I don't think there's anyone in the world who isn't horrified about the devastation in Haiti right now. Last night, HOPE FOR HAITI was broadcast throughout the world, featuring over a hundred celebrities raising money for the cause. But this isn't a one night only fundraiser, and you can still help if you haven't already.
All musical performances will be available for purchase for $.99 per song through the Apple® iTunes® Store beginning Saturday, January 23, with all proceeds benefiting Haiti relief funds managed by “Hope for Haiti Now” charities.
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and United Nations World Food Programme have joined the list of relief organizations that will benefit from “Hope for Haiti Now,” which also includes Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF, and Yele Haiti Foundation. Proceeds from “Hope for Haiti Now” will be split evenly among each organization’s individual funds for Haiti earthquake relief.
You can call the numbers above or text to still donate, or visit iTunes to download your favorite performances. To see videos of the event, check out the MTV news page.
Huge thanks to Arlene Garcia at Universal for giving us the heads up about how we can still contribute and make a difference.
This weekend join Desireable Sandra Hyatt with her blog about the need for change!
Romance novels often start at a point of change—either for the hero or the heroine and often both of them.
She's just lost her job but needs money to support her ailing parents. He needs a wife to win that contract with the family focused firm. Do I sense a marriage of convenience story coming up?
The man who loved and left her is suddenly back in town. Sounds like a reunion story with maybe a pregnancy or a secret baby in there too.
A handsome stranger lands on her doorstep one snowy night and our reclusive heroine is suddenly having to open her home and her heart.
Whatever the setup, change is in the air for our hero and heroine. Their worlds are about to be turned upside down. How they grow and change (and the best part of that change is the falling in love) is why we read their stories.
It's all well and good—and easy—to read about change foisted on characters in books. In that case, the bigger the change the better, I say. But what about when change is foisted on you. My teenage daughter is about to leave New Zealand and go and live in Canada for a year as an exchange student. And much as there have been times that I've mentally counted the years till my home was child free the reality of just one child leaving the nest is suddenly overwhelming. I know she will have a fantastic year, but…what about those of us left behind i.e. me?
If that's the biggest change in my life this year then I should probably be grateful. I'll squirrel away the emotions and sense of loss for when I need them for a character in a book and I plan on writing more and reading more (with time saved by not running around after her) but am not sure that will be enough of a distraction. So, I'm on the lookout for good strategies for dealing with change.
I'll give away a copy of my current book The Magnate's Pregnancy Proposal to one lucky commenter.
Sandra's current release is The Magnate's Pregnancy Proposal (Silhouette Desire January 2010)
Chastity Stevens was carrying a Masters child…but not from the brother she thought. Though she'd received in vitro fertilization to carry her dead husband's child, she didn't realize it was his brother's sample she'd used.
Millionaire Gabe Masters had never cared for his brother's wife …or so he always told himself. When Chastity revealed she was pregnant by her late husband, Gabe knew the child was his. Now he would do whatever it took to claim the child she carried—their child—as his own.
Modern Heat author Heidi Rice's not-so-secret passion for all things Johnny Depp gets completely out of control as she digs deep to find a poignant romance lurking behind the gunplay in Michael Mann's epic biopic of thirties bankrobber John Dillinger.
All right, I'll come clean here and say everyone who knows me - and quite a lot of people who don't - are well aware I have a bit of a soft spot for Hollywood maverick Johnny Depp. Not only is he a mighty pretty bloke, who happens to be the same age as me, he's so wonderfully quirky and unpredictable in the roles he chooses to play. Let's face it, anyone who can fit a Michael Jackson impersonation (in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and a Keith Richards impression (in Pirates of the Caribbean) into one career can not be boring.
But if Johnny has one minor weakness for me (apart from his dodgy teeth in Pirates and Charlie) it's that he very rarely appears as a romantic hero in a movie, eventhough he's invariably the leading man. For the purposes of this blog, I'm not going to count Captain Jack Sparrow, eventhough he should have been the love interest in Pirates, because for some strange reason Kiera chose that plonker Orlando Bloom instead!! Come off it Kiera, decent dental work isn't everything!
Anyhow, that travesty aside, Johnny seems to be a little shy about exploiting his popularity with the ladies. Bless. So it was with great enthusiasm that I watched Michael Mann's lavish period biopic Public Enemies and discovered a touching, tragic romance lurking behind all those testosterone-fuelled, bullet ridden gun battles.
Now, before I get completely carried away, I should point out that as much as Hollywood movies often like to romanticise the exploits of Depression-era bankrobbers (a young and gorgeous Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow anyone?), director Michael Mann and his star make no bones about the fact that Public Enemy John Dillinger was a very bad boy indeed - violent, ruthless, vainglorious and even a touch unhinged, with (according to this movie at least) only a throwaway resemblance to Robin Hood.
Dillinger robbed banks, shot and killed people and while he may have had his own particular code, he wasn't someone that most people would want to meet while working as a cashier (me included). Depp's Dillinger may be wildly charismatic and devilishly handsome (this is a Hollywood movie after all) but that dangerous edge isn't always attractive, especially when he starts punching a guy at a hat check with very little provocation. True to his form as an actor who takes risks, Depp is prepared to show Dillinger's dark side and for that I applaud him.
So hang on a minute, you're probably shouting, where's the romance?
If this guy's a violent sociopath and Depp's not afraid to play him that way what's to make him romantic? Well, as all we writers of romance know, when you've got a particularly challenging hero, what you need is a heroine who's up to the job of taming him, or at least showing he has another side.
Enter Marion Cotillard as hat-check girl Billie Frechette. Now, I'm a huge fan of Ms Cotillard, so much so that I didn't even mind her getting up close and personal with my Johnny! Much. Cotillard is stunningly beautiful without being conventionally pretty, but she's also an incredibly powerful actress. Personally I found her Oscar-winning turn as Edith Piaf in La vie en rose nothing short of mesmerising, even if the film itself was flipping hard work.
Billie and John's romance in this film is contained in a few key scenes. They're both damaged people and their incendiary but doomed affair is raw and touching and always overshadowed by the knowledge that it will never last. John is obsessive and has a recklessness that borders on a death wish, while Billie is too needy and too loyal and far too vulnerable, but the simmering sexual and emotional tension between them fairly sizzles off the screen.
Take the scene in a fancy restaurant where they first hear their signature tune 'Bye Bye Blackbird' and Johnny tells her boldly that he robs banks. Billie's shocked by his admission, but she's also excited.
John: 'The only thing that's important is where someone's going.'
Billie: 'And where are you going?'
John: 'Anywhere I want... and I'm taking you with me.'
He promises to look after her and she believes him. To the extent that when she is arrested and beaten to get information about his whereabouts she not only protects him, but tells the policeman interrogating her: 'When my Johnny finds out how you slapped around his girl, you know what's going to happen to you fat boy?'
For a poor woman in a dead-end job, the love of a man as notorious as Dillinger gives her a power she's never had. And what does Johnny get? Adoration obviously, but also a purpose, because Billie is the only thing in the end that he has left that's worth fighting for. And Johnny loves to fight!
Their story gives a compelling emotional context to all the guy action... Especially in the final scene, when we hear the message for Billie that Dillinger whispered to the arresting officer before dying in a pool of blood on a Chicago street. It's heart-breaking stuff, so have your hankies at the ready.
Is any of this the real story of Dillinger and Freschette? Who knows, but Depp and Cotillard make it seem true.
So there you have it. Johnny Depp as a romantic hero, but with a dangerous edge, of course.
I won't bother with the warm and fuzzy rating this week, for obvious reasons.... But as an added incentive to see this movie, for all those with a little soft spot for Christian Bale (yes, that'd be you Ms Blake!!) he has a nicely complex role as Dillinger's nemesis, the G-Man Melvin Purvis.
Heidi Rice's latest Modern Heat Public Affair, Secretly Expecting is still out in the UK and due out in the US as a Presents in March. She's currently beavering away on her next Modern Heat novel — when she's not watching films starring Johnny Depp or any of her other favourite movie star distractions, sorry, research inspiration.
A huge Pink Heart Society welcome to our special Industry Insider guest today, Sue Grimshaw! Sue is the Romance buyer for Borders and well known in the industry as being a marvelous ambassador for the genre. Thanks Sue for taking the time to answer a few of our questions today!
We'd like to know a bit about how things work at Borders in respect to the Romance genre. How does Borders view category - is it best left on the endcap for 3 weeks to do its thing, or is there more to it?
Borders has always viewed category romance as part of the romance business overall. Harlequin works very closely with us to determine our assortment & merchandising presentation, as well as, promotional opportunities that we can offer the customer. It has been a stable business for us & one that we will continue to offer as long as our customers continue to buy, & that should be for a very long time.
Is there are particular order the books are put in their end cap?
Romance maintains two end-caps in most stores. Title selection for those fixtures is determined by the publishing schedule and volume of the buy. The theme for the endcaps can vary between Best Sellers, New Releases, author themed, sub-genre themed, etc. We do leave some placement up to store discretion as well so they can merchandise the right books to their customers.
Which are the most popular lines at Borders? Does it vary from region to region?
Book trends vary from region to region, store to store, even vary month to month :-) . Much is determined by what is being published so when we review trends we try to take into account a broad enough period of time. Right now, paranormal romances continue to top the charts as far as sales trends above last year; contemporary romances are also very strong.
Do the lines carried vary much store by store?
Title selection varies from store to store but the sub categories within romance are available in all stores.
Do category romances ever catch your eye?
Oh sure – much like the customer I end up reading many of the best selling authors that continue to write category books. Certain titles seem to sell better than others so I review those books as well to see what triggered the customer’s interest.
What trends in romance are you noticing? Are the trends the same in category?
The nostalgic, small town contemporaries continue to sell well. Paranormal romances also appeal to our readers & sexier stories no matter what the sub-genre, sell very well. Desire & Presents are the top selling lines in category & those are predominantly contemporary stories.
What do you think category romance offers that is unique?
Category is a great way for readers to find new authors without much time or financial investment. For busy moms, it is a quick read but fulfilling story, & they’re great to take on vacation – the smaller size is easier to pack.
And a few more personal type fun questions:
What is the very best part of your job?
Reading the books of course! I really enjoy all aspects of the job but being able to read all the different books within the genre is great fun to me. I enjoy meeting romance readers too, just like them, I love to discuss the books with others that have the same interest. Getting to meet romance readers is one of the reasons why I’m looking forward to ROMCON, as I can’t wait to chat with everyone (www.romconinc.com). I also enjoy meeting with readers on our blog, Borders True Romance(www.bordersblog.com/trueromance).
What is the worst part?
Oh, probably some of the mundane stuff I have to do from day to day --- but, even that I don’t mind – every job has that, right?
What are you reading right now?
Nick’s story in Stephanie Tyler’s new romantic suspense series, TOO HOT TO HOLD – yummy! OOps done with that (& loved it!), now reading ECSTASY UNVEILED by Larissa Ione -- what a voice!
What’s your absolute favourite subgenre to read? What’s your reading weakness?
Favorite sub-genre is historical – not sure why really but even with all of the new sub-genre’s romance has acquired over the years, historical books are my favorites. I'm all about the characters & the emotional relationship, so if an author can serve that up I'm all over it!
Thanks PHS for having me & Borders on your blog – I’d like to encourage your readers to stop on by BTRB, Border’s True Romance Blog (www.bordersblog.com/trueromance) to visit & comment on some of our author, editor & blogger posts – we always manage to have a fun time & you never know when there is a giveaway!
All the best in the New Year,
Sue
Another big thanks to Sue for being with us today! And don't forget to comment - one lucky commenter will get a $15 Borders e-gift card as a prize!
Ooooh! Another call story - just what we love here at the Pink Heart Society. And this one is a doozie...please welcome newcomer Maisey Yates to the PHS!
First off, I have to thank the Pink Hearts ladies for inviting me to blog about my Call! So, thank you!
I have always wanted to write, but I haven’t always known exactly what I wanted to write. I tried a lot of different things, things that usually didn’t go any farther than the first five pages.
Then when I was a teenager school and work and meeting the man of my dreams took precedence over writing, and other than scribbling insane comedy stories for the entertainment of my friends, I did very little in the way of writing.
Then I got married and had my first son and even though I still dreamed of seeing my name on a book cover one day, I certainly wasn’t working toward it.
That changed when I was pregnant with my second son and I picked up my very first Harlequin romance, a Presents by Miranda Lee. That was the beginning of a pretty big obsession for me.
In that year I think I read over three hundred Presents. I couldn’t get enough of them. I loved the glamour, the passion and the seduction. And I knew then that I wanted to write romance. But when I went to Harlequin’s website site and saw the guidelines for submission I was so intimidated at the thought of trying to submit that…I just didn’t try. Because if I wrote something, I should submit it, if I submitted, I might get rejected, and I just couldn’t get past that. Until I saw the announcement for the Instant Seduction contest. A contest seemed a lot less scary and not winning, I thought, would seem a lot less like a rejection.
I sat down to write my chapter and synopsis and after a couple of weeks, with butterflies in my stomach, I entered my chapter into the contest. That step was the confidence boost I needed to start writing a manuscript that I could get ready for submission the traditional way.
By the time the contest results were announced a couple of months later, I had finished a complete manuscript (different from my contest entry). I didn’t get any feedback from the Instant Seduction contest, but it was a huge step for me. It had been a rejection in a way, and it hadn’t killed me. That gave me the boost I needed to submit the manuscript I had completed. So after a lot of obsessive polishing and harassing my husband every five minutes for his opinion, I sent the partial all the way from Oregon to the Richmond office.
In the months that my manuscript waited in the slush pile, Harlequin held the Feel the Heat contest for Modern Heat. I entered that contest as well, and again, got no feedback other than the standard form letter. I was feeling pretty dejected at that point! I wasn’t sure what hope the manuscript I’d sent had with two contests behind me and no personalized feedback to show for it.
But, only a week later I received a letter from the United Kingdom. I had been waiting seven months at that point and, as I opened the letter with (very) shaky hands, I anticipated a rejection. Much to my complete and total shock, it was actually a letter requesting that I revise my partial.
I spent the next month or so working on revisions with the help of my lovely critique group and my patient (and gorgeous!) husband. After much agonizing, I resent the partial with (still) shaking hands.
A couple of months later another letter landed in my mail box. This time a request for the full manuscript. I was (and sort of still am) totally shocked. So much so that I literally couldn’t speak, and as my husband can attest to, that is an unusual turn of events. I imagine he must have thought I was somewhat crazy when I came running into the house waving a letter in the air, unable to string two words together.
I sent the full manuscript and three weeks later, received another revision letter, this time in my inbox. I was so excited that it wasn’t a rejection I set to work right away getting the revisions done, once again with my lovely critique group offering me much cyber support.
About six weeks after returning those revisions I got yet another revision letter. And at this point I’m just feeling eternally grateful for my editor’s patience! After completing those I sent them (yeah, hands still shaking). I had a feeling that this would be it. Three rounds of revisions. It had to be rejection or acceptance.
So I cringed every time of opened my email and jumped every time the phone rang. And then, on December 1st, four and a half months after completing that last round of revisions, I got up and checked my email at seven in the morning. There was one from Jenny Hutton sitting in my inbox. She asked if she could call me and talk about the manuscript sometime that morning. And after squealing and jumping up and down (as best as a woman who is eight months pregnant can), I calmed down enough to get the phone and tell my husband my editor was going to call. Well, it may have come out more like “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!! She’s going to Call me!!!”
And then the phone rang at 8:00 am and a woman with a very lovely, sophisticated accent asked to speak to me. And then she offered to buy my book. Of course I said yes.
It’s a dream come true to write for Presents. I’m a true fan of the line and seeing my name on (here in the US) that white cover with the red stripe and the very beautiful people in the circle makes me absolutely giddy. In fact, I foresee being completely giddy for the next few years.
I’m currently working on revisions for my second book and eagerly awaiting the release of His Virgin Acquisition, coming out in the UK in August of 2010!
Congratulations Maisey - both on the contract and the birth of your gorgeous new baby! Truly a December to remember!
Twenty years ago Harelquin Romance author Fiona Harper spent her honeymoon in Lake Garda in northern Italy.This year she returned to celebrate her anniversary, and she still thinks it’s one of the most beautiful places she's ever been.
Lake Garda sits halfway between Venice and Milan, in the north of Italy, and is the largest of the Italian lakes.The northern part of the lake is mountainous and narrower than the southern end.Vast mountains fall into the sea and a narrow road snakes its way in and out of a multitude of tunnels carved into the rock.
The town of Riva del Garda sits at the head of the lake in the shadow of Mont Rosetta.So close is the mountain to the town that for the first few days of my visit I kept looking up and thinking that the giant hulk of rock was leaning towards me, and by four o’clock in the afternoon, even in the height of summer, Riva falls into shadow as the sun sets behind the peak, even though nightfall is several hours away.
The houses are interesting here – and I saw different styles sitting side by side: the shallow-roofed square houses of Italy and the chalet-style properties with wide wooden balconies that reminded me we weren’t that far from Switzerland.
I’m totally in love with anywhere that has mountains.Maybe it’s the Scottish blood in me; I just feel at home when the ground rises high and is all rocky and forbidding.Add a crystal clear lake to the equation and I’m in heaven.And Lake Garda is very clean, and the most wonderful green colour – it must be minerals in the water that make it look that way, because it really is impossibly green.I even took a photo of the water so I’d know I hadn’t just imagined it when I got home.
As you might be able to guess, I could wax lyrical about this wonderful place for paragraphs and paragraphs, but I think it’s better if I let some of my humble holiday snaps do the talking…
Boats at Limone; a view from Isola del Garda; the beach at Riva
Isola del Garda; Limone; the north end of the lake.
Fiona's next book, Housekeeper's Happily-Ever-After is out in March in the UK (as a 2-in-1 with Jessica Hart's new release, Oh-So-Sensible Secretary) and available in North America in April.
Ellie Bond tries to escape her past by taking a job as jet-setting Mark Wilder's housekeeper. But the accident that killed her husband and daughter have left scars, both inside and out, and she worries she'll never be able to leave the past behind and find true happiness.
Harlequin Presents/Mills and Boon Modern Author Kate Hewitt kicks off the new week with her Male on Monday choice - a selection that this editor highly approves! (Hubba hubba!)
I love a tortured hero. All that angst! How can anyone resist it? Especially when the hero is undeniably gorgeous like Kevin McKidd. He has both the angst and the attraction as his character Lucius Vorenus in the HBO series Rome, which is where he first caught my interest.
My husband I rented Rome on Netflix, and at first I was skeptical. I thought it was going to be some kind of pseudo-documentary, but... it’s not. While the historical aspect (according to my internet researches) is accurate, the story is dramatic and exciting and gory and poigant all at once. Kevin McKidd plays one of the main characters, the Roman centurion Lucius Vorenus. Vorenus is a man bound by his own strict set of Roman ethics, which, back then, included a lot of killing and animal sacrifice and all sorts we might find a little unpalatable today. And that’s actually one thing I like about this series: they don’t modernize it with twenty-first century ethics and sensibilities. Vorenus can be violent and narrow-minded and he definitely has an anger problem, but he’s also trying so hard to do good and love his wife and be the best man he can be. He often falls unbearably short of his goals, and as an Alpha perfectionist, this is incredibly hard for him.
The character of Vorenus got me interested in the actor who plays him[as so often happens... starting with Christian Bale in Swing Kids and more recently, Daniel Craig as James Bond]. I knew I’d seen the actor before, and with he help of google I soon learned where. Vorenus is played by Kevin McKidd, who was born in Elgin, Scotland in 1973, and attended the University of Edinburgh as a student in Engineering. He joined the student theatre company there, Bedlam Theatre, and then dropped out to pursue acting full-time.
His first role was as Father Deegan in a 1996 episode of the British comedy series Father Ted, and would you believe, I’ve actually seen that episode! Too many late nights nursing a baby while we lived in England, watching fairly bad TV, that’s all I can say. And the fact that Father Deegan got lost in a lingerie department was fairly memorable.
His first major role was as Tommy in the independent hit film Trainspotting--unfortunately he was on vacation when they did the photo shoot, so he missed being on the rather iconic poster.
You might have also seen him in a variety of BBC-type dramas, including Mary, Queen of Scots as her lover Bothwell, and The Virgin Queen as the Duke of Norfolk. He was the lead in the TV series Journeyman, which unfortunately only ran for 13 episodes, and more recently he’s had a recurring role as PTSD-sufferer Dr. Owen Hunt on Grey’s Anatomy. And of course you can see him as Vorenus in both seasons of the highly recommended Rome!
Kevin McKidd is married to Jane Parker and has two young children--all this makes him more attractive, frankly. I love the angst on film and in fiction, but in reality nothing beats a stable, happy man.
So, has your interest in a character in a film or TV show ever sparked an interest in the actor? And if so, what character made you do a little google research on the actor who played him? And finally, which tickled your fancy more--the character or the actor? I’m giving away a copy of my latest book, The Greek Tycoon’s Reluctant Bride, to one lucky winner who posts in the comments!
Happy googling,
Kate
Kate's current release is THE GREEK TYCOON'S RELUCTANT BRIDE.
Darkly handsome Demos Atrikes wants a wife to provide heirs to his fortune. No emotions, no complications… Catching sight of stunning, intriguing Althea Paranoussis, he has to have her. She may be a society party girl, but he believes she's perfect wife material—and their wedding is arranged. The chemistry between them is all-consuming. But once married, Demos discovers the painful truth of Althea's childhood. She needs more from him than he'd ever planned to give….
