Last weekend, I drove from Boston to Connecticut to meet writers and agents and readers at Fiction Fest, the annual conference of Connecticut’s RWA (Romance Writers of America) chapter. I set up my camera in the courtyard of the conference hotel, and I had a great time talking with dozens of people. Here are excerpts from my conversations with: Jamie Schmidt, Gail Chianese, Marian Lanouette, April Grey, Louise Fury, Susan Hanniford Crowley, and Gerri Brousseau.
Most local chapters of RWA hold monthly member meetings, where they host discussions and workshops about the craft and the business of writing and publishing. Members get the chance to connect, face-to-face, with others who understand what it’s like to write late at night and hold down a day job. They also share strategies with one another for navigating the publishing business.
The keynote speaker at Fiction Fest this year was Sherry Thomas (who’s already been featured here at PopularRomanceProject.org).
If you’re a member of a national organization, are you a member of your local chapter? Have local chapters made a difference in your life? Comment below the jump! Read More
Romance authors read aloud from their work on the first Monday of every month in the Soho district of New York City. The cover charge for Lady Jane’s Salon is $5 or “one gently used romance novel.” Net proceeds from the events support an end-of-year donation to a NYC women’s charity.
Lady Jane’s Salon was launched in 2009 by three romance authors (Maya Rodale, Hope Tarr, Leanna Renee Hieber) and a book blogger (Ron Hogan). Their series features romance writers from all the romance subgenres, from inspirational love stories to suspense thrillers with murder and mayhem. My crew and I were there with with camera and sound gear the month that Karen Rose, Dianna Love, Carrie Lofty, Sarah MacLean, Eloisa James, and Leanna Renee Hieber were reading. We had a great time!
Lady Jane’s Salon from Laurie Kahn on Vimeo.
Regularly scheduled romance fiction readings, salons like Lady Jane’s, are now springing up around the country.
Would you like a reading series to start in your area? Who would be your dream “readers”?
When you hear a novel being read aloud, does it change your experience? How?
Choose “Read More” to comment, and see what others have to say!
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When Brenda Jackson began writing romance novels, publishers weren’t sure there was a market for African American romance stories. Brenda had a drawer filled with unpublished novels when she got her first contract in 1994. Times have fortunately changed; more than ninety of her novels have now been published.
This has been a banner year for Brenda. In November of last year, her film Truly Everlasting (an adaptation of one of her books) premiered at the Florida Theatre in Jacksonville, her hometown. She and her husband financed the film; she co-wrote the script with her son, who directed the film; and many of the cast members were local. For the film premiere, Brenda decided she’d bring Hollywood to Jacksonville (take a look at the video!). Her readers and relatives flew in from around the country. And more than 100 of her high school classmates were there to celebrate with her too.
Just last week, the Romance Writers of America announced that Brenda will receive the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award, one of the organization’s highest honors. Many congratulations, Brenda!
Erotic romance novels are no longer relegated to the fringes of the publishing world. Random House recently bought the rights to publish Fifty Shades of Grey by English author E.L. James, a trilogy which includes explicit scenes of sex with bondage/domination elements. James is getting a seven-figure deal for the books. Not so long ago, this was unthinkable. So how did this change take place? Where did it begin?
Last summer, the annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance included a panel on erotic romance. One of the publishers on the panel, Cecilia Tan, explained how she got into the business in the early 1990s as Circlet Press, when there were no publishing houses that would publish her erotic science fiction romance. It’s a great story. . .
Erotic romance discussion at IASPR 2011 from Laurie Kahn on Vimeo.
Our site visitors. Popular romance is a global phenomenon.
Our stats raise countless questions. For example, given that the HEA (or HFN) is crucial to the definition of romance genre fiction, have our top countries (the U.S.A., Canada, the U.K., Australia, and Belgium), historically favored relatively optimistic literature? Or perhaps these are the countries with the strongest online communities Read More
Pickyme (Patricia Schmitt) was born in Mississippi, far from the New York publishing scene, but she’s now creating cover art for bestselling romance authors and their publishers. In a recent interview with the Popular Romance Project, she explained how she got to where she is as a totally self-taught artist.
Becoming a cover artist from Laurie Kahn on Vimeo.
Don’t miss the second video! Choose “Read More.” Read More
It’s feared; it’s practiced. And it’s delivered by nervous aspiring authors to editors and agents. It’s commonly believed that a good pitch is essential if you want to get published. Authors frequently pace back and forth in “the pit” (the waiting area) right outside “the pitch room” at writers’ conferences (the room where wannabe authors meet one-on-one with editors and agents they’d like to work with).
When the Popular Romance Project crew is out shooting, we offer aspiring authors a chance to practice their pitches to camera. Here at the website, we’ll be sharing their pitches with you on a regular basis.
Do you want to share your pitch with us? Let us know. What do you think about the pitches we’ve just shared? Please be constructive—and help these aspiring authors out! Tell us your happiest, your funniest, and your most terrifying pitch stories. We’d love to hear about your experiences!
The Pitch from Laurie Kahn on Vimeo.
Here’s what my crew (cameraman, Joe Friedman, and soundman, Daniel Brooks) have to say about being thrown into the wild, mostly female world of popular romance. . .
We were at the Moonlight and Magnolias conference in Atlanta, Georgia, setting up my hotel room as a studio where we could shoot interviews for the film. This involves rigging a backdrop for the interviews, setting up the camera and sound equipment, mounting lights on stands and adjusting the light with reflectors and filters (I want the interviewees to look their best! and beautiful light makes a big difference). This process takes more than an hour, so I decided to get out my little camera and microphone, which look primitive next to the equipment Joe and Daniel use (but it’s good enough for behind the scenes shots). And I asked them, “What do you guys think?”
What do the guys think about popular romance? from Laurie Kahn on Vimeo.
Eloisa James and Lexi O'Neill
Funny things happen on film shoots. . .
When the crew and I went to Georgia Romance Writers’ Moonlight and Magnolias Conference, we knew we’d be shooting keynote speaker Eloisa James getting together with Lexi O’Neill, an author from South Carolina who hasn’t yet been published. The two women hit it off when Eloisa came to a southern conference of romance writers a few years ago, and Lexi volunteered to pick her up at the airport. They realized how much they have in common, since both are full-time college professors Read More
