Essays & Musings
What We’ve Been Thinking About
Thoughts on books, reading, culture, and the literary life.
Eva Leigh/Zoë Archer: The #RWA15 Interview
August 14, 2015I’m impressed by authors who write as more than one persona. To a non-writer like me, managing to come up with one distinctive fictional voice is cool. Creating multiple successful writing…
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Annual Poll Focus: Best Historical Romance NOT set in the U.K.
August 13, 2015Last month we published the first of a series of posts leading up to AAR’s Annual Reader Poll for the best of romance published for the first time in 2015….
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Queer Regency romance: a chat with Ava March and KJ Charles
August 11, 2015Today’s post is by queer Regency romance authors KJ Charles and Ava March. Ms. Charles’s latest book, A Fashionable Indulgence, is a DIK at AAR (review here). Ms. March’s The…
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Reflections on Reviewing Graphic Novels
August 6, 2015If I were more organized, I’d have written a graphic novel retrospective at the one-year anniversary. But I’m not, and I didn’t, so here it is now: reflections on nearly…
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Julie Anne Long: The #RWA15 Interview
August 5, 2015Do you know what you’ll be doing on September 29th come the fall? I do. I’ll be reading–finally–Julie Anne Long’s The Legend of Lyon Redmond. I, and historical romance readers…
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Defining the Gothic: A Guest Post by Laura K. Curtis
August 3, 2015When Dabney Grinnan asked me to define a Gothic at RWA in New York, my first reaction was to use Potter Stewart’s infamous “I know it when I see it”…
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Eloisa James: The RWA15 Interview
August 1, 2015The world of romance novels is crammed with women of astonishing accomplishments and abilities. Sift through the life stories of those who write the books we so love and you’ll…
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Sophie Jordan: The RWA15 Interview
July 31, 2015I interviewed Sophie Jordan at last year’s Romantic Times conference and what I remember most about the interview is how fast she said interesting things I was too slow to…
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Jennifer Ryan: The RWA15 Interview
July 30, 2015One of my favorite things about RWA is meeting authors. Jennifer Ryan is an author new to me so I was pleased when Avon asked if I wanted to interview her….
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Sarah MacLean: The RWA15 Interview
July 29, 2015It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a historical romance writer in possession of a great wealth of talent, must be taken seriously by The Washington Post. Except, historically, the WaPo,…
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Lisa Kleypas: The RWA2015 Interview
July 27, 2015When it comes to romance novelists, few are more storied than Lisa Kleypas. She’s been a beauty queen (Miss Massachusetts in 1985), a best-selling author (she’s written 38 books and…
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The Fabulous Dreamers at RWA
July 25, 2015Eleanor Roosevelt said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” The 2015 Romance Writers of America conference is brimming with women–and a few men–who do…
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Sometimes a name is just a name
on offense, accommodation, and the value of getting the facts right
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A Novel Is Not a Safe Space
Books are allowed to offend you. You are allowed to close them. Everybody survives.
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Prestige TV rediscovers the joy of family and friends
sappy for the win–really
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