Sunday, January 17, 2010

New event planned for Valentine's Week!

Hi, folks!

Just wanted to give you a head's up that I have a fantastic event in the making for Valentine's Week. I'll let you know as soon as the whole thing is locked down solid, but I was inspired to do a special event for the most romantic week of the year when a dear friend found herself in the position of having to defend her right to read romance recently to a mocking naysayer.

If you are a romance reader who has ever been made fun of by others (or feared that you would be), or called "dumb" or "undiscerning" because you love to read "those trashy books" with all the other desperate housewives sitting around in curlers eating ice cream out of the carton with a spoon, you'll want to check in with IMHO the week of Feb 7 - 13. You'll also want to direct the naysayers to this blog that week, because I rounded up a bunch of smart romance-reading folks who have an answer to all of those other folks who put loyal romance readers down. From a university professor to a cyber-crime specialist; from a former pentagon military officer to a PhD in Theocentric business and ethics; from a database administrator to a doctor of psychology, and more...you and your detractors will be in for a few surprises.

Stay tuned, because you'll want to know the kinds of smart women--and men--who read romance. And yes, there will be prizes!

TJB

7 comments:

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Smart way to retaliate, my friend. Can't wait to see the fun!

TJ Bennett said...

Heh heh heh. You know I love me some fun, Susan my dear.

TJB

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to it. There are a couple people I can think who I should force to stop by.

Jane L said...

Sounds like a great time TJ! By the way I received my prize package and I love it! Thank you again!! Hope your having some great down time!

TJ Bennett said...

Great, Jane! I'm glad you liked your prize. But...what is this "down time" you speak of? I know it not. LOL!

I'm here to tell you, folks, nature abhors a vacuum. :-)

And Carol--yes, make them stop by. It will suit my evil plan so well...


TJB

librarypat said...

Sounds terrific. I was rather shocked to find myself being given a hard time at work for being a romance writer. Give me a break, I work at a LIBRARY. It is a small one and of the 6 employees, I was the only one who read romance. The others wouldn't even try it. We do have a new director, and she reads Austen and Heyer. However, as far as she is concerned, they are the only authors worth reading and she won't read anything else. It is a good thing I have input in the book order process.

TJ Bennett said...

Librarypat,

We romance authors are very grateful for librarians like you. We know that a library is for READERS...and that means everyone should have an opportunity to have access to the books they love.

Since over 50% of the book reading population (according to RWA studies) reads romance, that's a whole lot of people being underserved in the library population if librarians refuse to read or stock it.

Thanks for doing what you do, and I hope what I do here helps out a little bit in that direction. :-)

TJB