Mobs descended on the Registration desks, trying to figure out if they were filed under their pen names or their real names. The Swan and Dolphin have become a weird mash-up of Disney tourists (strollers, sunburns, Mickey Mouse ears) and RWA members (eco-friendly canvas conference bags full of books, cute outfits and name badges, with lots of quick downward eye-flicks to check the name, often followed by “OMG! I KNOW you!!”)

A relatively quiet moment at the Registration Desk

The badges are low-key this year: a clear pouch and a mellow pink-and-blue lanyard (bling added!)

Workshops don’t start until Thursday, but the place was buzzing, with the Book Fair and Goody Room open for business, luncheons for Chapter Leadership and Librarians, a First Timers’ Orientation, and Chapter events like the Beau Monde Retreat, the RWA Online Chapter party, and meetings of the Scriptscene, RWA Heartbeat, and Faith, Hope & Love Chapters. Everywhere you looked, old friends, critique partners, and agents / editors / authors were meeting up with jubilant hugs, seeing each other face-to-face for the first time in a year. (Or, in the case of Ruby Sister Louisa Cornell and her CP, meeting face-to-face for the first time in their six-year working relationship.)

For Golden Heart finalists, a big highlight was the Golden Network Retreat. A wonderfully generous and articulate panel of publishing professionals ( editors Heather Osborne of Tor, Alexandra Kendall of Red Sage, and Deb Werksman of Sourcebooks and agents Jessica Faust and Kevan Lyon) struck mortal terror into the hearts of everyone present with a Gong-Show-like game of “Yell STOP when you’d stop reading this submission.”  Wow, they’re tough!  They were all cringing and apologizing about “being mean,” but it was incredibly helpful to hear them straightforwardly name some of the things that make them reject a manscript: unsympathetic heroines, historical inaccuracies, stilted dialogue, excessive interior monologue, even typos.

Incredibly enlightening, but my stomach is still in knots, and I wasn’t even one of the brave souls whose work was critiqued.  My hat is off to all of you who submitted pages! (The session actually ended on a high note, with Deb Werksman publicly requesting a full off one of the submitted pages, which belonged to Unsinkable Nancy Evertz, who writes as Nan Dixon.  Go, Nancy!)

Agent Kevan Lyon, who admits she can't bear stories in which animals or small children are injured

In the evening, the hordes converged at the Literacy Signing: if you think the lines to get Goofy’s autograph in DisneyWorld are long (and fervent), you should see fangirls lined up for Nora Roberts and Sherrilyn Kenyon.  Lines started forming by 3:00, hours before the start of the event. Personally, I may have squee-ed just the *teensiest* bit (in a very dignified way, I’m sure) when I met the wonderful Sherry Thomas, who was giving out cool rose-scented fizzy bath cubes she’d concocted herself.  And in the very same row, just a year after her Golden Heart nomination in the Regency category, Ruby Sister Liz Talley was signing copies of her debut contemporary, Vegas Two-Step.

Sherrilyn Kenyon greets a fan (whose T-shirt reads "And then Buffy Staked Edward. The End.")

The lovely Liz Talley signing Vegas Two-Step for a new fan

The big highlight of the day for the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood, however, was a group dinner date.  I only got to meet with my Sisters for a few minutes at the Dolphin Fountain, but I made it into the photo:

Ruby Reunion!!

I headed off for my first Beau Monde Soiree, which was hilarious good fun: lots of ladies in period costume, plus live music and a expert caller who taught us  Regency dances like Dover Pier and various waltzes.  Many collisions between ladies in white gloves and ostrich-feather headdresses ensued. It all looks so much easier in the movies….  But there was much laughter and good cheer, and I KNOW they don’t do things like this at engineering conventions.

A graceful moment in the Beau Monde Soiree dancing

Quite a day, and night.  It’s nearly midnight, and I’m going to fall into bed so I have energy for tomorrow’s hijinks, including the Keynote Luncheon with speaker Nora Roberts and the start of workshops.  Elizabeth Langston will be telling you all about it for Friday’s post.  Good night, all!

But for this year’s recipients of those much-anticipated calls from the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart® Contest, the news really was life-changing. As various 2010 finalists have put it, they felt “stunned,” “excited, validated,” “blown away, and then on cloud nine,” “very, very humbled and more than a little terrified,” “honored and ecstatic,” “absolutely elated, disbelieving,” “like I’d won the lottery,” and filled with “unbelieving, shaking, surreal joy.” Mary Oldham, who finaled in Contemporary Series Romance, says, “My co-workers thought something bad had happened because I was crying.” And Paranormal finalist Katrina Snow “felt like I was full of helium all day—without the chipmunk voice.”

Some comedy was involved: for Regency finalist Gillian Layne, the call came so late in the day “the first sentence out of my mouth was, ‘I’ve already eaten my I-didn’t-final candy bar!’” Historical finalist Elisabeth Burke almost didn’t pick up the phone because she “didn’t recognize the number, so I thought it was a sales call….I think I screamed (and I’m not a screamer).” When double finalist Tina Joyce (Series Contemporary and Suspense / Adventure) got her second call of the day, her husband handed her the phone and said, “It’s those RWA people again.  They must have forgotten something.” And YA finalist Erica O’Rourke just plain wouldn’t believe the news: “I was convinced someone was trying to punk me.”

Gabrielle Luthy, a finalist in Novel with Strong Romantic Elements, was in the Southern Hemisphere when calls started going out from Texas: “I’d just crawled into bed with a cold at 3.30PM, thinking that if I did get the call, it wouldn’t be for at least 12 hours, to accommodate time zones. Ten minutes later, my phone rang and I started to giggle.” YA finalist Kimberley MacCarron was only home for the call because she’d stopped to put clothes in the wash before heading to the gym: “I ended up telling the lady from RWA that her call worked out great since I had decided to put in a load of laundry.  When I told the friend I was with that I had finaled, she said, ‘I thought maybe you’d won some laundry soap.’ I must have sounded like an idiot.”

Once the news sunk in, however, much hollering and celebrating ensued. For YA finalist Vanessa Barneveld, “my living room turned into party central.” Historical finalist Mary E. Lawrence was “at work in a hospital lab—I whooped so loud folks could hear me down the hall!” Single Title Contemporary finalist Lizbeth Selvig “stayed calm on the phone and then scared the dog with a war whoop after I hung up.” (Since then, Liz has been invited to ride in the Harvest Days Parade in her tiny town of Webster, MN!).

Before the day was out, a Yahoo loop was set up for finalists to get to know one another, and a powerful new fellowship was formed. It’s quite a group. To see the full list of finalists, including their photos and the titles of their finaling books, visit the RWA website.

Some 2010 finalists have finaled before, including *eleven* Ruby Slippered Sisters who repeated this year (GO, Rubies!!), with Elizabeth Bemis and Shelley Coriell each racking up their fifth Golden Heart finals, and CJ Chase and Laurie Kellogg each achieving an astonishing sixth final.

Most 2010 Finalists, though, are first timers—some of whom have been entering the Golden Heart for several years, but at least one of whom had never entered a single writing contest before!

Some have been writing seriously for only a couple of years, some for 30 years or more. Several, like Single Title finalist Abigail Sharpe and Paranormal finalist J. Keely Thrall, entered with their very first completed book. Others entered with their second, or sixth, or sixteenth book, or said “I’m not even sure which one this is, because I’ve finished too many to count.”

Subgenres range widely: among others, we have “inspirational historical romance set in 1870 California” (Keli Gwyn, Inspirational), “historical mystery with a helping of Southern humor” (Jane Sevier, Novel with Strong Romantic Elements), “Late Victorian historical, hot-hot romance, suspenseful adventure romp” (G. Jillian Stone, Romantic Suspense), “sexy, absorbing sci-fi romance” (Sharon Lynn Fisher, Paranormal), “Contemporary dynastic family” (Nan Dixon, Single Title), “Dark urban fantasy for young adults” (Erica O’Rourke, Young Adult), and “Banter-driven, sexy ‘race-for-the-answer’ paranormal fantasy with werewolf hero and elf heroine” (J. Keely Thrall, Paranormal).

Finalists range widely in the geographic sense as well—from big-city Manhattan and Chicago to heartland Kansas, from a berry farm in Maine to the foothills of the California Sierras, and from expected conference host Tennessee to new conference host Florida.

The largest contingents, with five each, are from (not surprisingly) sprawling, creative California and (totally surprisingly) from sparsely-populated Minnesota…hmm, must be something about those long, cold Minnesotan winters that makes for good romance writing. We have considerable international representation as well, with an impressive four finalists each from Australia and Canada, and one who lives part-time in Brazil.

Some finalists are lucky enough to write fiction full-time, others are teachers or small business owners or technical writers. In addition to our berry farmer, we have a chemist, a speech-language pathologist, a magazine editor, two website designers, a fitness instructor, a cafe owner, a computer animator, a federal lobbyist, a former dump-truck driver, a college professor, the manager of a softball league, and even the assistant to an Episcopal bishop.

We’ve also got gender diversity this year, with one gentleman in our midst: Kenneth Zak, a finalist in Romantic Suspense. (Ken has manfully withstood much teasing on the Yahoo loop about having to wear a powder blue tux to the Awards Ceremony so the ladies have an excuse to dress as Barbies. As for his strategy for handling Nationals, he’s sticking with his gender demographic: “Offense, offense, offense!”)

There’s one way, though, the 2010 Finalists stand out that we really wish we didn’t: our joy has been tempered by two heartbreaking events.

Paranormal finalist Donnell Epperson, who entered the contest in the late stages of a hard-fought battle with cancer, passed away before she could learn of this last, special honor she’d earned. And then the people of Nashville, Tennessee—the original site for the RWA National Conference, at which Golden Heart winners are announced—were devastated by the flooding of the Cumberland River.

Those losses certainly put everything else in perspective.

But as Donnell Epperson’s friends have told us, her attitude was to let nothing stop her from being a writer: to the last, her personal motto was “writing like my hair’s on fire.” Inspired by her perseverance, and in honor of the rallying spirit of the people of Nashville (and also by the extraordinary energy of the RWA staff who refused to accept that moving the conference at the last minute was impossible), we chose a group name that embraces fortitude, optimism, and a determination to reach our dreams no matter what: “The Unsinkables.”

At Nationals, you’ll see us wearing our Unsinkables pin, along with pink ribbons in honor of Donnell.

It’s a sweet coincidence that the conference will now be held at the Swan and Dolphin, hotels named for animals (a mammal and a bird) with no business surviving in water, who’ve nonetheless become the most effortlessly graceful aquatic creatures on earth.

Mary Oldham says that the group name makes her think of “the Unsinkable Molly Brown, who survived the Titanic. Writers, especially those who put their work out for public scrutiny, are survivors.” Others appreciate the super-hero sound, à la Disney’s The Incredibles. Romantic Suspense finalist Donnell Ann Bell says the name shows we’re “Unsinkable and Unstoppable.” Others say “we can’t be held down,” “we’re determined to rise to the top,” “we’ll keep each other afloat,” and we’re “writing through hell or high water.”

Already, the Unsinkable Spirit has brought in lots of good news:  some have signed with agents, and many have made the finals in other prestigious contests (Unsinkables were all over the Sheilas, and Vanessa Barneveld was named a finalist in Australia’s version of the Golden Heart, the Emerald Contest).

And since the Golden Heart entry deadline passed, SIX have already sold books!  Hope Ramsay, Maureen McGowan, Rochelle Staab, Jennifer McAndrews, B. A. Binns and Angi Morgan will all have the honor of wearing FINALIST and FIRST SALE ribbons simultaneously at Nationals!

Over the next few weeks, several Unsinkables will be guest blogging with us to tell you more about their writing lives and their Golden Heart journeys.

And I’m sure you’ll be hearing lots about all the Unsinkables in the future, as they make the leap to publication. Just to whet your appetite, here are log-lines for some of their Golden Heart books:

Psychologist Elizabeth Cole is about to discover three facts that will change her forever: She died en route to her new job. She’s been reincarnated as an alien. She’s bound to a man who believes she’s his enemy. -Sharon Lynn Fisher, Paranormal

When a confirmed bachelor brings a fake fiancée home for Christmas, it isn’t long before the lines between playacting and reality begin to blur. -Cat Schield, Series Contemporary

A missing Rembrandt, a guarded secret, a growing body count. -Jean M. Willett, Novel with Strong Romantic Elements

He went into town to buy supplies, not a woman. -Jennifer Jakes, Historical

Some friendships are meant  to last forever – even after death. -Chris Keniston, Novel with Strong Romantic Elements

Seventeen years ago, Eden Moran blocked out a murder.  Heaven help her, she’s about to remember. -Donnell Ann Bell, Romantic Suspense

Maire Docharnaigh escapes the potato famine and starts a new life as a servant in the home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet laureate and celebrity of his time.  -Mary Lawrence, Historical

 She changed his life, and the destiny of three races. -Kylie Griffin, Paranormal

A rebellious bride, determined to leave Indian Territory, must marry a resolute rancher, equally determined to brand her as his own, sparking a contest of wills and passion that blazes hotter than a prairie fire. -Lynda Bailey, Historical

Six summer-camp friends gather in Maine for a special Christmas in this Big Chill for the Facebook generation. -Gabrielle Luthy, Novel with Strong Romantic Elements

Good ol’ boy stock car driver and proper Boston marketing exec break all the rules of the road to love. -Hope Ramsay, Contemporary Single Title

When Madison Ellsworth and Jake Carlyle both hedge their bets on whether they got married for love or convenience, they learn that games played in the boardroom can spill over into the bedroom, and that trust is as important to a good marriage as love. -Nancy Holland, Contemporary Series

Wanted: Winter Wife. -Clarissa Southwick, Historical

A runaway sorceress needs a safe place to hide. An enterprising prince needs a well-dowered bride.  Loving each other would expose her and curtail his dreams, yet it just might be The Perfect Adventure. -Katrina Snow, Paranormal

Hollywood Hoodoo is a witty murder mystery with a voodoo curse. -Rochelle Staab, Contemporary Series: Suspense / Adventure

When American nursemaid Reba MacKenzie is unwittingly thrust into London high society, she catches the eye of the one suitor she could never consider–Nate MacDonnell, the son of her parents’ killer. But her growing attraction to the wayward lordling might not only mean betraying her family but sharing their terrible fate. -Jessica Darago, Historical

What’s a newlywed lady to do when her lord mistakes her for a harlot at a bawdy house? -Grace Chow, Regency

Get cracking, Unsinkables–I WANT TO READ THOSE BOOKS!!!

The Unsinkables will be stopping by throughout the day today to say hello and talk about their Golden Heart adventures.  Please welcome them, and feel free to ask questions!

Jillian Stone
Hope Ramsay
Diana Layne

Books are on their way!! Happy reading!!

For those of you who haven’t discovered Bourne yet: don’t let my “SQUEEEEE!”-ing put you off:  this is no mere goofy enthusiasm. This is a pure SQUEEEEE of joy from the deepest, most language-besotted part of my brain, the part that first made me fall in love with words and stories and characters born out of other people’s imaginations.

The next few days will surely bring a flood of glowing reviews for The Forbidden Rose (over at All About Romance, no fewer than six different reviewers laid avid claim to it in their “eagerly awaited” list for June). So you don’t need the standard reader-centered book review from me.

What I want to do instead is give just a small taste of why writers will crazy-love this book, and why they should go plunge their writer-brains in it for awhile. (I’m going to draw examples from the opening chapters only—nothing past page 30—so no worries on spoilers here.)

1. Bourne does great intial set-ups: In Forbidden Rose, Marguerite de Fleurignac’s a French aristo burned out of her home by a Jacobin mob, and William Doyle’s a British spy sent to France to hunt down Marguerite’s father, a mad genius who semi-accidentally created a list of key Englishmen to assassinate. Marguerite tells Doyle she’s a British governess; he tells her he’s a French bookseller. Neither really believes the other, but they both want to get to Paris and need each other to get there, so they play along. (Sweetly, long after they’ve nailed one another’s true identities, she keeps thinking of him as Guillaume, and he keeps thinking of her as Maggie.)

No need for trumped-up Misunderstandings or Deep-and-Terrible Family Secrets. In the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, Bourne’s got herself a setting in which danger’s ambient, everyone’s got serious secrets to keep, and the daily stakes are life and death. You feel you’re being taken seriously when you read her work.

2. Bourne’s characters feel like people: smart, interesting, quirky people with depth and heft (no ditzes or cardboard secondary characters here), and we encounter them in beautifully-handled Deep POV. Here’s our introduction to Marguerite in the book’s opening lines, which immediately give you a sense of a distinct mind and personality:

“You have not been foolish,” she said. “But you have been unlucky.  The results are indistinguishable.”

The rabbit said nothing. It lay on its side, panting. Terror poured from it in waves, like water going down the steps of a fountain.

Her snare circled its throat. She had caught it with a line of red silk, teased and spun from a torn strip of a dress. It could not escape.  Even when it heard death coming toward it through the brush, it didn’t struggle. Being sensible, it had given up.

“The analogies to my own situation are clear. I do not like them.”

3. Bourne’s funny: You get little bits like this all the time:

The servant boy tied the donkeys to a post, swearing a staccato chain of annoyance. A trick of wind blew the words to her, “Donkey feet in butter. Donkey en croûte. Donkey soup. You just wait.”

4. Bourne’s great with dialogue: Here’s an exchange between Doyle and his twelve-year-old street-rat apprentice “Hawker” as they explore the smashed remains of the chateau’s orangerie:

Hawker followed him, crunching glass into the gravel. “The boys in that stinking little village waited years to do this.”

“Did they?”

“They dreamed of it. They’d sit in those pig houses in the village with the shutters closed and the wind leaking in. They’d think about these fancy weeds in here, being coddled, all warm and happy behind glass. Down there, they were freezing in the dark. Up here, they were growing flowers.”

“That’s fixed, then. No more flowers.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hawker stoop and pick up a rock, draw back and throw. Glass fell with a thin, silver discord. The heroic revolutionaries of Voisemont had missed one pane. Destruction was now complete.

“It would have bothered me all night knowing there was one window left,” Hawker said.

“Anything else you need to break to make it homey in here?”

“That’ll do.”

5. Bourne’s got a serious lyrical gift, and her descriptions are worth savoring:

Here’s a bit more about the rabbit:

“A pulse rippled in the rabbit’s throat, under the fur. That fluttering beat, in a hollow the size of a copper sou, was the only sign of life.”

And here’s Marguerite’s internal response when Doyle captures her and brings her into the  orangerie:

“A chill spread along her skin. The edges of her sight darkened. The shush of the makeshift broom and the scratch of the tumbling glass became distant. She felt as if she were falling into a dream. Not a good dream.”

6. Bourne knows this period inside and out, and uses that knowledge to enhance character:

In his bookseller guise, Doyle shows Marguerite books from “the approved instruction list from the Committee of Education. Some children’s books with proper sentiments in them…’C is for counter-revolutionary. May they all die. D is for duty to France. Let us all try.’ That sort of thing. I got packs of playing cards. Those have fine revolutionary pictures on them. The single pip is a guillotine, which is just going to liven up a game, ain’t it?”

7. Bourne creates wonderful sensual tension, without drawing on the cliché stockpile:

Now I’ve created a problem for myself by limiting my examples to the first 30 pages. But the moment when Doyle catches Marguerite will give you a sense of what Bourne can do with bodies:

By chance or planning, she’d picked a first-rate lookout post.

Even as he thought that, her hand went to the back of her neck. She could feel when eyes were on her, a skill that wasn’t as common as mice in a closet.

She turned. Saw him. The instant stretched tight.

He put himself between her and the back door. She hadn’t thought of keeping two lines of retreat. One for your enemy to block off. One so you can run like hell.

Skirt and apron whirled. She exploded into flight, down the stalls, long braid trailed out behind her. He caught her halfway to the door. Wrapped his arms around her and held on.

She twisted and tried to rake her nails at his face. When he caught her wrists, she curled like an eel and bit the hand that held her, digging her teeth deep.

Well, that hurt. “I’m not going to—” A sabot hit his shin. “God’s…tortoises. Will you hold still? I’m trying not to damage you.” He shifted his grip and she broke a hand free and pulled out a knife.

Enough. He kicked her legs out from under her. The knife bounced away. He flopped her down on her back into the piled straw.

8. She’s got ADRIAN, and now she’s got JUSTINE.  Okay, that one will only make sense if you’ve already read Bourne’s earlier Spymaster books, and if you finish this one. But when you finish this one, your heart will be twisted in a big tender achy snarl, and you will join me in counting the days (no, months, damn it) until Adrian’s and Justine’s story hits the shelves.

Really, I’m just scratching the surface here.  The truth is, it’s really hard to figure out just why Bourne’s books work as well as they do.  She makes it all look easy, but the cumulative effect is terrific.  Everything, everything, works together seamlessly: characterization, description, dialogue, historical and geographical detail, overall plot structure, humor…. And as carefully and thoughtfully crafted as her writing must actually be, it’s also totally accessible, a pure, easy pleasure to read (which is kind of painful in a way, because the book just whizzes by, no matter how much you want to make it last.)

Joanna Bourne is Dorothy-Dunnett good, Patrick-O’Brien good, Diana-Gabaldon good. When you open a Bourne book, you’re in the hands of a master.

Check it out for yourself!

To put (a little bit of) my money where my mouth is, I’m giving away a total of THREE copies of The Forbidden Rose to three lucky commenters today.  One’s reserved for a non-Ruby commenter, but the other two can go to anyone.  SQUEEEEEE!!!  (Oh: and if you haven’t read any Bourne and don’t know what to talk about in your comment, tell me something about an author who makes you go SQUEEEE!!!)

My earliest memories of historical romances are imprinted with images of lovers about to engage in acts that look distinctly…acrobatic.  Oh, the endlessly flowing tresses!  The apparently gale-force winds!  The amazingly flexible spines! And Fabio on cover after cover by Johanna Lindsey, working his way through the entire spectrum of Clairol hair dyes.

Back then, I wasn’t a romance novel buyer yet.  Just a….shall we say, borrower (sorry, Grandma).  I loved the stories inside, but the covers baffled me. The heroes and heroines I saw inside my head never looked anything like the beefcake and babeliciousness on the cover, and if anyone had ever seen me holding the books (or, okay, found them stashed in the back of my sock drawer), I’d have died of embarrassment.

What a relief when the 90s seemed to favor a classy trend— discreet covers you could read on the subway, with a tasteful landscape, or a subtle rose or jewel or fan spread out over crumpled satin or a bit of lace. Unless a clinch-y stepback was included, you could imagine the hero and heroine however you pleased.

The clinch cover didn’t go away, of course.  Newer authors still had to endure clinch covers until they got enough clout to go classy.  Behold early Patricia Gaffney (1992) and Julia Quinn (1995):

Behold reprints of both books once their authors were established bestsellers:

In the past few years, though, it seems publishers have been—as Justin Timberlake would say—Bringing Sexy Back.

With a twist.

Or, rather, a crop.

Historical romance covers have been showing more skin than ever. But the images are now closely cropped, so that two complete figures rarely appear within the frame.  Just bits and pieces of people show, often with most or all of the face (along with flowing tresses and Ken doll hairdos) out of view.

This graphic design trick may have been borrowed from art museum websites and catalogs, which have been using it for awhile on stodgy old paintings to make them look fresh and modern.  Quite a few romance novel covers have, in fact, performed the trick with actual old portraits, like the 2006 cover of Pam Rosenthal’s The Slightest Provocation, which used a detail of Sir Thomas Lawrence’s 1822 portrait of the Countess of Blessington.

Seriously, the original portrait is lovely, but nowhere near as sexy as that close crop above.

People liked that cover so much, Penguin hired contemporary realist painter Stephen J. Levin to paint a similar cover for Pam’s 2008 book, The Edge of Impropriety:

Other favorites of mine in this cover genre are Eloisa James’ This Duchess of Mine (2009) and Madeline Hunter’s Ravishing in Red (2010):

Mary Balogh’s novels have been playing with this technique since More Than a Mistress (2000) to great effect, with covers that are simultaneously dignified and sensuous.  My personal favorite is No Man’s Mistress (2001), though you’ll see it on all the covers of her Huxtable series, including the new paperback release Seducing an Angel:

Covers for other romances have raised the heat factor by focusing on more openly sexy body parts.

For one thing, you can’t open a copy of RT Book Reviews without seeing lots of close-crop shots of bare male chests—face entirely optional.  (For paranormal, just add vaguely Celtic tattoo.)

Then there’s the new erogenous zone, the naked female back.  Honestly, sometimes it seems like historical heroines were all visiting seriously incompetent dressmakers, because the backs of their dresses seem to fall open even with no groping hero around:

On the Avon Romance blog on April 15, 2010, Avon Associate Editor Esi Sogah expressed her fondness for this sort of cover, saying, “I happen to like the covers that show the woman’s back—it’s lovely, can make a nice background for type, and hides the heroine’s face without cutting her head off.” She mentions that one of her faves is Debra Mullin’s Scandal of the Black Rose (2007), which takes the back-baring to its extreme:

To see how powerful this trend is, check out the difference between the 1990 original of Iris Johansen’s classic Tender Savage (which I know isn’t an historical, but I can’t resist) and the recent reprint:

The clinch hasn’t gone away, either, it just tends to get the close-crop treatment.  Call it the New Sexy:

Maybe it’s just me, but I find this close-crop clinch waaaaay sexier than the old Fabio-esque poses.  More tender and intimate. And somehow less embarrassing.  Plus, the lack of full faces makes it easier for me to reconcile the cover image with my own mental images of the characters.

In the most recent issue of RT Book Reviews, I noticed that even inspirationals are getting into the cropping act, as with these two new releases from Bethany House:

Aren’t they adorable?  They don’t flash skin, but they still have a liveliness and an energy that most inspy covers just don’t have for me. Really, I want to check them out.

One last twist in all this clinch-and-crop history:  Pam Rosenthal’s The Slightest Provocation is coming out in mass market paperback this month (the 2006 original featuring the Countess of Blessington painting was in trade paperback), and look how the marketing team decided to handle the cover:

Yeah, they went with a full-frame clinch.

Everything old is new again.

What do you think?  Do you miss the old clinches?  Does the new cropping make you claustrophobic? Want to go back to the tasteful landscapes and jewels?  What are some of your favorite covers of the past few years?  And what trends have you seen in genres other than historical?

LIA MORGAN is the winner of the books for today!  Lia, I left a comment for you on your website with instructions for claiming your prize.

Thanks again, all–especially to Lauren Willig and Andrea DaRif (Cara Elliott) for making it happen at Yale!

Okay, Austen’s actual words were: “Although [novels] have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than those of any other literary corporation in the world, no species of composition has been so much decried. From pride, ignorance, or fashion, our foes are as many as our readers” (Northanger Abbey, 1818).

But she meant the same thing.

In 1818, the novel was a relatively new form, overshadowed by the long-established prestige of poetry and the literary essay. Seems hard to believe now, but the consensus of the literati was that all novels were junk.

Just after the passage above, Austen mimics typical dismissive comments she heard from others:

“‘I am no novel-reader — I seldom look into novels — Do not imagine that I often read novels — It is really very well for a novel.” ….”And what are you reading, Miss ———-?” “Oh! it is only a novel!” replies the young lady; while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame.”

At least until the Victorians and modernists established otherwise, novels often got slammed as inherently melodramatic, mush-brained, over-sexed, and designed to titillate and pander to women’s sloppy emotional natures.

Sound familiar?

Yup. Just plug “romance novels” into the Austen quotes above, and every word’s still true.

So that’s why a class offered this semester at Yale University is so cool: Yale alums and best-selling romance authors Lauren Willig and Andrea DaRif (who writes as Cara Elliott) have been teaching “Reading the Historical Romance,” a weekly two-hour scholarly seminar.

The goal of the class is to pay serious attention to the evolution of the Regency romance as a literary form. They began with Northanger Abbey (the syllabus, which you can view at caraelliott.com, opens with that Austen quote, above). From there, they’ve traced the development of the popular Regency romance from its re-invention by Georgette Heyer through all the twists and permutations of much of the last hundred years.

It’s quite a complex history: Regency romance has changed a great deal between the “purple prose” and not-exactly-consensual sex scenes made wildly popular by Kathleen Woodiwiss in The Flame and the Flower, and (a generation or so later) the slyly witty, explicitly feminist perspective of books by Shakespeare prof and early-21st-century fave Eloisa James.

Willig’s and DaRif’s students have been examining constantly-shifting attitudes towards sexuality and power relations between heroines (feisty and otherwise) and heroes (both alpha and beta) in Johanna Lindsey, Lisa Kleypas, Loretta Chase, Julia Quinn, and more. The course also covers critical and scholarly essays on romance, along with Sarah Wendell’s and Candy Tan’s wonderful Beyond Heaving Bosoms, and ends with a look at paranormal Regencies, including a work-in-progress about Austen-as-vampire.

Oh, how I wish I could have been a fly on the wall all semester! (Reportedly, 80 students competed for 18 coveted spots).

The great thing about the course—other than the fabulous reading list—is the way it breaks down the idea that “all romance novels are the same,” or (as romances are so often accused of doing by those who never actually read them, or haven’t looked at one since the ‘70s) that they passively reinforce outmoded notions of gender.

Also, you gotta love that the class puts a scholarly focus on romances as text—rather than analyzing (or, as has too often been done, pathologizing) romance-reading as a cultural phenomenon.

Anyhow, I’m just so glad to see romance novels getting some respect—and from the Ivy League at that. Perhaps in another few years, with a few more courses like this, writers of romance won’t have to suffer (as Austen said all writers in her genre did) from the public’s “general wish of decrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist.”

Go, Yale!

Word is, Willig and DaRif and some of their students should be joining us today, and I’m hoping they’ll let us know how the course went and what they discovered together. Everyone else, chime in with your thoughts on the whole “respect” issue, and what we wish the world understood about the genre we love.

As a gesture of gratitude for Willig’s and DaRif’s work, I’m offering one lucky commenter today (to be chosen at random) a copy of each of these two recent releases: Lauren Willig’s The Temptation of the Night Jasmine, and Cara Elliott’s To Sin With a Scoundrel. For “extensive and unaffected pleasure” (as Austen would put it) you should all definitely check these books out!

Thanks, everyone who joined us yesterday and today!

Send me a note at eliseam@aol.com so I can get it to you.

So when I learned I was a 2009 Golden Heart finalist, I had a very, very steep learning curve ahead of me—and had to do most of my learning the hard way.

Here are the Top Ten things I wish I’d already known:

10.  They actually do CALL to inform you you’re a Golden Heart finalist. I’d been watching snail mail. About fifteen minutes before RWA’s deadline for posting the final list of names, I happened to check my email and found a message from Madeline Hunter, asking me to call her as soon as humanly possible. I was at work, where my writing life’s a secret, so squealing and doing backflips wasn’t an option. I was on the phone with Madeline Hunter—MADELINE FREAKIN’ HUNTER—and I’m talking to her like I’m scheduling an orthodontist appointment. She must have wondered what was wrong with me.

9.  The romance-writing community is incredibly warm and supportive. Man, had I been missing out, slogging in the coal mines all alone. The generosity and open-heartedness of everybody in this business amazes me: my fellow 2009 finalists, the Ruby-Slippered Sisters, the great folks in the RWA offices who’ve created fabulous networks for us, the agents who take time to offer great advice to aspiring writers on their blogs. The editors who judge contests and give detailed written feedback even to writers they’re not planning to publish. The superstar writers like Julia Quinn and Stephanie Laurens (who BOTH chatted with me in elevators at Nationals) who find all kinds of ways to reach out to newcomers. Wow!

8. The romance-writing community is incredibly plugged-in online. Maybe I assumed technology was un-romantic, so I had no clue about this. But on March 25, people all over the world are watching the Web for GH results. My penname started popping up in Google Alerts. The 2009 finalists had a Yahoo group established before the day was out. Year-round, the internet’s humming with romance-writing energy—published authors’ sites, book-review sites, writing-advice sites, agent blogs (like pubrants.com and bookendslitagency.blogspot.com).  If you’re not following allaboutromance.com, smartbitchestrashybooks.com, and of course rubyslipperedsisterhood.com, start now! They’ll point you in all sorts of right directions. As Kim Law said yesterday, before you’re even published yourself, you should start establishing an online presence of your own—website, blog, Twitter, Facebook. (I’m just getting started myself, *sigh.*)

7.  You CAN learn the craft of romance-writing, and great resources are everywhere. Query letters? Blurbs? Loglines? I’d never heard of them. And though I’d been writing for years, I’d never heard of GMC, Three-Act Structure, or scene/sequel. Luckily, there’s lots of friendly, generous, brilliant advice out there, in print and on the internet (see #s 9 and 8, above).  Just google any of the terms I’ve listed and you’ll find a wealth of good information.

6.  You should enter contests. I’m not sure romance writers realize how lucky we are to have so many contests for unpublished writers. Most fiction genres DO NOT HAVE THIS.  (Contests are listed in the RWA newsletter and magazine, or you can check out local chapter websites or  the wonderfully comprehensive list compiled at http://www.stephiesmith.com/contests).  For a small fee, usually $20-30, you get thoughtful written feedback from peers, a sense of whether or not your story will appeal to readers, and a shot at getting a piece of your manuscript on the desk of an acquiring editor or agent.  Volunteering to judge can be just as valuable–we’re all too close to our own work, so there’s nothing like reading other unpublished authors to clarify what works and what doesn’t in a manuscript. Besides, it’s good karma to volunteer.

5. Everything depends on volunteers. Whether it’s contests, local chapters, conferences, or the actual production of books, nothing happens in the romance-writing world without people giving freely of their time and energy.  Even agents and editors—who, generally speaking, don’t make tons of money and work long, long, long hours even in the evenings and on weekends—effectively do a lot of their work pro bono.  It’s all out of love, baby. Love for books, love for this genre. Once again, incredible generosity everywhere you look.

4. Being a Golden Heart finalist gets you noticed. Putting “Golden Heart Finalist” in the subject line of queries gets them read FAST (for me, with one agent, the turn-around time was 31 minutes flat.)  And you can’t be anonymous at Nationals: you get a shiny gold-heart pin and a ribbon to put on your name tag, your picture’s printed in the conference program, and during the Awards Ceremony, they flash your picture 15-feet-tall on the JUMBOTRON.  (Shy folks, beware!)

3.  This is a tough business.  Despite all the perks, being a Golden Heart finalist does not guard against rejection. The Ruby-Slippered Sisters have done plenty of collective weeping since last March. But we’ve also had the thrill of watching many Sisters sell their first books, several in fabulous three-book deals! Woo-hoo!!

2. When the going gets tough, chocolate helps. Okay, I knew this one already, but I’ve had it driven home very pointedly a few times this year.  I’d better lay off soon, or if I happen to get up on that Jumbotron again, there’ll be just a little too much Jumbo involved.

1. Finaling in Golden Heart is a blast! Meeting my fellow 2009 finalists, the Ruby-Slippered Sisters, has been the absolute best thing about the Golden Heart for me—camaraderie, great advice from veterans, shoulders to cry on, and wild cheers for good news (not to mention occasional pictures of hot shirtless guys…circulated purely for research purposes, mind you). And finaling has opened all sorts of doors for me on the quest for publication. In just a few days, a new group of GH finalists will be named.  Good luck to all of you who are waiting and hoping!  And to those of you lucky enough to final: fasten your seatbelts, ladies! It’s gonna be a wild ride.

Leave a comment today for a chance to win a $25 Barnes & Noble gift certificate–so you can go buy yourself a writing-craft book (or a new release by a Ruby-Slippered Sister)!!