Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Smart BItches In the News
October 14, 2011 | Friday at 12:29 am | 9 Comments
USA Today’s Deirdre Donahue did a Q&A with me about EIKAL that allowed me ample opportunity to address and hopefully correct some of the misconceptions about the romance genre, including facts about the books themselves and the women who read and write them. YAY!
The article is online and in the print edition today, too.
I think with their new romance blog headed up by author Joyce Lamb, there will be an increase in romance-positive articles - which is awesome because 1.8 million copies is nothing to sneeze at. I am so excited that they printed an article focused on how positive and powerful romance can be.
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December 09, 2010 | Thursday at 4:14 pm | 63 Comments
Romance is front and center, or front page, bottom right corner, in the New York Times today, with a picture of me and my dogs.
Sarah Wendell, blogger and co-author of “Beyond Heaving Bosoms,” is passionate about romance novels.
Except for the covers, with their images of sinewy limbs, flowing, Fabio-esque locks or, as she put it, “the mullets and the man chests.”
“They are not always something that you are comfortable holding in your hand in public,” Ms. Wendell said.
So she began reading e-books, escaping the glances and the imagined snickers from strangers on the subway, and joining the many readers who have traded the racy covers of romance novels for the discretion of digital books.
If the e-reader is the digital equivalent of the brown-paper wrapper, the romance reader is a little like the Asian carp: insatiable and unstoppable. Together, it turns out, they are a perfect couple. Romance is now the fastest-growing segment of the e-reading market, ahead of general fiction, mystery and science fiction, according to data from Bowker, a research organization for the publishing industry.
Not only are my dogs pictured, as well as Christina Dodd’s three-armed book cover and some other of…
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July 23, 2010 | Friday at 9:31 pm | 15 Comments
Heads up Melbourne, and Aussies with a web connection: I’ll be on 744 ABC Melbourne radio on Sunday. It’ll still be Saturday here, but I believe 8:30 pm EDT is 11:30 am in Melbourne the following day, right? Either way, 11:30 am in Oz is when you’ll likely hear me talking to Alan Brough about erotic fiction and erotic fan fiction. I believe the broadcast is streamed online at the ABC Melbourne website, so you should be able to listen in, even if you’re not in Melbourne.
Got recommendations of your favorite, particularly erotic fan fic retellings? Which pairing rocks your world? I’ve always LOVED erotic fanfic of characters who haven’t done it yet, or who might have but were very cagey about it. As wise commenter India pointed out via email in the Scarecrow & Mrs King discussion, what can really sustain interest in a series is not “will they or won’t they” but “are they or aren’t they?” Erotic fan fiction can satisfy the the sexual tension that’s building, or create a whole new world of tension (poor Harry Potter. He pretty much got busy with everyone at Hogwarts in fanfictionland. The boy who livedindeed).
What’s…
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March 06, 2010 | Saturday at 3:30 pm | 42 Comments
This week, over at Miller-McCune, results of a study were published that examined the title hook words of romance novels from Harlequin:
Coming from an evolutionary psychology perspective, they hypothesized these titles would reflect mating preferences that have evolved over the millennia — specifically, a desire for a long-term relationship with a physically fit, financially secure man who will provide the resources needed to successfully raise a family.
You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m shocked. I’m Googling the word “agog” to see how I can best modify my facial expression to accommodate the definition. Linda Holmes from NPR’s Monkey See blog asked me to respond to the research study, which I did under the title Beyond Heaving Bosoms, Indeed: Expert Guidance On Romance Titles:
Stop the presses: Harlequin titles reveal our—by “our” I of course mean “women’s”—evolutionary coding and psychological desire for ... wait for it, wait for it ... You sitting down? Good.
We prefer to mate with “a physically fit, financially secure man who will provide the resources needed to successfully raise a family.”
In other news, ice is slippery, water is still wet, and those silly romance readers are once again looking for fantasy men. Pah….
…
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February 17, 2010 | Wednesday at 6:04 am | 54 Comments
I left my desk for an hour today, and came back to find Twitter had exploded with the news that Yes, I can has book deal. I’m going to be writing a book for Sourcebooks for early 2012 titled, “Everything I Need to Learn about Romance, I Learned from Romance Novels.” It’ll be nonfiction, timed for a near-Valentine’s Day release, I think.
The book will look at different stages of relationships and how romance novels can serve as guideposts to people navigating normal relationship stuff. One thing that has always ticked me off is the accusation that reading romance novels gives women unrealistic expectations of real life, and I love having the opportunity to dismantle that hogwash page by page. I’ll be reaching out to authors, referring to scenes and books, incorporating real situations that people face - and I hope revealing more of the awesome women and men who write and read romance.
I’m excited and intimidated, which I presume is normal. But also: happy dance commences… now!
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December 30, 2009 | Wednesday at 1:06 am | 39 Comments
Earlier today, DataDiva forwarded me a link that nearly knocked me over. I’m still a little dumbstruck by it, and went around and around about linking to it here because, well, you should see how much I turn red at a compliment. It’s kind of scary. I look like I’m about to explode.
The ever-awesome Linda Holmes of NPR.org’s Monkey See blog named me as one of her Top Ten Favorite Pop-Culture Humans of 2009. With Neil Patrick Harris. And Jane Lynch. And Craig Ferguson. Sweet Holy Donuts, I’m next to Drew Barrymore. That alone makes me shiver with glee and agognessment:
8. SB Sarah. One of the founders, and seemingly the current primary blogger, at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, Sarah Wendell is fearless and opinionated and puts her chin out every day to do one of the toughest jobs a lady can assign herself, which is to challenge people’s preconceptions and prejudices about culture. In Sarah’s case, she writes thoughtfully and hilariously about romance novels, dumping on the worst cliches and celebrating the writers who find ways to make a difficult genre interesting.
She’s also become very knowledgeable about e-books (which are perfect for romance readers), and wrote…
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November 21, 2009 | Saturday at 8:27 pm | 22 Comments
In an article about the allure of love potentially gone bad titled Why We Love It When Love Bites, NY Daily News Entertainment Editor Olivia Smith takes a look at romance, New Moon, and why so many people are drawn to tales of Love Gone So Freaking Wrong.
She quotes Dr. Eric Selinger, who gives a brief but compelling analysis of what makes the Twilight series so compelling from a structural standpoint:
An idealized, unconsummated romance like Edward and Bella’s, he says, falls in the tradition of Eros, which dates back at least to the Greek poet Sappho in the 7th century.
“The highs are so high and the lows are so low, and its all-consuming and everything else falls away,” Selinger says.
This type of love “is really about desire, but without the consequences that come with practical concerns of negotiating a life together.
“It’s the tradition that conceives of love as something that transforms the self,” he says. In the case of “New Moon,” Bella’s desire to renounce her humanity and follow her beloved into the world of the undead gives this a literal form.
The transformative aspect of this type of love, Selinger continues, may be…
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November 19, 2009 | Thursday at 2:18 am | 27 Comments
Motoko Rich, who is second to Hillel Italie on my list of Reporters of Whom I am a Quietly Squeeing Fangirl, wrote an article for The New York Times that examined the use of iPhones and iPod Touch devices as reading tools. The article was titledLibrary in a Pocket , and quoted me talking about my use of both the iPhone and the Kindle during my commute:
Indeed, Sarah Wendell, an administrative assistant in Manhattan who blogs about romance novels, said that although she used the iPhone to read while on a coffee or lunch break, she still used her Kindle during her one-hour commute from New Jersey.
For long reading sessions, she said, the iPhone is “a small screen, and my eyes would start to hurt, even though I crank the text up to grandma or great-grandma size.”
Author Shannon Stacey and fellow blogger Keishon Tutt of Avid Book Reader were also quoted, though my look at the iPhone as a reader counters theirs. They prefer one device that does everything and like reading on the iPhone.
“These e-readers that cost a lot of money only do one thing,” said Keishon Tutt, a 37-year-old pharmacist in Texas who…
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November 17, 2009 | Tuesday at 3:35 am | 16 Comments
Jane Litte, Angela James, Malle Vallik and I are quoted in an amazing article about romance readers and digital books. Here’s the catch: much like a book that rocks in the content but makes you cringe in embarrassment at the cover, you must skip past the headline to get to the good part.
Well, no, you can’t really skip it because it’s the first thing you see, so let’s get to that first:
When it comes to format, romance readers are promiscuous
Just like authors have no control the cover art or titles of their books, journalists have little control over their headlines. So let me address this to Publishers Weekly and whatever boneheaded editor made that decision:
“Promiscuous?” REALLY? That’s the best you could do after four very intelligent and digitally savvy women take time to discuss ebooks with your equally intelligent and savvy reporter? REALLY? I’m ashamed of you. Honestly. You had ample opportunity and acres of clever options, and confronted with women working within the digital romance industry, you went with “promiscuous?” Deplorable.
Anyway, on with the article, which ROCKS. Fox touches on digital adoption, devices, and DRM:
Capitalizing on this trend, Harlequin recently…
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November 06, 2009 | Friday at 9:24 pm | 13 Comments
Thanks to alert awesome person Michelle Hauf, I found out that our site is featured in Marie Claire this month (December 2009 for those of you in Australia, where it’s already 2011).
We’re on page 98 as part of a list of the top 15 Best Websites for Wasting Time.
OH. My. GOD. Could I be more flattered?! HOLY HELL.
We’re on a list with Daily Danza, CakeWrecks, There I Fixed It, and 1Bruce1—and Lifetime, Wow? I may swoon.
Here’s a scan of the list, should you like 14 other ways to suck the time out of your day. I’m already working my way through the list. Thanks, Marie Claire!
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October 10, 2009 | Saturday at 6:28 pm | 16 Comments
Jane Sullivan, a syndicated newspaper columnist across Australia, has written a piece about romance fiction. Smart Bitches, Beyond Heaving Bosoms, and Mavis titled Romance fiction deserves respect.
Hell, yeah, it does. And it sounds like Sullivan is a fan of the genre herself.
o thank Eros for two Americans, Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan, who dreamed up Mavis for their book Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels. It’s an unashamed celebration of their great passion, and they make no apology for it….
This is the kind of analysis we want: down to earth, cheeky, motivated by an extensive knowledge and sincere love of the genre, yet merciless on the quality control. I’d love to see a couple of Smart Bitches let loose on literary fiction.
Whoa. Thank you, ma’am! And hell yeah. If you’re a romance fan, Ms. Sullivan, I’d love to know what your favorites are. Thanks for celebrating the romance all over Oz. My fangirl crush on Australia has reached new heights now.
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October 07, 2009 | Wednesday at 9:24 pm | 14 Comments
Dear Internet: I miss you. So very, very much. I’ve started a half-dozen posts (Katiebabs, I’m still working on finishing the cri de coeur—though cri de singe fâché might be more accurate—that’s my review of Cry No More) and left them unfinished. I am shaking my tiny, tiny fist against the various timesuck vortices that have spontaneously emerged around me.
But if you miss seeing me on-line, you have an opportunity to see me IN REAL LIFE, if you live in the Portland area and you’re free this weekend, because behold, I’ll be taking part in two events at our annual literary festival, Wordstock. One of them costs a bit of moolah ($25, but there will be many, many other intimidatingly awesome authors there) and the other costs essentially the price of admission to the festival.
Item the First Saturday, October 10, is the Live Wire show, wherein you get to see Many People Who Are Not Me Who Intimidate the Everloving Snot Out of Me. The line up includes Sherman Alexie (AAAAAAAAAAAA here’s hoping I don’t fangirl all over him and then faint on his shoes from the hyperventilation), James motherfucking Ellroy, and Wesley Stace, who wrote a really…
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July 24, 2009 | Friday at 9:13 pm | 180 Comments
Great day in the morning! We’re in People Magazine.
While the article doesn’t appear to be on their website, in the 3 August issue, featuring a very messy-headed Robert Pattinson and “his messy love life” on the cover, on page 46, there’s BOSOMS! And a list of our very favorite romances.
Here, a PDF for your viewing pleasure! People magazine, page 46.
People (the magazine, not the plural noun) had asked us for a list of our very favorite romances, and that list was, of course, a LOT longer when we sent it in. Five of our choices made the list:
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July 07, 2009 | Tuesday at 3:50 pm | 38 Comments
Deirdre Donahue of USA Today profiled romance novelists Eloisa James and Julia Quinn, and feature some random bloggers (us!) in an article about how smart women read and write romance.
Oh holy crap, I can’t tell you how proud I am to be part of romance-positive coverage.
Looking at the intelligent and fierce women who write and read our favorite genre, Donahue’s piece lets James, Quinn, and Harlequin CEO Donna Hayes speak for themselves. Their quotes are frank and supportive of the genre - and reveal what we’ve known all along: that we’re clever, savvy, and so damn intelligent. The print version includes even more pictures - including us! Woo hoo!
My very favorite quote illustrates and completely smacks the hell out of all those insults we deal with as romance fans:
“When I saw the invitation to speak at Princeton, I said, ‘Holy crap, we have arrived,’ ” says Regis, 56, an English professor at McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., and author of the seminal text, A Natural History of the Romance Novel….
Today, in addition to his poetry classes, [DePaul University English professor Eric] Selinger teaches courses on the romance genre.
Is it awkward to be…
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June 15, 2009 | Monday at 7:45 pm | 21 Comments
Oh, let us celebrate the positive press about the romance! This week, in the 22 June issue, Nora Roberts is profiled in The New Yorker - alas, the article is not available online but I’m begging for a PDF to post here as soon as possible.
As part of their “Profiles” section, Lauren Collins takes a look at the career and impact Nora Roberts has had on publishing and American fiction. From personal history to a discussion of Roberts’ online marketing chops - including appearances on AOL chat rooms, blogs like this here site, and her own bulletin board, ADWOFF - Collins’ profile is very, very well done, and of a well-deserving subject, too.
In the New Yorker podcast interview with Lauren Collins,, the host, Curtis Fox, discusses his own embarrassment at checking out a Nora Roberts novel in preparation for the interview, and then goes on to ask about romance - why is it dismissed and ignored, and what did Collins learn about the genre as part of the article research. Collins namechecks us as the source for the basic summary of romance novels, which was written by Candy: “Boy meets girl. Holy crap, shit happens! Eventually,…
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