Amish Romance

At first glance, I would have thought this was a satirical book cover from The Onion, what with its Hollywood-gorgeous model, the title almost looks like it's not real words and devoid of meaning, the empty claim of being a "New York Times Bestselling Author" — but, no, this is the real deal.   Amish romance novels are a thing, and a big thing at that. It goes to show that having a devoted and book-hungry subgenre will do an author good, and this genre wins because of its cross-genre appeal.  Both the Amish themselves and Evangelical Christians love the books for their strict adherence to morals and faith, with a healthy dollop of romance on top.  So, really, not much different than the "true romance" magazines from the fifties and sixties, which adhered to Hayes-code style punishment for transgressors and rewards for those true of heart, but set in an idealized world of bonnets and buggies — a callback to historical romances.  It's no wonder that Amish Romances, as a genre, have such appeal: they're cobbled together from some of the most successful aspects of romance fiction from the past fifty years.

Romance Writers of America

Romance novels are serious business, and the weekend before last was the 29th annual Romance Writers of America Conference. Largely attended by women aficionados of the genre, the event had meeting and seminars on how to be at the top of their game. The mainstream media covered the event somewhat, with a high-profile article in the Washington Post, a Nora Roberts interview by Scott Simon on NPR, and a short writeup in Publisher's Weekly. While it appears the attention is welcome, from a genre who is often a punchline, and there's some sour grapes over being treated like a joke by the media. The Post came across as stereotype-enhancing and an unfunny attempt as humor. The NPR story got his negative reaction on the air: Simon tried his hand at romance, but ended up sounding mockingly cheeky, and got called on it. I hope none of them saw The GeekDad's "ten reasons romance writers are geeky, too"; having their idiosyncrasies pointed out doesn't seem to please the romance author.

(Image found here)