Sourcebooks and Heyer
How did publisher Sourcebooks acquire the rights to many of influential novelist Georgette Heyer‘s historical romances and mysteries? With good luck and determination! Sourcebooks founder and president Dominique Raccah and editorial manager Deb Werksman told the story to Laurie Kahn, executive producer of the Popular Romance Project. What do you think of Georgette Heyer’s work? What authors or works do [...]
Making rakes from real men
I don’t know about the rest of you historical writers out there, but there are times when I am riveted with jealousy for contemporary writers—mostly when I’m reading a contemporary and the hero speaks. It’s so much easier to do a man in “regular” speech than it is in “Regency-speak.” Here’s an example. I happen to adore MaryJanice Davidson’s books, [...]
MacLean’s Eleven Scandals
How do authors pick the perfect scene for a reading? Something sweet? Sexy? Humorous? Sad? The tone of piece, the venue, and the audience all need to match, and there’s only a short window of time to give a tantalizing glimpse into an entire novel. Sarah MacLean shares selections from an antagonistic scene in Eleven Scandals to Start to Win [...]
My first year published
Remember how much you longed to be a teenager? When I was unpublished, the published state looked just as glorious as the magic year 13 does to an 11-year-old girl. I had no problem visualizing myself signing my name with a flourish and meeting my editor at fancy New York lunches. But First Years are often not exactly as one [...]
Inspirational qualities
Readers of inspirational romance want both a compelling, wholesome love story and an uplifting Christian faith element. A good inspirational romance supplies both of these, and more. Many contemporary readers find it challenging to live an authentic Christian life in today’s world, to act with integrity in an impure culture and to keep their faith, hope, and love alive in [...]
Kaufman on inspirationals
Debbie Kaufman didn’t set out to write inspirational romance (or even romance at all), starting with suspense. But between joining the Romance Writers of America and her son-in-law lending her a copy of Before We Cook and Eat You, an account of missionary life in Liberia in the 1920s and 1930s, she couldn’t help but think, “I wonder if I [...]
Cover to cover
This post was originally published on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and accompanied a podcast. The post appears here with the permission of Sarah Wendell and Lauren Willig: When I wrote my first (publishable) book, the book that became The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, I was pretty sure that I was writing a romance novel. The working title was [...]
Building worlds
A writer’s lifestyle and place in the world can be physically (if not digitally!) isolating. Jessica Andersen, author of romantic suspense and paranormal romances, notes that many authors prefer to “be in our pajamas in front of our computer not having to be social and not having to be extroverted.” However, the fictitious worlds of authors are boundless, and can [...]
Paranormal’s popularity
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel as inspiration? DePaul University professor of English Eric Selinger feels that paranormal fiction gives authors and readers the opportunity to think through ethics and politics of desire with higher stakes than in more realistic subgenres. What do you think triggered the popularity of paranormal romance? Why do you (or don’t you) enjoy reading the [...]
Why does it matter?
Why does popular historical romance matter? Darlene Clark Hine, a professor of African American studies and professor of history at Northwestern University, shares why she feels that popular romance is crucial. Hine even required that popular romance have an entry in the encyclopedia Black Women in America! What history have you taken away from reading (or writing) romance? Do you [...]
