I have a new column up at Romancing the Blog. I was thinking about how I learned to crochet as a little kid, and realized that I learned to write pretty much the same way, and that the approach I took (purely through serendipity) seems to have worked out pretty well for both. Nothing profound, but rather a look at a way of learning something new and why I think it worked particularly well for me.

Angie

I have a new column up at Romancing the Blog today. I’m going to be moving some time in the next few months and I have to face the thought of sorting through my books and getting rid of some significant fraction; I’m trying to psych myself up to it. I’m sure a lot of folks here have suffered similar trauma. [wry smile]

Angie

ETA: closed to comments because of excessive spam. [sigh]

I have a new column up at Romancing the Blog called Further Adventures? I’m looking at the relative flexibility and rigidity of the het romance publishers and the gay romance publishers regarding genre requirements, specifically focusing on the viability of writing a series of books about the same pair of main characters.

Pop over and let me know what you think.

Angie

Angie

I have a new column up on Romancing the Blog, on the subject of Falling out of Love. I recently came to the sudden realization that a writer I really loved up until, well, a few days ago, is actually pretty sucky. :/ It feels exactly like the sudden awakening out of a romantic infatuation, which is a pretty weird feeling to have about a completely different sort of attachment. Has that ever happened to anyone else? (With writers, not partners. [grin])

Angie

I have a new column up at Romancing the Blog. The question this time is about book awards — no matter what genre(s) you read, do awards influence your choices? Are you more likely to pick up a book which won an award, or try a new writer who’s an award-winner? Come on over and let us know what you think.

Angie

I have a new column up at Romancing the Blog. This time I’m talking about pro writers blogging, and whether it might be a good idea to have multiple blogs (or journals or mailing lists or forums or whatever) for different types of posts, so people who just want to know when your new books are out or how your dog is doing can subscribe to your more “mellow” blog without having to scroll past your political analyses or your dissections of someone else’s book.

I’m responding to a couple of other posts that went up within the last few days, but you don’t have to read those if you don’t want to; I’m pretty sure mine makes sense on its own. The earlier topics were about whether a writer should express strong opinions on their blogs, or even controversial opinions. My thought was compartmentalizing, so readers can choose for themselves what they want to subscribe to.

What do you think?

Angie

I just posted a new column on Romancing the Blog. This time around I’m talking about an issue brought up during a discussion on Torquere’s Yahoo group regarding the reasons why the editor-in-chief of Ace and Roc thinks there’s no print market for m/m romances. She’s just repeating the party line which is passed around the New York publishers, but it seems to me that the basic premise behind that party line — that women won’t buy m/m romances because they want to insert themselves into the story in the heroine’s place, and since m/m books don’t have a heroine there’s no part for the reader to “play” — is deeply flawed. If it’s impossible for the (presumably female) het romance reader to enjoy an m/m romance because there’s no female protag, that implies that it’s impossible for anyone to enjoy reading a book where there’s no same-gender protag. Am I the only one whose eyes cross at that particular piece of logic…? [squint]

Aside from the fact that most of the m/m romances being sold right now — in print as well as e-pub — are purchased by women. [cough]

Anyway, I’m collecting data from readers — come give me your two cents’ worth.

Angie

[ETA: Comments turned off because of spam]

Building Your Own World

I just posted a new column on Romancing the Blog. This time I’m talking about the lack of any indication in romances, particularly erotic romances, of just what the sex-to-story ratio is. It makes it tough to know just what you’re going to get when you spend your money; just because you like explicit sex doesn’t mean you want the books you read to be 80+ percent sex scenes. It’s not about limiting what’s published or complaining that there’s not enough of “my” kind of book out there, but rather about giving readers the info they need to find the books they’ll like. Come read, and tell me what you think.

Angie