Romancing the Blog | Romance Authors and Readers Who Blog

At the risk of sounding like a broken record after Barbara Caridad Ferrer and May K’s posts, I recently bid adieu to the romance genre. No, I haven’t stopped reading them or involving myself in discussions about them, but the courtship period has come and gone and the romance genre and I have settled into comfortable middle age.

It was delicious while it lasted: the thrill of discovering this new genre, the first flush of infatuation with an author’s works, the orgasmic delight of pulling book after book into my arms every month at a bookstore…you get the picture. Now where we formerly met in eager anticipation, the romance genre and I more often than not, cast disinterested glances at one another or even overlook the other. Don’t get me wrong, I need a romantic relationship or a hint of one in my fiction whether it be mystery, science fiction, chick-lit or even a memoir, but at this stage in my life, I desire the romance to be an aspect of the story not the entire story.

The notion of this struck me when I examined my keeper shelf for something to re-read. Instead of reaching for a much-loved romance title, my hand moved automatically to a historical title that detailed the struggle of a French seamstress to become a couturier during the Second Empire. Though I’ve read this book many times over, it never fails to capture my attention with its attention to detail and the emotional journey of all characters in the book. The heroine is so much more than a foil for her love interest–she is his equal, and she has a life and dreams of her own outside of him–and vice versa.

At a time when every other genre appears to be hybridizing with romance–mystery series’ following a character and their love interest, sf/f romance, urban fantasy with romantic elements, thrillers with romance–the focus of the romance genre seems to be shrinking in comparison. If the rebuttal to this is to say adding other elements places a book outside of the romance genre, I refute this. The only requirement for a romance novel is the satisfying, believable HEA. From my perspective, anything can happen to the life of the h/h over the course of the novel–separations, other marriages, actual historical events, murder, etc–as long as they end up together, healthy and whole and deeply in love. IMHO, the resistance to this in order to cling to set patterns of the current romance genre (when ironically, the genre began with big, adventurous, no-holds-barred books that always ended with a HEA) gives credence to the assumption that romance novels are “formulaic.”

But I digress. I still find wonderful romance novels who fit my increasingly fussy desires, but the romance genre is no longer my go-to genre for satisfying reads.

On Tuesday I head out to San Francisco for RWA Nationals (thanks to the miracle of the scheduled blog post I am writing this on Monday and posting to Wednesday). To say I’m excited is putting it mildly.

I’m excited to meet up with my online friends, to learn more about my craft, to pitch, to party and to just generally soak up all that authorly atmosphere.

Why do I say Nationals isn’t just for writers? Because most of us are also readers. Readers who will get to interact with some of our favourite authors. Wednesday night there is a HUGE literacy signing with over 500 authors signing and proceeds going to “Readers for Life”.

500 authors! In one room, at one time! I might just faint dead away. Except that I can’t. I will be manning a cash register during the signing. I volunteered. Who could resist the allure of all those books and authors. Not me. Maybe I’ll even catch a break and sneak over to Allison Brennan’s table. Or Nora’s. Or Cindy Gerard, or Jane Porter, or… ok, I can’t even begin to list all the author’s I’d like to see. There are so many of them and I’m nervous and thrilled that I get to be there.

So, if you find yourself in San Francisco on Wednesday, July 30th (today by the time this posts) between 5:30 and 7:30pm, come on down to the San Francisco Marriott and you can buy some books and have them signed by your favourite author. And support “Readers for Life”.

For more information on all the authors who will be at this even go to http://www.rwanational.org/cs/literacy_autographing

And if you see this reader at a cashier, please stop and say hi (or say hi as you pass through the line as I’ve heard they can be very long). I’d love to meet you!

Romancelandia is about to get inundated with blogs about RWA happenings, scandals, pictures, fun, and failures. I wish I could be there–especially knowing that next year I WILL be there AND knowing that Suzanne Brockmann is MCing the RITA Awards ceremony. But I’m not going this year (a good thing, considering I broke my big toe on Saturday–I can’t imagine trying to travel right now). I will instead experience it vicariously–as most of us will, even if it feels like everyone but me is there.

My life is otherwise filled quite nicely with romance. I’ve just written a long guest post on a romance blog and I’m fielding all the comments it’s received. I’m editing an academic anthology of essays about romance, which is exciting if time-consuming work. I’m writing my own two articles for said anthology (about crying heroes and about BDSM romances). I’m slowly slowly ohsoslowly organizing an academic society with an academic journal for the study of popular romance (let me know if you’re interested!). And, of course, I’m reading new releases by favorite and new-to-me authors (or at least, I’m trying to keep up!).

But the romance novels by which I am surrounded remind me that there’s romance in my life in another way. It’s in how my husband carried me to the car so we could go to the hospital when I broke my toe (especially since I’m no lightweight). It’s in the sloppy kisses my nine month old son gives me when I pick him up from daycare. It’s in the hugs my eight year old son gives me when he goes to bed. It’s in my mother changing the dressing on my broken toe–even if she is a retired nurse, THAT was a labor of love! It’s in the wagging tails and happy barks with which my dogs greet me when I get home. It’s in the knowledge that good friends will be joining us for dinner on Thursday. It’s in the smile my husband gives me when we share a private joke. It’s in the varied loves with which we surround ourselves every day. And it’s in not forgetting to appreciate these acts of love when they occur.

Romance novels remind me that it’s the small acts that build a relationship, not the grand gestures. Not that the grand gestures hurt, of course, but romance novels remind me that you can’t build a life on them, that lives mesh and make successful relationships because of shared values and experiences. Romance novels remind me not to take any of this everyday romance for granted, to take the time to appreciate these moments, to live for them, because if we don’t live for these bright sparks of love illuminating our lives, what do we live for?

This is why I will never stop reading romances. What do romance novels remind you about the love that surrounds us all?

by Suzanne McMinn, originally posted on 7/25/2005

I know how you feel. I’ve been Left Behind, too. It sucks. Everyone is at the Romance Writers of America conference but MEEEEEEEE!! I feel your pain.

In 1992, I was a brand new writer. I didn’t even know that there was a conference until I finally got up the nerve, after writing my third manuscript, to join RWA. I went to my first RWA chapter meeting. Everyone asked me, “Are you entering the Golden Heart?” WHAT? What was that? A contest, they told me. An important one. You could sell if you won!! But, but, but. I was so baffled. Why would you enter a contest to sell? Wasn’t mailing a manuscript to a publishing house a more direct approach? No, no, no, you must enter the Golden Heart! Well, I didn’t. That didn’t make much sense to me. What if I didn’t final? And winning was no guarantee. I mean, you got a necklace, for sure. But everything else was up in the air. If I wanted a necklace, I’d buy one. I knew my way to the post office. I knew how to buy stamps. Golden Heart, Schmolden Heart. Then the next wave of excitement at these baffling chapter meetings was–pitch!!! We must prepare the pitch!!! What pitch? I asked, baffled again. “You have to go to the conference and pitch your book so you can sell!!!” I was told. Wasn’t mailing a manuscript to a publishing house a more direct approach? No, no, no, you must go to the conference and pitch!! Oh, well. I wasn’t going to that conference any more than I was entering the Golden Heart. I didn’t have all that money to burn and I had a baby hanging onto my mammaries. I knew where the post office was and how to buy stamps.

And yet the fever caught me. That summer of 1992, I began to bemoan the fact that I hadn’t entered this magic Golden Heart of which they spoke and that I couldn’t attend this fabulous conference and pitch my books. Woe was me. I lived in hot, steamy Texas and I remember that July as if it were yesterday. I had to walk a quarter mile to our mailbox. I walked that long quarter mile every day hoping for news of my submissions. (Hey, I didn’t know they called you with good news, LOL!) I had recently received a revision letter from a publisher on one of my books and I was working non-stop, or as non-stop as you can work with a child attached to your mammaries, on a revised manuscript. I schlepped to the mailbox every day thinking, woe is me, there are people at that bejeweled conference pitching their books!! I’ll never sell!! But I was home and I was writing. I wrote hard that week to make up for not being at that damned conference because unlike everyone else that week, I was not:

*Getting my hair done
*Shopping for new clothes
*Practicing a pitch
*Planning and replanning my schedule
*Packing and repacking
*Painting my nails
*Arranging childcare
*Rushing to a plane and spending a day traveling
*Standing in line at registration
*Sitting around in workshops
*Eating really bad food at the luncheons
*Hurting my feet in high heel shoes
*Waiting endlessly for the elevator
*Fighting about the hotel bill
*Flying back home and recovering

Instead, that week I revised my book and a few months later, it sold. Without ever being Golden Hearted or pitched.

So for those of you who are staying home, I salute you. You are writing this week, and I am not. Yeah, I’m going to go to some really cool parties and see all my friends. I’m going to laugh a lot and be stressed out a lot. I’m going to have more fun with writers than should be legal.

But you. You!! You are going to be writing.

by Carol Stanley

Is love just for the young? What does an aging baby boomer do to meet men?
There are lots of ways to meet men and women after the age of sixty? I feel obligated to mention men, however we all know it is easier for men to do the search rather than their female counterpart.

So ladies lets concentrate on you. First of all take a look in the mirror and give yourself a true examination. Men are visual beings and looking your best is paramount. Your great personality will surely be discovered, but if the attraction is not there it may never have its moment to shine. So lose those extra pounds, change the hairdo if that seems like a promising idea. Perhaps a redo of your makeup and a new outfit is in order. You have lost those promised ten pounds and you think you look absolutely devine. Having confidence is the most important ingredient and you are now ready to get out there and meet the guys.

The big question is where do you go? Today I think this is easier than it has ever been. You know where I am going with this, of course, it is the internet. Hook up with some reputable internet dating services and start by lying about your age. Just kidding….maybe…..The problem here is that many sixty year old men are requesting women in their forties and stretching…maybe their fifties. There are also some free online dating sites. This is your call. Always meet this person in public, and be sure not to give out too much information about yourself. He does not have to know where you live or even your phone number.

Now for the usual places like church, senior centers, singles groups. There are singles groups branching out all over. From what I here there are a lot more men going to these groups today. What is really good about them is that they often do fun things like trips, outings, barbeques etc. Also check out your town for restaurants that have party tables. These are designed for singles, so you just go in plop down and mix and mingle with other single people. I have run into a lot of single guys at the poker table. If you do not play maybe you should learn. Bars are questionable, however if you have a local watering hole where you feel comfortable it does get you out and talking with people. The key word here is meeting new people, as people often know other people even married ones.

It is a competitive world out there in business, love and friendship. Look your best, be friendly and know you will have to get out of your comfort zone. There are guys out there, and as a married woman I have run into a lot of th So there is romance around the corner and ignore your age.

My first introduction to the online romance community happened in about 1999 or so when I found the All About Romance website. Up until then, I’d had no one with which to discuss my love of romance novels, but through the small handful of interactive sites like AAR that existed back then, for the first time people like me had a forum for meeting other romance readers to discuss our favorite topic. Most people still didn’t have much access to the Internet at that point, so these sites were fairly small, but the regulars were talkative, and what they lacked for in numbers were amply made up for by their sheer exuberance.

Fast forward almost ten years (yikes!), and the online romance community has exploded. Readers, authors, and even agents and editors and other industry professionals are connecting with each other on a daily basis, and the websites that allow them to do this are so numerous that it boggles the mind. In the late 90s it was rare for an author to have a website, and the ones that did often had some sort of bare bones, homegrown, and not terribly professional looking site hosted on a free space like Geocities—oh, how we all loved Geocities! Today, however, it’s rare for an author not to have a website. A lot of aspiring authors even have sites, and the published ones that haven’t invested in their own dot com often at the very least have a blog.

Because, well, pretty much everyone these days has a blog. Many people even have more than one blog, and it’s been several years since group blogs were a novelty. And while people still claim that the majority of romance readers aren’t online (at least not in the form of participating in the online romance community), compared to ten years ago, there are an awful lot of us. This is why debut authors today are advised that they must have a website and they must do online promotion. The days of authors ignoring the power of the Internet are long gone.

But here’s the rub. Lately, it’s seemed to me that the number of people in the industry who come online to promote their products (i.e. authors and publishers) has grown far more in proportion to the size of their target audience. Authors these days are facing a pretty tough struggle to get the attention they want. Is it a competition? Hell, yeah. While it’s possible for readers to visit a great number of sites on a regular basis, there are only so many hours in a day. They have work, family, other commitments, and let’s not forget the time away from the computer to actually read the romance novels they come online to talk about.

So we all have to adapt. A few years ago, when my clients asked me what was the best way to draw traffic to their sites, I repeatedly used two words: contest and blog. Run a contest, I said, and readers will flock like pigeons to a pile of bread crumbs. Who doesn’t like winning free stuff? Start a blog, I said, to get readers to come back to your site often, so they’ll keep your name and your books at the forefront of their minds.

These days I sing a different tune. You should absolutely get yourself a professional looking site with content that readers are interested in. Want to do contests or giveaways for fun? Go ahead, but don’t expect it to help your sales numbers in a significant way, and don’t even hope that it’ll substantially increase your traffic, either, because it won’t—unless you offer up as a prize something crazy, something worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars. (And even then, you’ll mostly just draw the attention of professional sweepstakes entrants who won’t give a fig about your books.)

Ditto on the blog. Keep it for fun, unless you have that magic touch that brings in the crowds. Some authors do have a huge following on their blogs, but let’s face it, most of them are already fans that would be buying the authors’ books, anyway. The biggest draws for readers seem to be reader blogs, probably because they feel more comfortable talking freely on those sites, and the regular Suzy Author thinking she can compete in such a field is probably being just a tad unrealistic. There are too many blogs out there and not enough of an audience to make more than just a handful of them wildly popular. And as more and more author sites, blogs, message boards, and such are popping up, the harder it will be to get noticed.

I don’t discourage authors from doing online promotion, but I’m also honest when they ask and tell them that very little of it will work the way they want it to. Some investment in making your book visible to the romance community is probably worth it, especially for unknown/debut authors, so do some research into the sites that offer ad space (check their traffic stats, ask author friends for advice, etc.), and pay for as much as you feel you can afford. Heck, even invest in a trailer if you must–but for goodness sake, don’t invest too much, because in my not-so-humble opinion, paying for a trailer is not so much like putting part of your advance into a high-interest savings account as it is burying your $$$ in the ground and hoping it’ll grow into a money tree.

Just do as much as you can without breaking the bank or putting your deadlines in jeopardy. And then you forget about the Internet, and you sit down and write the best damn book you can, because absolutely nothing sells like an actually good book that everyone starts talking about. Word of mouth still works best, even in the 21st century.

So, tell me. Have your romance community surfing habits changed? Do you visit as many blogs as you used to? Do you enter authors’ contests? What does it take for an author to really get your attention? This curious mind would love to know!

I’ve got manuscripts to edit, submissions to read, two new schools for my four-year-old to get used to, and his birthday party on my plate for the next month, in addition to my day job and the other typical household tasks. I cannot afford to venture too far from my To Do list.

Budgeting time is essential. Well, let me back up. Budgeting time correctly is essential. See, I’m a bit of a procrastinator. Sometimes my brain just doesn’t want to focus on the task at hand. And distracted brain usually means blog hopping.

Currently, I read maybe four or five blogs to start my morning. With several of those bloggers in San Francisco next week, the temptation to visit won’t be as strong since new content won’t be there. If I keep telling myself that, I know I’ll believe it. Then, there’s the celebrity blogs. Honestly, do I really need to know if Jennifer Garner’s pregnant? No. (I think she is, if you compare pictures of her from, say, March until now, which I did…yesterday…)

For my wee little distracted brain, it’s crunch time. At moments like this, I think it would be excellent to have a clone. She could work at my job, and I could do the fun things like edit manscripts, read submissions, shop for a Go Diego Go! birthday cake, read, and perhaps even blog hop.

I finished a book. Hurrah! It’s done! Right? Er, no. There are proposals to write for the next book. There are revisions. There are copyedits. The final proof. The cover. The release and promotion. The book is dead for about five minutes before it comes back to life to reign again. And while all of that is cycling, there is writing the next book.

The creative life cycle is a funny thing. There’s no done. There’s only done for now. Sometimes I think the only sense of completion comes from doing the day’s work, whatever that might be, even if it’s just catching up on paperwork, filing, and email. Or hitting a milestone like the end of a chapter, the end of an act, or the completion of a proposal.

And yet, I can look at the bookcase that holds my author copies and see that I have been busily producing. I’ve finished a book, and another, and another, and another. I’m currently at work on my 5th book for St. Martin’s, while #4 is hitting the shelves. And backlist titles continue to be reborn and live on.

A book can live forever, or at least as long as the paper lasts. Thanks to electronic versions, even that is no longer a limiting factor. We have books that were written far back in history; The Epic of Gilgamesh, Beowulf, Hamurabi’s code of law. Barring an event like the burning of the great library of Alexandria, books can live on and on, long past the time the hand that wrote them returns to dust.

The book has a life of its own, and past the time it moves out of my life, when it is out on the shelves and there is nothing more to be done except jump for joy if a foreign rights or other subsidiary rights sale happens, it remains a living thing. The words written can speak to readers I never meet or know of.

I’m going to finish another book soon, and when I do, the book will be dead. For about five minutes. Long live the book!

First she panics because it’s only a week or so away. Just kidding. I’m ready and looking forward to RWA in San Fran but I did do quite a few things to prepare for the week away.

So what exactly does an agent do to get ready for the conference?

1. I’ve set up meetings with all my clients who will be attending.

2. I’ve set up meetings with editors that I need to touch base with.

3. I’ve coordinated the meetings where the client, the editor, and I all need to meet.

4. I’ve booked all the publishing house parties where I need to do face time.

5. I’ve carved out a time and the place for the Nelson Agency Get Together at Michael Mina’s (can you say yummy?)

6. I’m doing the final prep work for the panel I’m on. It’s called TAKE FIVE: The Agent Cartel Reveals Its Top 5 Pearls of Wisdom for Career Success with 11 other agents (yes, you read that correctly). It’s on Saturday, Aug. 2nd from 2 to 4:15 so add it to your schedule if you think it might be interesting. How often does one manage to get 12 agents all in the room at the same time (and yes, herding cats sometimes comes to mind)!

7. I’ve ordered my biz cards and printed out submission directions to get ready for my pitch appointments on Saturday.

8. I’ve made sure I have the list of my five RITA nominees and my one Golden Heart and have coordinated how we might all sit together come Saturday night.

9. I’ve checked my flight and hotel accommodations.

10. If I’m lucky, I’ll get through all my queries for the week before I actually leave town. And if I’m really really good, I’ll catch up on all sample pages requested as well.

11. I’ve also set up a few meetings with editors who are in San Fran (but aren’t a part of RWA and won’t be there).

I think I’m ready—which means I’ve forgotten something really crucial….

See y’all there and very soon.

“I can’t believe that!” said Alice.

“Can’t you?” the queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again, draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

–Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

In recent years there’s been a lot of talk in the community of Christian inspirational romance writers about increasing the level of realism in our novels. The hipsters are writing “edgy” inspirational romance, pushing boundaries long established for the genre, priding themselves on writing “true-to-life” characters while coming darn close to sneering at authors who feel more comfortable–and who believe they are better serving their readers–when they keep to the more conservative path.

Readers, too, are divided on whether they want more “realism” in their inspirational fiction. Some applaud, for example, the more sensual stories while others are dismayed by what they see as the declining standards of the genre.

I’m a middle-of-the-road inspirational writer, which means some of my readers think I go too far and others, not far enough toward “realism.” I once received a letter from a reader who objected to my Christian heroine having sex (before the story opened) with her fiance. “A good Christian would never do that,” the reader chided. Another time, someone thought my hero’s response to an aggravating situation was too controlled. “Christians are human,” the reader informed me. “And in that situation, even a good Christian would have lost control.”

Why do so many readers expect fictional characters to behave in predictable ways? And why are those people so upset when the characters surprise them? Don’t real people often act out of character? Surely it’s not for the reader to decide which thoughts, speech, or actions constitute character violations for a novel’s protagonists. The sole authority on what is or is not in character for a given character is the author who created that character.

Let’s think about reality for a minute. Some readers are quick to protest that certain romance heroines are too good to be true. But didn’t we see a real-life example of goodness in Mother Theresa? I’ve never come across a romance heroine who was quite that selfless, have you? So why do some readers object that certain heroines are “impossibly” sweet? Also, readers who shake their heads over “ridiculous” plotlines might do well to remember that some pretty strange things have happened in the real world. In 1954, a woman was actually struck by a meteor. And just last month, a (transgendered) man gave birth to a baby girl. If we want to talk about things that are difficult to believe, we might start with real life!

Sometimes I think authors of vampire books and time-travel stories and the like have a less frustrating time of it than the rest of us. Nobody expects their characters and plots to reflect the common perception of reality, although I suppose even they hear from readers who insist that the characters in their made-up worlds would never do this or that.

How much “reality” do you insist on in the romance novels you read? What have you been able to believe, and what couldn’t you swallow? Give examples of books that totally sold you and books that left you muttering that such things could never happen and such people could never exist in the real world.