Publishing Newschildren's fiction / diversity / editors / gender / general fiction / heroines / publishing / road novels4 Comments
Green Screen: The Lack of Female Road Narratives and Why it Matters – Although this essay by Vanessa Veselka is a couple of years old, with all of the focus on Gamergate and systematized violence against women, I think it’s more relevant now than ever. Viselka talks about her own ... more >
Letters of Opiniongenre critique / heroines37 Comments
I love the show Girls on HBO. Are you watching this? I’ll spare you the recap, you can read about it here. But the reason I love this show is the very same reason it’s getting criticised. Every character on the show is selfish in turns. Petty and self-absorbed ... more >
Letters of Opinionheroines / shame45 Comments
I asked Molly O’Keefe and Caitlin Crews if they would share some thoughts on shame and the romance heroine. The two were obvious choices for me because Crews and O’Keefe both write about the topics in their books. In the Disgraced Playboy, the heroine’s entire life is shaped by some ... more >
Letters of Opiniongenre critique / heroines124 Comments
Heroines in romance have great latitude. They can be rich and very poor. They can be successful and a failiure. They can be pretty, dumpy, funny, dour. They are not all extracted from the same hard body mold like the hero. The heroine’s own agency can provide a source of ... more >
Letters of Opinionheroines40 Comments
Like many romance fans, I recently read the newest book by Loretta Chase, Silk Is For Seduction. Like many fans, I too loved it. It is a great example of the qualities I look for in a romance: interesting characters, engaging storyline and witty, sometimes startlingly funny, dialogue. It also ... more >
Letters of Opinionheroines92 Comments
Back in April, I had an exchange with poster Liza Lester in response to Janine’s review of Petals and Thorns. Liza wrote: But it occurred to me that if the forced seduction were presented as (rather mild, actually) BDSM erotica, if it were explicitly a game, or limited to a ... more >