Top Ten Romances

by Christine Wells

Recently, the lovely Kate Cuthbert, editor of the fabulous romance-focused instalment of a monthly newsletter called Booktopia Buzz (go here to subscribe) asked me to list the ten romance novels that have influenced me the most.

This was a tough question to answer and no doubt I've missed some wonderful books, but here goes:

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen--unmatched wit, keen observation and a fairytale ending--my introduction to the Regency world

2. Venetia by Georgette Heyer--one of the best 'rake's redemption' stories, ever

3. Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase--no one does the battle of the sexes quite as well as Loretta Chase. An extraordinary romance..

4. Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale--exquisite writing, deep passion, magnificent storytelling. Sheer brilliance

5. Welcome to Temptation by Jenny Crusie--snarky, subversive, a fantastic community novel...and some of the hottest love scenes around

6. The Devil to Pay by Liz Carlyle--Carlyle marries sophisticated sizzle with wit, deep emotion and a feel for the period which few surpass. Her heroes are particularly fabulous.


7. Claiming the Courtesan by Anna Campbell--deep, dark, wrenchingly emotional, Campbell took a risk writing a courtesan heroine that paid off in spades

8. Shattered Rainbows by Mary Jo Putney--Putney can plunge a reader into the pit of human despair and then fling her to the skies in triumph.

9. A Summer to Remember by Mary Balogh--Mary Balogh's sensual story of a very proper and repressed young lady's slow awakening should be required reading for historical writers.

10. The Desperate Duchesses series by Eloisa James--I love the duality of James's novels. On the surface they are all wit and sophistication, but underneath is humanity--love and longing, desire and pain.

Now, I've just remembered approximately a dozen authors who should also be named here, not to mention a hundred more books!

But I'd love to hear your lists. What romance novels do you read over and over? Have any influenced the way you think or act? Have any given you particular comfort in tough times? If you're a writer, what authors or stories have influenced you?

I'm giving away a signed copy of WICKED LITTLE GAME to one lucky reader!

It's That Time Again...

By Kate
RITA and Golden Heart calls are going out today! Somebody's going to get THE CALL!!!

If it's you, we want to know! Leave us a comment and we'll celebrate with you!!

But meanwhile, the Banditas are on edge. Even if we don't have an entry in the contests this year, we're nervous for our friends. How can we pay attention to anything but the telephone? Will it ever ring?

We can all relate, right? After all, we Banditas met when we all finaled in the Golden Heart in 2006. I'll bet we all remember that day, right? Good things happen on RITA/GH Day, right? But it’s very stressful! It means so much! Who has time to blog???

Deep breaths, everyone.

Since we're all in a tizzy and unable to concentrate, today's post won't be about the weather (It’s a sunny 74 degrees today and I wore a wool jacket. *sigh*) or deadlines (Ack! Don't ask! The book’s due this week!!) or the core emotional theme of my book (huh?) because nobody cares! We're all staring at the telephone!

I think we need a small distraction while we wait for the phone to ring, so I've got a pop quiz for you! You’ll like this quiz. It’s all about our favorite books and authors.

I’ll go first.

What book is on your nightstand now? Jennifer Lyon’s BLOOD MAGIC

What was your favorite book when you were a child? Cinderella

Who are your top five authors? Nora Roberts, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Pat Conroy, Robert Crais, Julie Garwood

What book did you fake reading? One Hundred Years of Solitude

What book did you buy for the cover? Hmm. Have I ever done that?

What book changed your life? Catch-22

Favorite line(s) from a book: I'm thinking, I'm thinking. Any suggestions?

What book would you most want to read again for the first time? The Prince of Tides


Whether you take the quiz or not, one random commenter will win a $15 Amazon gift certificate!

And don’t forget to let us know if you GOT THE CALL!!!

Big Fat Books!

by Anna Campbell

Recently my critique partner the fabulously talented Annie West lent me a book she'd enjoyed called RIDERS by Jilly Cooper. It's about 900 pages long, it's got a cast of thousands and reams of sex and conflict and intrigue. And I devoured every steamy word of it! Especially the bits about the sex-god antihero and all-round cad Rupert Campbell-Black. What a fun character! These big juicy books have a larger than life quality that I still respond to.

My reading over recent years, especially with romance, has concentrated on books that focus on a principal couple and the ins and outs of their relationship (as the actress said to the bishop!). You get that intense read and a big emotional experience in return for the narrow range the book covers.

But when I read RIDERS, I had a flashback to a much younger me who used to devour these thousand-page sagas like they were going out of style (which sadly they were by the time I'd finished!).

My mother was a big reader. She loved Mills and Boons and she loved long, long stories about intrepid heroines facing all kinds of catastrophes and emerging triumphant. Catherine Cookson, Josephine Cox, Danielle Steel. Rarely was she not in the middle of some poor woman's struggles against a hostile world!

I must say my taste in sagas was slightly different. I loved the glam ones like the Judith Krantzes. The sex and shopping books of the '80s? Gimme, gimme, gimme! I remember just adoring PRINCESS DAISY and SCRUPLES. Lots and lots of passion and intrigue and generally at least two really great love stories (with copious nooky) to keep me amused for hours. RIDERS was kinda sex and saddles rather than sex and shopping but it definitely falls into the category I'm talking about.


Almost inevitably these books were made into miniseries which was part of the fun too. I can remember the first time I saw Rupert Everett, he was Daisy's evil and oversexed half-brother in the TV adaptation of PRINCESS DAISY. Appropriately he was called Ram (snork!).

One of my favorites, both as book and miniseries, was Barbara Taylor Bradford's A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE. It was the ideal combination of what Mum liked - plucky lower-class girl beats the rich at their own game and ends up queen of all she surveys - and what I liked - lots and lots of glamour and drama and sex and shopping.

I certainly don't think I'm going back to a solid diet of these books. But it was so interesting to read a story that encompassed a whole world, that was long enough to span years of action and character development (or not as the case may be!). There was a sweep and a broad canvas to the story that I don't get with the more intense stories.

Which reminds me of my favorite saga! Definitely a sweeping tale and a better read than you might imagine, especially the bits about Natasha and Prince Andrei who is a wonderful hero!

So over to you! Did you ever read these books? Do you miss them? Or do you still seek them out? Most of these writers are still publishing. Do you prefer the broad sweep of a saga or the concentrated experience of a book just about one couple? Do you have a favorite big fat book? Did you watch the miniseries of these books? Did you have a favorite TV version? One lucky commenter wins a $15 Amazon voucher - perhaps so you can go and buy some big fat books to augment your collection!

Emotional Balance

by Tawny Weber

I spent this last Saturday in an all-day workshop given by the fabulous Margie Lawson on Empowering Character Emotions. Not only is Margie an amazing lady (the woman is such an inspiration) but the workshop really pushed me to dig deeper in my writing.

Now, here's the thing. Any one of my critique partners will happily tell you (ignore the whining in their tone if they do) that I'm the Queen of Emotions. My favorite critique questions are; What are they feeling here? Can you show me how this affected them? Can you go deeper here? Hehehe, they love me, my CP's do. But this workshop - wow... I had to hand over my crown. I have nothing on the level of writing emotions that I learned here. I loved it! I'm excited to bring this into my writing, to see if I can pull it off.

Then yesterday I was chatting with a friend who writes sci-fi/fantasy/romance and she mentioned that she's a thinker vs a feeler, so she shows this incredible action and detailed plot structure, but her characters can be on fire and barely show an actual reaction. Since I'm a total feeler (sounds weird, huh?) my characters can emote over anything, including the wrong kind of toilet paper. It was fun comparing how we balance our natural tendencies to bring in all of the story elements we need. I love hearing how other writers bring their strengths into their work. And even more, I love getting ideas on how to shore up the writing areas I'm not so strong in (cough-action-cough).

This workshop also had me thinking about the emotions of romance. This genre offers such a huge gamut of emotional payoffs. Especially given the wide variety of sub-genres. Everything from lighter stories who give the reader a laugh and a fun read to super hot sexy stories that offer a guaranteed turn on, all the way to deep, intensely emotional stories that dig deep into a readers psyche to push emotional buttons.

So as writers, and as readers, do you have a preference for the level of emotion in your stories? Are you drawn to the fun humor, or to the dark intensity or something totally different than both? When you're reading, what level of emotion is overkill for you and are there any books you've read (don't name names... especially if they are ours LOL) that left you feeling like you were cheated of seeing the emotional journey? Whats the perfect balance for YOU?

Just for fun, I'll draw a name from the comments and send the winner a copy of Double Dare, and an excerpt of my upcoming January Blaze, Does She Dare? as well.

Hi, my name is Trish, and I am a series glommer

I have loved books for as long as I can remember. In fact, the first book I remember reading was a Little Golden Book called The Runaway Pancake. I remember the absolute glee each time I'd get a shipment from the Weekly Reader Book Club when I was in elementary school. And the book fair at school was better than a candy store filled with chocolate (and that's saying a lot considering the size of my sweet tooth). I'm guessing everyone here has this passion for books. But are you a ginormous fan of series like me? Not series as in the numbered category lines put out by Harlequin and Silhouette, but a series as in a number of books with the same continuing characters. Once I find a book I like and realize it's part of a series, I glom them -- as in I read all of the released books in the series then wait none too patiently for the next in the series. I have to know what happens to my favorite characters, people the author has made seem so real I wouldn't be surprised to meet them on the street.

Series I love:

The Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward
The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
The Blood Books by Tanya Huff
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
The Kate Shugak mystery series by Dana Stabenow
The Anna Pigeon mystery series by Nevada Barr
The Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray
The Gardella Vampire Chronicles by Colleen Gleason
The Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine
The Mediator series by Meg Cabot
The Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld
The Stephenie Plum series by Janet Evanovich
The House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast
The His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman
The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

With the exception of the two mystery series and the Evanovich books, these books are all paranormal. I wonder if that is because a great many of the series on the shelves now are paranormal or that's just how my current reading tastes are running. And of these 13 series, five are series for young adults. It's my impression that teens will really latch on to a series they like and be dedicated to those books and the author until the series' end. Witness the massive midnight turnout for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final installment in Rowling's series, and the large crowds Stephenie Meyer is drawing at her signings. And at least for now, the paranormal is still very popular among teen readers.

So, are you a series fan? If so, of what series are you a dedicated follower? What fabulous series have I not mentioned? There are at least two on my to-be-read list -- Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series and Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. Leave a comment and you could win the first in a new series by Harlequin Superromance author Anna DeStefano. Because of a Boy is the first in her new Atlanta Heroes series.






And if you're so inclined (and I REALLY hope you are), head on over to the Romantic Times Web site tomorrow to vote in the American Title IV contest. My finaling entry, Out of Sight, is the first of what I hope will be an exciting paranormal series about a gal who can make herself invisible and who gives a whole new meaning to "undercover" work. Your vote for Out of Sight helps it come one step closer to being published, which is the grand prize for the winner of the contest. Thanks in advance!

The "Keepers"

by Nancy Northcott

One of the difficult parts of being a book person is having to purge the shelves. There just isn't room to keep every book I ever buy. So about every four or five months, I go through and weed out books I haven't read in a very long time or books I've owned for a very long time but haven't read. I've learned to be fairly ruthless over the years, but there are some books that survive purge after purge even though I may not have read them recently. These are my "keepers."

At the top of the list is Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. If an author were only ever going to write one book and this was it, I think that would make one content. The book resonates with me because Scout's viewpoint is so engaging and because so many people in Maycomb care about doing the right thing. Gone With the Wind has survived years of purges. My copy belonged to my grandmother, so sentiment may play a role in its longevity, but I think Scarlett would have her own place if I'd bought the book new. She makes me impatient and appalled at times, but the woman has backbone. Even though I don't fully accept Mitchell's rendering of southern society, I admire the detail with which she did it. I haven't read either of these books in years, but I'm pretty sure that I'll eventually want to.

Then there are the series. The Harry Potter books will probably be family heirlooms. The Inglis Fletcher novels about the Carolinas will stay as long as I live. I fell in love with them years ago and never fell out. Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles swept me into Renaissance Scotland and carried me along to France, Russia, and the Mediterranean before coming full circle to end in Scotland. I almost didn't finish reading the first book. I didn't like anyone but the blind woman. Trusting the friend who gave the book to me, though, I persevered, only to have Dunnett turn everything inside out in the last hundred pages or so. I blitzed straight through the rest of the series in a week, reading late at night, on my lunch break, and during dinner (I was single then). I bought them in hardback when my mother and I went to England, the only trip the two of us took together, and lugged them back in my suitcase. So they stay. Someday I'll want to be swept across the Renaissance world again.

I loved Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels and Robert Jordan's massive, unfinished Wheel of Time saga (I selfishly hope he has a successor who'll get Rand to the mountain) and Gordon R. Dickson's Childe cycle and Dorothy L. Sayers' marvelous Lord Peter Wimsey and everything Georgette Heyer ever wrote. Their stories have fascinating worlds and noble, but not perfect, characters and intriguing plots. Hmm. All those authors are gone, as are Fletcher and Dunnett and Mitchell. Yet their books stay on my shelf through purge after purge. What was it Shakespeare said--something about the "evil men do liv[ing]after them" while "the good is oft interred with their bones?" Not for writers, it seems.

So what are your keepers? How do you choose them?