Thursday News: Harlequin + bull riders, Oyster + Harry Potter, indie bookstore + writers-in-residence, and Wonder Woman in hijab

JanetPublishing NewsAthletes / Comics / diversity / Harlequin / Harry-Potter / independent bookstore / Oyster / professional bull riders / subscription / Western Romance / writer's program. Wonder Woman9 Comments

Professional Bull Riders and Harlequin Announce Partnership – Harlequin has announced a major partnership with the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), starting with four books, which will include coupons for PBR events and future Harlequin titles.

This partnership seems similar to the NASCAR deal Harlequin struck a number of years ago, giving the publisher a chance to reach out to a potentially new readership and capitalizing on the Western themes within the bull riding context. I’m assuming, at least, that these books will appeal to readers who love Western Romances and/or athlete Romances.

I’ll wait until the books are out to render my own verdict, but I’ll admit to some trepidation around the potential alphaness of these heroes and the independence of the heroines.

Harlequin, one of the world’s leading publishers of books for women, and the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), the world’s premier bull riding organization, today announced a book publishing partnership that will debut in May 2015. Under the agreement, Harlequin intends to publish four Harlequin Pro Bull Riders novels containing distinctive PBR content and featuring actual PBR bull riders on the covers. Harlequin Pro Bull Riders novels will be available exclusively at Wal-Mart stores in the United States. . . .

Under the agreement, Harlequin will publish four previously released titles featuring bull rider heroes by USA TODAY and award-winning author Tina Leonard. The collector’s edition titles will feature covers showcasing top PBR riders Matt Triplett, Reese Cates, Harve Stewart and Zane Lambert. Additional exclusive content will include biographies, interviews, photos and signed reader letters from the riders featured on the covers. –PM Newswire

At Last, You Can Read Harry Potter in the Gryffindor Common Room – I gotta say, the battle of the subscription services is yielding some pretty good news for digital book readers. This time it’s access to the entire Harry Potter series, plus several other Rowling books (the Hogwarts Library), via Oyster. And because Oyster allows readers to set different themes, they can have an enhanced reading experience:

Oyster is noteworthy for having a customizable user experience: readers can alter the visual theme of their book. But those reading the Potter series can choose a Hogwarts house to read in — where the font and colors will reflect whether you’re a Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. Users can even tap a Sorting Hat icon that will place them in a house to read in at random. (That is, you no longer need to make polyjuice potion to get inside Slytherin.) –Time

Diana Gabaldon, Poisoned Pen Launch Writers’ Program – Another interesting partnership in the writer-in-residence program being established by Diana Gabaldon and the Scottsdale, Arizona independent bookstore, Poisoned Pen. The first writer in residence will be Charles Lenox mysteries author Charles Finch, and the goal is to serve both the writer and the community.

As part of the week-long residency (Feb. 21-28), Finch will host three author events: with Laurie R. King for Dreaming Spies, Priscilla Royal for Satan’s Lullaby, and Tessa Arlen for Death of a Dishonorable Gentlemen. In addition he will conduct a workshop at the bookstore on “Getting Your Novel Off the Ground,” as well as a day-long story structure master class with a break for an event with Francine Mathews for Too Bad to Die, who will be interviewed by Jeffrey Deaver. –Publishers Weekly

wonder woman’s bad hijab day – I love this take on the Sensation Comics digital-first series featuring Wonder Woman stories outside the New52 continuity. In the December 2014 issue (#20), Wonder Woman has returned from the Punjab, where she rescued children from flooding. The articulation of Wonder Woman in hijab is cool, and wood turtle’s insights about how the benefits of providing her as a different kind of role model outweigh whatever exploitive and derivative impulse may have driven DC comics to try something like this.

Oh, and here’s an interesting interview with Lauren Beukes, author of Wonder Woman #22, which features a South African theme. Plus the digital versions of the comics are available for .99 at Amazon, Apple, and the online DC Comics store.

I love Wonder Woman. We sing her theme song during dance parties. Ivy dresses up as her when we play superheroes. I own all three seasons of the classic television series. And a t-shirt. And an action figure.

So seeing hijab representation by my favourite super-heroine is pretty damn awesome.

That said, there’s a small part of me that couldn’t help wonder if someone at DC Comics was checking out the #hijabi cosplay hashtag on Tumblr and was inspired by badass Muslimah Tumblrer Nour and her collection of hijabified and gender bent superheroes… And then decided to capitalize on the concept behind her viral images. –wood turtle

Janet

isn't sure if she's an average Romance reader, or even an average reader, but a reader she is, enjoying everything from literary fiction to philosophy to history to poetry. Historical Romance was her first love within the genre, but she's fickle and easily seduced by the promise of a good read. She approaches every book with the same hope: that she will be filled from the inside out with something awesome that she didnʼt know, didnʼt think about, or didnʼt feel until that moment. And she's always looking for the next mind-blowing read, so feel free to share any suggestions!

→ Janet