Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

From the “If I Had a Bodrillion Dollars and Free Healthcare” department comes my pondering of a “more better documentary” about romance – one that started at RT and kept going to RWA, The Romance Slam Jam, and some of the more awesome chapter conferences and reader events. Alas, my million has not rolled in so I’m left to dream.

But this month’s letter from RWA President Sherry Lewis reveals her year as “The Face of Romance” - a title that made her cringe, as she is not normally, as she puts it, a “bona fide introvert.” Lewis, who declines all interviews no matter how many times I say “Pbbbblease?” represented RWA at the Public Library Association’s National Conference with Allison Kelley and Stephani Fry (all of whom are very cool, says I) and her experience proves that there’s some genuinely active and eager people out there looking for romance to read (and not necessarily man titty to grope along with it):

If a sub-sub-genre exists in romance, librarians were at our booth looking for it. They snapped up everything from inspirational to erotic romance, young adult, multicultural, romantic suspense, romantic comedy, romantic fantasy, historical, and paranormal romance. Most of the librarians I met were avid romance readers themselves, but they weren’t there to increase their own to-be-read stacks. They were there for the readers waiting for more romance to find its way onto their library’s shelves.

In addition to the PLA and the Slam Jam, Lewis attended BookExpo America, the Author’s Coalition, and obviously the RWA National Conference in San Francisco. Now, all that travel doesn’t make for fascinating documentary subject, but in a year’s time, Lewis has probably racked up some mega whopping frequent flyer miles, and has certainly done more to represent romance in a positive light than any other documentary works in progress I might mention. As she put it, “Every time I leave home, I’m reminded that RWA is about its members – the people who write romance and who make the world a better place because we do.” Well played and well traveled, Ms. Lewis. Well played.

So what else could a More Better Documentary on Romance feature? I bet the dynamic duo of RomanceNovel.TV could tell me – they’ve been unintentionally creating documentary footage of the genre for a few years now. Note to self – go bug them.

ETA: Serves me right for hitting “Submit” before I finished reading this month’s Romance Writer’s Report. On page 21 is an article by Michelle Monkou that profiles four authors as “Ambassadors of Romance Fiction.” Brenda Jackson, Mary Castillo, Jade Lee, and Beverly Jenkins discuss mentoring, barriers, inspiration, and what each author would do with Oprah’s philanthropic millions. Here’s four more reasons for someone to bust out the videocamera and make with the documentary-ness. 

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Categories: General Bitching • RomanceNovel.tv • RWA
Tags: rn.tv, rt, rwa

As Sarah noted yesterday, the fine folks at Romancenovel.tv posted a video of the two of us talking about romance novels. (WHY do I look and sound like a chipmunk whenever I'm recorded? It's enough to drive a girl to drink. And I'm allergic to alcohol, which means I end up chugging chocolate milk, which really doesn't do much for my romantic image. GODDAMMIT.) (Also, in case this wasn't clear: the people at Romancenovel.tv did a great job. I'm just the least telegenic person ever, with the exception of Carrot Top.) Anyway, if you ever wondered how high-pitched and squeaky I can get when I become excited talking about something, this is an opportunity.

So I meant to write this long, thoughtful post about the evolution of the category romance and the differences in style between American and British/Australian category releases to go with the video, and I was outlining it when I realized, no, what I REALLY wanted to do was post a Top 10 Things I Learned from Category Romances and a very silly comparison table. Screw erudition! Capsule summaries are full of win and awesome!

Top Ten Things I Learned from Reading Category Romances As a Girl
(In other words: Most of these cover old-school category romances.)

10. It's entirely possible to be somebody's mistress while remaining a virgin.
9. Billionaires who regularly date actresses and supermodels will find your mousiness and awkwardness refreshingly real and promptly fall in love with you.
8. "No" means "Kiss me more punishingly." Remember: punishing kisses are a sign he's actually in love with you.
7. Child support? Who needs child support? Real women raise their babies alone! And conceal their existence from their fathers!
6. Australia sure has a lot of Greeks and Italians.
5. And so does England.
4. Sheikhs are never devout Muslims.
3. A traumatic sexual past can be fixed by fucking your boss.
2. It's entirely possible to be the mother to a secret baby while never having had sex, even if your name isn't Mary and you're not a native of Nazareth.
1. OH MY GOD ORAL SEX IS REALLLLLLLLLLL. (Again: Thank you, Anne Stuart. You changed my life.)

Key Differences between Category Romances in the American Mode vs. Category Romances in the British/Australian Mode

Have your own Top 10 list to contribute, or more differences to note? Let us know in the comments.

72 comments •
Categories: Random Musings • RomanceNovel.tv

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It’s all category, all day, here and at RomanceNovel.tv where both Candy and I are yammering in a video about category romance, while Jane from Dear Author is writing at the rn.tv blog about her experiences reading categories. Below is my entry on the subject.

Since I started my steady diet of category romance, I have learned the following three things:

1. I’m something of a judgmental wanker and I owe all category authors an apology. I dismissed this particular facet of romance because I didn’t think it was enough bang for my buck - I read so fast, it takes me about 2 hours to finish a category, at the most, and my prejudice was based on the fact that 2 hours is not a lot of enjoyment for the cover price. I was SO wrong. I’ve got plenty of enjoyment, like merde and mon dieu (TM Nathalie Grey). Yeah, my head? Was up my ass. I was SO wrong. Seems my own attitude needed adjustment, because as Marisa from RN.TV said while we were taping last week, category romances can be a perfect “quick fix” romance read, and so far, I’ve enjoyed many of the ones that I’ve read. So? I was wrong. I stand so very, very corrected.

2. Beyond my prejudice that size matters, I also dismissed the subgenre because I felt vaguely insulted by the concept: here’s a bunch of books this month! Next month, more, with similar titles, but not the same contents! It’s like WCKG FM in Chicago’s promo: “This may not be your favorite song, but it’s got a lot of the same notes.” As a consumer I felt like the category industry looked at the books as interchangeable parts, that one sheikh was as good as two billionaires (especially if they’re IN THE BUSH OMGLOLHAHAHA!) and I was all snorty about what I perceived as dismissal of me as a reader.  Remember what I said about my head, relative to my ass? Yeah, that.

A wise category insider took pity on me and told me the following bits of info, which, as they are from one source, are unverified. Seems the titles that drive me so freaking nuts, oh, how they irritate the shit out of me? They’re all based on “hook words” that are tracked for their sales power. And books that experiment with the formula by using non-hook-word titles? Do not, in this individual’s research, sell as well. So all that sheikh virgin mistress baby boardroom tycoon billionaire title mix & match that drives me so bananas? Sells like crazy. And I have to wonder why the hook words work - my first guess is the reassurance that shopping by keyword guarantees a similar storyline every time. But I could be wrong.

3. Harlequin’s decision to issue all their titles as ebooks? Freaking brilliant. Well played, y’all. 

51 comments •
Categories: RomanceNovel.tv • The Link-O-Lator

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