It looks like The Spymaster's Lady (Die Geliebte des Meisterspions)
is coming out as an audible book in German next month. Here. So wonderful! Wow.
Der britische Meisterspion Robert Grey reist nach Frankreich, um die berüchtigte Spionin Annique Villiers aufzuspüren. Durch einen Zufall landen beide in derselben Gefängniszelle und müssen zusammenarbeiten, um sich zu befreien. Robert glaubt, dass Annique wertvolle Informationen über Napoleons geplanten Angriff auf England besitzt. Er will sie deshalb nach London bringen. Doch Annique gelingt es ein ums andere Mal, sich ihm zu entziehen. Und Robert muss schon bald feststellen, dass die schöne Französin tiefere Gefühle in ihm weckt.
Here's the printed version in German, btw. I'm told the translation is wonderful.
Joanna Bourne
writing Historical Romance
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
Auction Stuff of Beauty and Coolness
Every year, Brenda Novak holds an online auction in aid of diabetes research. Have a look at it here.
Some wonderful items on offer.
Steampunk flash drive. Turquoise stained glass box by author Chloe Jacobs. Replica Regency-style rings. Art deco necklace.
Name a character in an upcoming book by Carly Phillips, Shiloh Walker, or Amanda Brice.
14" X 16" hand woven Thunderbird mat for your computer area or a tiny lizard pot.
Then there's YOUR favorite book covers made into a 3' X 3' quilt. What could be cooler than that?
Then there's a really weird teapot. Or this pretty Edwardian pin.
See Mercedes Lackey's autographed books and matching necklace and another one.
Books. Books. Books.
Two ARCs from Sherry Thomas who won the Historical Romance RITA last year.
The remarkable Grace Burrowes offers an autographed book and a color NOOK!
Get FOUR of Loretta Chase's Traditional Regencies. Signed by the author. I suspect these are difficult to come by.
I am just going to mention that four of the folks competing for the Historical Romance RITA have signed books available. Loretta Chase, Elizabeth Hoyt, Kaki Warner and me. Eileen Dreyer, another Finalist in that category, is doing a critique. This is probably deeply significant.
Finally, we have author critiques. You could not possibly do better than this. I'm only going to list a few -- Kristan Higgins, Madeline Hunter, Candice Hern, Anna Campbell, Eileen Dreyer, Vanessa Kelly, Delilah Marvelle, Karen Harper, and Lauren Willig.
Some wonderful items on offer.
![]() |
| Steampunk flash drive |
![]() |
| Chloe Jacobs' stained glass box |
Name a character in an upcoming book by Carly Phillips, Shiloh Walker, or Amanda Brice.
![]() |
| Tiny lizard pot for seeds |
Then there's YOUR favorite book covers made into a 3' X 3' quilt. What could be cooler than that?
Then there's a really weird teapot. Or this pretty Edwardian pin.
![]() |
| An Edwardian pin. 1910. |
See Mercedes Lackey's autographed books and matching necklace and another one.
![]() |
| Mercedes Lackey necklace |
Two ARCs from Sherry Thomas who won the Historical Romance RITA last year.
The remarkable Grace Burrowes offers an autographed book and a color NOOK!
Get FOUR of Loretta Chase's Traditional Regencies. Signed by the author. I suspect these are difficult to come by.
![]() |
| Small Thunderbird weaving |
Finally, we have author critiques. You could not possibly do better than this. I'm only going to list a few -- Kristan Higgins, Madeline Hunter, Candice Hern, Anna Campbell, Eileen Dreyer, Vanessa Kelly, Delilah Marvelle, Karen Harper, and Lauren Willig.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Buy Me at the Brenda Novak Auction
![]() |
| The Classic cover |
![]() |
| This is the 1983 book |
The five books (and draft pages) are here.
The other offering is a 20-page critique of your manuscript. I will try to be kindly and useful. That's found here.
Labels:
Book pimping,
Selling and publication
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Romance covers ... what's wrong with them
This is what I hate about Romance covers ... even covers that are well done.
Look at this:
I picked these up at random from four genres. First thing we notice is these covers are, like, different from one another. The covers have something to do with what's inside the book.
Look at the titles --
The Gunslinger
The Shoemaker's Wife
Clockwork angel
Mockingjay
Iron Daughter
In Sunlight and in Shadow
Tigers in Red Weather
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Outlaw Album
The titles relate to what's in the book. They're different from one another, and memorable.
There's no sense that the reader has to be hand-led to these books by having the covers and titles shout across the store -- "Generic YA!" or "Generic Mystery!"
These distinct and memorable covers are picked from a couple of 'best of' lists: Here are six historical fiction covers. Here's a round dozen YA covers. Now we got a whole hundred of SF&;F covers. And here's a pack of ten mystery / suspense books.
EDITED TO ADD:
Some of those covers above are, admittedly, best seller types. Are bestsellers the only books to get good, distinctive covers?
Not so much. Look at what they do with covers in a very small, very specific genre. Cozy mystery shows us that a small genre doesn't have to mean cookie cutter titles and covers. Here. Cozy mystery are midlist books with individual, story-directed covers. Publishers can afford to do this.
All three covers are recognizably cozy mysteries. All show different aspects of the cozy mystery genre. You aren't going to mistake one cover for the other or one title for the other.
How about another niche genre where the books are midlist books, not national bestsellers. Wanna see some Inspirational Romance covers?
I won't argue these are great art. I won't say these are thrillingly original. But see how the covers are talking to the reader? They're saying there's an individual story inside this book and it matters.
Now let us look at Historical Romance, 32 romance books, shall we? These are all well-regarded popular books. Picking out some random covers.
And we have a passel of women with their clothes falling off. Sometimes, men with their clothes falling off. Sometimes both.
Forgettable covers. Essentially these are the same cover decked out in different colors.
Don't get me started on the trite, interchangeable, forgettable titles.
To Desire a Wicked Duke
After Dark with a Scoundrel
One Night is Never Enough
To Tempt a Rake
The Perfect Mistress
Seducing the Governess
Unveiled
Scandal of the Year
The Countess
Eight out of nine, perfectly forgettable titles.
What does this say to the world about Historical Romance?
It says, "One Romance book is like another." It says, "No story inside this book, Ma'm. Just pick one at random."
This is so much lack of respect.
I hate this.
Labels:
philosophizing,
Selling and publication
Sunday, May 06, 2012
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
A Flask of Regency Liquor
Samuel Johnson
Today I'm over at Word Wenches, talking about Regency tipples. The hard-drinking Regency or Georgian gentleman is such a stock figure in Romance, it's worth stopping a minute to wonder what sort of liquor he was likely to be
There was ale and beer, of course, and their cousin, porter. Ale and beer weren't precisely a gentleman's drink, but it's likely your hero lifted a mug of ale before the hunt and he may well have drunk beer with his breakfast, especially if he lived in the deep country.
Beer and ale were drinks native to England, universal, and cheap. The drink of the people, as it were. Even small children drank a low-alcohol sort of beer called 'small beer' made from the second or third re-fermentation of the mash during brewing and containing just enough alcohol to preserve the drink.
Ale differs from beer in having fewer hops, which, giving less bitterness, leaves more of the soft smooth sweetness of the malt. It is usual, too, to brew it with pale malt, so that it is not so brown as beer.
Scenes of British Wealth, Isaac Taylor, 1825.
Porter―later this was also called 'stout'―was a style of strong, dark, well-aged beer dating back to the Eighteenth Century, much favored by the working class of London. Thus 'porter', because porters drank it. Not a stylish beverage. If you're wondering what it was like; Guinness is stout.
Why so much beer drinking?
See the rest of the article at Word Wenches. Here There's also a chance to win Black Hawk (or Forbidden Rose if you'd prefer that.)
Thursday, April 12, 2012
I came across this list. It's from American Library Association at Booklist, Book Group Buzz.
I'm putting this list up -- well, it has me on it which is a non-inconsiderable part of why somebody sent me the URL -- because this is just a wonderful lineup of great 2011 Romance and Romance-related Books. It includes a number of folks who do not compete for the RITA, so it draws from a wider pool than the RITA does.
I do not know where I have seen a better round up of wonderful books.
Joanna Bourne The Black Hawk
Thea Harrison Dragon Bound
Loretta Chase Silk Is for Seduction
Eloisa James When Beauty Tamed the Beast
Nalini Singh Archangel’s Blade
Susan Elizabeth Phillips Call Me Irresistible
Julie Ann Long What I Did for the Duke
Pamela Clare Breaking Point
Darynda Jones First Grave on the Right
Nalini Singh Kiss of Snow
Meredith Duran A Lady’s Lesson in Scandal
J. R. Ward Lover Unleashed
J. D. Robb New York to Dallas
Thursday, March 29, 2012
I'm a Finalist
Black Hawk is one of eight in the Historical Romance category.
To wit:
Always a Temptress by Eileen Dreyer (Grand Central Publishing Forever; Amy Pierpont, editor)
The Black Hawk by Joanna Bourne (Berkley Publishing Group; Wendy McCurdy, editor)
(That's me. Look. There I am. Me.)
The Danger of Desire by Elizabeth Essex (Kensington Brava; Megan Records, editor)
Heartbreak Creek by Kaki Warner (Berkley Publishing Group Sensation; Wendy McCurdy, editor)
The Many Sins of Lord Cameron by Jennifer Ashley (Berkley Publishing Group Sensation; Kate Seaver, editor)
Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Hoyt (Grand Central Publishing; Amy Pierpont, editor)
Silk Is for Seduction by Loretta Chase (Avon Books; May Chen, editor)
Unveiled by Courtney Milan (HQN Books; Margo Lipschultz, editor)
As you can see -- these are major players here. I am taking my joy from the Finalist position in the gather-ye-rosebuds-while-ye-may school of reality.
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