Against All Odds

Tuesday is magazine day at our house. That's the day that both Newsweek and New York magazine arrive in the mailbox. When I was reading through Newsweek, I found an interesting article on the "dog-eat-dog" world of Christian bookselling . Apparently, the big box bookstores, Barnes and Noble, Borders, and Wal-Mart, have discovered that there is gold in them there Hills of Calvary, and the smaller Christian Booksellers Association stores have begun to fight dirty (well, as dirty as they can and still be a member of CBA) in order to prevent being run out of business. Now here's a familiar scenario, somebody fills a niche, the world realizes that said niche-filling generates revenue, larger, more lucrative businesses zoom in and start niche-filling as well, and soon Mom and Pop are out on the street (usually in front of the Trump building) with a "God Loves You" sign. Wow, that Adam Smith was one smart dude.

There's a Q&A on Eloisa James in New York magazine. I adore her books, the latest being, Much Ado About You, which is currently on the bookshelves. For those who don't know, Eloisa's disguises herself during the day as a mild-mannered Fordham university Shakespeare professor. This past month, she has "come out" to her colleagues in academia as, yes, a New York Times best-selling romance author. I'm know there's a wee bit of snobbery towards genre fiction in the intelligentsia, but being able to say, "Yes, I've hit the Times list, how bout you?"… well, there's a certain 'nanny-nanny-boo-boo' in that, don't you think? Romance gets so few moments like this, that each one much be treasured and then passed down to generations of romance novelists everywhere. It's an ancient ritual, the tribal elders gathering in July around their glasses of zowza juice, the smoke of one thousand Nora's filtering in the air. The stories are told to the young, who drink of the zowza juice, soaking up the archetype of the alpha male, their eager minds searching for the perfect euphemism for the mighty staff of man….

And in other news, sometimes you have to fly in the face of fate. My youngest has strep-throat, it's 8 degrees outside with a good chance of snow tonight, but dadgummit, we're heading off to Washington! If by any chance, there's an outbreak of strep that hits the Nation's capital, the President, members of Congress, the entire Supreme Court bench, uh, we're not responsible…..

My January contest if wrapping up shortly, so if you haven't signed up yet, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter. A random name will be drawn from my subscriber list and will receive an ARC of Diva's Guide to Selling Your Soul, and a fun hatbox full of stationery stuff.

Kathleen