Last Night at WORD

To inaugurate their new Romance section, WORD Bookstore invited a group of people related to the industry to speak about romance as a genre. Thanks so much to WORD for having us all there and to Sarah MacLean for organizing, moderating, and, yes, recording.


On the panel were our fearless leader, Sarah MacLean (author of Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake), Sarah Wendell (Smart Bitches, Trashy Books), Hope Tarr (multi-published novelist and co-founder of Lady Jane’s Salon), Tessa Woodward (Avon Books), Stephanie Klose (Romantic Times) and me.

We discussed how we came to romance, the strengths and weaknesses of the genre, its attractions, its cliches, and why it has such a bad rap. Mostly, we amused ourselves. And, hopefully, our listeners. There’s a lot of laughter on that recording.

For those of you who couldn’t make it, here’s Sarah’s recording. It’s kind of fun playing the “who said what” game, although some of the banter gets lost in the general laughter.

Words of Love by Sarah MacLean

There was also a special treat for me. Among those who attended was my Lower School librarian. The last time I saw her, I was, well, considerably smaller and still speaking with a lisp, but seeing her brought those early days of discovering the wonder of books– lots and lots of books!– right back. She made the library a warm and friendly place, a place of poetry and cambric tea and books just suited to everyone’s interests and tastes. I’d like to send a huge hug to Miss Worsley and to all the librarians out there, for creating those magical kingdoms of books which have meant so much to us all.

Thanks to everyone who came out to WORD last night! I hope you had as much fun as we did.

1 Comment

  1. Hope Tarr on July 24, 2010 at 11:41 am

    Indeed, we had a fab time. I didn’t know about your former school librarian in the audience. That’s so cool. My beloved high school English teacher came to one of my very first talks & signings back in ’00. It was truly special.

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