Christina - I too am a longtime romance reader. Sheesh, I've been reading romance for nearly 40 years. It's been such an amazing experience to watch the genre evolve over a time when women's societal and cultural roles have evolved a lot, too.
Darci, I was laughing with my sister the other day about the big girls vs. teen girls thing. Sis feels my teenaged niece should wait a while to read my book, which is a little steamy. As I mentioned up above, there was no such thing as YA when I was young, and my parents didn't censor my reading. I read what I wanted, understood some or most of it, and what I didn't understand went over my head and certainly didn't influence my enjoyment of the story. I also built a killer vocabulary. ;-)
Teresa, isn;t King great? As far as LKH is concerned, I'm a huge Jean-Claude fan. It takes massive balls to wear tight satin pants, a poet shirt and Baroque heels in St. Louis. ;-)
Diane, Robin - are either of you members of the Romance Writers of America? Nora was the keynote speaker at the 2010 RWA National conference, and gave a kick-ass talk about how, regardless of how technology has changed over the years, the important aspects of getting a book written and published really haven't changed all that much. "How badly do you want it?" Butt in chair, hands on keyboard - every single day.
Diane, up until about 10 years ago, I considered paranormal romance, urban fantasy romance and alternate history to be my reading "home base." I started reading historical romance at about that time, and I now count historical authors like Eloisa James, Sabrina Jeffries, Stephanie Laurens and Julia Quinn as auto-buys.
I actually received a personal email from Eloisa James last week; she referenced TASTE ME's Lukas and Scarlett in a column she did at BN.COM Monday 3/7 on hardheaded characters. So I now have concrete proof that Ms. James, a NYT bestselling historical author, reads paranormal and urban fantasy romance. ;-)
Mary, I join you in your love for Ms. Brown. Always a great story!
Cynthia, my sistah! Sounds like our tastes in reading material align pretty tightly.
Tabitha, I still pull Feehan's first Carpathian novel, "Dark Prince", off the shelf every year or so and re-read it. What a treat.
Deb, sounds like we have a lot of Anne Rice lovers here today! Great minds obviously think alike. ;-)
Carol, more favorites!
Samantha, the thing that I particularly like about how Singh handles the Guild Hunters series is that her angels aren't particularly...angelic. She managed to recharacterize angels as something other than religious. I find Raphael's darkness to be very intriguing.
Colleen - what fabulous memories these names bring! I've been reading romance since I was about 10 years old (There was no such genre as YA back in the day; a precocious reader graduated from Nancy Drew directly to the adult stacks). I cut my teeth on Woodiwiss, Coulter, Ann Major and Harlequin Presents category romances. ;-)
Joanne - Have you read "The Witching Hour"? After reading the book, I wanted to be a member of the Talamasca SO BADLY!
Shannon - having too many favorite writers is a good problem to have, isn't it?
Debbi, thanks so much!! Hope you like it. Sub-genre-wise, the book's definitely a mash-up.
Peggy, isn't Evanovich's Stephanie Plum a hoot? Her setting work is fabulous; The Burg is almost a character itself! My TBR pile is gigantic. I recently pulled Dierdre Knight's BUTTERFLY TATTOO out of the pile. I thought it was an extraordinary book.
Renee - YAY FOR LIBRARIES! You and your colleagues do the work of the angels. If you can read, you can learn to do anything. (Even write.)
Debbie, I'm a huge Stephen King fan - so huge that I actually paid $75 for a set of five Stephen King Russian nesting dolls. They stare at me from the ledge in my office. I also have a very well-thumbed copy of his seminal writing book, "On Writing."
Sue, so many people have recommended LJB to me. I've never read her. I'll have to rectify my error immediately!
Lindsey, I know of so many reader/writers who adore Nalini Singh! The level of craft in her novels is simply amazing, on so many levels. I don't particularly collect author pictures and autographs, but she's on my short list. She told me I had a pretty name. ;-)
Stacie, I also enjoy Megan Hart - I thought her "Order of Solace" novella series was stunning, a master class in world-building at novella length.
Marjorie, yes! Your statement is so true. One of my very great pleasures was to dedicate TASTE ME to two of my high school English teachers!
Anne, I adore the world Charlaine's created. So specific, and so, so hot. In terms of Rice, I prefer her earlier work - especially the Vampire Chronicles and "The Witching Hour." Thanks so much for visiting with us here at Fresh Fiction today!
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