Tuesday, November 08, 2011
Romance Writing 101
 Aspiring romance novelists take note: Harlequin is kicking off their second " So You Think You Can Write" contest this week. (Actually, I suspect this event would benefit more than just budding romance novelists. Harlequin is also offering a ton of "interactive assignments" that sound like they would help any would-be writer, regardless of genre.) Labels: contests, Harlequin
Friday, October 22, 2010
Monday, September 28, 2009
Tempting!
We still haven't gotten over Harlequin Books' expensive-yet-poorly-made editions of Georgette Heyer's romances, but we admit we're a little tempted by these:    The above titles are part of Harlequin's " Vintage Collection"--six re-releases of some of their earliest books. The cover art is delicious... and how can we resist the casual misogyny of a plot description like the one for No Nice Girl? When a thoroughly "nice" girl is clever as well, let her less strongly armed sisters beware.
Phyllis Gordon was completely honest and very intelligent. Terry McLean was her first and only lover, and he really loved her. But Phyllis cared too much for him to marry him until she had rid herself of her unrequited passion for her millionaire employer, Kenyon Rutledge. Kenyon's fiancée, Letty Lawrence, was also well equipped with beauty and brains, and she had money besides.
Yet the arrival in town of Phyllis's little country cousin, Anice Mayhew, spelled danger for both Phyllis and Letty. For Anice was dewy-eyed, supersweet and diabolically innocent. Pure poetry! Labels: Book Covers, Harlequin, Re-releases
Thursday, June 29, 2006
More Harlequin/Dark Horse
I stopped by the bookstore last night, and considered picking up these charming new releases:   Happily for my bank balance, I resisted. So far, all of these Dark Horse/Harlequin manga fusions have been pretty bad. The romance novels of the sixties, seventies, and eighties were fairly condensed stories to begin with, and editing them down to a single volume manga turns their (already formulaic) plots into virtual outlines: girl meets boy, boy despises-yet-desires girl, they have The Sex, there's some angst, everything gets resolved, The End. Still, these are books that proudly advertise that they are printed in either "beautiful deep pink ink" (which, according to the Dark Horse website, denotes "purely romantic material") or "gorgeous deep purple ink" (indicating a "sophisticated romance for readers looking for something a little sexier than the rest"). Color-coded smut levels?!? That's the kind of thing that's tough for a girl like me to resist... For previews of these books, click here. Labels: Harlequin, manga
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Life Comes At You Fast!
So I am not sure how widespread Nationwide Insurance's "Life Comes At You Fast" ad campain is, but as soon as I saw these billboards I knew I had to post them...  I thought we might need some close-ups as well.  Kind of scary... Labels: Harlequin, Posters
Monday, January 09, 2006
So, my birthday's coming up....
I love vintage Harlequin romance novels. I love how magnificently cheeseball they can be, with their lurid covers and hopelessly outdated sexual politics, and I admire how instantly entertaining they frequently are, with their parade of tried-and-true literary devices. I am particularly fond of vintage Harlequin romance novels written by Betty Neels, who wrote about fifty million virtually identical stories about prim, sensible English nurses in their late twenties who fall in love with barrel-chested Dutch doctors. Sample titles include Nurse in Holland (not to be confused Neels's Nurse Harriet Goes to Holland, obviously), Surgeon From Holland, and Sister Peters in Amsterdam. I also love shojo manga, for much the same reasons. (Just replace Dutch doctors with icy-hearted, high-achieving high school boys.) And yesterday, on an innocent visit to the local comic book shop, I discover that my two loves have been COMBINED! Behold!  That's right- in a stroke of pure marketing genius, somebody decided to combine vintage Harlequin romances with Darkhorse Comics-produced manga. I have no idea who that person might be, but we here at Wordcandy applaud their vision! Labels: Harlequin, manga
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