True Blood fans will be disappointed to know that Charlaine Harris has had to cancel her Australian book tour due to some ‘very sad family news’. Her Australian publicist confirmed this and also mentioned that they’re keen to reschedule her soon. We wish her and her family well.

Thanks to @awritingjourney for the heads up.

This month is Get Reading! month (previously Books Alive) in Australia. I unearthed an article I wrote for the ARRA newsletter last year around the same time. I’m posting it in full with some additional notes at the end.

If you’ve been book shopping recently, you may have noticed signs promoting the Books Alive campaign. Visit a participating bookshop before September 30 and you can pick up a free reading guide called 50 Books You Can’t Put Down.

I’ll be honest. I find it difficult to get excited about most of the books in the guide. We’re not likely to find Stephanie Laurens or Anna Campbell on the list, let alone the many Australian romance authors who write category novels or who are primarily e-published.

So what’s a romance reader to do? The good news is that there are romances listed—even if it’s not easy to spot them!

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If, like me, you’ve been waiting with bated breath for news that the Sony Reader has landed on our shores, wait no more—it’s here!

This afternoon I got a call from Sony World Square confirming that they’ve received some stock. They have the PRS-650 in black or red and the PRS-350 in silver. And if you click on those links you’ll notice that the purchase links are now working on the Sony website. If you buy online, shipping is free until December 31st. According to other readers on Twitter, Melbourne stores expect stock early next week.

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Calling cards with quotes on love and romance (by the Australian Poetry Centre)

A couple of months ago, The Wheeler Centre hosted an event called A Week of Love and Lust. One of the sessions featured best-selling Australian romance author Stephanie Laurens. Here are some highlights, thanks to Jen from Evening Hour.

I was really excited when I heard about The Wheeler Centre devoting a week to Love and Lust. As an avid romance reader, and as a staunch advocate of the kitschier side to popular culture (wait, isn’t all popular culture kitsch when you get down to it?), A Fine Romance was an opportunity I simply could not pass up. And with a subheading like ‘Beyond the Bodice Ripper’, you know it’s going to be enlightening, to say the least.

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This month’s Mixed Bag has a slightly different format. Decadence has begun yet another series, and this month she reviews the first four books of the Blue Bloods series by Melissa de la Cruz.

Blue Bloods Boxed Set (Books 1-3) by Melissa de la Cruz

Melissa de la Cruz is a very clever writer. In her Blue Bloods series, De la Cruz has combined the current paranormal romance trends of fallen angels with vampires and set them against the backdrop of New York glamour where she makes her living. The story is mainly told in the third person from the viewpoints of Schuyler Van Alen, an impoverished misfit with an old money ancestry, spoilt It-girl Mimi Force, and Mimi’s friend, fish out of water Texan transplant Bliss Llewellyn.

The story is an intriguing mix of secrets and illusion wrapped up in glamorous privilege and exclusivity. All three girls are students at the prestigious Duchesne college, but have different backgrounds. The only other thing they have in common is that they are becoming vampires.

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Yesterday I was so excited; today not so much.

Update: Some lovely Sony people on Twitter followed this up for me. The Sony store in World Square (Sydney) should have the Reader on sale on September 8. Maybe.

Further to yesterday’s news that Sony has launched the Reader in Australia, according to CNET Australia the Readers will be priced from $229 to $299. The Readers will have touch screen and the ability for users to take notes and annotate ebooks using a stylus—a key selling point for me.

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I’ve been waiting for aaaages for Sony to launch their ebook reader in Australia, and today they finally announced it.

The Reader—it boggles my mind how Sony could possibly have trademarked such a common word—features the E-Ink Pearl display, which I believe is the same type of screen that the newest Kindles have.

Book Bee has all the details, the most important being that the Reader will integrate with REDgroup’s online bookshops, which includes Borders Australia. The device will be sold at Borders (online and bricks and mortar shops), Angus and Robertson, Myer, Sony Style stores and Sony centres.

Update: CNET reports that Readers will start from $229.

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Blameless by Gail Carriger (Parasol Protectorate, Book 3)

After the cliffhanger that was Changeless, the latest instalment in the Parasol Protectorate series brings us back to romance territory.

After Changeless, I was very frustrated. It was a total cliffhanger, and I went as far as DMing Gail Carriger on Twitter to ask what was going to happen next. She very nicely replied, I’m very sorry but I can’t tell you. Fortunately, Kat got a review copy of Blameless last Friday, which coincided with Carriger’s visit to Galaxy to randomly sign things. She assured us that, as a believer of happy endings, she always makes sure everything ends with a HEA.

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Last night’s Jennifer Byrne Presents special, in place of ABC’s regular First Tuesday Book Club, was an interview with author and controversial political activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali. If you haven’t heard of Hirsi Ali, she has written two memoirs, Infidel and Nomad, and has been called the feminist counterpart to Salman Rushdie.

Hirsi Ali talks about the evolution of her ideas and the experiences that influenced her. Here’s the excerpt from the transcript, in which Hirsi Ali talks about the empowering ideas she found in romance books (any emphasis is mine):

JENNIFER BYRNE: But you did have exposure to European things, your father had been educated there.

But also, you started reading English books. Things like Enid Blyton and Barbara Cartland, which I just found hysterical to think were considered completely challenging to authority. How could Barbara Cartland be challenging to authority?

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Tracey O'Hara (Winner, R*BY Award -- Romantic Elements)

There was no shortage of glamour in last night’s Romance Book of the Year (R*BY) awards where Sophia James took out the top prize in Australian romance fiction, winning the Long Romance category for Mistletoe Magic (in Christmas Betrothals, Mills & Boon/Quills), beating Christine Wells and romance veteran Stephanie Laurens, who was nominated twice in the category.

Tracey O’Hara received the R*BY in the Romantic Elements category, which goes to novels of any length  or genre in which romance plays a significant—though not necessarily a central—-role in the story. Her book, Night’s Cold Kiss (HarperCollins/Eos), was the only speculative fiction work shortlisted for the R*BY.

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