I Got 99 Problems But a Bitch Ain't One

Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan occupy some interesting real estate in the romance world; a previously untenanted corner of Innernet and Romancelandia. Smart Bitches, Trashy Books is a different sort of headspace when it comes to a website about Romance novels.  It's frank, forthright, and not above fart jokes. 

Wendell and Tan don't just review novels, they also subject them to analysis, and praise or pan them as the situation requires. They demonstrate an unquenchable and exuberant love for the entire genre, while acknowledging - and even celebrating - its most ridiculous excesses. They've amassed an interesting and intelligent readership who tune in for the commentary and stay for fun. They even popularized the ever-useful phrase ‘man-titty’ as a descriptive aid in the discussion of cover art.  And now the original Smart Bitches have written a book of their own: Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels

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Tags: 1970s , 1980s , 1990s , 2000s , Candy Tan , criticism , humor , plagiarism , race , Sarah Wendell , the ladies

Love, Pain, and the Whole Damn Thing

Oprah’s Book Club had a massive impact on the literary landscape, and I mean that in a good, non-dinosaur-killing way. The huge surge in the trade paperback market owes much to Oprah. I was working for Chapters when it went nova, and the number of times we were asked for “y' know, that book Oprah was talking about” was mind-boggling. The only question asked nearly as often was “Why does she always choose such $#!@*& depressing books?”

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Tags: Barbara Samuel , category romances , contemporaries , historicals , Oprah , race , religion , tv , UK

I Want My Mummy

This month we're mixing it up at the Gutter, with the editors writing about something outside their usual domain. This week Chris Szego writes about movies. Well, mostly movies.

I’m a total chicken. This means I don’t watch anything that smacks of horror.  In fact, I tend to close my eyes when the music gets even a little bit ominous. It’s not the gore I mind so much (though really, intestines belong on the inside), but the terror. The supposed cathartic release of the horror movie escapes me: I scare really easily, and unfortunately, I stay scared long after the movies ends. Which means I’ve missed any number of important genre movies:The Thing, The Exorcist, most of Alien. So imagine my joy when awkward first date manners had me agreeing to watch The Mummy

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Tags: 1930s , adventure , Ancient World , Arnold Vosloo , Brendan Fraser , Cairo , Egypt , historicals , horror , John Hannah , lists , monsters , mummies , Oded Fehr , Rachel Weisz , romance

Canadian Content

Most major genre fiction publishers are located in either New York or London.  Romance is a bit of an exception:   Harlequin Books, the world's largest publisher of romance, is headquartered in Toronto.  Nor is the Canadian flag absent on the authorial side. There are Canadian romance writers from coast to coast, many of whom have huge international followings. One of my favourites is Mary Balogh.   Her story, like that of so many other Canadians, starts elsewhere.

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Tags: aristocracy , Canada , class , feminism , gender , Harlequin , historicals , Mary Balogh , Regency , Saskatchewan , the ladies , Toronto , UK , WWII

Now vs. Then

Generally speaking, Romances are divided into two broad groups: contemporary and historical. Those distinctions are somewhat fluid. For instance, although it used to refer to anything set after  1900, ‘contemporary’ now encompasses anything set after World War II. ‘Historical’, meanwhile, covers everything else.

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Tags: 1980s , 1990s , Amanda Quick , contemporaries , Elizabeth Hoyt , FBI , Georgian , heists , historicals , Iris Johansen , Judith McNaught , Julia Harper , Julie Garwood , law enforcement , Lisa Kleypas , Loretta Chase , Nora Roberts , pseudonyms , publishing , Regency , thrillers

Wolf In The Door

I think the adage about not judging a book by its cover was probably invented by publishers’ marketing departments. They spend a surprising amount of time and effort on covers, and don’t want that time to be wasted, so you're told to judge a book its prose.  I can get behind that. As a bookseller, I always recommend that people searching for new authors should try a page or two. Nine times out of ten, you can tell if you’re going to like a book after only a few pages.

Of course, that tenth time is a humdinger.

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Tags: aristocracy , category romances , class , historicals , Joan Wolf , marriage , marriage of convenience , medieval , mysteries , Normans , paleolithic , pre-historicals , Regency , Saxons , UK

All I Want For Christmas Is A Few Good Books

In the spirit of the season, here are ten, in alphabetical order by author.

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Tags: adventure , Africa , Alexander the Great , Athens , Carpathia , Christian Cameron , Classical World , Congo , contemporaries , detectives , dragons , Elizabeth Hoyt , end times , fantasy , Greece , historicals , Lisa Kleypas , lists , Liz Carlyle , Macedonia , Malcolm Gladwell , Marjorie M. Liu , marriage , military , mysteries , Nora Roberts , paranormality , Shana Abe , shapeshifters , Sharon Shinn , Terry Pratchett , UK , viruses

It's the End of the World as we Know It

Remember Y2K? All those pre-New Year’s warnings about what might happen to the world’s computer systems?  People were pretty calm about it, but many thought, hey, better safe than sorry, and stocked up on toilet paper and non-perishables. But as it happened, the giant looming what if turned out to be nothing, and the world was utterly uninterrupted. There were some spectacular fireworks, sure, but there were also white sales, air traffic control, and neo-natal care.  Life, in short, went on as usual.

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Tags: Dark Ages , dragons , end times , England , Georgian , historicals , Medieval , millennium , nuns , religion , Shana Abe , UK , witches , Y2K

Money For Nothing

Most writers get into the Romance genre because they read it, and they read it because they love it. Each writer is drawn to the genre for different reasons, of course. Whether the concentration on character; the focus on primary relationships; or the essence of the triumph of hope, the many appeals of the happy ending hook writers the same way they hook readers. Elizabeth Lowell, on the other hand, got into it for the money.

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Tags: A.E. Maxwell , Ann Maxwell , capitalism , category romances , collaboration , Elizabeth Lowell , Evan Maxwell , historicals , Jayne Ann Krentz , Los Angeles , modern romances , mysteries , science fiction , Silhouette , telepathy , thrillers , writing

Squeeze Play

Romance and sports don’t mix. That’s the conventional wisdom, anyway. It’s one of those weird rules, hidden and unarticulated, that seem to underly any given genre. It’s a tenet that gets passed down to new writers, not as gospel so much as in the form of a mild warning. It’s not that books about athletes are uninteresting, the wisdom would have it; it’s that they’re unsellable. Readers won’t care about them, so editors won’t buy them.

Unlessyou’re Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Then all bets are off.

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Tags: Chicago , collaboration , football , golf , Justine Cole , Midwest , sports , Susan Elizabeth Phillips

It Takes Two

If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard that writing is a lonely profession I would (to misquote  Stephen Colbert) have a hell of a lot of hypothetical money.  But phrases don’t become cliches without reason, and the truth is that many writers spend a great deal of their time inside their own heads.  Too much time?  Maybe for some.  But what it all comes down to is the battle between the writer and the empty page.  Writing is not a team sport*.  Except, of course, when it is. 

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Tags: collaboration , Georgette Heyer , historicals , Jane Austen , Laura London , noblemen , piracy , Regency , Robert Louis Stevenson , Robin James , Sharon Curtis , Stephen Colbert , Tom Curtis , writing

Alpha Bits

It kind of goes without saying that the Romance genre is full of tropes and archetypes (though just to be clear: the happy ending is not archetype, but architecture).  Some come in plot form: the rags-to-riches story, for instance, a modern take on the Cinderella mythos.  Sometimes they pertain to character:  the driven career woman forced to reassess her priorities, or the survivor of a bad marriage learning to trust again.  Occasionally character archetypes can read less like original patterns than faded photocopies, and stock characters become exhausted pastiches.  One character archetype that’s occasionally misrepresented and often misunderstood - though never out of favour - is the character of the alpha male.

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Tags: alpha male heros , archetypes , category romances , gender , Linda Howard , mysteries , paranormality , serial killers

Mysterious Lady

We have saying in our bookstore: Frontlist may bring customers through the door, but it's the backlist that brings them back. Book lovers are completists.  Bookstores that can fill the gaps in their ever-increasing collections quickly become favourite stops.  There’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of putting it all together, of finally finally owning all the books by a much-loved author.  Of course, neither is there any pleasure to equal the joy in the discovery of a new favourite.  Like, say, one of the recent additions to my pantheon of must-haves: Tamara Lejeune.

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Tags: Regency , Tamara Lejeune

Peanut Butter and Jayne

No matter the genre or subject, every reader has her Absolute Favourite writers.  The ones whose books she’ll charge the stores to get, and drop everything to read.  Diving into those books is a particularly edifying treat, a gourmet of literary delight.  But there’s more than one kind of favourite. Sometimes a reader wants plain and simple -- sometimes the hankering for peanut butter wins out over a new gustatory adventure.  Occasionally, you just want something comforting, familiar, and, though it may not be the fanciest item to ever hit the palate, a taste you know you’ll like.
   
That’s pretty much how I feel about Jayne Ann Krentz.

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Tags: Amanda Glass , category romances , Harlequin , historicals , Jayne Ann Krentz , Jayne Bentley , Jayne Castle , paranormality , Silhouette , Stephanie James

No Thanks, I've Had Enough

There’s lots to enjoy about romance novels.  The arc of character development.  The layered emotional content.  The rare and welcome sense of success (otherwise known as the happy ending).  A good romance novel is a singular pleasure. 

A bad one, on the other hand, can be excruciating. 

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Tags: amnesia , brides , category romances , cowboys , doctors , faeries , fantasy , lists , medical , nurses , paranormality , Scotland , Scottish romances , secret babies , UK , vampires , werewolves , Westerns

The Lady's Got Class

I once heard a reader dismiss a particular romance novel - and, in fact, the author’s entire writing career - because she felt the writer had no grasp of history.  Her complaint?  In the book, a character used a zipper several weeks  before it was invented in real life.  Now, I’m aware that historical errors can be very distracting, but it’s also possible to pay too much attention to the nicities of historical detail at the expense of the actual story.  More important, and thus more damaging when done wrong, is historical anachronism pertaining to character.
 

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Tags: anachronism , class , historicals , Lisa Kleypas , realism

It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

There’s a scene at the end of the film of Jane Austen’s Persuasion (the Ciaran Hines version, natch) that I love.  In it, the hero holds out his hand, and the heroine takes it.  That’s it, just two people holding hands.  What makes it so powerful is what led up to that quiet moment - the pain, regrets and misunderstandings are all behind them now, and from that moment forward, the two of them will move on together.  Romance fans love this scene, despite its sweet placidity:  it is profound, has the emotional impact of a battering ram and, given that the hero is even wearing gloves, is entirely, utterly tame.

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Tags: Anne Stuart , Ciaran Hines , community , conventions and festivals , fear , ghosts , gothic , Jane Austen , murder , thieves

Oh What Fools Immortals Be

It’s an old story, ancient, even, but you know it.  The young lovers, tragically separated by death.  The hero’s terrifying journey into the Underworld to find his love.  The dark moment of sacrifice, and the intercession of the gods.  The long, fraught trip back to the world above.  And then, just before they emerge, Alice says...

... “Er,” you say.  “Alice?”

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Tags: gods , Greece , London , UK , underworld

Southern Comfort

I’ve never been much of a fan of Southern Literature.  Partly because I was force-fed too much of it in school (though I don’t include To Kill A Mockingbird in that), but partly because, well, you know that whole ‘Eden lost’ ethos that flavours so much of it?  Yeah, spare me.  That may not be a mature response, but it runs deep and strong.  Which makes it all the more amazing that I’ll drop just about anything to read a new book by Deborah Smith, who is Capital S Southern.

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Tags: Belle Books , Deborah Smith , Georgia , South

Ten To Read

I always enjoy the 'Best Of' lists that come out this time of year.  Seems to me that kind of potted commentary, however limited, offers a great starting place.  So in the spirit of year-end helpfulness, here's a list of ten romances worth reading.  Historical and modern; sexy and mild:  they run the gamut.  I'm not claiming these are the best of any particular sub-genre, just that they're worth reading.

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Tags: archaeology , Canada , Chesapeake Bay , Eva Ibbotson , fantasy , France , Georgette Heyer , historicals , Jane Austen , Jenny Crusie , LGBT , lists , Medieval , music , Napoleon , Nineteenth Century , Nora Roberts , Paris , rakehell heroes , Regency , science fiction , Scotland , Shana Abe , Sharon Shinn , spies , UK

A Fine Pursuit: Loretta Chase

Some months back I wrote a column about Georgette Heyer, who re-imagined Jane Austen’s Regency era and popularized it for modern audiences.  The Regency period, 1811-1820, refers to the years of King George III's insanity, when his son, the Prince of Wales, was Regent of England in his father’s stead.  Given the similarity of style and tastes (and the continuing figure of the former Prince as King) the period is often extended to mean the years between 1800-1830. 

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Tags: Cairo , colonialism , Egypt , George Brummell , hellrake heroes , historicals , Loretta Chase , Napoleon , Regency , UK , wit

And Now For Someone Completely Different...

I worked in my local library all through junior high and high school.  One of the lingering benefits was that for years I knew where all the brand new books were kept:  after they were entered into the system, but before they were put on the shelf.  It was like being an explorer.  Not only were the books pristine and untouched, but there was also the chance that I might make some fabulous discovery before anyone else.
   
    Then one day in 1993, I did.
  

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Tags: assassins , Bob Meyer , category romances , collaboration , drugs , Harlequin , Jennifer Crusie , library , military , Robert Doherty , wit

Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women

C’mon, admit it.

You thought that title was going to lead to some sort of evaluation of a romance novel - flowery, overwrought and probably twee as hell. In fact, it’s the title of an essay collection: Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women; Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance , edited by Jayne Ann Krentz (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992).

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Tags: Aphra Behn , fantasy , Freud , Jayne Ann Krentz , postmodernism , realism

Everybody's Hero

The Harry Potter books are an oddity in the book world. Not just because they sell so well, but because of how they sell - or rather, when. Each book has a strangely limited shelf life. Rowling's newest title might sell three-quarters of a million copies in 24 hours, but then, well, it's pretty much over. Sales fall off the map. Each of her books is the Best-Selling Book Evar!, but only for a week. Every other week, every other day, the best-selling author in the world is Nora Roberts.

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Tags: category romances , J.K. Rowling , Nora Roberts

Mary, Queen Of Hearts

Despite being a rapacious reader of just about everything, during my formative years I managed to miss any number of writers who are the bedrock of their particular genres. For instance, I read Terry Brooks long before Tolkien (and yes, I'm aware of the gravity of that mistake). I didn't discover Diana Wynne Jones until my mid-twenties, around about the same time I found Georgette Heyer. Another standard bearer I missed during my younger years, one who had a huge impact on many Romance writers who followed her, is Mary Stewart.

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Tags: Diana Wynne Jones , Georgette Heyer , Greece , Hayley Mills , King Arthur , Mary Stewart , romantic suspense , sex , spies , stealth , Terry Brooks , thrillers , Tolkien , UK , WWII

She's The One

Like authors in every genre, romance writers cover a broad spectrum of imaginative ground. They come from a variety of backgrounds, and write to any number of inner aesthetics. Each one has a preferred archetype. From the bewilderingly naive traditional to the often bloody thriller, and every permutation in between, romance authors write to their personal tastes in in terms of pace, mood and degree of modernity. But if you were to get a group of romance writers together and ask them about their formative influences, the vast majority will mention one name: Georgette Heyer.

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Tags: derring-do , detectives , France , Georgette Heyer , Georgian , highwaymen , historicals , mysteries , Paris , Regency , UK , Waterloo , wit

The Better To Bite You With

When it come to romance novels, the trend today is for stories with teeth. And I mean teeth: long, white, sharp, and dangerous. Said teeth might belong to a werewolf, or a shapeshifting tiger, but most often, they're the fangs of a vampire.

Just what is the appeal of the vampire romance? Bram Stoker made the modern western vampire a figure of both attraction and repulsion. Dracula's titular villian was a creature of unmitigated evil, but he, and the book, also seethed with repressed sexuality. That's the beginning of the appeal, though not all of it.

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Tags: blood , Bram Stoker , Dracula , horror , J.R. Ward , Margaret Atwood , paranormality , romance , sex , vampires