The other day on Twitter, we announced that we were going to do our darnedest to profile the fantabulous people who work so hard to bring you the latest news and reviews about goings on in the world of romance reading, writing, and raconteuring (actually, we didn’t announce it quite that way, but as I’m feeling all alliterate right now, I am just going to go with it) – ROMANCE BLOGGERS!

So, now it’s my chance to shout out (as loudly as this monitor will allow me to): THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PIPING UP WITH SO MANY WONDERFUL SUGGESTIONS!

Thanks to you guys and gals, we’ve got a bunch of romance bloggers to choose from, and they are no ordinary romance bloggers – they are all STELLAR bloggers with much to recommend them. What’s even more fun, some of the recommenders were actually recommended by other bloggers! – proving yet again just how supportive and generous a community romance bloggers (and twitterers) are.

Also, just from this random group of suggested romance bloggers it’s quite clear that romance knows no national boundaries.  It’s quite exciting – bloggers from Australia, the UK, Switzerland, Canada, and more.

Below I’ve listed the “nominees” so far.  (I apologize in advance if I missed any – and if I did, please let me know.) I’m going to start setting up interviews ASAP with each of these incredible bloggers and we’ll be devoting a special section of our website to “Behind the Blogs.” In all seriousness, these bloggers deserve mucho respect and admiration for the work they do, and we’re going to do our best to give them the attention they deserve.

In the meantime, please please please – add your suggestions about other romance bloggers you’d like to know more about. Use the comments section, or drop us a line via our contact form.

AND, feel free to suggest interview questions. (who wants to hear the same old same old? let us know what you really want to find out about your fave romance bloggers!)

And for now, please take a gander at the suggestions we’ve received so far! Thanks again to each and everyone of the tweeps who took the time to nominate bloggers to be profiled. We greatly appreciate it.

From the TwitterStream:Twitterers tweet their suggestions for the romance bloggers they’d most like to see profiled here at Quartet Press’ blog

@sarahtanner: @avidbookreader @booksmugglers @romancerookie @Leontine1976 @katiebabs @heidenkind @smexybooks @mcvane @jane_l

@CheekyReads: Smart Bitches & Dear Author

@DYockman: @smartbitches! @dearauthor @historicals Dirty Sexy Books – that is a start…will have to see who else!

@susanmpls: @smartbitches and @dearauthor

@jodywallace: Heather Massey from Galaxy Express would make for an interesting profile (romance bloggers); Rebecca at DirtySexyBooks.com also seems pretty funny and interviewable.

@mcvane: Off my head: Gossamer Obsessions; Rip My Bodice; The Galaxy Express; Racy Romance Reviews; Aneca’ss World

@aprilrickard: I love the historical romance authors/bloggers, The Chatelaines

@katiebabs: [who, by the way has recently very cutely "madmenned" her twitter avatar]: def @booksmugglers @kmont @myfriendamy @trelaina

@shilohwalker: @katiebabs even though she has scarred me horribly. @trelaina @bookbinge

@girrlitsbooks [from Down Under!] SarahT + Doc Sarah soo many to choose from how do you pick one blogger? @BookThingo @SuperWendy @redwyne @Karenknowsbest Ell yeah!

@sarahtanner:  @BookThingo @SuperWendy @redwyne @Karenknowsbest

@redwyne:  @bloghappy, @cranberrytarts, @limecello, @jmc_bks, @dogzzz (cindys), @wearedevilcow, @romancerookie @mcvane

Okay. I’m just going to say it and get it out there.

I am not a romance reader.

Or, to be more specific -  I haven’t been a romance reader until now.

And,  now I’m learning more about romance novels than I can find room for in my marketing-centric head.

Point is, I am desperately trying to get myself up to speed on romance reading.

So, I have been schooling myself via the library, several bookstores (both online and brick and mortar), and of course – my friends and workmates.

Who you gonna call?

…WHY, KASSIA KROZSER! (of course)

But, poor Kassia. Bless her heart, she has the patience of an angel. But I do think I’m trying that patience.

Below is a typical email exchange.

FYI: I share this in hopes that you will understand just how lovely and knowledgeable Ms. Krozser is. And just how involved, detailed, and wholly enveloping something as seemingly simple as romance can be — especially when you’re talking about romance as a literary genre.

ME TO KASSIA:
am trying to understand HEA as it relates to the undead, or dead.
would, for example, “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir?” qualify for stricter definition of romance? She lives out her life and when she dies, the ghost comes to get her and they go off into eternity together.

so, if a ghost and mortal are in love, and end up together, does it matter if the mortal dies so they can be together? or is that no longer HEA b/c one of them died?

KASSIA TO ME:
You are leaping directly into advanced HEA. Technically, The Ghost and Mrs Muir doesn’t qualify as an HEA because, on one level, the happiness has to happen on the human plane. Also because she lived a long life alone-ish. On the other hand, they are together forever. The sticking point is she is miserable.

It is a well-known fact that dead heroes are a problem. One of the worst (or best or both) examples of this is Jude Deveraux’s “A Knight in Shining Armor.” In KISA (or AKISA), the hero is dead. The heroine conjures the hero to current time (from, I think, the mid-sixteenth century). Very cute fish-out-of-water stuff ensues. She then time-travels back to his original time, he doesn’t know her, but they fall in love all over again, all that. Then she’s transported back to her time where she learn that he lived out his life in his own time and died. So she’s alone, until the very, very end, when she meets his, well, reincarnated self on a plane.

People either make peace with this ending or hate, hate, hate it as it’s not really the hero.

The HEA is really important to the romance reader, though. RWA calls this an emotionally satisfying ending. This just means the reader feels good about where the two leads are at the end of the book.

ME TO KASSIA
okay. just to clarify – even if one is ghost and other is mortal – as long as they are happy together it’s still HEA? My issue with stupid Mrs. Muir’s captain is he thought she’d be better off w/o him, and left her ’til she kicked it of old age. he sucks for that alone.
but, if he’d stuck around, would they have qualified for HEA?

and now i must get KISA so i can talk intelligently in acronym at RWA.
~ Kat

KASSIA TO ME
The leaving her alone is what disqualifies the HEA. The stupidity of sending her off to be happy with someone else doesn’t count (that’s a plot device!) as much as the looong lifetime of loneliness. Bad ghost.

One can be dead, sure. Vampires are dead, right? Though, as you can imagine, there’s a reason nobody gets excited about zombies. Smelly and dirty.

Very tricky stuff. Okay, not really unless one part of a couple is dead. Really hard to work around. Some authors are very clever, many are not.

You have finished Welcome to Temptation, right? Because that’s really important reading.

ME TO KASSIA
no. did i even get the reading list?

okay, so Welcome to Temptation and Knight in Shining Armor. These r hopefully available as ebooks…
~ K

KASSIA TO ME
Oh dear, do we have a lot of fun for you. The reading list:
Romance Reading List: (for those who actually want to get a sense of the genre; not required)

• Lord of Scoundrels, Loretta Chase;
• The Spymaster’s Lady, Joanna Bourne (really bad cover warning here, does the book serious injustice);
• Mr. Perfect and/or Open Season, Linda Howard (technically suspense, but, well, ignore that part);
• Contemp: Bet Me. J Crusie.
• Hist: Lord of Scoundrels, Loretta Chase.
• Paranormal: Kresley Cole or Bitten, Kelley Armstrong

There are more, many
more. We’re just getting this party started!

(Note: Sarah of the Smart Bitches recommended Bet Me as a Crusie romance, but I have a serious thing for Welcome to Temptation, which is not, formally, a romance even though it is a romance. If that makes sense. Of course I’m right on this one!).

END OF EMAIL THREAD
———————————————————————————————-
Yup. This is a typical discussion for me lately.

So – I’m rather busy now. Reading.

BUT — not too busy to take suggestions for other fundamentals of Romance 101.

Please offer any suggestions. And, please offer any words of encouragement.

I really am excited about my first RWA – and meeting everyone. But, my goodness – this certainly is a whole new world! (exciting and new)…