Harlequin author Paula Roe talked to an audience of romance readers and aspiring writers at Penrith Library about the glamorous life of a romance author, from royalties to rolling over in Russia, before taking questions. And we had a LOT of questions.
This is not a word-for-word transcript of everything Paula said. I had to paraphrase and summarise just to keep up, but I tried to keep the spirit of what she said. Any mistakes are mine.
Paula started off with a few facts about the genre. Romance is the largest selling fictional genre in the world. Australia doesn’t keep many statistics, so we have to rely on the American figures. There were 9000 romances released in 2009, and readers spent $1.3 billion on them.
Harlequin Enterprises is largest romance publisher in the world, releasing 110 books per month in 28 languages over 106 continents.
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In a special RSVP event, Tara Moss came to Galaxy to sign copies of her newest book, The Blood Countess.
Tara was dressed in head-to-toe toe black with no visible sign (to my eye at least) of her baby bump. She accessorised with black nails, a black head band, black fingerless lace gloves, a long, beskulled necklace, blingy skull earrings from Vivienne Westwood and tall black heels.
I arrived in time for questions, but we didn’t have many and I suspect that many of us (and I’m including myself as well) haven’t read the book yet. Someone asked about the shopkeeper character and Tara hedged and tried not to give too much away. She said he’s a lovely shopkeeper and some characters appear in the books that we may see play a bigger part later.
Tara was asked how many books she has planned for the series and she said that it’s open ended. She’s happy to keep writing them as long as people enjoy reading them and she won’t have any problems writing more books.
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Decadence gives us a run-down of Carrie Vaughn’s visit to Galaxy last Sunday.
Spoiler warning: So much happens in each book to further Kitty’s development that even reading the blurb on later books constitutes a spoiler. This post contains spoilers from the Kitty Norville series.
When I heard that Carrie Vaughn was coming to Galaxy for a signing, I visited her website and found an excerpt (click on the Werewolf Psychologist link and scroll down to ‘Dr. Kitty Solves All Your Love Problems’) that sold me on Kitty and the Midnight Hour, the first in her werewolf Kitty Norville series, which I liked so much, I glommed the rest of the series. This is a really good time to do that, with eight books published so far.
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Keri Arthur (left) and Tracey O'Hara
For the first time that I can remember, Galaxy had TWO paranormal authors in to sign books. And they brought a New York agent. And a soon-to-be-published debut author. And a partridge in a pear tree. OK, maybe not that last one.
The gathering at Galaxy was nice and informal, so we got to spend some time chatting with Keri Arthur and Tracey O’Hara while they signed our books.
The cover for the second book in Tracey’s Dark Brethren series, Death’s Sweet Embrace, has been redone and I think it looks better this way. Its style is more like the Night’s Cold Kiss cover, so I think the new cover ties the books together as a series better than two differently styled covers.
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The finalists for this year’s Romance Book of the Year (R*BY) Awards have been announced. Congratulations on the finalists and good luck!
Long Romance Category
Mistletoe Magic by Sophia James
Mastered by Love by Stephanie Laurens
Temptation and Surrender by Stephanie Laurens
Wicked Little Game by Christine Wells
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Source: www.melinamarchetta.com
Or as I like to think of it: Meeting Melina Marchetta.
Well, maybe that’s not quite fair. This panel featured four female Australian authors reading excerpts from their books, and each of them sparked my interest in different ways.
But I can’t lie. I was there for Melina Marchetta.
Pier 4 was teeming with people when I arrived a few minutes before 10am for the session. It was a wonderful atmosphere. Attendance at Reading Muster 1 seemed fairly small, which meant I got a great seat … looking straight at Marchetta.
What? I’m a big fan!
I confess I wasn’t expecting much from this session. I’m not big on written stories being read aloud, and I’m also not convinced that authors are the best people to read their work. I’m happy to say I was wrong.
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In which I continue my undignified squeeing over a fantastic Australian author.
Thanks to Adele at Persnickety Snark I discovered that this week is Author Appreciation Week. How perfect.
Everyone who follows me on Twitter is groaning, I’m sure. For the past few weeks most of my book conversations have revolved around—or eventually ended up with—Melina Marchetta.
I love her work. I want to marry her books and grow old with them.
When Looking For Alibrandi first came out, I was heavily into category romances and the last thing I wanted to read was an angsty teen novel set in Australia. It wasn’t until last year that I first picked up Marchetta’s work when I read her short story, Twelve Minutes, in last year’s Books Alive anthology. Even then I wasn’t sure I’d read the novel that the short story was based on, The Piper’s Son.
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It was the surprise that couldn’t be kept under wraps. Plans were dropped for this … or they would have been if I’d made any.
Galaxy’s monthly book club would have another special guest in New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Nalini Singh, who jumped across the pond from New Zealand.
I managed to arrive before Nalini and learned that Sofia (Galaxy’s paranormal romance guru) had invited a reporter and photographer from the Daily Telegraph to meet Nalini.
While I was waiting for Nalini to arrive, I had a chat with the reporter, Julia, who will soon converse with (rather than interview) Charlaine Harris. (I asked what the difference was, and apparently a conversation is meant to be more comfortable, informal and less inherently interrogative than an interview.)
For research purposes, Julia has read the first 2 Southern Vampire Mystery books (which she enjoyed) but hasn’t read any other paranormals. Yet. (I’d like to think that might change as a result of her stories on Nalini as well as Charlaine.)
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BOOK GIVEAWAY: Read on for a chance to win a free copy of Night’s Cold Kiss. The contest ends midnight on Sunday, December 20 AEST.
What happens when an Aurealis Award finalist comes to visit our local bookshop? We take over the paranormal romance aisle, of course! And yes, there were Tim Tams involved.
Decadence, the early bird
This was not your traditional book signing, with a long line of people waiting, the publisher’s reps asking for the name you want to personalise your books and standing ready to take your photo with the author. Thursday night’s book signing with Tracey O’Hara took place during one of Galaxy’s book club meetings, so there was a row of chairs down each side of the paranormal aisle, ending in a table of refreshments. I was a book club virgin, so I didn’t know what to expect from the evening.
Sofia introduced me to Tracey (who was standing in the new releases section, at the back, with a female relative and her father) before the meeting started
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It’s not often we get romance author signings, let alone two at the same time, so when Tracey O’Hara and Erica Hayes did a signing at Intrigue Bookstore in Canberra last month, Kate Cuthbert generously offered to do a recap for Book Thingo.
Kate is a reader, writer, reviewer, twitter-er, blogger, and starter of readers’ groups, all devoted (mainly) to romance novels. You can read her Romance Buzz newsletters at Booktopia, check out her sadly-neglected website, email her, or follow her (@katydidinoz).
Here’s a hint: showing up first thing for a signing means you get a couple of extra minutes to hang out with the authors. Of course, you’re up first thing for a signing, but as Intrigue’s sponsoring of brand new Aussie authors Tracey O’Hara and Erica Hayes started at 11am, it wasn’t that hard to pull myself out of bed. Plus I’d read both Night’s Cold Kiss and Shadowfae, loved them, and really wanted signed copies for myself.
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