Yesterday's book, INDISCREET, was the first. Today's books, the historical romance SCANDAL and the paranormal romance MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE, are wonderful examples of smart & sassy romance.
To be the lucky person who wins both, be sure to leave a comment on this post. Please see my contest page for eligibility rules. If your name is chosen, you must claim your prize by e-mailing me at tjb @ tjbennett . com (no spaces) by February 14, 2010, or I will award it to someone else. Be sure to check back to see if you have won, and let your subject line be the name of the prize.
But first, more fun facts from our romantic fiction file (statistics provided by RWA's pressroom):
Your beleaguered naysayer: "I can't read one of those books. Everyone will see and know! I'm too embarrassed to carry one around in public."
Your savvy romance reader response: "Hey, I can understand that. Why not read a romance in an alternate format? According to RWA's 2009 reader survey, 6.5 percent of all romances 'read' were actually audiobooks (earplugs are great for privacy) and 5.4 percent were in e-book format. Many hardback and paperback romances are also released in e-book forms such as Sony e-reader, Kindle, and the like. Publishing houses that release books primarily in e-book format proliferate, which makes the choices wide and the books handy for traveling.
In fact, 29 percent of romance readers usually carry a romance novel with them, and alternate formats make that a breeze. Why, you can even download them to your PC or Mac and look like you're working when the boss wanders through your office, when what you're really doing is reading a romance!"
Now, let's give a big IMHO welcome to Carolyn Jewel!
Carolyn Jewel: Why Smart Women (and Men) Read Romance
I thought it would be interesting to explore the different ways one might inflect this discussion. Imagine, if you will, someone speaking this phrase out loud:
Why Smart Women (and Men) Read Romance
When read in this manner, with the word “why” emphasized, the words presume that smart men and women do indeed read romance. There’s an incredulity about the statement, as if the finding were terribly disappointing. My God. Is this true? Why? Is there not, in these words, a hint of something not quite right? It's as if there's a deep dark suspicion of romance underlying the statement. I wonder why?
Why Smart Women (and Men) Read Romance
I do think this one is my favorite since the implication is that if you want to be smart, you need to be reading romance.
This question also reminds me of the time I was at a Romance event and a gentleman author stood up before a room of women to speak passionately about his quest for publication. In the middle of this, he stopped after using a certain word, I forget what word it was and said, "Now, I know that's a big word, ladies." He went merrily on to define the word for us. And I, sitting in the audience of 20 or so women, looked around at my fellow ladies, four of whom I happened to know held PhDs -- I was myself in grad school at the time -- and thought, I will NEVER buy one of his books.
Why Smart Women (and Men) Read Romance
This version seems to privilege the female over the male. But if you say this out loud, the elision of “and men” that results after the emphasized “women” rather ironically does quite the opposite.
Why Smart Women (and Men) Read Romance
Do you agree the same irony comes into play here as in the previous example?
Why Smart Women (and Men) Read Romance
Ahem. Doh.
Why Smart Women (and Men) Read Romance
This version is the least gendered of a gendered phrase since it puts the emphasis on the genre. I also feel there’s a certain happiness in the emphasis. On an infomercial, two smiling co-hosts would say this in tandem and on the word “romance” beam as they held up a romance.
Language isn’t just words on a page. The words we chose, the order in which they appear and the way we speak provides additional meaning. Even here, in a written form, it’s possible to completely change the meaning of a phrase with the use of bold. Who would have thought romance would have so much power? Who, indeed?
Smart people maybe?
Bio: Carolyn Jewel lives in Northern California where she writes historical and paranormal romance. She’s also a Microsoft SQL Server database administrator. She holds an MA in English and is known to obsess over language and meaning.
