Rendezvous by Amanda Quick, 1991 - this is the cover on the paperback I have, except it's supposed to have a stepback and doesn't

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originally posted on February 8, 2010 historical romances Once I’d started reading historical romance with Julie Garwood, I did sort of dive into that particular pool headfirst. I remember reading a lot of mostly medievals in those next few years of the early 1990s. All the while still reading some contemporaries. And searching for that elusive perfect fantasy/science fiction romance combination to appear on the horizon. There were occasional fits and starts in that direction with the new Leisure/Love Spell line. Not a lot of enthusiasm on my part for what they were producing, though. But back to reading historical romances. I slowly began toRead More →

The Bride

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originally posted on February 7, 2010 romance novels magazine? Sometime during 1989, I picked up a copy of Romantic Times at the local independent bookstore. When we still had a local independent bookstore here. I distinctly remember that was where I first read a preview of The Bride by Julie Garwood. So, I did something very out-of-character and found that book. I say it was out-of-character because before that I didn’t like to read historicals. The Bride was not only my first book by Garwood. It was the first historical romance I ever remember reading and actually enjoying. I loved it and the rest as theyRead More →

Journey to Love

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originally posted on February 6, 2010 bodice rippers? no, thank you One major misconception is that all romance readers took the bodice ripper route during the 1970s. I’m one of the ones who didn’t. I continued to read read books by Hill, Loring and eventually Glenna Finley. At the same time I mostly read mysteries with a light sprinkling of category romances mixed in. In fact, I’m pretty sure the late 70s all the way through the mid 80s was my Agatha Christie phase. I know I collected most of her books in paperback back then. Oh, I may have occasionally picked up that rare single title historical romance during that era. IRead More →

The Solitary Horseman

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originally posted on February 5, 2010 next library recommendations The next romance author I remember getting handed routinely from librarians as a relatively young teen was Emilie Loring. I didn’t mind at all to tell the truth. Her books were actively published from the 1920s-1970s. That’s a tad misleading, however, since she died in 1951. She wrote and published 30 novels before her death. Then, after her death, her sons found a lot of unfinished manuscripts and notes. So they finished those into 20 more novels that were published under her name over the next 20 years. Considering she didn’t start writing until after sheRead More →

Ladybird by Grace Livingston Hill

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originally posted on February 4, 2010 first big book reading memories As far as I can remember, my big book reading started at around age eleven, circa 1970. The very first adult romance, I ever remember reading was a hardback copy of Ladybird by Grace Livingston Hill. If I remember correctly our pastor’s wife gave it to my mother. Calling it an adult book is probably a misnomer. I’m pretty sure young adult romances didn’t exist back then. I read and collected many of her books during that decade of my life. They were interesting in their own way. My biggest memory of them, though, are pagesRead More →

Superman

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I’ve been meaning to comment on this find for a long time and it keeps slipping through the cracks. Several years ago I ran across an article or link or something that led me to a site called the Fortress of Solitude Super Network. Bet ya can’t guess what it is all about about.  Anyway, one specific feature there blew… my… mind. I mean seriously blew me away. Apparently there is a lost comic from very early in the careers of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman. The Powers That Be would not let them publish it. Wonder why?   Well, theyRead More →

Ten Nights of Love

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originally posted on February 3, 2010 the inspiration In the fall of 2009, Heather over at The Galaxy Express asked me what the dividing line between romance and erotic romance is. I almost laughed in her face – figuratively speaking. 😀 I mean, come on. One, much more eloquent people than me have tried to explain it. Most of them did great jobs, too. And still gotten lost in their own words. Two, sometimes, I’m not sure there is an answer. Then I stopped backing away and realized that what she was asking. Namely, the age old, ever popular question that comes up repeatedly on romance forumRead More →

Ten Nights of Love

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Ten years ago I wrote a series of posts called Ten Nights of Love. Wow! I honestly can’t believe it’s been 10 years. So I decided this is a very good time to take them down and refresh/re-edit/reformat the whole thing. Starting in one week one of those posts will go back online every Wednesday. Ten years ago I posted them daily to end on Valentine’s Day. This time I wanted to spread them out so I can post other things, too. Also this time, I’ll follow up with an addendum post (posts?) about my “reading” in the 2010s. Then end with an updated CoverRead More →

The Wheel of Time

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Not from me although my son has been nagging me lately to start reading, er, listening to the series again. And I’m trying to get back to it. I am. Life has been interfering in a major way and epic fantasy is not my go to comfort zone. Seriously. No, this is about two things he sent me related to WOT as a form of said nagging. But they’re fun so I thought I’d share. First here’s a really good video about what the Wheel of Time is. It contains some info I’ve never heard before and I have my own fan database in theRead More →

superheroes

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Well, you can. For several years I’ve been following a webcomic by Yale Stewart called JL8. It started all the way back in November 2011 but here’s the most recent panels as an example: Here’s the description from the website: “JL8” is an award-winning webcomic from cartoonist Yale Stewart. It follows the adventures of popular DC comic characters as children in elementary school. Mostly funny, with a dash of pathos, it should be an enjoyable read for any fans of DC Comics characters as well as people who enjoy the traditional syndicated comic strip. “JL8” is not related to DC Comics in any way, and isRead More →

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So I had a rabbit hole experience when I ran across an article on a novella called The Madness of Frankenstein by Derrick Ferguson which was labeled as New Pulp. My brain ground to an immediate halt because, while I could kind of guess, I wanted to know exactly what New Pulp was. So, of course, I searched for an explanation and found a publisher site that just blows my mind.  a new old thing OK, first the definition of New Pulp:  What is New Pulp?  For Pro Se, the explanation is fairly simple.  New Pulp is fiction written with the same sensibilities, beats of storytelling, patterns of conflict,Read More →

mug & books

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Right after Thanksgiving I completely lost control of my schedule for various reasons. So I haven’t had much time to work on the site lately. While I’m working on untangling my routine I thought I’d do a quick update post.  Last week, I managed to start rereading on of my favorite series – Shelly Laurenston’s Pride Stories. The first book in that series starts at Christmas so I usually get in the mood to revisit the entire thing over the holidays. Yeah, I’m kind of a month early but after the week or so I’ve had I needed the pick-me-up. So there. Oh, and sinceRead More →

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Early in the week I was able to get some behind the scenes stuff done but yesterday my son had a routine medical procedure scheduled and as a result I’ve been very distracted and busy the last couple of days. So I thought I’d keep it simple and dug around on Pinterest for some reading related humor. EnjoyRead More →

Bite Me by Shelly Laurenston

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All My Favorites: Shelly Laurenston  For reference, the titles I know I’ve read are in bold. as Shelly Laurenston Magnus Pack Pack Challenge – this was the book and series that sold me on reading her books although I think I’d already read one or two of her Dragon Kin series (in the original ebook version no less) Go Fetch! Here Kitty, Kitty When He Was Bad anthology – “Miss Congeniality” Pride Stories The Mane Event The Beast in Him The Mane Attraction The Mane Squeeze Beast Behaving Badly Big Bad Beast Bear Meets Girl Howl for It anthology – “Like a Wolf with aRead More →