I read romance - I am loud and proud

Some time ago, Nicola from Love Books pasted this entry on her website.

I am so pleased you found this page.  Today I was thinking as I was working on my website,  “What is the problem many people have with romance readers?”  Well, I think, it goes something like this:

Romance has a bad reputation.  A lot of people think of romance readers as their maiden aunts sitting on the train with the knitting in the bag and that ugly old cat waiting for them at home getting their daily passion ration with the book they keep stashed under a pillow on their chair.  You know what?  There could be a proportion of readers like that out there, but there is a growing movement of readers, young and old, professionals and tradesmen and women who also enjoy a good romance.

 

Why?  Because it feels good!  In the worst economic climate our country has seen in a while, things are pretty grim so we are looking to escape our reality, to live someone else’s life for just a while and to experience that flash of something special we all think of as love and the start of a brilliant and lifelong, not to mention emotionally satisfying partnership.  Wow!  Sounds Fab right?

Did you know romance is THE fastest growing genre in the world?  When you stop and consider that there is now in excess of 1500 romance titles released each month (in every format) that means more and more people are looking for the boost.  Romance is a multi million dollar industry.  Publishing houses are pumping big dollars into these lines because people want to read them because they feel better afterwards.

Is romance pornographic?  I hear this question time and time again.  No.  Romance is about that special relationship between 2 people.  Romance readers are looking for their payoff – the Happy Ever After (HEA) and they invest a lot of emotion into the stories they read.  Not quite what a lot of people think.  Yes, many do have physical scenes that leave you a little hot under the collar sometimes (and let’s be frank – some do read it for that) but the books are about that feeling you get when Hero gets Heroine, they beat the bad guys and get their HEA.  End of story it is about making you feel good.

Romance books are formulaic.  I wish writing a book was really that simple.  In fact, have you actually read what many Romance Specific publishing companies state on their websites?  Most only accept between 1 and 3 percent of ALL submissions made to them.  That means a lot of people are writing books and many will never get past first base.  If romance books had a formula, just like cooking, we could have 2 parts of love, half a cup of lust and a litre of happy ever after to make a perfect romance.  Unfortunately though, there would be a lot more books released if that was the case.

But at the end of the day, we still see articles telling us Romance Books are bad.  Why is that?  Sure there are people out there with addictive personalities who don’t have the skills to see that these books are, at the end of the day a story.  Not true.  But for many, it gives them something to strive for and look for in a relationship.  

As a reader of romance, I walk tall and openly state that I am a romance reader.  But in case you missed it...”Hi, my name is Nicola, and I read romance.”  And I am not the only one.  There are now associations world wide who encourage their readership to engage with others in open discussions about romance books.  In Australia, there is the Australian Romance Readers Association.  These are places where those who previously were underground romance readers can come together to share their passion for romance books.  (Pardon the pun!)  But they discuss the good points, the bad points and everything in between of their favourite authors, to share new authors and to critique the books they read.  They are hotbeds of creativity, where many will get their springboard into writing themselves, thus joining associations of romance writers!

So the next time someone says, “Oh, you read romance,” remember that this is a growing trend in males and females of every walk of life.  From Princesses to street sweepers, from pool attendants to Solicitors.    From booksellers to graphic designers and everyone in between.  We just want to feel better even if the buzz only lasts the period of a book.

Written by Nicola Pitt

Owner and Manager of Love Books Australia

Are you a proud romance reader?   

This article was written ages ago, before I began writing so it was one of the things that always sat in the back of my mind.  Since then I have started to get a handle on issues that romance readers and writers face.

 Things such as comments... "Have you done everything you write about in your books?" or "You write romance?  Can you tell me about the formula?"  People really don't understand that there is NO formula to writing a romance, or that hours and hours of research come before you even put your fingers to the keys.  That is why romance novels have such a strong basis in reality.

Sure, it is easier to publish your own work now.  Many do.  Some of the stuff out there is cringe-worthy but there is also a lot of things written to a really high standard by authors who have a strong grasp of the craft.  These authors have taken and invested in their pieces,  have had their work professionally edited and high quality cover art created.  It is, for many now, a business.  Not a job, because that implies 9-5 and this is so much more.  In fact, I would go so far as to call it a lifestyle choice.

 For me, the romance is about the passion and the growth of the characters.  Particularly, I like my settings to be predominantly set in space, where the hardships and crises both the Hero and Heroine face are out of the ordinary.  (Because we can all use something extraordinary to strive for, right?)

So the next time, someone says to you, "Oh you read romance."  or "You only write romance, don't you?" step forward and issue the challenge.  Write a character rich novel, filled with important details, find a publisher and show us your mettle.  I'll bet you, many will back away from the task, because it is a huge endeavor in a market that wants quality and choice.

Imogene

Transit of Venus

Ever since Lieutenant James Cook (Yes the Captain of the Endeavour) traveled south to observe the Transit of Venus, those Southern Continent Dwellers (namely the "Aussies") have taken great interest in this celestial event.  However, what is a “Transit”, I hear you ask.  To explain in the plainest terms, it is where one celestial body passes across another, making it visible from earth.

A very short history:

First seen in 1639 by Jeremiah Horrocks, the importance of the transit has become quite a stepping stone to our understanding of the rate and way the world turns as well as our ability to calculate distances between earth and other masses – namely planets. 

Observations of the transits of Venus became scientifically important when in 1716 Edmund Halley proposed that observations from different locations on the Earth could be used to determine the distance between the Sun and the Earth (called the Astronomical Unit); and the scale of the solar system could be subsequently determined by applying Kepler’s third law of planetary motion.

According to Iceinspace.com.au A Transit of Venus across the Sun occurs when the orbit of Venus takes it directly between the Earth and the Sun, obscuring a small portion of the Sun's disc. During the transit, Venus appears as a small black disc moving across the sun, usually taking several hours.
Transits of Venus across the Sun are extremely rare - one of the rarest of the predictable astronomical events, occurring in a repeating cycle of 243 years, with a pair of transits 8 years apart every 121.5 years and 105.5 years.

The last transit in the current cycle was in June 2004, but before that the last transit was in December 1874 and December 1882. The next transit after this one will be in December 2117 and December 2125 - so this is the last chance to see a transit of Venus in our lifetimes!

An even more rare occurrence is the Transits of Venus AND Mercury.  This has happened in the past with the last taking place on 22 September 373 173 BC.  If you are hoping to see that it will be on 26 July 69 163 (I doubt anyone of use will be around for that though.)

Amazingly, during one of the Transits of Venus, back in 1761 Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov made the discovery that Venus had an atmosphere. During the initial phase of the transit, he saw a ring of light around the trailing end of the planet (the portion that had not yet transited in front of the sun). He correctly inferred the only thing to explain the light refraction would be an atmosphere around the planet.

So, we understand that a great number of important discoveries about ourselves and our place in the universe have taken place as a result of the knowledge gained from the Transit of Venus, making it one of the most important celestial discoveries in our history, together with compositions of the moon etc.,

So for your interest and pleasure, I have put together a series of interesting facts about the Transit of Venus.

From Listverse.com –

First Transit of Venus “Movie”

Click on the image to follow the link
You do need a very fast link and Quicktime to view.

In December 1882, astronomer David Peck Todd traveled from Amherst College in Massachusetts to California to photograph the transit of Venus. The transits of 1874 and 1882 were the first since the invention of photography so Todd’s documentation of the Venus transit was one of the first made using photographs. On top of Mount Hamilton from what would become Lick Observatory (still under construction in 1882), Todd collected a series of photographs during the December 6 transit. Viewing conditions were ideal with no clouds and he collected 147 glass negative plates documenting most of the transit. The plates were carefully stored but soon forgotten as astronomers found better ways to view and document the transits. 

In 2002, two astronomers writing for Sky and Telescope magazine rediscovered the long forgotten plates, all of them intact and in good condition. They realized the sequence of photos could be made into the first “motion picture” of a Venus transit. The resulting “movie” documents one of the historic observations of a Venus transit. You can see the animation of the transit made using the 147 negatives here (warning – you need QuickTime and a fast internet connection). 

Did you know there was even a Transit of Venus March??  Yep.  There sure is – check this out!

Want to know and see more?

This link will take you to see a live feed of the Transit of Venus from Australia.  Check out this page for details – courtesy of NASA and Coca Cola (TM).  

To check out where to be in Australia and when – check out this timetable – courtesy of Transit of Venus website.  

Remember – A WORD OF CAUTION:  Never look directly at the Sun or you may cause serious and permanent damage to your eyesight. Damage can occur without any feeling that there is something wrong as there are no pain receptors in the retina and the damage may not become apparent for some time.

Courtesy of Wikipedia:

The safest way to watch a transit is to observe an image of the Sun projected onto a screen through a telescope, binoculars, pinhole or reflected pinhole. The event can be viewed without magnification using filters specifically designed for this purpose, such as an astronomical solar filter or eclipse viewing glasses coated with a vacuum-deposited layer of chromium. However, the disk of Venus is tiny compared to the sun and not much will be seen. The once-recommended method of using exposed black-and-white film as a filter is not now considered safe, as small imperfections or gaps in the film may permit harmful UV rays to pass through. 

So, why am I so excited to learn about the Transit of Venus? 

Well, any SciFi writer worth their salt would find this event fascinating, but I have a double reason to celebrate.  You see, STARFIRE, the second novel of the Warriors of the Elector Trilogy releases on the DAY of the Transit of Venus.  That doesn’t happen very often J as you will understand.

Happy Transit of Venus Day, everyone!

Imogene