Entries Tagged 'Nora Roberts' ↓
January 2nd, 2009 — About, African American, Black, Danielle Steel, Ethnicity, LaVyrle Spencer, Nora Roberts
Black romance is a blooming section of romance industry and is still growing. Officially having its start in 1980 with Entwined Destines written by Rosalind Welles, black romance has expanded and taken shape over the years. While it’s true that the genre could benefit from more authors and more books, black romance is a force to be reckoned with and getting stronger all the time. It is my hope to see the genre grow out of its own publishing lines (by sheer volume) and start to mingle alongside romance about white leads. Part of what will make this happen is for the genre to see writers become as influential and iconic as Nora Roberts
, Danielle Steel
, and LaVyrle Spencer
. If authors become a household name to buy, sales will pick up and the genre will be more validated as whole.
It is said that the head of Kensington Publishing had been visiting New York bookstore when he overheard two black women wishing for more African American romance. In 1994, Arabesque was created as the first major line for black readers. Since that point 250 titles by approximately 50 African-American authors have been published.
Arabesque was later bought by Harlequin, increasing the number of released books to 450. Now Arabesque is the nation’s leading line of single-title African American romance. Besides publishing Arabesque, Harlequin also publishes Sepia, New Spirit, and Kimani Romance lines. Kimani is a female African-American name that means “sweet and beautiful.” Kimani is Harlequin’s equivalent to category romance as Kimani novels are mass-market paperback series.
I’m curious to learn if there are Caucasian writers writing about black leads and African American authors writing about white leads? After all we already know there are male authors producing novels that we love… this can’t be too far of a stretch.
Photo Credits: 1, 2
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- Highlander Romance- From the Wilds of Scotland and Wales What is highlander romance? Highlander romance is a subgenre of historical romance. Not to be confused with the show, highlander romance is all about those sexy warrior men. The setting for these romances usually takes place in Scotland or Wales....
- Evolution of Classic Gothic Romance into the 1980s Modern Gothic Romance Gothic romance is a genre you can't find all too easily today. It was a popular genre a few decades ago and lovers of this romance sub-genre will have to troll secondhand bookstores to find titles. Classics of this genre...
- Fantasy with a Dash of Romance "Every age embraces the vampire it needs," said Mike Deloney. Read on here. The Top 3 Young Adult Books From 2008: in no particular order... Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (vamps), Brisingr by Christopher Paolini (dragons), Tales of Beedle the...
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November 21st, 2008 — 3.5 Stars, Anthropologist, Book Review, Contemporary, Memory Loss, Nora Roberts, Pilot, Time Travel, United States of America, Virgin
Time and Again is a novel that is really two stories in one. The first is Time Was with Caleb Hornblower and Liberty Stone. The second is Times Change with Caleb’s younger brother and Libby’s younger sister.
Time Was
Caleb Hornblower was born in February 2nd, 2222. That makes 2 is favorite number. He’s a pilot and loves the freedom of space and the speed of flying. On a routine run back to earth from the Mars colonies he runs into a meteor shower and has to do some quick maneuvering. Just when he thinks he’s safe he sees the scariest thing that a man in space could see… yawning blackness. An uncharted black hole is before him and there’s no way he can survive. He wasn’t a pilot for nothing and with instruments blaring and bells whistling, Caleb banks the ship and goes into freefall.
Liberty Stone is outside her family’s cabin enjoying the thunderstorm. Wild lightning is streaking across the sky when suddenly a plane rockets across the angry purple clouds. At least she thinks its a plane. Racing back inside, Libby is determined to find the crash and the poor souls who were flying in this weather. She meets Caleb Hornblower, a man who looks as if he’s had one too many rounds in a bar fight. She gets him home and cleans him up.
Things get interesting when Caleb wakes. He thinks he’s still in the 23rd century. Libby knows something is weird with Caleb but she writes it off due to the crash. He had trouble remember his name, the date is obviously another thing he’s trying to puzzle back into place.
Times Change
Jacob Hornblower is mad as hell. His brother disappeared from a routine run and nearly six months afterwards his ship turns up… empty. The memory banks and ridiculous report left inside said he stayed in the early 21st century because of a woman. Well he was going to meet Liberty Stone himself and then he was going to punch his brother in the jaw and haul his butt home.
Two years later and Jacob has fine tuned all the equations, built a ship meant to do what his brother had done accidentally and was hurtling toward the sun with the shields down. The temperature’s rising outside, and his instrument panel is blinking like crazy but its pure satisfaction that fills him as the computer calmly tells him the time every few seconds. His theories were right and it was only a matter of time before he and his brother returned.
What Jacob didn’t factor in was Sunbeam Stone. While her sister and brother-in-law were somewhere where Libby could research her next paper, Sunny was determined to figure out her life. She was good at a lot of things, but just because she was good at it, didn’t mean it was the right thing for her to do. A little vacation at the family cabin and she’d get her head on straight and figure out her life. She wasn’t expecting to find a stranger in her bedroom. He wore crisp new clothes and brand new shoes that were obviously not hiking boots. A swift kick from her and he landed flat on his back. He was angry to see her but she was just as angry when she realized he was Caleb’s younger brother. Where did he get off not coming to their wedding?
Rating: 3.5 Stars
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- Heart and Soul- Evolution of African American Romance Black romance is a blooming section of romance industry and is still growing. Officially having its start in 1980 with Entwined Destines written by Rosalind Welles, black romance has expanded and taken shape over the years. While it's true that...
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November 7th, 2008 — Julie Garwood, LaVyrle Spencer, News, Nora Roberts
I’ve spent the last couple of days reorganizing my space (which is small) for several new (to me) books were coming my way. I got a second bookshelf (surprise, surprise) and cleared out a corner for it. This took some ingenuity as this used to be my junk corner. The corner I knew would contain anything I couldn’t find because I thought I wouldn’t need to anytime soon. It’s the corner or the drawer or space that accumulates undesirables that can’t be thrown out for some reason or another.
It started with reprioritizing a lot of it and finding new homes for it all one piece at a time. I did throw away a lot of paper and the ilk. By throwaway I mean I stuck it in the pile of papery/cardboardy things that I take over to my library’s dumpster reserved for such purposes. It helps them make some money and its recycling so two points for me.
Next I did the sweeping and the dusting. Unpleasant tasks, yes, but ones that must get done. I broke a ceramic mug in the process. Whoops. The pieces were very sharp and had to be taken care of immediately. Luckily it wasn’t a mug I was particularly attached too.
Now I was ready. Boy was I unprepared! I was gaining a new collection of novels today. My new collection filled out eight office crates and contained romance (enough to fill two shelves triple stacked give or take) and crime/western (enough to fill three shelves in a similar fashion.) I still have a crate and a half with books. Part of the books had been mine to start but wouldn’t fit on the shelves and part of the new collection.
There are some whoppers in this batch. I have been caught giggling over titles and covers as I uncovered them. Several titles from Nora Roberts, Amanda Quick, Danielle Steel, LaVryle Spencer, Sandra Brown, and Julie Garwood. I’m so excited. I can’t wait. I finally own my own copies of The Bride
and The Wedding
. Woo!
Of course with the books being double stacked in front of each other and then stacked on top of twice it’ll be a wonder to find any of them. I do have a system, sorta anyway in place to get through them. It’s very simple really. Start with one, read it, review it, keep it/offer it on paperback swap. Not only will I be getting several hours of reading pleasure, I’ll get to organize again. Double the joy… hehe.
What’s on your shelf?
Related Posts - Review: Guardian Angel by Julie Garwood Guardian Angel by Julie Garwood is the second book in the set of three novels, Guardian Angel follows on the heels of The Lion's Lady. I didn't know this when I started and was pleasantly surprised to find that I...
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August 1st, 2008 — About, News, Nora Roberts, United States of America, Victoria Alexander
The Romance Writers of America’s 28th Annual Conference is going on right now as you read. Do you not know what the RWA is? It’s the largest organization in North America for romance writers, readers, publishers, agents, etc. There are two requirements for a romance novel based on RWA’s charter. First it must contain a central love story and second, it must end happily.
Big name romance authors are featured all throughout this four day event. Victoria Alexander is one of them. She is the keynote speaker as I mentioned before on my twitter page. Not to mention the authors and board members blogging about their experience at the RWA conference blog page.
The Romance Writers of America started in the 1980 in Houston, TX. Now is has many more chapters and thousands of members. But how do you become a member-what are the eligibility requirements?
Visit their membership page for more information on general membership, associate membership, and affiliate membership.
Fun fact: Nora Roberts was the first author inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame.
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