Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Romantic Times 2011

I’m home from RT, I’m unpacked, and, in deference to the past 5 days I spent in heels, I’m not wearing shoes. It’s weird to go from hearing and seeing the people I talk to all day back to reading their comments online. It’s very… quiet in here.

The roundtable Jane and I led focused on where and how readers discover books. Kat from the ARe Cafe has a write-up of the session. Most readers discover books they want to read online, either by recommendations or by reviews - or even seeing what people have recently bought. I said this was sort of like checking out the discard rack when you try on clothes. I am always curious what people have already tried on and discarded, but then, I operate on the idea that everyone else knows more about clothing than I do, so I look at that as a round of selection that’s already been made by someone more knowledgeable than I - even if they didn’t want what they selected. Many readers at the panel mentioned GoodReads, blogs, Amazon and Facebook as sources of book information from other readers, and the places where they most often discover… read more »

A Taste of Romantic Times

Greetings form RT, where the bar goes dead at about 430-5 so people can get dressed up for dinner, and the party doesn’t stop until well past midnight, no matter what time zone you’re in. I heard via Twitter that there were many people in the gym this morning from the RT conference crowd. I’m betting that gym will be a little more sparsely populated in the next few days, unless running with a hangover is your thing.

I know a few people wish they were here, and I can’t say that I blame you for that feeling. I’ve been looking forward to RT for awhile, and can’t wait for the Saturday YA day, and the panels I’m giving. But for all of you who aren’t here, I have a taste of RT for you.

This year, attendees get a pass to the Goody Bag Room, which is filled with books. Really, you walk in and take a deep breath, like it’s fall and someone has a wood fire burning. It’s New Book Smell, y’all. You’re allowed to select 9 books, plus a signed totebag to put them… read more »

Romantic Times

Next week I’m flying the long journey to LA, with two major questions. One, can I fit everything in a carry on, and two, what sessions do I absolutely not want to miss?

I am really excited about RT this year because the conference has done some really smart programming things, like scheduling an entire day of YA authors. Last year at the book fair, there were teams of mothers and teenaged girls (and younger) roving in groups wearing matching fan t-shirts, eager to meet their favorite authors. This year, RT has set aside special sessions for those fans to come, get books signed, and meet with their favorite authors on Saturday. There’s the Teen Party, speed dating where registered attendees can meet authors in small groups, and sessions that are interactive as well. I think this is SO smart - and I bet it’s going to be crowded with many a hand-made tshirt. I’ll try to get pics of the best ones.

And if you’re not a teen but you’re interested in talking in person about all the ideas and changes we talk… read more »

Links: Women, Superpowers and Alexis Harrington

Gosh you’d think the internet was really for p0rn or pictures of cats, but really, it’s all about WOMEN. Heh. And not in the porny sense, either.

From an article from Bob d’Awessome, women not only rule mobile social networking, but we rule social media, too.

This doesn’t surprise me now that I’ve thought about it. I barely have time to return phone calls and have long conversations but I text all day with friends all over the country about new babies, Tylenol recalls (yes, my children’s pain relief options are now down to bourbon and schnapps), and whatever else is going on. Perhaps that’s typical of most women - we keep in touch in tiny ... doses of connection. (Heaven help me, I almost wrote, “we keep in touch in tiny snatches.” There. You can enjoy that as much as I am).

If you missed it when I pimped it earlier, Brenda Novak’s Diabetes Auction is on, much like Donkey Kong and other things that are on. I neglected to link to the item I have up for bid: a shiny, sparkly (maybe) author interview here at the hot pink Bitch palace. According to the listing,… read more »

RT Moment

Usually with any conference or event I attend, there’s always one memory or item I remember best, something that sort of encapsulates the entire event. Sometimes, it’s not a good thing (Pittsburgh’s RT, while hosted by my home town, was a hot mess of groping and asthma attacks for many) and sometimes it’s something outside the script, like at RT in Orlando, when Beth Ciotta turned to Heather Graham and remarked that she couldn’t believe Heather’s daughter, who had just danced onstage, was no longer 3 years old. That moment reminded me that although many people disagree about RT and the events and tone of some of those events, every year that conference is populated by a family of (mostly) women drawn together by their love of books and, perhaps, corsetry. Seriously, not everyone, as I was reminded by KristieJ, has someone they can talk about romance with frankly and honestly and with joy and snark.

This year the moment of RT that I’m going to remember is from the book fair. Yes, I know, you were expecting me to say that the Mr. Romance contestant rubbing Poland Spring water into his manscaping would be the moment that burned… read more »

Overheard at Romantic Times 2010

RT is difficult to describe to someone who isn’t familiar with romance novels, with fan conventions or with the way avid women readers feel about their books. For example, I told someone recently that romance novel readers have a noise they make when someone mentions a book they adore as well. Sort of a heavy sigh, like an extended, “Aaaaaaah.” I’ve said before that two romance readers might not have a single thing in common except the books they read, and that alone gives them hours of conversation.

However, I am guilty of forgetting, and I need to be more mindful of this, that so many women do not talk about the romances they love because if they do so, they’ll be mocked for it. They don’t have people to talk with about how much they adored the latest Anna Campbell novel, or how incredibly powerful that book by Ann Douglas was. They might interact online every now and again, but at RT, there are enthusiastic and avid fans in line everywhere, and there’s no snide remarks about loving romance.

So many authors I’ve spoken with adore coming to RT because it is uninterrupted and extensive time to speak directly… read more »

The Most Mulletful Important Event at RT

At 4:30 pm on Thursday 29 April, MULLETGASM will begin! KristieJ will be wearing THIS WIG:

In the bar! With much revelry and merriment! I believe she is bringing a flannel shirt. And I, bearer of The Mullet Wig if TSA does not confiscate it, am here to tell you, and please don’t tell anyone, that The Mullet Wig shipped WITH ITS OWN HAIRNET. Only the finest hairnetted mullets will satisfy the international incident that was MULLET MANIA US vs. CANADA.

Man, can anything be more awesome!? YES! MULLETGASM in the BAR PART ONE. Because there will be MORE MULLETGASM at RWA.

I think my capslock key is tired.

MacGuyver would want you to come, is all I’m saying. Thursday. 4:30 pm. Bring your mullet.

RT 2010

This year at RT, I will be presenting two sessions and helping out with a third. Along with Angela James and Jane Litte, I’m presenting a session on digital reading on Friday 30 April at 11:15am. We are going to have a veritable smorgasbord, dare I say, a cornucopia of digital reading devices for you to fondle and ask questions about. Jane, Angie and I will talk a bit about the differences and the challenges to switching to digital reading, and there will be a digital reading device to win for those who attend courtesy of AllRomanceeBooks.com and OmniLit.com.

Plus we will be recommending a few romance novels for session attendees to try at a very spiffy discount, also from AllRomanceeBooks.com and OmniLit.com. 

Before that, at 10am, Jane and I will host a live Save the Contemporary session with Louisa Edwards and Julie James. We will be talking about what makes contemporary romance work, what readers are looking for, and what books theses contemporary authors have coming up next for us to enjoy. So if you like contemporary romance as much as we do, come on over. 

Top 10 Highlights of the RT Booksigning

1. Alyssa Day brought me bosom cookies. There is nothing better than sugar and baked goods in homage to bosoms. Thank you! And Barb Ferrer made the trip for the day just to say howdy to me and to her buddies.

2. So many people stopped to meet me, which made me incredibly happy.

Side Note: a very kind person stopped me while I was setting up my computer at Mr. Romance and said, “I know this is rude, but I wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your web site.” Please know: NOT RUDE! AWESOME! I’m often moving very fast or running my mouth at conferences like these, but please know that if you want to meet me, please introduce yourself. I love to meet the people who visit Smart Bitches, especially the lurkers. I’m a lurker just about everywhere else.

3. Jaye Wells and Sophia White were marvelous people to sit next to. Between them and Michelle Monkou at the Boonsboro signing, I have been tremendously fortunate in my table neighbors at book signings.

Mr. Romance and Academia

If you read the Twitteration, you probably got a micro-sense of the Mr. Romance pageant last night. Heather Osborn calls it the mangeant, and clocking in at just under an hour, it was a zippy-mangeant, too. The battery on my laptop hadn’t charged all the way yet.

The opening was funny and silly and sort of slapstick - a lady was reading a book, and the contestants come out from backstage one by one and dance with her. While they were all sculpted and earnest about it, she was hamming it up to the audience, laughing and giving about 42 variations of the “WTF!?!” face. Then, she returned to her book and her sofa, and her “husband” came home—at which time she threw the book down and dragged him backstage.

Silly, and plays on sexual stereotypes of romance that we wish weren’t the ONLY thing for which romance is mentioned, but the contrast of Uber Earnest Chiseled-Jaw Model Type and the well-dressed and attractive reader hamming her reactions for the audience was snort-funny.

Thursday

After a night of dueling pianos and a very late bedtime, Jane and I headed over to the Wyndham Convention Center this mornign under the impression that our panel on blogging was at 230 pm. In fact, I booked the flight to Princeton based on the idea that I wouldn’t be able to leave until after 5pm. Imagine my shock when, at 11:10 I received a text from Jane saying, “Our session is at 11:30am.” It was at 11:30 on the scheduled card in our registration, too, and I hadn’t noticed. DOH.

I was being interviewed by a holy crapping smart sociology PhD student named Andrea (don’t know if she’d like me to use her surname so I won’t) who is working on a research study about romance. Specifically, and I didn’t find out until after I’d answered all the questions so as not to skew my answers, she’s looking at the intersection of the creators, consumers, and product of the romance genre (i.e. authors, readers, and the book itself) and the social community constructed therein. Nothing to talk about there, huh?

Wednesday

What, it’s 1:30 in the morning so technically it’s Thursday, and that’s about as inspirational a title as you’ll get. Jane and I are eating M&Ms and drinking water after a loud and danceful evening of piano bars, tequila, beer, and really, really loud music. My ears are going to ring until Sunday.

Jane and I made it over to the conference center today around breakfast time, and even though this is my second RT, I was surprised by how many people I recognized and how many people recognized me. I saw Beth Ciotta (whose hair looks fabulous) when we were registering, and she’s co-hosting the Mr. Romance competition. According to Roxanne St. Claire, this is a good thing, as Ciotta is holy shit funny. Now I’m totally looking forward to it.

But Wait, There’s More Conferences!

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned the epic clusterfuck of travel I have going on this week, but in case you’re curious, here we go. Presently I’m at Romantic Times in Orlando, where today I’m on a panel about historical romance with Jane. Then, this afternoon I’m on a panel about social networking and new media with Ron Hogan. That will be so difficult, since there’s really nothing about Twitter or the growing power of using a social network to reach consumers (*koff koff Dominos *koff koff Amazon) that we can talk about in terms of author promotion.

Then tomorrow Jane and I are on another panel about blogging. Don’t know what we’re going to find to talk about there. This is the panel at which hecklers promised to show themselves. I have two cameras in my bag for that reason.

After the blogging-stravaganza, I head to the airport where I fly back up to Jersey to attend the Princeton Romance Conference where I’m on the closing plenary panel. So in the middle of the RT reporting with the cover models and the costumes and the discussions of urban fantasy and the presence of leather camisoles, I’ll switch… read more »

RT Conference Wrap Up

Back during the month of nonstop Jewish holidays where there was one right after the other in the middle of the week and I was running from one function to another family dinner and gaining about 5769 lbs to greet the new year, I was asked by Morgan from Miss Media Productions to do an interview about RT. I think I was the last one to participate after just about everyone else had done their segments, and Morgan was nice enough to make room for me in her schedule.

Lo and behold, right after the intro, I’m the lead off hitter. I’m totally not a lead off kinda gal. I’m more of a third string catcher. (I’d say the designated hitter, but the DH is lamesauce). Either way - thanks, Morgan!

RT Convention 2008 Wrap Up from Romantic Times BOOKreviews on Vimeo.

Mr. Romanc and Rom-Com Marital Damage

You know the Mr. Romance pageant at RT? The one I missed because I had to leave early to eat the bread of oppression last year?

Variety is reporting that a comedy is in the works about “a cynical guy who is forced to enter the Mr. Romance competition to win back the love of his life. The competition, which finds hunks whose photos grace the bodice-ripping covers of romance novels, is a real event.”

Oh, boy. This can’t end well.