Romancing the Blog | Romance Authors and Readers Who Blog

Please forgive me for this brief post. I’ve been in the middle of crunch time–everything hitting at once! And then, my husband had to leave town for a week while I have a pressing deadline, which means I have to get all five kids to two different schools at different times . . .

As any mother knows, juggling kid’s schedules is hectic and time consuming, but we manage to get it done, right? But throw a variable into the mix and suddenly everything is out of whack.

For example, three days a week, my oldest daughter has to be at school at 7 am for choir. Daughter #2 has to be at school–25 minutes away–at 7:50 every day. The three little kids have to be at school at 8:30, fortunately next door to Daughter #1. But this week, Daughter #1 has SAT testing starting at 8:15 and she CAN. NOT. BE. LATE.

Usually, my husband is responsible for the early morning choir and daughter #2 since her school is on his way to work. That leaves me with the three little kids who need more help getting ready. But this morning I left at 7, drove #2 to school, arrived back home 45 minutes later, piled all the kids in the car, and rushed to the high school, and made it with five minutes to spare. By the time I dropped the other kids off and went through Starbucks and got home, it was 9:30. That’s two and a half hours of, essentially, driving and dropping off.

Not helpful to the muse when I’m already tired from multiple late nights!

So I forgot about this blog, and got the reminder at 2 am. Funny, I was up then . . . finishing the next-to-last chunk of revisions for my editor. I sent them off and POP! in my inbox comes the reminder.

And I had no idea what to write about. When that happens, I write about what’s on my mind, which right now is my schedule.

Tomorrow I get up, drive #1 to school at 7, come home, pile the kids in the car, drive #2 25 minutes away with three little kids who will likely not be quite awake, and then speed down the road to their school, hoping that they’re not late.

Fortunately, I have my mom who has been helping me do pickups in the afternoon, but she doesn’t do mornings. My oldest is 15, nine months shy of her license. I never thought I would be so happy when she turned 16.

Being a working mom is never easy, for any of us. But maybe, in the back of my mind, I might have thought that being a bestselling author might cut me some slack on the day-to-day routines, you know?

Yep, that’s hysterical laughter you hear from the last friend I complained to.

And I’m not complaining (much) . . .

I glanced over at my towering TBR pile. That is my reward for finishing these revisions. I get to devour a couple of those books and shrink the pile.

I’m so looking forward to a couple days R&R.

Nothing satisfies me like a good book. Especially a good book while soaking in a hot bath.

I have far too many books in my TBR tower. But those on the top include:

CRY MERCY by Mariah Stewart (just came in from Amazon today!)

NOW YOU DIE by Roxanne St. Claire (yes, I know, it came out last year. I’m behind. Shoot me.)

SALVATION IN DEATH by JD Robb

PROMISES IN DEATH by JD Robb (I’m two behind–I’m never this far behind!)

NOTHING TO LOSE by Lee Child

DOGS AND GODDESS by Jennifer Crusie et. al.

JUDAS KISS by JT Ellison

I’m hoping to get through those before I get the copyedits on these revisions that I’ll be turning in at the wee hours of tomorrow morning . . . but the downtime, and the long, hot bath, will do me wonders. Especially with a glass of wine . . .

What’s at the top of your TBR pile?

A reoccurring joke in my household, after experiencing an injustice, perceived or genuine, is to say “We’ve got a black president!” Granted, this is only a joke lest I be condemned as a “racism chaser” (hat tip to Constructive Feedback for that phrase), but I often stop and wonder what the presence of the Obama family does have on the entertainment industry (of which I consider books to be a part of).

Though I was unable to attend, the Princeton Romance Conference touched on the topic of race and the romance genre, with attendees such as Beverly Jenkins, Avon editor Esi Sogah, and Professor Rita B. Dandridge, among others, bridging the gap between black and non-black readers and writers, and exposing the disparities experienced by African-American authors of romance. Many of the presentations were (via Twitter) powerful, and gave compelling reasons why AA romance exists as an entity in and of itself, as well as the struggle the industry faces in balancing the desires of the core market and treating books like…well, books.

The popular catch-phrase after Barack Obama’s election is “post-racial,” a phrase I consider misleading and much too simply to capture the complexities of American society. In rebuttal I argue that though we live in a post-women’s lib era, women have yet to completely shatter and sweep away the remnants of the glass ceiling, so it is naive and vaguely insulting to believe everything is alright or is going to be alright post-2009. I have a hope that the greater complexities will be addressed and discussed today, rather than pull out blanket statements.

But what does this have to do with romance? I foresee that the romance genre will begin to reflect the greater society. Though many consider the flare-ups around race and romance (or any other genre of fiction) futile and distracting, I find that each instance of heat puts another crack in the glass ceiling. Many consider breaking the glass ceiling a stupendous, loud moment–such as when a woman becomes CEO of a company–but in some cases, it’s the constant, steady pressure against the glass that will make a greater impact.

by Special Guest Robert Gregory Browne

A couple weeks ago, one of my male friends asked me: “Why the hell are you going to the Romantic Times book conference?”

As you read this, I’m smack in the middle of that conference and since I’m writing the day before my flight to Orlando, I have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into. I’m undoubtedly having fun. Wild, crazy, unbridled, drunken fun, surrounded by a bevy of beautiful authors and readers.

So the answer to my friend’s question is: “Why the hell not?”

When I wrote my first thriller, KISS HER GOODBYE, I did what every new author is asked to do and started soliciting endorsements from other authors. I have no idea if these endorsements mean anything to readers – they certainly never did to me – but publicists like to have them and I’m usually willing to bend over backwards to make my publicist happy.

I sent out a batch of emails asking for endorsements from a number of authors, both male and female, whose work I admired and respected. And while I got gracious responses from every single one of them — most of whom agreed to read the book — when it came down to actual blurbs, the overwhelming majority of them came from female authors.

At the risk of blatant name-dropping, I got great blurbs from Tess Gerritsen, Kay Hooper, Carla Neggers, Allison Brennan and Gayle Lynds, and it suddenly struck me that the stuff I was writing seemed to really appeal to women. And even more interesting was that all but one of these authors came from Romance.

I like to think the appeal of my work is partly because I try to write strong female characters, which, Gayle Lynds once told me, is not all that common in the male thriller world.

Writing strong female characters only comes naturally to me, however, because I have always been one of those guys who has enjoyed the company of women much more than men. When I want to hang out, I’d rather hang with the gals from the office than the guys at the sports bar. Even in high school, my circle of friends consisted largely of girls – and certainly not because of lust (although, I won’t kid you, there was a fair amount of that).

So I guess I wasn’t particularly surprised that these authors reacted well to my work. And that most of the favorable email I receive comes from women readers.

But back to my male friend’s question. It was a question asked with a certain amount of disgust in his voice. “Why the hell are you going to the RT Conference?”

I know this topic has been discussed before, but it never ceases to amaze me the amount of disdain there is for the romance field. Discussions of romance novels by mainstream media usually involve a smirk (as demonstrated by the ABC news segment mentioned here at RTB several days ago). And even though romances are probably the bestselling books in the world, the mainstream perception is that they’re poorly written, frivolous love stories aimed only at “frustrated housewives.”

Well, we all know that that’s complete b.s. And I may be an anomaly among the male species, but over the years I’ve enjoyed reading a number of romances, including several of those written by the authors who so kindly chose to endorse my first book.

I would add to that reading list wonderful authors like Karen Rose and Nora Roberts and Theresa Weir (who now writes under the name Anne Fraiser) and – oh, there are just too many to name. What these women have in common is their ability to craft compelling characters and write in a way that speaks to me and many others. The fact that what they write is often categorized as “romance” should no more give rise to derisive remarks than the work of any of the other great writers out there.

A book is a book is a book. If it’s subject matter doesn’t appeal to you, fine. Say so. But there’s no need to paint an entire genre with a broad brush simply because it doesn’t appeal to you. There are millions of people out there who happen to disagree. And many of them are going to (or are already attending, as you read this) the RT Booklovers Conference.

So my real answer to my friend’s question is this: “I’m going because I love the many wonderful authors who will be attending. I love their ability to entertain me and so many others. I love the many wonderful readers who, like me, can think of no better way to spend an afternoon than curled up in a chair with a book in hand, lost in a world created just for us.”

I would be lying if I told you that attending RT had nothing to do with business. When you’re a novelist, you want to go to where the readers are, because you want more than anything for people to read your books. But the beauty of this profession is that such business is always mixed with pleasure. And I can think of no better way to spend the week.

Of course, again, I’m writing this just as I prepare to leave. I’m an RT virgin, so I may well come back with a completely different view.

So if you hear me shouting for help, send out the search patrol.

I’m writing this in a sleep-deprived, jittery hurry. Tomorrow (yesterday, for you) I’ll be flying off to Princeton with my wife for “Love as the Practice of Freedom? Romance Fiction and American Culture,” the conference I’ve put together with my old friend from graduate school, Bill Gleason. With any luck, you’ll be able to follow some of the discussions on line; we’re not posting audio or anything like that (how old-fashioned, I know!) but I suspect that there will be plenty of bloggers and Tweeters (twitterers? Surely not twits!) on hand.

When people ask about the conference, I tell them that it’s been in the works for about a year. Oddly enough, though, as I’ve worked on my own talk–for a panel on “Love and Faith”–I’ve found myself turning back to books I bought for my dissertation research. In fact, as I brainstormed what to say about Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm, a phrase kept nagging at me: “erotic faith.” What did that mean? Where did it come from? I turned around, and it stared out at me from the bookshelf: Erotic Faith: Being in Love from Jane Austen to D. H. Lawrence, by a Stanford professor named Robert M. Polhemus. A couple of checks and scribbles in the margin tell me that I’d read the introduction, once upon a time, then tucked it away unfinished for twenty years.

My daughter would say that the lesson here is, “Never throw anything away.” She has clothes she wore when she was five, saving them (she tells me) for her grand-kids. I’d say the lesson is slightly different. We sometimes think–or at least, I tell my students–that the big difference between life and art is that art is shapely, patterned by repetition and variation, and life…well, on the whole, I’d say it’s a shaggy, baggy sort of thing. But even if you put less faith in Providence (the power that shapes our ends) than in entropy (the one that ends our shapes) (not my joke, but I do like it!) every now and then you have to stand back and remember that the same mind that makes art is the mind that looks at life, watching out for patterns as it goes.

And when you find a way to take loose threads and weave them back into the story–a book that’s been waiting for you to read it, an old acquaintance who comes back into your life as a comrade-in-arms–it feels good. Like an HEA. Conference, here I come!

The past few weeks I’ve been working on a presentation for some of our local librarians. The topic? Reader advisory (my favorite!). A good portion of the presentation will focus on connecting the right reader with the right book. The rest will be all about the best ways in which to promote books. My best tool for doing this? Booktalks.

If you aren’t familiar with the term booktalk, think of it as a mini commercial created (usually on the fly) for a book you are trying to convince a reader is the book for them. Booksellers tend to call it hand selling (librarians always have to have their own terminology ). Sometimes I present to a group of readers and booktalk a variety books, but for the most part I find myself booktalking one or two books. Usually booktalks happen when a patron asks me that age old question, “Can you help me find something good to read?”

In the past I was restricted to booktalking books whenever I was face to face with patrons. Thanks to many of the Web 2.0 tools that I now have at my disposal, however, I am finding myself more and more intrigued by the idea of creating booktalks that could be loaded to YouTube (or another video sharing service). I could be booktalking virtually 24/7!

There are libraries out there already doing this, but how is a librarian (or a reader who loves to make recommendations) to know if these new booktalks are creating any interest in readers? Luckily, I have the RTB readership to ask.

What do you think? Would you take a reading recommendation based on a video booktalk? Or do you prefer reviews? Or is there another way you would like to see libraries promote books to you, the reader? Let me (and other librarians) know!

LIVE from the Romantic Times Convention!

No. I wish. I’m at home, trying to prevent squirrels from eating my daffodil bulbs and listening to Christmas carols. Yes, Christmas carols. For the past three days, the hubby has been playing Mariah Carey’s Christmas album on continuous loop.

I’d call him crazy but considering I gave away Catherine Stang’s Secret Wishes (a Christmas romance) as my fave romance eBook in March, I’d be a hypocrite.

Yep, you got that right. I’ve been reading Christmas romances.
In April.

Sure, I read some in December but, for some strange reason, I was in the mood for beach reads then. You know those light reads perfect for the lazy, hazy hot days, feet up in a hammock in a squirrel free back yard (hey, it is my fantasy)? I was snuggled under my comforter reading them.

I don’t know why I’m reading Christmas romances now. Maybe it is the curly/straight hair phenom (the girls with curly hair want straight tresses and the girls with straight hair spend their nights hair up in rollers). Maybe it is because I’m perverse (that’s perverse, not perverted). Maybe I’m simply insane.

Whatever the reason is, I tend to read books out of season. I’m not the only one.

I know I’m not. Why? Because Amy Ruttan’s hilariously funny Enchantress: The Fey, has a Yuletide celebration scene and it wasn’t ’saved’ for November or December. It was released in February. (BTW… that first scene where the macho man hero gets hopelessly lost? I laughed so hard my stomach hurt!).

Readers aren’t the only ones thinking about Christmas in April. Due to the strange way the publishing world works (talk about alternative universes…), many authors write novels out of season. Some of my writing buddies (those not partying with readers and hunky cover models at the Romantic Times Convention) are right now writing and making edits on their holiday stories. Outside it may be sunny and warm. In their imaginations, it is snowing.

So ‘fess up. Do you read books out of season? Why? Authors, how do you get in the mood for writing holiday romances during the summer?

Update: Question for authors, agents, editors, publishers…
(coming from the comments)
Do you have to be an established author to sell a Christmas story?

There’s no doubt one of the things I love most about reading is the escape. Cracking the spine (don’t judge me!) and diving into Regency England, the Deep South, or a uncharted territory is this book lover’s dream.

But I’ve discovered something new, something I love almost as much as exploring the pages myself.

Reading to my child.

I’d read to him from the start. As a baby, well, babies drool and clutch at the pages. Same goes for toddlers. (Heck, sometimes four-year-olds cannot be gentle with books. Thank goodness for used book stores!)

Despite the fact he didn’t want to sit still or even listen, I kept reading. Hop on Pop. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The Pokey Little Puppy (a book which my grandmother had kept on the end table with our family photo albums until her death in 2005 and one that immediately brings to mind the fragrance of Mary Kay cosmetics as soon as I say, “Five little puppies dug a hole under the fence…”).

Fast forward to last month during our weekly trek to Target, we stopped in the book aisle. Two books immediately caught my attention: Dinosaur vs Bedtime and Where the Wild Things Are. In all aspects — perhaps with the exception of dirt (he’s not a fan) — my son is a typical boy. Loves cars and trucks, dinosaurs and monsters. And here are two books featuring two of his most favorite things. That’s how this new love affair began. Me shouting “Dinosaur wins!” and he laughing; me roaring terrible roars and gnashing terrible teeth and he with his eyes wide, wondering just what the heck was going to happen next to Max.

Reading together is how we end our days before sleepy time. Battling The Lady in Pink. Helping Ruby and Max get rid of ants. Even becoming king of the wild things. All because we cracked the spine and jumped headfirst into worlds out of yet totally within our reach.

Just over a year ago, I wrote here about the state of academic scholarship about popular romance fiction. Having just returned from the 2009 Popular Culture Association conference and just about to go to “Love as the Practice of Freedom?: Romance Fiction and American Culture”, I thought I’d give another quick summary on academic activity on popular romance fiction.

PCA 09 was marvelous, again. About 20 romance scholars got together (in the context of a much larger PCA/ACA conference) to talk about all things romance. As always the papers made interesting connections (two papers on how food is used in romance, for instance, one on JD Robb’s …in Death series, one on Crusie’s Agnes and the Hitman) and spurred lots of amazing conversations. While PCA 07 was all about discovering that you weren’t the only academic interested in popular romance fiction, and PCA 08 was all about solidifying connections and confirming that romance scholarship is viable field by making many plans, PCA 09 was about making romance a viable field by focusing on publishing articles on romance fiction and welcoming the undergraduate and graduate students who joined us.

Next week is “Love as the Practice of Freedom?: Romance Fiction and American Culture”, an interdisciplinary conference at Princeton University. Yes, popular romance fiction invades the hallowed halls of the Ivy League. With panels on Romance and Sex, Romance and Religion, Romance and Race, and my personal favorite, “Romance Reads the Academy,” it promises to be an inspiring conference. The conference is free and open to the public, although registration is appreciated. We’d love to see you there!

We’re in the process of organizing the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance. By RWA (July), we’ll have a full web page with membership registration forms (only $25/year!), Members Forum Board, a Cafe Press store (with coffee mugs and shirts with slogans like “Romance: Think About It”, “Let’s Talk About Text, Baby”, and “Beneath This Heaving Bosom Beats the Heart of a Scholar”) and our academic journal, the Journal of Popular Romance Studies, the first issue of which will be posted online on February 14, 2010.

We’ve got another conference in Brisbane, Australia in August (webpage forthcoming, of course), where we’re going to do something called “Iron Critic.” Four or five attending RWAustralia authors will assign one of their own books to a participating scholar. The scholar will read it and prepare a five minute presentation about one aspect/motif of the book that intrigued them, and the author will have five minutes to respond. We’ll have more academic presentations and round-tables, of course, but we’re excited about having a little fun with our scholarship as well.

We’ll have a third romance conference in Belgium at the beginning of August, 2010, so put that on your calendar, too!

Finally, I will be at RWA this year. Pamela Regis, Sabrina Jeffries, and I are presenting “If You Like the Classics; Or, How To Recommend Romance To Literature Snobs in Your Library” at the RWA Librarians’ Day on Wednesday, July 15. And I have organized a panel “The Wit, Wisdom, and Writing Advice of Jennifer Crusie” with Pamela Regis and Jessica Van Slooten, with Jennifer Crusie herself responding to our analysis of her books. That’ll be running on Friday, from 3:15 to 4:15. Hope to see you there!

So, popular romance fiction is very much a viable and active subject for academic analysis. Thanks for letting us on the ride! We wouldn’t be anywhere else!

I was frustrated. Upset. Anxious. Bewildered. Puzzled.

My nerves frazzled beyond belief.

Every night I went to bed, irritated with myself and my lack of progress, and then lacking progress because I was so irritated. What was up?!

I’ve been hanging around the internet writing community for about five years now, and have lurked and de-lurked, blogged and not blogged, and generally gone back and forth over my involvement with the internet. When I’d had trouble sleeping at night, and I couldn’t write for the racing of my brain, I realized that writer’s block was not the culprit. It was the internet.

We live in an time where our desires can be instantly gratified. Press a button to buy a book. Or a blouse. Or a pair of shoes. Heard about a new TV show but don’t want to wait for it to air? Go to YouTube or Hulu. Want on-the-minute news? Twitter now has you covered. And with writing? We can google “agent blog” or “author blog” and dozens leap to view in less than 0.0000392 seconds. As witnessed when Tor editor Heather Osborn tweeted her need for a book to fill a slot, even book submissions are provided neigh instantaneously. Add to this the many blogs, forums, facebook and myspace pages, listservs, and livejournals, writers are bombarded with what’s hot, what’s not, what readers say they hate, what readers say they love, what’s going wrong with the publishing industry, what’s the latest market deal, who got that six figure advance. It’s enough to make your head spin–and right off your neck if try to keep up with it.

Which is what I attempted to do. A friend of mine pulled herself out of the rat race to go indie, and though I applauded her, I was too afraid to do so myself. Though I think she’s an excellent writer, I thought going indie was “giving up,” throwing in the towel, declaring to the world that I was a “failure.” And yet, wasn’t that failing myself?

I contemplated this morsel for a few weeks, and simultaneously began to cull the time I spent online, and began to choose where I spent my internet time. As that circle of stops grew smaller and smaller, I felt that knot of anxiety and doubt dissolve. And I stopped writing. I focused on getting on the internet to just have fun, not find out the latest publishing news or follow the latest #fail. And *shockingly* a novella I’d abandoned earlier this year, one I–inspired by my friend–planned to offer online for free, casually slid beside me and began to write itself.

Writing goals are a good thing. Keeping track of the latest publishing news is smart. Maintaining ties with people you connect with is fun. There a lot of information on the internet and a lot of cool people, but there are times when slacking off is beneficial. I know it’s been so for me, and I plan to take time off each month just to chill to recharge my creative juices without the voices of millions clamoring in my head.

I’ve always been behind the times– a year or two late in fashion (because I’m on a budget and buy on sale after the season’s over), delayed in knowing what’s hip, what’s cool, and what’s out; and never, ever in the know about the hottest tv shows.

Case in point, I’m currently hooked on Friday Night Lights. I knew the show existed back in the first season (one of my best friends LOVED it and never wanted to go out on Friday nights if there was a new episode on). But the movie (which I also never saw because it was about football and had Billy Bob Thorton) never appealed to me so I never got turned on to the show.

Then we moved from California to North Texas and to a town that values football and sports above all else. I turned to Friday Night Lights as a way to educate myself about this foreign place we’d moved to. I rented season 1 on Netflix and started watching it. By episode 2, I was hooked. I’ve always loved Kyle Chandler–anyone remember Homefront? Evening Edition? And Connie Britton was with Michael J. Fox on Spin City. They were familiar faces and I fell into them right away.

But more than that, I began rooting for the football team and caring about the players (too bad I can’t know pro players personal stories in the same way or I might care about them, too!). I loved the dynamic between Eric and Tammi. They argue, they depend on each other, and they love each other.

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The show is full of conflict. Every episode is wrought with high drama. And Coach Taylor is forced to evaluate and reflect on his values in each and every episode. He is the moral compass of the show. He’s the chief, a charmer, and a hard-ass best friend to his players.

I just finished season 2 and now have to wait a while before I can even get season 3, but I love watching the show this way. I can get my fill of small town life (aside from the one I’m living, of course) in whatever size dose I want, and even if I have to wait for the next installment because I’m behind the times, I don’t mind because I know it’s coming.

I realize that I do this with books, too. I know there are best sellers out there, books that are ripe with buzz, series that I’ve heard nothing but good things about. And I’ll wait and wait and wait (not on purpose, but, well, maybe subconsciously on purpose) until I can read a group of books from a series at once, or read several by a fantastic author consecutively. This is my M.O., I realized. Am I alone? Do others do this, too? Do you like to keep your pleasure (tv and books) spread out, or do you like it clustered? Tell me! Am I crazy? And will season 3 of Friday Night Lights live up to my expectation? They are high.