Simply Cheris. . .

Mainstream media and I'm clearly looking at the New York Times right now, doesn't respect romance novels. If it wasn't clear when the NYT stopped counting mass market books for the coveted best sellers list , which is how most romance novels are published, then this week's Roundup of This Season's Romance Novels  proved without a doubt that this paper shows no love to romance. The hundreds of romance novels — perhaps thousands, if you include the self-published ones that constitute their own phenomenon — just published or due to appear in the next few months essentially fall into two categories. There are the Regency romances (descended from the superb Georgette Heyer, whose first one, “Regency Buck,” appeared in 1935). And there are the contemporary young-woman-finding-her-way stories that are the successors to the working-girl novels that for decades provided comfort and (mild) titillation to millions of young women who dreamed of marrying the boss. This form...

One of the best things about Romance Slam Jam is meeting authors. You get to put a face with the words of passion and love. And the authors rarely disappoint. Take Candace Shaw, for instance. She is the picture of grace and style. Meeting her was surely one of the highlights of Romance Slam Jam 2014. Candace graciously allowed me to interview her for my blog and I am grateful. You've built quite a following with your independently published books, how do you think having your novel published with Kimani will change your career? Thank you so much for inviting me to your blog, Cheris! Not sure how much of a following I have. However, I’m hoping with Kimani I’ll be able to reach romance readers who I haven’t met on social media or simply don’t know who I am.  Hopefully they will love my books with Kimani and will read my backlist as well. When did you know you wanted to be a romance writer? I knew in fourth grade I wanted to be a writer when I read Li...

You there, with that copy of Too Hot For TV in your hand, and you over there, reading In Bed With The Doctor , and you reading His Sexy Bad Habit , me, Brenda Jackson and several other romance novelists are ruining your heart. Or, if you believe the clown who wrote this crap , leading you straight to hell. How dare we, the evil romance novelists, write about men who love and respect women? Or even worse, write about men who please women when they have sex? And what in the blue hell were we thinking about when we put the sweetness of a woman's orgasm on paper? Evil. Damn near terrorists. How could we give women stories to take them away for the harsh realities of world that demands so much and gives so little? The romance novel follows, the researchers argue, a typical pattern. The hero is almost never, they say, a blue collar worker, a bureaucrat, or someone in the traditionally feminine occupations (hairdresser, kindergarten teacher, etc.). He is competent, confident, and ...