As the summer winds down, the October issue of RT has just shipped and it’s loaded with reviews of great books to anticipate for the fall. Bertrice Small is on a roll. Her erotic contemporary PASSIONATE PLEASURES, based on a women-only cable network that allows viewers to fulfill their sexual fantasies, received 4 stars in our August issue and in the new issue her Border Chronicles continues with THE BORDER VIXEN, which received a 4.5 Top Pick! Our senior historical romance reviewer Kathe Robin paid her the highest compliment saying, “Small is why I read historical romance.”
Joining the ranks of Top Pick recipients this month for historicals are: Elizabeth Boyle for MAD ABOUT THE DUKE, Celeste Bradley for SCOUNDREL IN MY DREAMS, Anne Stuart for BREATHLESS, Courtney Milan for TRIAL BY DESIRE, Liz Carlyle for ONE TOUCH OF SCANDAL and Brenda Joyce for THE PROMISE, the next installment in the beloved de Warenne Dynasty series.
Among the gems for other genres that received Top Picks for October releases are: BAYOU MOON by Ilona Andrews and THE IRON DUKE by Meljean Brook for paranormal; DOUBLE CROSS by Carolyn Crane, VENOM by Jennifer Estep and SIREN SONG by Cat Adams for urban fantasy; RAGING PULSE by Jennifer Schmidlin for romantic suspense; TROUBLED WATERS by Sharon Shinn, PASSION PLAY by Beth Bernobich and KILLBOX by Ann Aguirre for science fiction/fantasy; and BEHEMOTH by Scott Westerfeld for young adult. All of the books reviewed in the October issue are up on our website for subscribers to view. Just log in and click on “Current Reviews.” Non-subscribers can view all reviews up to the August 2010 books. September reviews will become available to non-subscribers on September 1.
In celebration of Halloween, we always have fun with the October issue and this month is no exception. For starters our cover story spotlights J.K. Beck’s paranormal Shadow Keepers series with back-to-back books starting in September with WHEN BLOOD CALLS followed by WHEN PLEASURE RULES and When Wicked Craves. Beck is the alter ego of bestselling author Julie Kenner, who began her career in 2000 with books published in series romance, romantic suspense and contemporary romance (even some chick lit) and today has found her niche in paranormals. The Shadow Keepers was supposed to be a trilogy but Bantam loved this series so much that they bought four more titles to be released in 2011.
Apropos to the Halloween theme for our feature we take you on a haunted house tour with tales from R.L. Stine, Peter Straub and several other scary authors, all of whom answered a variety of questions such as: which room in a house is the scariest and which book is your all-time favorite haunted-house story. Our art director Vicki Beerman did a spectacular job with the visuals, creating a haunted house graphic with fall colors.
Kensington Books’ two-page ad complements the haunted-house feature article nicely with a display of their new fall releases starting with Leslie Meier’s WICKED WITCH MURDER followed by a bevy of anthologies titled YOURS FOR ETERNITY, THE BEAST WITHIN, BELONG TO THE NIGHT, HIGHLAND BEAST and NOCTURNAL, headlined by Jacquelyn Frank and Kate Douglas. Two solo books also advertised in the spread are HOTTER THAN HELL by Jackie Kessler and LAST DRAGON STANDING by G.A. Aiken. All perfect for celebrating this Hallows Eve.
There are many genres where women have always reigned supreme but science fiction/fantasy has not been one of them — that is, until now! Science fiction expert and author extraordinaire Linnea Sinclair takes us through the evolution of this genre and why women are piloting the next generation of science fiction and fantasy fiction. We also spotlight some of the talented new authors at the helm of this trend as well as offer a quick quiz to determine which subgenre is right for you.
Our interview this month is with Elizabeth Boyle, who has the honored distinction of receiving 4.5 Top Picks for every book she has written (except one, which received 4 stars!) since her career began in 1997. That’s 16 Top Picks out of 17 books published! This month we asked Aussie author Anna Campbell (who is following in Boyle’s footsteps with all five of her books receiving 4.5 stars and four out of the five receiving a Top Pick), to interview Boyle, not realizing they not only were colleagues but also long-distance pals. The interview is fun, personal and very candid. So this month you get two great authors in one great interview!
In another fun article we spotlight a group of authors who are using music to write and sell their books. Among them are Simone Elkeles, Alyssa Day and Bobbi Smith. Smith tells the story of how acclaimed country music songwriter/singer Royal Wade Kimes offered to write a song for her October release, A COWBOY FOR CHRISTMAS, which he titled “Penny, I Love You.“ The song is available as a FREE download on Smith’s website. As for the book, recently Bobbi’s publisher, Dorchester, announced that it’s doing away with mass-market print books and will be only publishing in e-book format for books coming out through December. This includes Bobbi’s book, so to enjoy this great feel-good holiday read you can only purchase it online wherever e-books are sold. Fans who do not usually read e-books need not worry. You don’t need an e-reader device. You can download A COWBOY FOR CHRISTMAS to your computer and then print it out or read it on screen. The book will come out in October 2011 as a trade paperback.
Plans for the upcoming RT convention in Los Angeles (April 6-10) are changing daily and I already have updates since the magazine was printed.
Not sure how many of you are soap opera fans, but here in the RT office we have many! Since we are in LA, we are tapping into the Hollywood scene and we’ve came up with a group of soap stars for a fun panel we are calling TV Soaps: Secrets From the Inside. In this workshop you will hear firsthand stories from the sets from: Jacklyn Zeman (Bobbie Spencer on General Hospital), Eileen Davisdson, (The Young and the Restless and author of the Soap Opera Mystery series for Obsidian). Sheri Anderson, former head writer for Days of Our Lives, will also be there. Sheri is now writing novels for Sourcebooks based on original storylines from the show. Carolyn Hennesy (General Hospital) has also confirmed with us; she is now writing YA novels for Bloomsbury. All of the authors’ books will be available at the Saturday book fair. This is just one of the workshops planned for the Hollywood track.
The others are more specific to writers, including Screenwriting: Having Your Way With Words, presented by writer/director Coleman Hough, who wrote the screenplay for Full Frontal, directed by Steven Soderbergh. From Page to Screen: Script Consultants Give You the Goods, presented by Xandy Sussan, Merrel Davis and Mike Lee, moderated by Vivi Anna. TV Insiders Talk Turkey, a candid discussion with novelists and TV writers Robert Gregory Browne, Sheryl J. Anderson and Gregg Hurwitz; From Script to Novel, presented by Alexandra Sokoloff; The Reel World: Printed Page to Silver Screen, organized by Deidre Knight, president and senior agent of The Knight Agency, who has worked on the production team for the Emmy Award-winning drama, In the Heat of the Night, as well as on music videos for MTV Award-winning band, the B-52s. Her client YA author Marley Gibson, whose series, Ghost Huntress, has been optioned by Shoulderhill Entertainment, will join her; How to Tell a TV Story- — Lee Goldberg will explain the concept of "franchise" and how TV portrays conflict within the franchise. Goldberg has conducted this workshop for universities, broadcasters and production companies in the United States, Canada, Europe and China. He is the author of Successful Television Writing and Unsold Television Pilots and the novels My Gun Has Bullets, Beyond the Beyond and The Man with the Iron-On Badge.
And that’s just the Hollywood track! We have workshops covering 15 genres, as well as business, marketing, media, e-books, social networking and many craft and specialty workshops. We also have an extensive program for readers and booksellers.
This year we are having a “Graphic Novel Day” where Les Dabel of the Dabel Brothers is spearheading the workshops for the day. We have Dean Koontz coming as well as Gregg Hurwitz among the authors signing their graphic novels. Les is also bringing in acclaimed artist Brett Booth, who illustrated Dean Koontz's Frankenstein as well as Jim Butcher’s and Laurell K. Hamilton’s graphic novels and comics. Authors will be signing at the E-book, Indie Publisher and Graphic Novel Expo on Friday, April 8, from 4-6pm.
On Saturday, April 9, the day of our giant Book Fair, we have a special “Teen Day” with several dozen bestselling YA authors signing all of whom will participate on panels for teens on Saturday immediately following the Book Fair. Young adult authors already signed on (with more pending) are: Melissa Marr • Jennifer Lynn Barnes • Melissa de la Cruz • Kelley Armstrong • Holly Black • Cassandra Clare • Kami Garcia • Margaret Stohl • Alyson Noël • Sarah Rees Brennan • Ally Carter • Rachel Vincent • Michele Jaffe • Simone Elkeles • Jackie Kessler • Richelle Mead • Lauren Myracle • Clare B. Dunkle • Jeri Smith-Ready • Tucker Shaw. Keep checking our website, which we are updating daily. With all we have to offer this is quite the year for readers, booksellers, librarians and especially writers to attend the RT convention and take advantage of all the-new programs we are offering for breaking into new markets.
Now, if you can believe it, we are in the throes of the NOVEMBER issue! The next-to-last issue before our 2011 book coverage begins. 2010 is just flying by! Our cover story is on a clever Kensington anthology titled The Gingerbread Cookie Murder, penned by a talented trio: Leslie Meier, Joanne Fluke and Laura Levine. To complement the book we came up with a unique angle to cover it, which I won’t reveal but I will say it’s really cute and involves a concoction of our own murder.
Our main feature for November is one romance fans will love. It’s on famous fictional families. We are interviewing several authors like Linda Lael Miller and Brenda Jackson, whose beloved McKettricks and Westmorelands have been bringing us joy for many years. Can’t wait to read this one.
Another feature is on real-life authors starring as fictional sleuths in the golden age of mysteries, the 1930s. A fun article just in time for Bouchercon (in San Francisco) where the November issue of RT will be given out to all attendees.
Our interview is with Dennis Lehane, who is revisiting his beloved Kenzie and Gennaro series after a decade in his latest, Moonlight Mile. We’ll get the skinny on the book and what’s next for Angie and Patrick in the next issue.
For the moment the spotlight is off of the late great phenom Steig Larrson and his Girl With /Millennium trilogy because the closer for the much anticipated Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay, was just released. I’ve not read the books yet but I will soon, starting them in order with THE HUNGER GAMES, CATCHING FIRE and Mockingjay. The girls in the office were so excited about this books’ release they could hardly contain themselves. A few even went to the midnight book party held at the kiddie bookstore Books of Wonder in New York City to meet Suzanne Collins and, of course, be one of the first to get the book. If you haven’t yet read these books, be sure to pick them up before the movie is made — which will be sooner than you think.
Enjoy the rest of the summer because fall (and the holidays) are just around the corner.
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