Samhain Publishing

All right, I admit it. My children have turned me into an American Idol fangirl.

Not that I needed much encouragement. This year, David Cook had me at “Hello.”
Meanwhile, David A has his own rabidly faithful following, but for me, some of the best AI moments this year came from Jason. His “I was thinking BOB MARLEY!” was probably one of the funniest things I’ve seen on television, let alone AI.

So who was your favorite this year? And what were your favorite performances so far?

—Emma

http://emmawayneporter.com/blog/

Jessica Jarman and I were talking in IM the other day, and it turns out we share a bad habit: reading at the gym.

Now, the exercise part isn’t bad, and reading sure makes that hellish twenty minutes on the stationary bike go faster. But we both had to laugh that the only thing we’d remember about the books we’d read would be those twenty minutes of sheer hell.

After she and I finished talking, I started to take the idea of bad reading associations a bit more seriously. See, I don’t always read for fun. Sometimes it’s my job, and what would happen if my reading experience was wrecked by my open weeping when the fat burn cycle hit level seven?

I know it could happen. To this day, I’ll scramble to shut the radio off every time Phil Collins’s Take A Look At Me Now comes on. It was popular when my best friend died, and twenty-three years later, I still can’t bear to hear it.

So how about you? Are there things you won’t do while reading? Or are there books, songs or movies forever ruined for you by bad associations?

Emma
(who will be taking the indestructable Chronicles of Narnia to the gym next time)
EmmaWaynePorter.com
Emmatyville

It seemed the moment I’d closed the door behind the last of the trick-or-treaters, Santa Claus came knocking. I kid you not — About eleven p.m., October 31st, I saw my first holiday shopping commercial.

Now, normally I’d get indignant at the shamelessness of this practice, because it seems like instead of joy during the Holiday Season, all I feel is stress. And here were the Joneses already challenging me to keep up.

Luckily for them, I’d been doing some live research on aromatherapy at the time and, nicely mellowed by a jasmine candle, remembered vowing last year not to let the holidays drive me to Prozac.

Coping strategies. I needed coping strategies to extract some joy from “the most wonderful time of the year”. Of course, short of a modified beer helmet that would spray me with jasmine every ten seconds, things were looking pretty bleak.

So what are your strategies? Any tried-and-true methods to survive holiday stress?

Emma Wayne Porter.com

I’m here today to talk not of RT or RWA, but of MOC, SBR, CMI, ALAF, WBBA, RJFL, SASA, UDT, BBOA and many others.

Don’t recognize these conventions? Oh, but you do. I’ll bet six out of ten times you’ve read a romance, you’ve met up with one. And that may be a conservative estimate.

So what do all those letters mean? We’ll get to the good stuff in a moment. First I want to explain what I mean by convention. In every fiction genre, there are certain sets of conflicts and circumstances that have proven over time to be wildly popular with readers. The conventions I’m about to list have definitely done that. They’re not a complete list by any means, but enough for us to talk about.

Let’s take them one at a time.

MOC = Marriage of Convenience.

Who hasn’t read one of these? For whatever reason, two people who aren’t in love with one another agree to be married. But, of course, by the end, they fall in love.

SBR = Secret Baby Reunion.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, we’ve all read at least one. Two people conceive a child and, for whatever reason, the mother conceals it from the father. They are, of course, reunited in future, there’s a big scuff-up about the child, but all comes right in the end.

CMI = Cinderella/Mistaken Identity

An oldie, and a goodie. The story begins with the heroine subsisting in a deprived state, but is transformed into a beauty and, for a short time, is thrust into a handsome and powerful man’s presence (and heart). The heroine is always chased back into “the bad place”, but the hero will always come after his true love.

ALAF = Amnesiacs Lost And Found

There do seem to be a troubling amount of head injuries and memory-erasing traumas in the romance world. Very dangerous place. But we’ve all read these. Either the hero or heroine has lost their memory. Their growing love for each other is threatened by the return of the memory.

WBBA = Wrong Bed By Accident

Many an imprint has churned out series of these. Two strangers end up in bed together, and freak out in the morning. Then they spend the rest of the book trying to get back into bed with each other.

RJFL = Romeo and Juliet/Forbidden Love

Lots and lots of alternate reality and paranormals fall at least partially under this umbrella. The hero and heroine love each other at some great risk to themselves.

SASA = Secret Agent/Secret Agency

This is one of my ^{cough cough} personal favorites. In a literal sense, either hero or heroine is investigating the other and must not fall in love. In a broader sense, either the heroine or hero has a secret job, responsibility, or calling that threatens their love interest. Spiderman is a good example of the broader sense.

UDT = Ugly Duckling Transformation

Rather like Cinderella in a sense, except this particular transformer is known to their love interest before the transformation. Often, the crux of the conflict is whether the love interest could still be interested were the transformation to be reversed.

BBOA = Beauty and the Beast/Opposites Attract

This one has been replayed so many different ways in so many different guises, it’s often not recognizable as such. Two people who wouldn’t logically love one another do, and much struggling ensues before the happily ever after. Cowboy/Socialite. Pirate/Princess. Rogue/Damsel.

Okay. So there’s our list of conventions.

Any others you can name?
Which is/are your favorite(s)? Why is it your favorite?
Are there any you dislike, and why?

Let’s talk about this. Kill time before Harry gets here =)

Emma’s Homepage
Emmatyville Blog

It’s finally here! The Living Legend releases today from Samhain Publishing. If you’re looking for a romantic suspense read that’s a little more involved and packs some punch, then this is the book for you.

BLURB:

“Revenge is a dish best served bold…

Patrick “Trick” Mancini wants revenge. Not only has he learned that his boss, William Ormond, might be implicated in his mother’s death, he’s just found out Ormond has sent assassins after him.

After sixteen years stealing for the good guys, Trick is prepared to turn bad if that means he can keep ahead of the assassins long enough to uncover some long-buried secrets.

Kate Crawford, Ormond’s niece, wants a normal life—not that she knows what ‘normal’ would feel like. When Trick drags her into his pursuit of the truth he threatens the last few things she still cares about. Forced to help him, she’s determined there are some secrets he won’t discover, including the real reason she was compelled to break up with him ten years ago.

Now Trick and Kate are racing against time to find out what’s hidden in Ormond’s black files, fighting a passion that never went away…and trying to stay alive.”

Need excerpts?
You can find one here
And a second one here

Enjoy!
—Emma
Emma’s homepage
Emma’s blog