Celebrating 20 Years

20 years ago I woke up and had the thought, "You know what Wendy? You're not nearly narcissistic enough.  You should totally start a blog!"  It was February 2003. I had just had my 4th anniversary of being a professional librarian. Coincidentally I had also been reviewing at The Romance Reader for 4 years. There was a respectable handful of romance novel web sites (All About Romance and Mrs. Giggles are still standing!) and no social media. Laurie Gold (founder of AAR) and Rosario (a reader living in Uruguay at the time) had blogs. Now I had one. Three of us. When I started this blog Blogger hadn't been bought out by Google yet, there was no commenting feature and what are these tags you speak of? It was very rudimentary but it's what we had.  

We soldiered on, throwing our words out into the Interwebs Wilderness and then...2005 happened. Suddenly it was a riotous explosion of blogs. Not a day goes by where I don't miss all those quirky, fun individual blogs that sprouted up during that time. Group blogs arrived and I wrote for many of them. By my count I've helped kill off at least three (Romancing the Blog, Reader's Gab, and Heroes & Heartbreakers).

I have seen things. I've lived the life cycle of romance reviewers being mean girls, then bloggers being mean girls, to somehow having the tide turn enough that I got a big shiny Librarian of the Year award from Romance Writers of America. This was during a period when my work life was not fantastic for various reasons. It's a marvel I never did put that plaque on a big ol' rope chain and rock it around the office. 

I've seen all the Drama Llama, some of it 3-4 times (there's very few new kerfuffles y'all).  I've watched self-publishing go from Crazy Guy printing his manifesto in his garage, to viable career option for writers. I remember when eBooks weren't "real books." I remember when I thought y'all would pry print out of my cold dead hands (I can't remember the last book I read that wasn't in a digital format...).  I remember listening to audiobooks on cassette and all y'all thinking I was completely insane because "why would you want to listen to a book?!"

So much has changed.  And yet, so much hasn't. 

For one thing, I'm still naïve enough to think that if more people read genre fiction the world would be a better place. For another, Romancelandia is still a pretty rad place even with the squabbles that sometimes have my eyes rolling back in my head. And while I sit in my rocking chair, cradling my adult beverage and non-illustrated clinch book covers, I marvel at these young whippersnappers with their BookTok and BookTube and Bookstagram and podcasts and what-not. I've seen the diversity of the genre and the voices supporting it grow. 

I've been ignoring the blogs are dead talk for at least a decade, mainly because I'm stubborn and the older I get the more I find social media problematic for a lot of reasons. I've seen this blog start with a readership of my Mom, to a whole bunch of people, to now a small group of loyalists who still regularly turn up and leave me comments now and then. 

I was a 20-something, still very green librarian when I started this blog. Now I'm living on the other side of the country and oversee a division of roughly 60 people. I feel like I've lived 10 lifetimes in just the past 3 years - and that's just on the work front. There have been many, many days where I've thought about putting this blog in mothballs. I'm older, I'm tired pretty much all the time, and my work is demanding. But, not to put too fine a point on it, I love this blog. I can't begin to tell you all the good it's brought to my life. A community. Friends. Yes, even accolades. 

I love this blog. I love reading. I love all of you. Thank you for reading this blog - whether it's been for a month or the past 20 years. 

Gestation and Birth of the Monthly Unusual Historicals Post

My Unusual Historicals "idea" wasn't even my idea. It started as the brain child of Carrie Lofty, who back in the day had a group blog called Unusual Historicals.  Carrie and I had a conversation at some point and I decided to start highlighting new titles on my blog that fit the mold.  That began in 2011, the posts eventually went over to Heroes & Heartbreakers, and when Macmillan pulled the plug the feature came back to my blog with a cross-posted collaboration with Love in Panels.

Over the years my philosophy on putting together these posts has changed.  Back in 2011 my main concerns were focusing on a mix of digital-first and print. Self-published titles started appearing once authors got the ability to list pre-orders with the major retailers and, to be frank, the depth, breadth and quality of self-publishing expanded.

But I suspect there are questions about how I generate these posts because, to be frank, some months offer more variety, more diversity, and just plain "more" than others.  

First, it's important to note that I will firmly believe, with my last dying breath that People Are Neither Genre Nor Trope.  I preach this all the dang time at The Day Job.  I came to romance during the BS era of the "multi-cultural" sub genre.  Which is to say that a historical romance written by a Black author, featuring Black characters was categorized as "multi-cultural" and not, oh here's a radical thought!, as a historical romance.  Romances written by authors of color featuring characters of color were "other-ed" but to be blunt it was a practice that disproportionately affected Black authors. It's a practice I've always abhorred, for the obvious reasons, but also for the hypocrisy of it.  Romance as a genre is often "other-ed" in public libraries (I want to burn all spinner racks to the ground...), oftentimes not cataloged (!!!) and yet the genre itself was doing this within it's own ranks.

In short? A historical romance is a historical romance.  Beverly Jenkins' historical romances are "unusual" not because she's a Black author writing about Black characters falling in love.  They're "unusual" because they're westerns, colonials, set in New Orleans etc.  There is nothing unusual about Black authors writing about Black love and the sooner the genre accepts that the better.  If Beverly Jenkins writes a book about an American heiress going to England to marry a cash poor Earl?  Yeah, not unusual.  Unless the the American heiress turns out to be a doctor and the Earl is opening a brewery or something.  What makes "unusual" unusual is that it needs to be outside of Duke McDukeville.  And if it is a English-set historical it has to have something to set it apart - like it's set during the Tudor era, the hero isn't titled, the heroine has a job - something!

People Are Neither Genre Nor Trope.

You can think I'm wrong - but here's a secret, I'm never wrong on my blog.

Now that we've covered that, how do I find titles?  Well, it's changed a lot over the years so I'll share my current practice, which isn't ideal but the best I have at the moment.

1) I try to keep an eye out on social media for mentions of upcoming releases that apply.  Usually I'm stumbling across titles by happy accident given that I'm finding social media largely intolerable these days.  The main sources of data mining have been Twitter, authors I follow on Facebook and author newsletters.

2) I do an advanced eBook and print book search on Amazon which is just as tedious as it sounds.  Mostly because I have to wade through a bunch of stuff that isn't even historical romance or it's Daddy Kink (seriously y'all so much Daddy Kink....)

3) I'll check specific publisher web sites - Kensington and Harlequin are popular sites to hit since they're consistent with the "unusual."  I also check digital-first outfits like Carina and Entangled.

4) Absolutely nothing wrong with inspirational romance, but I tend to keep my lists secular unless I'm familiar enough with the author to gauge their track record on "how much God stuff" to expect.  Also, bluntly put - unusual is easier to find in inspirational than it is in secular hence another reason to focus on secular.

It's not perfect. I'm automatically missing any self-published releases that aren't up for preorder.  This would be why my post tends to go up at the end of the month: the simple fact I'm going to catch more titles that way.  I'm at the mercy of Amazon's algorithms which are a hot mess - but given how large of a market-share Amazon is for self-published authors (see: Kindle Unlimited) if I want self-published authors represented (and I do because see that paragraph on diversity again...) I can't really get away from them. 

Is my Unusual Historicals column perfect?  Well, no. Nothing is. It's my blog, my post, and is going to reflect the work I put into it.  I'm a librarian so believe me when I say I'm putting in the very best work I'm personally capable of.  You may like that, you may not. It's not a feature that has ever purported to be all things to all readers - much like this blog.

File this under general housekeeping.  It's a post I've been meaning to do for a while and now feel better for having done so.

Happy Birthday Blog, Be Home By Curfew

17 years ago, when dinosaurs were still roaming the Internet, social media didn't exist, Amazon/Google/Facebook weren't vying for The Literal Worst Award, and I knew a lot less about the dirty laundry lurking in corners of book publishing, I started this blog. I was still a young, optimistic, entry-level-ish librarian working in a one-horse Midwestern town and shopping at Waldenbooks.  For those of you now asking the question "Walden What Now?!?!" you have no idea what you missed out on. Seriously, those were the days.

And here I am - all these years later.  Older, crankier, but still loving romance, still believing in the job that gets me out of bed everyday and pays the bills but now working in an area where eleventy billion live with not enough affordable housing to go around. The world's on fire, I know WAY more than I ever wanted to about publishing and authors in general, and yes...I still love romance.

I've been around so long, have written for so many defunct online publications (The Romance Reader, Reader's Gab, Romancing the Blog, Heroes & Heartbreakers...) but the one constant has been this mighty blog. There were years I wrote great blog posts and years I've written terrible ones and years I've barely hung on by my fingernails (pretty much where I've been in the last 3-4 years).  I have all the authority and gravitas in Romancelandia as a slightly wilted plant you forgot that you stuffed in a corner, but 17 years here and 21 years in Romancelandia (in general) affords me...well something.  Probably a secret decoder ring in the bottom of a cereal box.  So in honor of this auspicious occasion I thought it was time to offer some advice to Romancelandia that nobody asked for but I'm going to give anyway.  Because, again, old and cranky.

1) Read. What. You. Want. Yes, even if the cool kids aren't reading it.

2) That being said, don't be afraid to try a new author, revisit a trope you may not be wild about, expand your horizons. There's A LOT in the genre these days. Sample the buffet.

3) So much I want to say here along the lines of "don't be a racist bigoted jackhole" and "stop denying anyone their right to basic humanity" but I think I'll just settle for the more succinct Don't Be A Jerk.  Love is an amazing, beautiful universal human emotion. People who read and write romance (for cripes sake!) should have no issue with embracing that and yet here we are. 

4) Unplug for your mental health. Or as I like to call it - get the hell off Twitter every once in a while. However long that needs to be to maintain some shred of sanity.

5) It's OK to like problematic sh*t.  No, really - it is.  But recognize it. Own it. Don't get your hackles up about it. You know what's sexy? Self-awareness. Maybe unpack some of that personal baggage. Nobody is saying you have to flaunt it all over the Interwebs but my kingdom for a little reader and writer introspection.

6) And for the record - ALL Y'ALL LIKE PROBLEMATIC SH*T.  You're not special.  It smells like fertilizer left out in the sun just like everybody else's problematic faves.

7) There are no cool kids.  Oh sure, everybody THINKS there are cool kids which just leads to massive inferiority complexes.  I feel like I need a button that says Radically Uncool Blogger Since 2003.

8) It's totally OK to not like something. Even if it's a book that all the mythical cool kids are raving about.  Oh the books I've disliked over the years.  The books I'm like, "Really, what now?!"  You're not alone.  It's just that thanks to social media vacuums and sucky people sucking it's super hard to find any hint of "discourse" when talking books anymore.  It's all a Cacophony of Squee.  Which leads me too...

9) Not everything is a squee. For the love of all the deities.  Reminder: I'm old and cranky and yell at clouds a lot.

10) Find your voice, raise it up, support folks in Romancelandia you want to support.

11) Never, ever be ashamed of reading something that makes you happy.  Don't let anyone dim your sunshine. Even cranky old librarians who yell at clouds.

It's been a wild 17 years on this blog. A lot has happened. Some for good, some for ill. But I still love ya Romancelandia. Shine on.

Baseball, Hate Listening And Dubious Milestones

As should seem pretty obvious at this point, I've been struggling with my blogging of late.  There are a variety of reasons for this and coupled with a reading slump it's made for a pretty deadly cocktail.  I have an annoying tendency to backslide into self-pity and frankly I'm beginning to annoy myself.  So this recent blog post by KristieJ couldn't have come at a better time for me.  It was a bit like a kick in the teeth.  So I'm going to strive to do better with blogging, even if the posts may be pithy and inconsequential at times, but hey - at least I'll be posting.  Something.  No promises that they'll all be that enlightening, but when have my blog posts ever changed the world?

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I've been so out of my rhythm lately that my blogiversary went by without my notice.  For those keeping track at home, February 28 marked this blog's 12th anniversary.  Apparently the traditional anniversary gift for 12 years is silk or linen.  The modern gift is pearls.

Dude. 

My blogiversary is the equivalent to an erotic romance novel.  I am so proud! ::wipes tear::

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When Colleen McCullough passed away it occurred to me that not only had I never read The Thorn Birds, but I've also never seen the TV mini-series.  There are a few reasons for this.  1) I have this aversion to any book over 400 pages long.  I blame this on reading difficulties I had as a child and I think it just flat-out carried over.  Plus, I'll be honest - I'm a less is more kind of girl when it comes to fiction.  I see big, long, saga-like tomes and my first thought is "verbal diarrhea."  2) To totally date myself, I was in grade school when the mini-series was first televised.  And even though Mom did eventually own it on VHS, I never had the inclination to watch it.  Tragic love stories weren't really my bag as a teenager.  I preferred mysteries - so those Perry Mason TV movies were more my speed.

Anyway, I decided I would listen to The Thorn Birds on audiobook.  All 18 CDs of it.  I'm almost done with disc 15.  Oh people, I have so much to say.  Most it involving frothing at the mouth and sputtering nonsensically.  So. Much. To. Say.  So yes, expect a blog post riddled with spoilers in the near future.  You've been warned.  And yes, There Shall Be Spoilers!  Hey, you've had since 1977 to read the book - so I figure spoilers are totally fair game.

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Baseball is back!  Spring training games are kicking off this week and even though I'm already beyond tired of hearing about the butt-hurt Yankees and Alex Rodriguez.....

BASEBALL IS BACK!!!!

At this point I have no idea how my Tigers are going to do this year.  Max is gone.  That handsome young man, Rick Porcello is gone.  But Iglesias is back and we have another handsome Cuban joining the roster.  There will be another round of Tigers Meet Harlequin posts prior to the start of the season.  I just....need to figure out who those lucky Tiger players will be.  And, you know, come up with story ideas.  I'm not ruling out recycling some guys I've already "written" books for, but I'm hoping to avoid that (although I have potential new ideas for Miggy, Victor and possibly Verlander....). 

I'm currently pondering if this is the year I can work in an amnesia plot.  We'll see how clever I'm feeling.  Hopefully divine inspiration will rain down upon me.....