1. Isn’t It Romantic? Romance Readers’ Advisory for the Unsentimental By the Book: Genre and Gender A Readers’ Advisory Conference Albany Public Library November 14, 2006 Kaite Mediatore Stover

3. Heart Surgery  History of the Romance  Characteristics of a Romance  Reader Appeal  Subgenres  Reader Statistics

4. Love Across Time: A brief history of the Romance Novel  Jane & Darcy & the gang  Mills & Boon & Harlequin  Mother of the Bodice Ripper  A Romance for Every Reader

5. Dissecting the Heart: Characteristics of Romance  Two major elements  Love relationship  Happy ending  Characters  Story  Frame  Language

6. Boy Meets Girl: Characters  The hero  The heroine  Everyone else

7. (Love)Story  The relationship is everything  The plot is secondary

8. Pieces of Heart  Society  Meet Cute or Meet Hate  Road Blocks  Attraction  Declaration  Red Herring  Recognition  Commitment

9. Everybody Loves Somebody: Reader Appeal  No surprises  Linked series  Emotional satisfaction

10. Hearts in Pieces: Subgenres  Category romances (what’s the difference between all these books?!)  Single romances  Story types

11. Spicy Sweet

12. Fantasy

13. Romantic Comedy & Chick Lit

14. Erotic Romance

15. Paranormal

16. Looking (ahead) for Love  In which the heroine, a brainy vampira-detective must catch the museum art thief who only strikes during the day (when our heroine is sleeping), so she must bring in a partner, who is too cute and smart for his own good. She hates him. The hero is a psychic cop who recognizes instantly that the thief is the ghost of the murdered museum founder, a generations-old relation of the heroine. The ghost is stealing back our gal’s rightful inheritance, of which she is unaware, since she was abandoned as a child and has trust issues she must work out before finding true love and happiness and family with the hero.

17. Romance & what’s next

18. What does a Romance Reader Look Like? MWF, 25 in heart/38 in body, BA History, Kansas City native seeks Romance w/SM, 30-40, buff, brainy w/bank account. Some exp. w/heartbreak okay. Must love pets and children. NO COMMITMENT-PHOBES!

19. Love on Display  Wicked Love  Pure Glitz  Danger & Romance  Girls in Love  Guys in Love (but not with Girls)  Be Well Red  Hearts & Flowers

20. Web Romance Harlequin—writing guidelines http://www.eharlequin.com/ Romance Writers of America http://www.rwa.org/

21. Everybody Loves Somebody Come up with a list of typical words you think might be found in a Romance novel. You will need: 3 Adjectives 2 emotions 1 past tense verb 1 Woman’s name 1 Man’s name 1 article of woman’s clothing 1 article of men’s clothing 1 body part 1 descriptive body part (ex. big blue eyes) 1 sappy term of endearment

22. Sweet Nothings With a ________________ (adj.) heart, ___________________ (woman’s name) watched as ______________________ (man’s name) stepped closer to her. His ____________________ (descriptive body part) narrowed as he surveyed __________________ (repeat woman’s name) in her rain- drenched _________________ (woman’s article of clothing). _______________’s (repeat man’s name) strong tanned ___________ (body part) gripped ________________ (repeat woman’s name) bare ___________________ (descriptive body part). She shivered uncontrollably; her _______________ (descriptive body part) filled with ______________ (emotion) and _________________ (emotion). In a ____________ (adj) voice, ________________ (repeat man’s name) murmured, “We’d better get you out of those wet things, ___________________ (sappy term of endearment).” ________________ (repeat woman’s name) let out a _________ (adj) sigh, nodded imperceptibly, and _____________ (past tense verb), “I don’t have any other clothes; loan me your ______________ (men’s article of clothing).”

23. A happy ending is one worth reading!