dragonwyck) and many others. I had hoped Captain Blood, The Horseman on the Roof and River Lady wouldn’t be adaptations, but they are. Damn you, Rafael Sabatini, Jean Giono and Frank Waters.
The originals I did find—such as The Abduction Club, Vidocq, Tugboat Princess, Lady Jane, and Brotherhood of the Wolf—can’t be easily found on DVD world-wide. O world, why art thou taking the mick?
I was about to fall on my knees in defeat when I remembered one of my role models Sandra Goldbacher (an awesome BBC history researcher and documentary maker) wrote and directed a film, The Governess (1998). I tried to …
You are Chris Brown to
my Rihanna – it hurts but
here I come again
 I keep saying that
I am off the wagon, and
Yet I read this book
‘Read’ is not correct
More like ‘devoured it whole’ or
‘inhaled’ or ‘wolfed down’
This book’s not a fave
But I liked it far better
Than poor Phury’s book
Ehlena is the
Love interest to Rehvenge.
Nurse and nurturer
Rehvenge is emo
I mean, the hero. He feels
Not worthy of love.
Buying this for the
Romance? It felt a little
Too ‘teenage’ to me
The slang gets worse too
‘Freshies’ and ’stillies’ and all
that drives me nutsies
We get a small taste
Of Rehv’s story in Phury’s
Book, expanded here
Symphaths and drug lords
And evil princess, oh my!
(oh, and an angel)
There were so many things
I liked about this book, yet
I am left wanting
Five main storylines
We have Rehv, and Wrath and Lash
John Matthew and Tohr
Rehv reminded me
Of Z with “I’m not worthy”
Mere coincidence?
I thought so too…but
Then Xhex’s storyline? I’d
Seen it before. Dunno.
Book felt…too crowded.
Just when I got invested,
plot shifted again
And, your heroines…
Sigh. As before, they feel weak
& barely show up.
Lash is obviously
A fave of yours. Not mine. I
skipped his parts (sorry)
I think my issue
I am too big of a fan.
Standards are way high
Is this a good …
I registered for Romantic Times convention on Wednesday morning and received a goody bag full of bookmarks, cover flats, coupons, and books. Sylvia Day and Shayla Black were the sponsors of the bag.
Probably the coolest part of the registration packet, for me, was a print out that was included in the pocket of the badge that told each speaker what panels that they were on. RT is a very well run conference even if there are time delays.
Almost all the panels seem focused on writers or aspiring writers. “Self-published to Six Figures in Six Months” was one panel yesterday. Even the historical panel that Sarah & I participated on talked about trends and reader wants. There are some reader panels and the parties seem reader focused but at least 90% of the panels seem focused on writing.
I did see some of the cover models. They posed for pictures for Kathryn Falk’s chosen charity, Save Our Soldiers. You paid $10 to sit in front of the black t-shirted, jeans clad men. I’m glad it was for charity.
I managed to take a picture of …
Dear Ms. Michaels,
 I love a good Cinderalla/Ugly Duckling story. It doesn’t matter to me which person is the “Cinderella” but something about an overlooked character finding love just thrills me. I shouldn’t have liked this book, once I got started reading it, since it contains misunderstandings from both sides. As much as I love a Cinderella, misunderstandings can shoot romance books down in flames for me. But here, it worked despite what some will no doubt call contrivances.
Chloe Malcolm is our Cinderella, a woman who was a brainiac nerd in high school and got teased a lot for it. Her memories of 10 years ago aren’t great so it’s not surprising that she’s not thrilled at the thought of her upcoming reunion. It’s only when her BFF, who’s one of the reunion organizers, drops the news that Dylan Echols will be there that Chloe even thinks about attending.
Dylan was the star athlete of their class who went on to a brief pro baseball career before injuries sidelined him permanently. Chloe remembers daydreaming about him, despite the fact that he never seemed to notice her. With a hot, red dress and …
Dear Ms. Balogh:
 Then Comes Seduction is the second book in the series of stories about the Huxtable family. This book features the youngest sister, Katherine. Jasper Finley, Baron Montford, is the hero. When the two first enter the scene, Jasper is a rogue who makes a sport of women. His sexual pursuits are reknowned.
“Have you not forgotten, Hal? It went into the betting book at White’s on a Monday night with a one-week time limit, and Monty had her on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday nights, not to mention the days in between, until he had exhausted them both.”
Deciding that there is no challenge with the actresses and courtesans and widows, Jasper and his friends target a virtuous woman. His friends claim that seducing an innocent like Katherine Huxtable who was sheltered, beautiful, well connected, would be impossible. “Only matrimony will tempt females like her.” Jasper can’t abide foregoing a challenge and so he sets out to seduce her and because Katherine is sheltered and innocent, she falls easily into Jasper’s hands.
He’s about to despoil her when an attack of conscience comes upon him. …
Dear Ms. Scott,
 I’m so glad that The Powers That Be at Liquid Silver offered me a chance to read your novel. And so sorry it took me seemingly ages to get to it. But the book is more than worth it to read. I only wish the title didn’t bring to mind 80s heart throb Rick Springfield’s first hit song.
Jessie Hayes feels like she’s been hit by a thunderbolt when her twin brother Kyle introduces his new girlfriend at their older brother’s wedding. Sabrina French is hawt and most definitely not the wholesome girl Kyle seems to think she is. But Jessie fights her attraction for the slightly older girl since 1) she’s Kyle’s girlfriend and 2) Jessie assumes by that that Sabrina doesn’t bat for the same team as Jessie.
Turns out on her last night there, that Sabrina turns the tables on Jessie and initiates an encounter that will haunt both women for the next six years. Jessie still keeps quiet the next day but feels like shit when she learns that Sabrina has broken off with Kyle. She feels worse when Sabrina won’t answer her phone calls and sends Jessie a …
Dear Ms. McAlister:
Â
 This was an unexpected surprise in the HP line although I should expect it from you by now. You do not write the traditional HP hero or heroine.Â
Sebastian Savas is the oldest son of a wealthy man who married, divorced, and procreated at an alarming rate. One thing that the patriarch does not do is parent. Sebastian has been the father figure of his far flung family and his latest duties include funding and shepherding the wedding of his half sister, Vangie. While Vangie is prattling about whether to have silver or rose color boxes for favors and what kinds of edibles should be placed in those boxes, Seb is trying to land a big project for his company.
Seb is pulled in both directions trying to make his sister happy while she plans “The Wedding That Ate Seattle” and impress the owner of the company, Max Grosvenor. Seb would like nothing better than to forget his familial responsibilities for once and focus on his work. Seb’s plans for stepping into Max’s shoes as head of the company gets more complicated when Max seems to take up with …
Dear James:
 This was such a great book as I was reading it that I couldn’t put it down. Although there have been a few things niggling at my brain in retrospect, the actual reading experience was almost perfect.
That pleasure came mostly from Joe: Deputy Joe Paterson, devout Mormon, Sheriff’s deputy in a small county in Utah, and a deeply closeted, although self-accepting gay man. The novel is told from Joe’s first person perspective, which I usually don’t like, but his voice was so strong and so comfortable and so real, that I just couldn’t put him down. I imagine having him in your head as you were writing was both incredibly uncomfortable and deeply satisfying.
Kabe Varghese is the trouble that Joe can’t refuse. He’s a rock-hound, a high adrenaline climber, on federal parole for “[f]ree-climbing a federally-owned dam with enough E in [his] pack to fly a football team” and is trying to keep his citified nose clean by staying with his family, who asks Joe to keep an eye on him. Joe can’t help but keep an eye on him, because he’s totally attracted to him. When a Search …
see more Lolcats and funny pictures. (I don’t really think that this picture has anything to do with the article. I just thought the picture was cute)
I remember reading historicals in my teens. I checked out Whitney My Love from the Library and hid it under my head. I loved the Iris Johansen Loveswept historicals. I introduced myself to Amanda Quick at the age of 19 and started a life long love affair with her writing. Many of my favorite books of all time are historicals: Black Silk by Judith Ivory; Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase; Betrothal, Chieftan, Border Lord by Arnette Lamb; Honor’s Splendor, The Lion’s Lady by Julie Garwood. The list could go on and on. All of these books were published in the early 1990s. Their popularity, for the most part, seems timeless as many are still in print.
In my romance world, historicals are the backbone. They are my comfort read, my true love. I am far more lenient with historicals than I am with most other sub genres, in part because I want to believe. There is a sense of fairy tale …
Dear Mrs. Beverley,
 You keep writing these Georgian novels and I can guarantee I’ll keep reading them. Witty, historically well researched, filled with characters I want to root for. Yep, I’m happy. But why did the release information that accompanied the book say it’s a Regency?
Ten years ago young Lieutenant Christian Hill tries to do the right thing. And ends up in a duel during which he kills his opponent. This causes him to nearly be strung up for murder before fate, in the form of a local tradeswoman who could strike fear into lesser men, intervenes and offers him the chance at life. If he’s willing to marry the ruined young woman he fought for in the first place.
To save himself, Christian agrees but he insists on some form of marriage contract and holds an ace up his sleeve by giving a false name. Since he’s on his way to the Americas to fight, he might be killed anyway and even if he survives he doubts the marriage is legal.
Now it’s a decade later and he’s the heir to his father, an earl due to second son roundabout …
Dear Ms. Knight:
 There are so many blocks against reading this book that I wonder you ever had the audacity to put pen to paper. The story is told from the first person present tense in alternating points of view. Â It features a gay/bisexual/quasi-queer man who purportedly falls in love with a Hollywood actress. Â I got to the end of chapter 1 and emailed your editor, Angela James, and said, what the hell have you sent me?
Her response was an inscrutable admonishment, “keep reading.”  And so I did.  I haven’t said word one to Angela about the book since she sent it. The truth is that I really struggled to put into words how strongly I felt about the book.Â
Rebecca O’Neill was starring in a hit comedic primetime drama when a stalker flayed her face and her body scarring her dramatically and ending her promising acting career. She recovered and moved behind the scenes to development. Recovery, though, is a broad term. Rebecca still has panic attacks. She sometimes is scared by the slightest wrong movement at night. She hasn’t dated in three years, hasn’t been intimate since before the …
 Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Today’s first sale story comes from well known bloggers, Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan. Their nonfiction, women’s studies, literary criticism, comedy, technical manual, work of art can be found in some bookstores in various sections of the bookstore (sometimes on the manager’s desk so you might need to ask), is in stores now. You can buy the ebook version at BooksonBoard (I think the coupon code “SmartOnBoard” still works).
***
Candy and I spent a lot of time on the floor – not with each other. And not in that way. But when we first received an email from Rose Hilliard asking if we’d ever thought of writing a book, when we signed with our agent, Secret Agent Dan at Writer’s House, when we had conference calls to talk about the process of selling a proposal, and when we finally had responses from publishers, we had to pick ourselves up off the floor. Repeatedly.
As we’ve often said, we never expected Smart Bitches to be as popular …
Dear Ms. Ione:
 When I finished this book, I felt a bit regretful. In looking at your publishing schedule, it doesn’t appear like you’ll be writing more straight contemporaries anytime soon. Snowbound was a sweet and sexy contemporary that could have easily been published at say, Harlequin, in the Blaze line. (just for a frame of reference).
Snowbound is framed around the ugly duckling trope which is one of my favorites. In high school, Robyn Montgomery was fat, ugly, and the butt of cruel jokes and names. Her parents owned the bakery in a “sprawling, modern mecca for the rich and famous that sat at the base of an internationally renowned ski resort” and Robyn ate food to appease the pain of high school.
Once she graduated, however, she blossomed and ten years later she is the music director of a popular Chicago radio station. She had volunteered to oversee the charity event for her high school reunion wherein she raises a ton of cash, swans around with her semi famous boyfriend, and looks gorgeous while thumbing her nose at all the haters from high school. Her plans hit a serious …
UPDATE: Most people think this is a hoax/rumor. And at the Twilight Lexicon, they have a statement from Summit Entertainment: ““This rumor is certainly NOT true. Please let your readers know.”
Heidi Stanton, a former college roommate of Stephenie Meyer, claims that Twilight and its progeny may be plagiarised from a short story that Stanton wrote in college. The claim has enough heft to bring the New Moon production to a halt. Perhaps Stanton’s support from Bringham Young professors is what is lending credence to the IP dispute.
Mrs. Stanton’s claims have some credence to them as she has documented proof that a short story with very similar idea was written by her in 1993 while she was a sophomore at BYU. English department chairperson Dr. Peter Benton was at the time a second year professor of writing and distinctly remembers Ms. Stanton’s prolific writing style and the vampire story in particular.
“The story stood out in my mind, at the time, because it was more advanced than most sophomore students usually presented, also the vampire story stood out because I had recently taught a series of lectures on Brahm Stoker’s Dracula.” claims Dr. Benton. “I felt at the time that Heidi
…
The big news on the tech/book blogs is the impending approval of the Google settlement. May 5, 2009, is the final date for filing objections to the Google Settlement. Google Print went live in October 5, 2004. At that time, Google had scanned over 100,000 books to be part of its GoogleBookSearch program wherein it indexed content to be used in conjunction with its Google search engine. In December of 2004, Google announced a strategic alliance with “Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the University of Oxford as well as The New York Public Library to digitally scan books from their collections so that users worldwide can search them in Google.”
Less than a year later, Author’s Guild filed a class action suit against Google, arguing that the scanning and digitizing of copyrighted content was “a plain and brazen violation of copyright law.” The result of the class action is to provide a small royalty to each author whose work was scanned in, a payment $34.5 million to create the Book Rights Registery, and a monopoly over orphaned works (works that are either unregistered or whose copyright owners can’t be found).
The settlement essentially gives those involved (Google …
Dear Ms. Wildes:
 The setup for your book stymied my initial efforts to read the story. I’ve never been a fan of the “bet” romance wherein one person (usually the man) makes a public wager to do some sordid sexual encounter. The reason for this is because a man who makes a public wager about his sexuality smacks of someone who is insecure or indiscreet or both. The problem with the “bet” premise is that it is used to show that the man is sexy or has sexual prowess. Instead, I think it shows the opposite for a man who is secure in his sexuality does not need to boast of it. The fact that I ended up liking the book despite the bet premise says something about your writing. It obviously appeals to me.
Nicholas Manning, the sixth Duke of Rothay, and his best friend, Derek Drake, the Earl of Manderville, make a bet as to who is the best lover. It’s a drunken, friendly bet and they both come to regret it but strangely, they don’t withdraw the bet nor the outrageous funds they both …
Welcome to First Page Saturday. Individual authors anonymously send a first page read and critiqued by the Dear Author community of authors, readers and industry others. Anyone is welcome to comment. You may comment anonymously.
***
The first time Christopher cut me, it was as though the knife sliced his flesh as it did mine. His hands shook so much, the blade sunk deep into my back while nicking the side of his pinkie.
I healed within the hour. There was fey blood in me. His wound, however, was raw for a week.
It was one month later. With one experience under his belt, Chris was steady and poised. He drew lines as a guide to where he was to cut: the juncture just beneath and beside each shoulder blade, where buds was beginning to protrude.
At the first touch of the permanent marker on my skin, I shivered. “Maria,” Chris said worriedly. “Are you all right?”
“Of course,” I said steadily, but my breath came out in a shudder. “I’m fine. I’m fine.”
“You know I want to be a surgeon one day,” he said half-jokingly. “You have to be truthful with me, to improve my technique.”
“You’re doing fine,” I told him.
He kissed me …
Dear Ms Thorne,
 I’ll come right out and admit that this book took me a long time to get into. There’s a huge cast of characters and while this normally doesn’t bother me, here I felt adrift for ages before I finally began to get a handle on them. And not only was I adrift in sheer numbers but unsure as to which ones were destined to play major vs. minor roles.
The plot meanders along and I had to have faith that at some point you’d tie it all together. And while the title indicates that this story will center on pirates and privateers, what we see for most of the book is the Royal Navy and only towards the end do any pirates show up. Perhaps the word unsettled best describes my feelings as I read it since it took a long time to settle into the story.
There are rumors swirling throughout the Caribbean. Something major is happening and it involves a mysterious pirate. His name is uncertain, his goal is unknown and the flag he sails under changes with each attack on any ship he finds. …
Grade: B
Genre: Vampire (US)
Â
Dear Kathryn Bigelow,
Not long ago, friends and I had a discussion about romantic vampire films including two current DVD releases, Twilight and Let the Right One In. I passed around my list of the most enjoyable romantic vampire films: Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Let the Right One In (2008), Vampyr (1932), Love at First Bite (1979) and your film, Near Dark.
The mention of this film-and whether it could be classified as a romantic vampire film-sparked a debate among us, and it’s still raging. I’m throwing this one out here to see which side the romance readers would take.
As the story goes: our nice-guy hero Caleb Colton, a mid-western farm boy on a night out, spots and romances an attractive, coy and maddeningly mysterious blonde. He says, “I sure haven’t met any girls like you.” Mae replies, “No, you sure haven’t.”
After a drive under the starlit night sky, Caleb moves in for a sensual kiss from Mae, and receives a rather vampy bite instead. The dawn is approaching, Mae runs off leaving Caleb disoriented and confused. That’s when strange things begin.
He quickly learns Mae is meant to kill him with that vampy bite, but couldn’t go through with …
To honor the release of the International Consortium of Heroes’ book (also known as Beyond Heaving Bosoms: the Smart Bitches Guide to Romance), we bring you this poll made up by Jaili.
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For some reason I think that an affordable print on demand machine like Espresso could be a huge boon for independent bookstores. One of the advantages of big box stores like Barnes and Noble is the huge variety. Independents can’t afford to stock as many books; don’t get as many discounts; and can’t sell the books at a large enough discount to compete. An affordable print on demand machine can eliminate many overhead costs that prevent an independent from being competitive.
Lightning Source will now provide 85,000 titles from 13 publishers for the Espresso Book Machine. These machines will be installed in about 15 locations “mostly bookstores and libraries, around the world, and can print a paperback book as quickly and richly as a veteran barista can whip up a latte.”
Via ShelfAwareness.
Dear Ms. Day,
 Last May, when I reviewed Wicked Gentlemen, Ann Somerville recommended some m/m romances to me. I checked out excerpts from the books she mentioned, and of them all, A Strong and Sudden Thaw stood out the most.
I purchased a copy of the book intending to read and probably review it, but not long after that, you posted that the publisher which originally put out your book in October 2006, Iris Print, was sending you royalty checks that bounced. Since you officially requested that readers not purchase new copies of A Strong and Sudden Thaw, I was torn over whether to review the book. I didn’t so much make a decision not to do it, as was enticed by the many other books clamoring for my attention, and as time passed, I forgot about my good intentions to review your book.
But this story has a happy ending. In July, Iris Print went out of business, and two and a half months ago, a new edition of A Strong and Sudden Thaw was published by Lethe Press. …
What can I say that
Has not already been said
By Joan’s fab review?
 Not a non-fic fan
Was not expecting to like
As much as I did
For me, the best joke?
The list of eye-colors for
Building a hero
Best, that is, until
I saw the â€heroines list’
Then I wept laughter
But…then I kept going
And giggled at â€alpholes’ and
The dictionary
By the time I came
To â€Choose Your Own Adventure’
And Chapter 30?
I HEART YOU, Bitches.
Take my fifteen dollars, cause
It was so worth it.
This book was breezy,
Smart but irreverent, light
But very filling.
I learned a lot, too.
Like Candy’s Pirate fetish
Sarah’s is secret
(my vote is for sheikh romances)
If I had to bitch
About something, I’d have made
Following changes:
One: Loved, loved the list
Of heroine types. But there’s
No hero types list?
Two: Chapter on your
Blog kerfluffles. Bit odd
In a reference guide
Despite my nitpicks
This was well worth the money
And an A from me.
So when does the Bitch
Encyclopedia of
Romance come out, hmm?
This book can be purchased in trade format from your favorite independent bookstore or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.
Dear Ms. Johnson,
 While I’ve read many reviews about your books, I’ve actually never read one myself. I have occasionally read a blog post or two of yours when linked to it and even though I can’t remember which posts those were, I recall thinking they were funny and charming. So for this month’s TBR challenge review, I dug Devilish out of my TBR pile. Even more shocking, given my sad history in this endeavor, it actually fits the monthly theme — paranormal!
Jane Jarvis is a senior at Saint Teresa’s Preparatory School for Girls. She’s short, fiercely smart, and perhaps not what you’d expect of a Catholic school girl with her spiky, bleached blond hair. She’s also in the process of getting over her ex-boyfriend, despite her claims otherwise, and trying to help her best friend, Allison Concord, maintain her cool during one of the school’s annual traditions. Unfortunately, Ally is something of a nervous wreck at the best of times and embarrassingly awkward at the worst and after a humiliating incident involving a cupcake, vomit, and a poor underclassman, Ally becomes the laughingstock of the school.
But to Jane’s surprise, Ally bounces back …
Mark Coker, a Silicon Valley insider and founder of Smashwords, an ebook publisher, has this to say about publishing using the terms venture capitalism instead:
Many entrepreneurs who’ve sold their souls to a VC view VCs with equal parts admiration and contempt. Key positives: VCs offer access to capital, advisors and connections that can maximize their odds of getting their company out there. Key negatives: The VCs make promises they often can’t keep (such as “spend our money quickly, we’ll be here to give you more when you need it”); their allegiance is fleeting (VCs are legend for losing interest at the first signs of hardship); and their interests aren’t necessarily aligned with those of the entrepreneur.
You’ll want to read the rest of the article. It’s worth it.
In sad news, Publishers Weekly is laying of 7% of the work force, keeping staff salary freezes in place and eyeing furlough days (unpaid forced leaves of absence). Part of the individuals cut include the managing editor of the PW website as well as the tech writer/web main and senior editor and contributor to the magazine. Â Given that the print side of newspaper/magazine publishing isn’t doing so well, it’s curious that PW would choose to slash the web staff.
Via Gawker and LA Business Journal.
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Open Threads at Dear Author. Want to know what new releases are out this month and what readers are excited about reading? Check out the threads below. 
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