The theme for the month is Historical Fiction (Non-American because we covered that genre during the month of July and you can read more about it here). I have to admit this is one of my favorite genres to read and I have devoured numerous novels set in all kinds of historical settings.  Of course, when I think of Historical novels I immediately think of Pride and Prejudice but this genre covers so much more.

One of my favorite authors of all time is Georgette Heyer, credited with inventing the Regency Romance genre her books are still in publication almost a hundred years after their first publication (you can read more about Georgette Heyer here).  There is something about being swept away to different time and place that is so fascinating. (And what is more dashing than a Duke or Lord rushing to the rescue of a lady?!)   Why else would Regency period novels still remain NYT bestsellers if we didn’t love them. Contemporary authors who continue to take us to this great time period are Julia Quinn, Eloisa James and Lisa Kleypas.

But the Historical genre covers such a broader time frame. Lynn Kurland writes about medieval Scotland and England in her DiPaget series.  Later this month author Krista Ball will be stopping by to talk about her First Nations novel set in the Canada. The Books-to-Movie challenge this month is The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde, a play set in the late Victorian England.

While in my teenage years I devoured Barbara Cartland’s romance novels, all set in historical England, considered the “Queen of Romance” you can read more about her here. In addition to the Cartland novels I enjoyed the Zebra Regency Romance novels and Signet Regency Romance novels, many of the novels I enjoyed are now available in ebook format through Regency Reads who will be stopping by this month to talk about their site.

Next month we will be looking at Paranormal/Urban Fantasy Genre with a hint this month of what is to come with a guest post by author Kiki Howell.

A Forged Letter, A Golden Vial, An Ancient
Curse…

Her expression remained somber, but
excitement crept into her voice. You are the Firstborn She…You must go to
them. You want me to act as bait? Not bait, Emi. A spy. Our Trojan
horse. When Emi Warrin wakes one
night to find a thief in her mother’s house, she has no idea the intruder
has planted a trap – a mysterious letter that will change her life forever.
Lured to the Austrian Alps with Daniel, the man she loves, Emi is thrown
into a perilous, mafia-like world of feuding families and a devastating
curse that spans generations. As the Firstborn She – the only firstborn
female in hundreds of years – only Emi can free her family from the curse
that will soon afflict her as well. But for Emi to break the curse, she
must delve into evil designs. As
Emi struggles to understand her destiny as the Firstborn She, she learns
that everything isn’t as it seems and that all choices have consequences.
Can Emi break the curse before it’s too late?

I am a little behind in posting this but the 2010 RITA Award Winners have been posted here. What is RITA some of you ask? Well, it is a contest to promote excellence in the romance genre by recognizing outstanding published novels and novellas.

Jaimey Grant, author of Heartless, has released a new short story in an young adult anthology with eight other authors that is available for free download here.

I am super excited for the next Elizabeth Boyle Standon Widows series. The new cover for Mad About the Duke looks delicious.

Interviews:

Jane Porter, author of She’s Gone Country, at Borders True Romance.

Joanna Bourne, author of The Spymaster’s Lady, at Romantic Crush Junkies.

Contests:

A Girls Reads a Book is giving away Echoes by Melinda Metz, contest ends August 20th.

Unusual Historicals is giving away The Secret of Glass by Donna Russo Morin, contest ends August 22nd.

The Season For Romance is giving away a different prize each day this week in celebration of their One Year Anniversary. Congrats!

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books is giving away a Sony eReader in celebration of the release of Eat, Pray, Love but hurry as the contest only last 48 hours.

________

Carina Press has gone audible, you can now here a selection of their great books at Audible.com.\

Julia Quinn was inducted into the Romance Writer’s of America’s Hall of Fame, to qualify an author must win 3 RWAs in the same category. Julia won in 2007 for On the Way to the Wedding, 2008 for The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever and 2010 for What Happens in London.  Congrats to Julia!

If you are like me you sometimes have a hard time keeping all your books organized and remembering which ones you own. Jane at Dear Author has posted a great breakdown of which book cataloging apps are best for the Droid phone.

As I am sure all of you are aware , I spent last weekend participating in the Book Bloggers & Authors Online Conference. Not only did I attend I had the opportunity to be a moderator (that is a fancy term for I spoke with some of my favorite bloggers). I thought I would share with you some of what I learned; realize that I learned so much more than I could possibly share here.

Be Brave! I know I said on the last conference that the only thing holding me back is me, once again I was reminded that I need to be brave. There are so many great bloggers out there doing so many great things that I need not be afraid to try new things and not be afraid to ask people to do things with me.  What is the worst that will happen, they will tell me “no”? I always come away with some blog envy and inspiration to be bigger and better.

Networking is Important. I need to network with other bloggers, authors, and publishers. I met some great authors and bloggers at the conference, some I reconnected with from the last conference (hey Jojo!).  But I realized that with all these great bloggers that I connected with, most of them are paranormal/urban fantasy bloggers and my site is mostly focused on Historical Romance and YA novels. I need to start making connections with other bloggers in my focus genre while maintaining the great connections I have already made.

Connecting with Readers. The entire reason I started this site was to help other people find books that they love and to talk about books.  In order to actually have discussions about what I love I need to make an effort to respond to my reader’s comments, to get reader feedback on what I am doing, and connect with other bloggers by leaving meaningful comments on their sites. How can I expect others to comment on my site when I don’t comment and engage on their sites? This is not be used as a shameless promotion for my site but to talk to other readers about what they are reading.

Critique of NovelReaction.com. I swallowed my fear and posted my site for comments from others in the industry. They were very kind (kinder than they should have been) but they gave me some great suggestions so expect NovelReaction.com to get a little bit of a face-lift in the near future.

If you missed the conference this time you are not too late.  You can still pay the fee and access all the recorded panels and listen for yourself for the rest of this month.  It is well worth the money in my opinion! The tips on getting my blog postings rated higher in Google are in and of themselves incredible and worth the money, not to mention the many other great tips and advice I obtained from the conference.