This month, the C word is Celebration.
Over the next month, AAR will run a column a week as part of our participation in Queer Romance Month. This, penned by author Alexis Hall, is the first of the four.
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Checking in with Sarah MacLean
I was lucky enough to get a chance to sit down and chat with Sarah MacLean while at RWA. (This was before she won the RITA for best historical romance!) I wanted to follow up with her. I’d talked to her in December of 2013 about her challenge to The New York Times and that paper’s…
The SA in NA
A few months ago, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek guide to writing a successful New Adult novel. I wrote this piece after reading yet another book that seemed to follow such a formula as to be suspect, that this Mad Libs method of simply filling in the blanks with different names, locations and minor details had…
Sarah MacLean talks about romance, the New York Times, and upending tropes
Sarah, this fall the New York Times Book Review published a “Sex” issue that lacked any coverage of the romance or erotica genre. (I read it and steam came out of my ears.) You sent a lovely letter to the editors taking them to task which they published. In it, you wrote: “I was dismayed to see…
How Do We Define Romance?
How do we define romance? On a romance blog, one might as well ask what is life. It’s one of those broad, overarching topics susceptible to endless debate. We see authors offering endless variations from the most conventional to the most edgy and subversive. And yet, at the end of the day, we expect our…
New York Publishing and 50 Shades
The astounding success of 50 Shades of Grey has a lot of folks bewildered. Publishers included, quite clearly. While all of us stumble around trying to make sense of it, I was stumped when a reporter asked me recently why it was such a success. Expecting a succinct answer, I started to talk about covers…
It’s Time to Revamp our Sensuality Ratings
AAR’s sensuality ratings have come under discussion lately due to the changing nature of the romance industry in general. With the recent proliferation of racier novels, what was once declared Hot may now be considered barely Warm by our readers. The language used in love scenes, once a deciding factor in rating, has also changed drastically in recent years. Quaint…
The People We Hate to Love
During my life I’ve been a critic and/or a reviewer of books, movies, theatre, live events, and art. I’ve written a weekly book review column as well as a weekly art critic column. Everywhere I’ve worked and for everyone who edited my writing, what a critic or reviewer is and should do has been a…
The Washington Romance Writers 2010 Retreat
How’s that for a picture? Two superstar authors feelin’ the love after a successful booksigning. Hey, it was a moment for me, too. Last weekend I attended the 2010 Washington Romance Writers Retreat and, it’s safe to say, a good time was had by all. The weekend started off in the traditional way: A multiple…
Why is "Settling" a Dirty Word in Romance?
While reading message boards online, I have happened upon a phrase that stuck with me. The reader said that she couldn’t stand to see how “Heroine X settles for Hero Y”. She expected her heroine to find love with another, and regarded her turning to the hero and her finding love with him as ‘settling’….
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