Happy Birthday, Lady Jane’s Salon!
New York City’s First and Only Romance Reading Series Turns One

By Hope Tarr, Co-Founder

Imagine a smoky, bookish bar in New York’s West Greenwich Village, smoky because it’s a cigar lounge and bookish because well, there are actual books on the actual bookshelves lining the back room walls.

Imagine scotch, good scotch, as in single-malt served “neat” in respectably solid glasses.

Now add to the picture three romance writers—Maya Rodale, Leanna Renee Hieber, and Hope Tarr—and one book blogger, Ron Hogan tucked into a round table and whetting their respective whistles after returning from the ubiquitous Manhattan literary reading. As stogies are passed and glasses clinked, the four find themselves lamenting the lack of any forum anywhere in the city for reading the romance fiction they so dearly love.

Imagine one of the authors, Maya Rodale, hoisting her tiny hand heavenward and exclaiming, “Jeepers, why don’t we start a reading series for romance on our own?”

Okay, maybe Maya didn’t exactly say “Jeepers”—I did mention there was scotch involved—but the rest of the story is well, pretty much on the mark in terms of accuracy.

And so was born Lady Jane’s Salon, New York City’s first and so far only monthly reading series devoted to celebrating romance fiction in all its glorious diversity—traditional historical- and contemporary-set relationship stories as well as urban fantasy, paranormal, steampunk, military, gay & lesbian, you name it.

Since we launched Lady Jane’s in February 2009, we’ve been thrilled and at times humbled by the tremendous outpouring of enthusiasm from the romance community and beyond; the latter has brought us feature articles in THE NEW YORK POST and TIME OUT NEW YORK. Each Salon event is a mix of familiar faces and new friends—editors and agents, media professionals and publicists, authors both published and still-to-be-discovered, and readers, the back bone of our industry without whom none of us would exist.

Sponsored by Beatrice.com, the Salon meets on the first Monday of the month from 7 to 9 PM at Madame X (94 West Houston Street). Madame X bills itself as New York’s sexiest lounge and the décor doesn’t disappoint. Think Victorian antiques, fringed lampshades, and erotic art mounted on deliciously deep red walls, the perfect venue for a genre dedicated to l’amour.

Each Salon night features two to four guest authors reading from their latest releases, bestsellers such as Marjorie M. Lui, Lauren Willig, and Andrea Pickens AKA Cara Elliott as well as midlist and debut authors. Occasionally taking over the microphone from Ron as guest emcees are “Smart Bitch” Sarah Wendell, “Scandalous Women” blogger, Elizabeth Kerri Mahon, and historical nonfiction author, Leslie Carroll. Specially themed salons include a tribute to Harlequin Enterprise’s 60th Anniversary, the winter holidays, an historical night in honor of Lady Jane’s First Birthday this month, and, upcoming, a spec fiction/fantasy night to coincide with Thriller Fest.

For the past year proceeds from the Salon, $5 or one gently-used paperback romance novel, have benefitted Share-the-Love.org, a women’s charity co-founded by Maya Rodale and fellow author, Ann Bleakley. With authors booked through early 2011, Lady Jane will continue to support charitable organizations dedicated to bringing the pleasure of a good book—and the promise of Happily Ever After—to women in need.

Maya, Leanna Renee, Ron and I will be taking Lady Jane on the road this April-May to the Romantic Times BOOK Lovers Convention in Columbus, Ohio. With both an Author Workshop and a Special Lady Jane’s Salon Event on the program, we’re looking forward to sharing the Lady Jane’s love with authors around the country who may wish to start up satellite salons of their own.

It’s been an amazing first year for Lady Jane and like a fine wine we fully expect Her Ladyship to improve with age. To keep abreast of the latest Salon doings, visit our web site at www.ladyjanesalon.com or “friend” Lady Jane on Facebook.

Hope Tarr is the author of more than a dozen historical and contemporary romance novels. Visit Hope online at www.hopetarr.com where you can read her blog on life in the Big Apple including, of course, Lady Jane’s.

What do you think? Would you like a Lady Jane’s Salon in your neighborhood?

Reader, Danielle Yockman:

With the holidays just past I still have boxes on the brain. So much effort goes into figuring out how to fit all the gifts into the available boxes. And heaven help you if you have a really odd shaped gift! All that focus on boxes got me thinking about boxes in relation to reading.
I have a reading box. No it is not a box I sit in to read. It is not a box of books. It is a box made up of the particular genre I typically read. My box is a history box. I like it there, safely in the past where men are men and women get to be beautiful in ball gowns and dainty slippers. I also love women in history who defy gender roles and then find men who must learn to live with the switch in order to love them.
I have always identified myself as a historical romance reader (and aspiring writer). It is a box I love. I have been very comfortable with my lords and ladies. Every once in a while I would poke my head out of my box to try other romance genres. Alas, I would

Then this summer I discovered paranormal romance. I know. I know all of you vampire/shapeshifter fan girls are like what?! But they’re so hawt! It’s true I only just discovered paranormals. I found a free read online, Kiss of Midnight from Lara Adrian’s Midnight Breed series. I was camping on Mount Laguna in CA and couldn’t put my phone down the whole weekend. Since then I have begun reading through the whole series. I enjoyed it so much I have also tried Alyssa Day’s Atlantis series and Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series.
Now I must say, I am still a little icked out by shapeshifters, I have never been a fan of hairy men, and the whole vampire bite thing has to be written just right or I get squeamish. The real draw for me, are the kick-ass heroines! I love the gruff attitude-having, black leather-wearing, sword/gun/knife-toting chicks.

Topic for discussion:
I will always be a historical romance reader, but I am certainly learning to step outside my box and enjoy it! I’m curious. What box do you live in? If you have climbed out, where did you go?

Do you think blogging is like dancing? This is tough stuff! We want our readers to be engaged & enjoy our posts . . . so how does one accomplish this???? Guest Bloggers & that means YOU!

What Makes a Good Blogger?????

1. Can you be personal?

2. Convey a personality in your post?

3. Be passionate about your post?

4. Post pictures?

5. Stay focused?

You’re hired!
No kidding . . . we’re looking for readers who’d like to chat with other readers . . . now is the time! Comment below & tell us what you’d like to post about & why you would be a great guest blogger & you may win the chance to post with us on BTRB.

Winners will be chosen & posted next week. . . now is your chance!

Happy Romance,
SueG

Beyond the Night, Joss Ware

Setting: Post-apocalyptic America
Subgenre: Paranormal Romance
Hero: Elliott Drake
Heroine: Jade

One sentence summary: When Dr. Elliott Drake awakens to find himself in a world where everything he once knew is gone, he teams up with the brave and sexy Jade to fight the immortal beings who now suppress humanity.

Scene you like most and would never cut: I looove the scene in the overgrown, abandoned, long-forgotten shopping mall. Such a fun setting for a zombie fight, and the way my heroes escape from the monsters is quite unique. I also love the scene where Elliott and Jade make love the first time, when she comes in and finds him in a state of devastation. I wouldn’t cut either scene!

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: Whatever you say, dear.

Your hero, is he a boxer or brief kind of guy: He’ll take whatever he can salvage! In post-apocalyptic America, you don’t have much choice.

Ancillary character you had the most fun with: Flo, the motherly woman with the heart of a beautician who creates her own makeup.

Your heroine’s favorite hobby: Riding horseback on dangerous missions.

Your hero’s favorite hobby: It was playing basketball, but now he’s not sure what he’s going to do with his life. No hobbies in an overgrown, jungly world!

What you think readers will like best about this book: The unique setting and the juxtaposition of our world (2010) with an almost historical, Old West-type of setting, along with the mystery of who/what/why destroyed the world. Plus, of course, the good, solid romance between a devastated Elliott and the damaged, confused Jade.

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet: Sebastian Vioget (from the Gardella Vampire Chronicles, writing as Colleen Gleason).
What’s next: Book Two in the Envy Chronicles, Embrace the Night Eternal (February), and Book Three, Abandon the Night (March).

To win a copy of Beyond the Night, make a comment and tell me in what sort of building/structure would you want to make your home in a post-apocalyptic world, and why! I’ll be back to answer questions, comments & pick one winner!

Were-Squares – Like Hollywood Squares…but furrier.

Ever dreamed of being a game show host? Well, romance readers, here’s your chance! And it’s just ONE of the exciting new events we’ve got planned to entertain, amaze, and daze romance readers and authors alike at RomCon™ 2010 next July! Read on, my friends, read on…

Were-Squares: Can you tell the big hairy bluff from the unvarnished truth? Two reader teams go head-to-head attempting to detect which werewolf & shape-shifter authors are telling the truth and which are lying through their canines.

Were-Squares needs a host–someone’s got to keep all those werewolves in check! Film a video of yourself auditioning for the role. Upload your video on YouTube (www.youtube.com) using the tags #RomCon and #Were_Squares_Challenge, then send us a link! We’ll repost your vid on RomConInc for viewers to vote on. The top three will be put into a lottery to win a free reader ticket to RomCon™ 2010 in Denver AND will be our Were-Squares host! Grrrr!

That’s just ONE event. We’ve got eleven event arenas going full speed all weekend! Here’s a short sample of the divine entertainment we’ve got planned:

Murder, Darling, Murder! RomCon™ hosts a murder investigation with leading authors of romantic suspense. Step through the crime scene, gather clues, and use your newly acquired C.S.I. skills to solve the murder!

Speed Date a New Author! Have a flash visit with your favorite authors or new-to-you authors and decide for yourself if you’d like to check out their books!

Shock the Queen: Think you have a handle on social etiquette in Regency England? Think again! Your favorite historical authors will put you through your paces in a friendly competition to see if you can make it through a day in London without “Shocking the Queen” and earning the “cut direct”. Ouch.

Betwixt & Between: Paranormal Author Event

$2,500.00 Reader Trivia Challenge: Think you know romance? Questions will be pulled from authors’ public websites, with a listing announced in May. Care to play?

Strip the Heroine: The history of female attire revealed–layer-by-layer. This session will be oh-so-delicately handled by leading historical authors who know exactly what women wore, or didn’t!

Intimate Chats with RomCon’s™ Spotlight Authors: Lotteries for these FREE tickets will open to registered attendees later this month! Winners will be added to the guest lists beginning each Wednesday in April.

Midnight Sexcapades: Join erotic romance publishers, authors, and vendors in a naughty, late-night romp through erotic romance fiction.

Borders Reader Roundtables –Come visit with editors, book buyers, bloggers, reviewers, and other readers–let them know what you love, what you’re over, what you’d strangle the friendly neighborhood bookseller to get your hands on!

Anti-Heroes You Love and Hate –Do you love the Dark, Desirable and Deadly heroes? Join us for a lively chat with authors who have mastered this archetype. Chat with a room full of authors and friends who understand your obsession!

Build a Hero–What makes a hero PERFECT? In this fun session, participants will construct the perfect fiction hero working in teams. At the end of the session, each table will vote on the assembled selection of heroes–the group with the most votes wins a prize!

Melissa Mayhue & Friends Host a Blogger & Reviewer Party

To Bite, or Not To Bite –Join leading authors of Vampire fiction for a lively debate

Historical Authors Host A Tea–Join our spotlight authors, Hannah Howell, Anna Campbell, Elizabeth Hoyt, Jo Beverley, and Julia Quinn as they host 75 special attendees with afternoon refreshments including tea, coffee and cake! Attendees must register for this free event and will be selected via a lottery beginning in April.

Q&A with Featured Authors –RomCon™ is all about getting authors and readers together for informal chats. Join us for a panel discussion with 5 authors in 3 separate sessions, one each for Contemporary, Historical, and Futuristic, Fantasy, & Paranormal.

Blog, Oh Blogger! –Visit with the True Romance team, Dear Author Jane, Smart Bitch Sarah, and other bloggers for a chat about all things blogosphere. Bring your questions and ideas to share and leave with some fabulous new ideas about the direction your own blogs might take!

Weapons Gallery –In a powerful pre-event show, weapons experts will have an amazing array of weapons on display! Come see what the heroes we love to read about take into battle!

We’ve got a Costume Ball, Black & White Masquerade, Author Avenue, Memory Lane, fine dining, a Widower Golf Tournament, and more. Come out and play! What are you waiting for! Make that game-show video and call Nalini Singh’s bluff when she tells a saucy little lie about her Changelings. Register today, and get your name in the drawing for the Historical Author Tea! Treat yourself to a weekend doing what you love – talking books and having fun with friends.

Oh, and don’t try that lame excuse, “But, I don’t know anyone who reads as much as I do!” Or our other favorite, “I don’t know anyone who would go with me!” Problem solved. RomCon™ introduces the Romance Reader BUDDY SYSTEM. Simply sign up, fill out a short survey about what you like to read, and we’ll match you up with 3-4 RomCon™ Reader Pals for the weekend, friends who love to read and talk endlessly about books, just like you do.

We will see you there!

Elaine, Tiffany, & Michele

www.romconinc.com

So what do you think?  Are you in?  Comment below - let us know if we’ll see you in Denver!  HAPPY ROMANCE!

Dear Readers:

As you may know, so many of the characters in my books are related through friendship or blood or marriage: Lyra Prescott (from Sizzle) lives with Sidney Buchanan, whose brother is Alec Buchanan, who is married to Regan Hamilton Buchanan (from Murder List), who is best friends with Sophie Rose (from Fire and Ice), etc. etc. Someone recently asked if it wouldn’t be much easier for me to write each new book with brand spanking new characters unencumbered by vast, complicated families – “one-offs”, as they say in the trade.

Granted, it probably would be easier to write about a hero and heroine without the complications of family, but that doesn’t make them real to me. Since I come from a large family, it’s fun to put my characters in hectic, loving families where siblings watch out for each other, where they share the same values and senses of humor, and where their loyalty is unconditional.

When I’m writing my novels, the characters come alive in my imagination, and as their world emerges, it turns out to be just as complex as the world I live in. In Sizzle, Alec Buchanan relentlessly teases fellow FBI agent Sam Kincaid –it’s part of Alec’s twisted sense of humor. Just as it’s part of Alec’s character to make sure his younger sister Sidney and her roommate Lyra are safe from the mysterious bad guys threatening them. I’m hoping you’ll love Sizzle’s film student Lyra as much as I did. I had a wonderful time writing about her charmingly eccentric grandmother, Gigi, and maybe just as much fun with Lyra’s greedy, scheming parents. And just wait until you encounter her hunky FBI protector Sam Kincaid – he’s a hero you won’t soon forget.

Families, like life, can be complicated, but when you read Sizzle, I hope you’ll come away thinking they can be a lot of fun as well.

Happy New Year and Happy Reading!

Julie Garwood

Planning a wedding in real life is not at all like European historical novels where gala affairs can be thrown together in 3 weeks time to take advantage of a special license. I know. I got married 10 days ago. So you’ll have to forgive me if I’ve still got weddings on the brain.

The day was lovely – beautiful weather, a wonderful venue that backed right up on to a southern Australian beach. I had a dress I adored, a groom I loved more, and special bridal flip flops to be worn on the lawn when my heels got too much. It couldn’t have been more perfect, which is all the more shocking for the fact that I planned it in six months, and I wasn’t really interested in the thing.

I was never one of those girls that planned for their weddings from a young age. I never sketched out bridal gowns. I had no idea that veils came in different lengths. Don’t even get me started on the crash course of wedding etiquette I took (in the end, we circumvented it by having a picnic, complete with monogrammed picnic blankets – no seating arrangement or head table required!). And when I read romance novels, I like the ones with weddings in the middle best.

The way I see it, weddings happen in romance novels in three different places, as three different plot points. The weddings that happen at the end are the most standard – an enormous, joyous celebration of the love our protagonists have managed to find together, against all odds. These are the weddings of big white dresses, enormous banquets, song, dance, wine, embarrassing speeches, tears of joy, and plenty of laughter. These are the weddings that are followed by a baby some nine months later. They are the ending that romance novels were originally designed to meet. Some 65% of romance novels I read have weddings like these.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing like a good happy ending. But I normally skip reading these wedding scenes.

Weddings that happen at the beginning make up about 15% of the romance novels I read. These are very common in medieval-set romance novels, though they occasionally pop up in other situations as well. Normally the King or a distant lord arranges a marriage between two people – generally for money or power – and they are forced to make do as best they can. The forced proximity brings out the sparks in the relationship, especially if she is particularly feisty and he is particularly officious. These stories can be a lot of fun, but they’re still not my preferred choice.

Me, I like weddings that happen in the middle. They share some similarities with beginning weddings – notably that they’re not really celebrations of great joy – but they’ve got one eensy, teensy, tiny little difference. The hero and the heroine know each other.

The hero and the heroine already know each other. There’s the rub. They’ve had plenty of time to meet, say hello, maybe spar a bit, definitely dance at least once, and recognise near-immediately that they just won’t suit. Sure, he may have noticed that her breasts are especially luscious. She’s no doubt aware of the way his eyes flash when he’s startled into laughter. But they’re completely incompatible. Really, it’s out of the question. Honestly, why are we still even talking about it?

But something happens – a very innocent situation taken out of context or a manipulation of some description – and boom! Middle of the story wedding. As I mentioned, these aren’t the happy occasions of end-of-story weddings, but neither are they able to be the detached, clinical occasions of beginning-of-story weddings. No, these weddings have angst. First, as we’ve already discovered, they’re completely unsuitable. Second, they just seem to find themselves arguing all the time. Third, the physical attraction is most inconvenient, especially as the marriage will never be consummated…

In middle-of-the-story weddings, our hero and heroines have time to think and to make plans. They have time to throw up as many flimsy barricades as possible to protect their already semi-engaged hearts. They have time to steel themselves against the onslaught of the nearness of the other person. The opposite of love, after all, is not hate. It’s indifference. And our protagonists are nowhere near indifferent.

Sometimes one of them is self-aware enough to recognise their feelings, which only adds to the emotion – after all, how desperate to be in love with your spouse when they don’t love you back, to be so close and yet so far…

It’s the emotion in these stories that pulls me in – the stages of grief as they realise they’re in a situation they can’t go out of, and the sometimes slow, but always inexorable fall into love on the other side. Forget your happy weddings, says I. Give me middle-of-the-story weddings everytime.

Most of my favorite middle-of-the-story weddings happen in historicals – The Duke and I by Julia Quinn and Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase, for example – but Susan Elizabeth Phillips does a lovely middle-of-story wedding in Nobody’s Baby But Mine.

It’s just plain, old-fashioned luck that my life isn’t a romance novel – I may have had to skip over my own end-of-story wedding…GAH! Potential nine-month baby!!

Bio:
My name is Kate, and I’m an Australian reader. I’ve been active in trying to support and promote romance here in Australia for the last 5 years -
I’ve started two romance reading groups, and also wrote a column in a major city newspaper here for 2 year about the romance genre.
I tweet at katydidinoz, and currently write for ARRA (the Australian Romance Readers Association), Booktopia, and my own website the Australian Romance Reader ( www.romancereaders.com.au)

***Correction! Sorry Sarah, I know your book is historical I had it in the wrong talking points pile . . .forgive me

I know, you’re wondering why is she obsessed with book covers?  A few weeks ago we debated about chest hair & the consensus is a little is good, none is fine but TOO MUCH IS TOO MUCH - EW!

In the publishing world we beat our heads against rocks trying to figure out what in blazes attracts those readers.  So today, that is the question, what covers best attract YOU the reader?

Looking at the covers below they obviously fit the paranormal genre theme –  they are all men . . .except for a few that are women?  What is that about, I mean hey, we’re healthy hetro-sexual women, reading romance books right?  So we want something that attracts us & that is good looking men, right?  So why would publishers put women on covers?  I mean, it is all about the men & that is what we want to look at, right?

So here are a few historical covers — mostly embraces . . but wait, women again?  What is that all about????

Contemporary covers . . cute, fun, oh no . . . women?  On Romance covers????

So, what do you think? Should women be on Romance covers?  Depends on the story line? Your responses below will be rolled up into a letter to publshers letting them know just what we think.. . ok?  Game on!