Thanks to Quichepup, we have a very rare event. We have word of the fourth positive press article dealing with romance and romance authors. Between the Sudbury Star, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the USA Today, the genre is having a lovely press fiesta.
And hello, Oklahoma! There’s more!
Since a massive and deadly tornado ripped through the state on Tuesday killing 9 people, good news of happy endings, as Quichepup put it, is always welcome, but more so right now.
The Oklahoman newspaper ran two articles today, one on NYT Bestselling author Gena Showalter and fellow Oklahoman and Blaze author Jill Monroe.
But wait, there’s more! PC Cast and Merline Lovelace join Monroe and Showalter in a list of what they consider the “novels you don’t want to miss and the best movie or TV kiss.”
You know, I have often heard romance authors quietly bemoaning the silly and altogether ridiculous questions they are asked come Valentine’s Day, and I have to say – this year has been entirely different with the media coverage. Well played, Oklahoma. My thoughts are with you guys.
One more thing: so many of you have sent me to the link to this week’s Mallard Fillmore comic about Diana Gabaldon. While I wish the tone wasn’t so sniffy in the tired differentiation of Gabaldon from the plebian romance masses, I will say this – damn skippy Mr. Duck. Never mock a woman’s recreational reading.
You’re kidding. People actually buy her mediocre crap?! Wow. There is so much better stuff being written out there.
Considering how many amazing romance authors call Oklahoma home, I’m not surprised The Oklahoman takes notice. The state OKRWA, OKRWA Outlaws, boasts a list of best-selling authors. Gena and Jill just scratch the surface. Add Sharon Sala, Merline Lovelace, P.C. Cast, Jordan Dane, and Amanda McCabe, just to name a handful, to the mix and there’s a lot of romance coming out of this state!
Happy Valentine’s Day, bitches! Love and chocolate to all.
(sighs) I love Diana’s Outlander series but her constant instant that she doesn’t write romance just irks me to no end.
The focus of each Outlander novel is the relationship ship between Jamie and Claire, everything else happens around that central relationship and even the subplots spring from them.
Hence, historical romance.
that’s ‘insistence’ Stoopid speedy fingers.
In a city where the billboard for The Vagina Monologues was controversial (!) I’m impressed that they featured an author of steamy stuff. So openminded.
I left the Oklahoma City area for much greener pastures so I’m allowed to insult it right?
But srsly, the weather can be scary and sad. I’m just glad it wasn’t worse. Imagine my surprise to see my hometown on the radar on CNN the other day. Luckily, the family only got baseball-sized hail.
I was on a chat list with Gabaldon when Outlander first sold and she carried her “I don’t write romance because I’m an academic and too smart for such nonsense” banner high and proud. We romance writers pointed out that the vast majority of her readers were romance readers and she shouldn’t trash the genre and obviously she hasn’t listened. She’s put a lot of readers off her work over the years due to her anti-romance attitude.
Exactly, and I find it even worse that she pays lip service like she doesn’t look down on romance but then gets bothered if her book is referred to as such or is shelved in the romance section. I could be wrong but I think I read somewhere that she asked a bookstore to move her books from the romance section to the fiction section. She then talks so smugly about other book stores that ‘get it right’ shelving wise (ie, don’t shelve her books in the romance section)
If you can remove the romance from your novel and have it stand alone, then fine, it’s not a romance novel. None of the Outlander books fall into this category because they all center around the love story of Jamie and Claire.
Why does she think her novels are so popular? Certainly not because of the ‘historical fiction’ which is fine in and of itself but the reason she’s a best seller is Jamie and Claire’s love story.
I guess I categorize her as one of the author’s I don’t have to like as a person to enjoy her books, but seeing who similar Claire is in personality and tone to Diana herself is really starting to put me off of her as a heroine, but that could be my dislike for the author seeping through.
Oy, okie. Rant over.
Most men don’t want to be seen buying something marked romance. If you write something that you think will appeal to a male audience as well, it is probably a good strategy to have the books in another section. And with a popular author like Gabaldon a larger bookstore could probably win by having copies in romance and fiction or fantasy (which is where I first saw her books).