Apparently Romantic Times has created an award category for ‘Best African American romance’. Yep, it was a big WTF? for me too.

So basically, regardless of whether one’s book is a contemporary, a paranormal, or a regency, if said book has black characters in them, then it automatically goes into the black pot? Hmmm…

I get what RT are trying to do, but for me, this just otherfies AA romance even more.

Mrs Giggles was also bemused by the development, and had this to say: (more…)

I’d like to welcome Raven’s Reviews to Romanceland…

Raven is unusual in that she will be reviewing African American romance, so those of you who insist that colour doesn’t matter in romance, be sure to pop along and say hi.

Jill Noble from Noble Romance posted a link to a new release called The Gingerbread Tryst.

Here’s the blurb:

Meet Marisa, a restless homemaker who spends her time baking, masturbating and dabbling in magic. Happily married, Marisa only wishes her husband Don could keep up with her insatiable need for sex. She craves orgasms daily and her sex drive has become a sore spot in an otherwise happy marriage.

Determined to find a solution to ramp up Don’s libido, she turns to magic. After trying magical amulets and oils, Marisa discovers a book that contains wish spells. Throwing caution to the wind, she decides to experiment with an incantation that could make her naughty gingerbread man cookie a real flesh and blood man.

Taken by surprise . . . literally, Marisa indulges in a delicious sexual rendezvous that ends up going further than she could have ever imagined. This delightfully sexy tale offers up hot thrills sure to please any sweet tooth!

Committing adultery with a Gingerbread Man? Really? (more…)

I realise it’s been a while since I posted, but what can I say, sometimes it’s nice to let one’s life interfere with one’s blogging habits.

Anyway, Christmas was at my house, and it was brilliant. (more…)

So I’ve been reading Julia Spencer-Fleming’s rather marvellous Millers Kill books, and I have to say, I absolutely adore them. Thanks to Sarah Tanner of Monkey Bear Reviews and Keishon, AvidBookReader, for recommending the series to me.

The heroine is a newly ordained female priest called Clare Fergusson, and the hero, Russ Van Alstyne, the police chief of Millers Kill, a little town in upstate New York that never seems to see much sunshine.

In The Bleak Midwinter is the first book, and our first encounter with Clare, an ex-army helicopter pilot, who’s moved into Millers Kill, as the new priest of St Albans, the local Episcopal church.

When Clare finds a new-born baby abandoned on the steps of the church, the search for the baby’s mother brings her in contact with Russ Van Alstyne, Millers Kill chief of police, and the man who’s destined to test her strength of will and make her question her loyalty to God. In Russ, Clare discovers her Mr Right, the man that completes her, and acts as a salve to her soul. The only problem is…he’s married.

Yep, not a book for the romance purist perhaps. (more…)

Rosario has a great review of Dorothy Koomson’s book, The Chocolate Run, up on her blog. She loves it as much as I did.

She also wrote a review of Goodnight Beautiful. Once again, she loved it, even though it wasn’t a romance.

Yay for another Koomson convert!

Oh my gosh, you have got to check out this seventy-five year old British pensioner who won the Spanish equivalent of Britain/America’s Got Talent. Meet Paddy Jones!

I really hope she doesn’t put a hip out or something. How amazing was she?

Here’s an email from a KKB regular:

One of the problems with the deal with HQN and their vanity pub, Author Solutions… Author Solutions is already known to have a bad rep and frankly, RWA doesn’t have any business supporting a a business that blatantly lies to potential customers.

And they do.

I know that, for a fact, because I called them, without giving them my name, to see what they had to say.

And slightly off-topic, what if Yog’s Law didn’t exist?

I was given a lot of spin, and sales people are going to hand out spin.

But I was also lied to.

The sales rep said, three times, that the Harry Potter books/JK Rowling had started out in self publishing. I was specifically told that the first Harry Potter books were self published. They weren’t. They were picked up by a small press in the UK and then bought by Scholastic in the states. I know better and I know how to research. But a hopeful writer who doesn’t quite understand the publishing industry? They’ve got no business handing out lies and that’s exactly what Author Solutions is doing. And I do believe it’s Author Solutions. I think Author Solutions offered to do the publishing bit if HQN would ‘lend’ them their name for a cut of the profits.

I wonder how HQN feel about the source of all their troubles recently allegedly telling lies to their customers?

This week’s dilemma is as follows:

You’re an author and you’re a member of a writing organisation that aims to provide advice and support to its members re all issues publishing-related.

You learn from your organisation that they have delisted a major publisher due to said publisher being in contravention of one of their rules. They’ve opened up a vanity press/self-publishing arm. You aren’t published with this particular company, but had hoped to one day be published by them.

The writing organisation is up in arms, the authors are thoroughly disgusted, and you feel that it’s a really bad idea, and you’re very vocal about your annoyance.

You submitted a manuscript to the company in question a while ago, and they finally come back to you offering you a three-book contract with a healthy advance

What would you do? Would you take the contract, even though you don’t agree with their new venture, or do you stick to your principles, figuring that you’re better off waiting for other offers to come through?

What would you do??

Maili linked to this very interesting column over at Racialicious.

Basically the columnist, Nadra Kareem talks about some of the American reaction to Amanda Knox’s conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher. She makes some really excellent points, and some of her comments mirror some of my own thoughts during the trial and my bemusement over the seemingly overwhelming sympathetic reaction to her case.

Nadra starts: (more…)