You know how people can remember where they first heard about a terrible disaster? The Harlequin Horizons debacle is like that for me. While most romance readers heard about it on a blog or a romance message board, I heard about it first on a writing site, AbsoluteWrite.com. Reading about scams that prey on writers is like a hobby for me. When I saw a warning for something called Harlequin Horizons, my first thought was “Some small publisher is going to get in trouble for using the Harlequin name.”
Archive for the ‘Authors’ Category
20% Off Avon Books and a Cool Advanced Read Giveway (Contest Closed)
Monday, November 16th, 2009
We’re very excited to announce a special new benefit exclusively for AAR readers, thanks to the generosity of Avon Books.
From now until December 12th, when you shop at Harper Collins online, you’ll save 20% from your total order when you enter the code AARAvon20 at checkout.
And, to keep the good news coming, we’re also excited to announce a giveaway of an exciting package of Avon advanced reading copies for one lucky winner packed in a cute (really, really cute) handmade tote bag. To enter for your chance to win, just post in the comments section of this post by Thursday, November 19th at 12 midnight, eastern time. A winner will be randomly selected and announced here on Friday.
The prize consists of three e-galleys and six print galleys. The actual release date of all upcoming books is included in parentheses, but the prize will be shipped shortly after the contest concludes. Here’s what the winner will receive:
The Reading Slump That Will Not Die
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
I’ve been in one for weeks now. Weeks and weeks.
I blame Diana Gabaldon. Echo in the Bone, a book I was very much looking forward to reading for review, became a chore. A drag. A book that I dreaded to pick up (and at 10,000 pages, picking it up is not all that easy either) so much that I seem to have lost my joy in reading. It got sucked right out of me. (Blythe took pity on me and reviewed the book. For which I will be eternally grateful.)
Soulless helped. I was hopeful there for a while. But a few C reads later and I am back to my bad habit of playing Solitaire and Bookworm on my iPhone and watching Real Housewives of Atlanta. I do not like playing Solitaire and Bookworm on my iPhone and watching Real Housewives of Atlanta. Night after night. After night after night. (Okay, so I really do like Real Housewives of Atlanta. Not giving that up.)
The Diana Gabaldon Booksigning
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
“There’s a reason I write long books: I like digressions.”
That’s how Diana Gabaldon started off her booksigning for An Echo in the Bone (9/23 at the Tattered Cover in Highlands Ranch, CO). Since I’m a bit of a fan girl, this was not my first Gabaldon signing; in fact, it was my fourth. So I knew some of her wandering stories. Knew that Jamie was inspired by a fetching kilted Scotsman from a Dr. Who episode, knew that she wrote everything in chunks and then wrote the bits that tied the chunks together, knew that she had gotten her start on the compuserve bulletin boards. But Gabaldon is an engaging speaker, so enjoyable to listen to that it was worth ditching choir just to hear it all again.
If You Like at AAR
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
I’ve always had a soft spot for the If You Like pages because they are actually what led me to All About Romance in the first place.
Back in the fall of 1999 a lot of the chaos of my twenties was finally behind me. I’d finished school, grad school, gotten a job, gotten married, and had bought a house. At last I had time to read. For fun. So I turned back to my first love…romance novels. Back in the early 80’s I’d read Kathleen E. Woodiwiss’s A Rose in Winter as a Good Housekeeping super-condensed fiction highlight of the month. I was eleven, but I still remember the sweeping romantic line drawings on the beige colored insert. I read it in sneak peeks in the downstairs bathroom because somehow I knew this was adult-type stuff.
The Summer Storm of Aught Nine
Friday, August 28th, 2009
Once again this week, just as it has multiple times every year since the Internets began, Romancelandia has erupted into flames.
Out of the smoke and fire has emerged more than once from various quarters an old saw I truly hoped had been retired forever: If you don’t have anything nice to say about romance, don’t say anything at all.
Do we really need to have this discussion again?
Books with Buzz: Black at Heart by Leslie Parrish Interview and Contest (Contest Now Closed)
Monday, August 10th, 2009
Leslie Parrish is the alter ego of Leslie Kelly, a writer known for her light, humorous contemporaries. But you won’t be finding light fun with the new Black CATs trilogy by Parrish. Instead you’ll be getting dark, edgy, fantastic romantic suspense that readers and reviewers all over the web are buzzing about.
I almost didn’t start reading this series for a number of reasons. Chief among those was that I’d gone through a bout of bad and/or cheesy romantic suspense and I’d become quite cynical. But with the first book, Fade to Black, I couldn’t resist the idea of a heroine as a small town sheriff, so I took a chance—a chance that really paid off.
I loved the second book, Pitch Black, even more, and when I finished that one I was literally buzzing with excitement. Couldn’t-sleep-excited. Must-find-out-what-happens-excited. If Black at Heart had already been released, I would have driven immediately to the bookstore to buy it. At 10:00 at night. In my pajamas. I was (and still am) that excited.
Meredith Duran Giveaway!
Friday, July 31st, 2009
That’s right, folks! Meredith Duran has graciously offered a copy of her newest novel, Written on Your Skin, to two lucky winners here at AAR. To enter for your chance to win, just comment below. Given that this novel opens in Hong Kong, if you list your favorite romance set outside of England in your comment, your entry will count twice. The contest is open from July 31, 2009 until 5:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, August 4, 2009. Good luck!
-Lynn Spencer
So, What Does This Have to do With Me, Anyway?
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Anyone who spends even a little time reading romance reader sites or publisher/author’s webpages can tell you that book piracy is a very big deal in the book community. It’s also not hard to find information indicating that romance authors have been hit hard by it. Still, as I read the articles, I’ve often wondered what role we as readers play. After all, most of us reading here are not thieves. I read a lot, but I buy my own books and I’ve never downloaded any book that I didn’t pay for or have sent to me by an author or publisher.
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