When I first started this site with Candy, I didn’t know much about anything concerning publishing. Then I learned a lot, and a lot fast, and I’ve met amazing people – such as Malle Vallik, Dictatrix of All Things Digital (that’s totally not her title, obviously) and one smart person when it comes to looking at how women read, and thinking about and predicting how the way we read is changing. I call her The Oracle of eBook. It was her idea to have blogger bundles, collections of Harlequin backlist titles loved by romance bloggers and romance readers, for example. She was one of the earliest speakers at publishing and technology conventions to talk about romance, female readers, and what women want from digital reading, and reading in general (us women, we are such a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, and possibly a Snuggie. Ok, I am, it’s freezing here).
Malle is one of those people whom I learn from whenever I meet her. And I heard a rumor that today is her birthday, and that she seriously covets a Smart Bitch Title™. Heh. Happy Birthday Malle – please kneel and receive your new title, and welcome to the Smart Bitch Peerage™.
Now, I rarely manufacture stories about the titles, but I imagine the Duchess Nouque d’Auremme is one of those terrifyingly smart and savvy women at a ball who keeps her eye on every alcove, peeks behind every potted plant, and never lets a chaste maiden go for a walk on the terrace. She’s the type that must be protecting the (ahem) respectability of every woman in the room, I expect. Heh heh.
Happy birthday, Malle!
Happy Birthday Your Ladyship!!
And bundles were the best idea evah!!!
Happy Birthday to the Duchess!!
And… can someone help me out here? How do you pronounce “d’Auremme”?
Happy B’day to the Duchess! You rock, Malle
I bow in your general direction, long may the duchess ROCK ON!
Happy Birthday Malle!!!
Sarah, your description of Duchess Nouque d’Auremme at a ball is spot-on Malle. Although I’m not so sure about protecting the respectability of women in the room! I think Malle as a Duchess would be instructing the women on how to protect the appearance of their respectability while simultaeneously having a grand old time with the men of their choice!
Happy birthday, Duchess Nouque d’Auremme, and may you eat cake!
(And thanks to that “remember my personal info” box, I’ll probably be posting as Duquesa Fellaccio for a while.)
Happy birthday Malle! I had the great good fortune to do a podcast interview with Malle recently. She asked awesome questions and was great to talk to (even though I was a little nervous). When I was trying to get published, Malle wrote my last rejection letter (hmmm…this sounds a little presumptuous but I hope you know what I mean!) and I threw my hands in the air the moment I read “no” and decided to give up writing after receiving it. Fast forward a few years, and I find that letter in my desk and read it again and see all the supportive, encouraging, “I like your writing” stuff that was in the letter and the fact that she asked me to resubmit even though she was passing on the original manuscript. D’oh. So I sat down and wrote another book, which became Can’t Get Enough, my first Blaze. Malle will forever be a part of my journey to publication and I hope she has a fantastic birthday, as befits a Duchess with such a noble lineage.
Happy, Happy, Birthday Malle! *with a bow of course*
I curtsey in your general birthday direction.
Happy birthday, Malle! I love your new title. It is most fitting! Count me among the many grateful authors who have benefitted from Malle’s vision in the digital space. Everything about working with Carina Press has been a dream!
I curtsey to the Duchess!
Happy Birthday your Duchess-ship
Happy birthday Malle!!!
=D
Carin, I’m pronouncing it DRM.
Happy Birthday, Your Grace!
Darlene, Duchess Twitterpants
@Ros – yup!
Greetings from the Kingdom of the Great White North! Thank you to all my kind subjects for your gracious words celebrating the day the world first enjoyed my fabulousness.
Seriously thank you! And thank you to all the great romance authors who write such wonderful books for use to enjoye and to the reades who love to talk about these books with insight and respect. While everyday can’t be a birthday, the gift of romance novels comes close!
I saw Canadian celebrities at dinner last night: Jamie Kennedy (his restaurant), Adrienne Clarkson and her husband John Rolstan Saul—all Americans now have to google these Canadians to learn why they are famous in Canada.
Thanks to Sarah for my wonderful new title. I need to order new business cards, wonder how Duchess Nouque d’Auremme will look? Wonderful!
Geez, skip one day of SBTB and I miss a coronation!
Congratulations, Malle, on both your birthday and your shiny new coronet.