This started about 2000 and I know all about cycles but 10 years of nothing but Regency all the time is starting to grate at this point. I mean how many authors who many readers would enjoy have either retired or not been published at all because of this. My faviorite time period is Medieval, and I would jump at any chance to read a book that was set outside of the British Isles but this is rarely published and is hard to find when it is. What makes this worse is most of the plot lines are more based on the hero’s emotional issues rather than a real conflict. So I try to avoid the entire era if possible because I want a good story and reading 300 pages of hero’s emotional agnst where that is the sole stumbling block to happiness. If you disagree with me that is your right but I am not the only one feels this way and I feel that there needs to be enough varity in the genre so everyone is happy and I do not think that is too much to ask is it.

To Jill,
As you say, you can’t please them all. To paraphase Abraham Lincoln- “You can please all of the people some of the time, some of the people all the time, but you can’t please all the people all the time.” Don’t let it bother you. We love your books and I, for one, will anxiously await the new medieval triology.

As for “unconventional heroines” – eh. How many truly unconventional heroines are there?

It really starting getting bad in 2003-5 where it seemed that the only type of books that were on the shelves were Regenices and it was almost impossible to find anything else so I picked up some that sounded interesting but it did not take too long for me to lose intrest. I wanted the varity that I first had to come back and was extremely fustrated that I could not find any books that I wanted to read.

It just wasn’t the setting that was wrong either. Most of the conflict was gone or replaced with trival matters that I could have cared less about. I mean I am supossed to care that a wealthy and powerful Duke who some women rejected years ago was afraid to trust another women because it his heart was broken by that women, or his father was distant, or his mother did not love him enough. In many cases all I could think was I would love to have his problems. Now in a light book that meant to be funny that type of problem would work, but in a more serious novel it falls really flat and I just stoped reading the book instead reading anymore of this because I want to read a story with some meat to it where the hero and herione have some real problems to deal with. Add the fact that the books got a lot shorter, under 300 pgs is not uncommon these days, meant that there was very little chance to create a sense of place or add any detail that would help paint the picture that the author is trying to draw

One thing that I noticed, though reviews not by reading some of these books, is the quality is way down. Some of the books seems so bad that I wonder how they were allowed to be published in the first place. The editors should exercise some quaity control and reject some of these manuscipts. Just because it is a Regency does not means that everything else does not matter. The only thing that makes this worse is where the editor tells an author what and how to write the novel. I mean I have heard an editor request an author to write the heroine as a virgin widow. I really thing that editor main job should be finding a good story not trying to change it so the marketing department will have an easier job selling it.

The biggest problem is changing these trends is that a large numbers of the authors who regularly wrote in different eras are either writing Regencies,left the genre, or retired from writting all together. I can not count the number of times where I found an author at the UBS that I really liked and wanted more books of theirs and I found out they are not writing anymore and I can not get another book from them. This means that the publisher had lost a sure sale because I would have bought that book. I mean I want to buy books but I want stories that I can connect with and most of them I can not these days.

I see the possibilities of using electronic methods to bring more varity of books back to the market place but the publishers do every thing they can to stop the growth of these books. With the exception of Harlequin no major publisher has used e-books to expand the types of books that can be published and can be successful. I mean what is the downside of using e-books to see what readers will buy. I mean they could use the cheaper method to publish books that are out of the box and see if readers would want more books of that type and what could be the next big thing out there.

I mean I know that there are cycles but 10 years for one means that entire generation has grown up with nothing else and this may be very hard to break.

When I want something different, more historically accurate or more detailed settings or plots, I have learned to go to the general fiction section. Elizabeth Chadwick and Sharon Kay Penman medievals have taught me loads and still made me cry. A few from Rosalind Laker have remained in my mind because they were well-told romance in a different time and place. And the author I am currently rereading because I did buy all 6 and all 8 books in her two series, Dorothy Dunnett. I have just spent the past week in 15th century Cyprus with Niccolo. It’s not a quick read by any means and the romance comes slowly, but I had forgotten how rich the story is. I wonder if Mrs. Dunnett would have been published today?

Vonnie