As I was updating my romance novel catalog this week, deleting books I have pruned and adding those I have added to keeper shelves or my TBR stack, I realized how frequently certain words appeared. I started wondering just how often these romance buzz words are used. To satisfy my curiosity, I could spend hours searching Books in Print, or I could turn my search into a game and ask for your help. The latter option sounded like much more fun.
So here’s the game. Below you will see listed a baker’s dozen of words that predictably appear in romance novel titles. You have all seen the words. List a title of a romance you have read that uses the word. Just to keep us all honest, we will include authors’ names as well. You may use a variant form of the word (for example, scandal/scandalous/scandalizing). The more titles, the merrier the game; but if you can think of only a few, share those. You don’t have to list thirteen.
The only rules are that the title must use one of the words from the list, and it must be a book you have read.
To make it more fun, a random poster will win a book with one of our list words in the title.
The List
1. Bride
2. Duke
3. Lover
4. Magic
5. Mistress
6. Night
7. Passion
8. Scandal
9. Secret
10. Seduction
11. Temptation
12. Wedding
13. Wicked
Please share your buzz-word titles, my friends. And if you have any thoughts on why these particular words are so popular, we would all love to hear those too.
Since we have a treat for you next Friday with the visit of Christine Merrill, Lisa Plumley, and Denise Lynn to share about their Hallowe’en Husbands release for the month of October, I thought I would share my own little trick or treat reading experience a week early. 
Whilst out and about this week, I happened upon a favourite read that I haven’t read in a while at, none other than, a thrift store. And although I have the book, I just had to buy it again to share with one lucky reader. The book: Katie MacAlister’s Hard Day’s Knight. Although this book was published 3 years ago, I must have read it about 10 times because it makes me laugh so much. Oddly enough, it has been one of the hysterical books that make up my DIK pile that has languished in my many boxes of books over the last year, unread. (No, I still have not unpacked most of my boxes of books.)
Pepper Marsh is this unemployed software engineer cajoled into 1) cat-sitting the cat from hell for her aunt for 2 weeks, and 2) attending a Renaissance Faire with her cousin (the daughter of said aunt, who incidentally refuses to lay claim to the tent-eating cat) as a Wench. Naturally, the enticement is the opportunity to drool over dishy men in suits of armour and perhaps pick up a knight of her very own.
Of course, being the sometimes clumsy heroine we know and love, Pepper meets the man of her dreams when he rescues her from being trampled by a hideous, hulking beast–i.e. a horse. 
What ensues is a mad dash across the jousting field with Pepper falling deep in love with Walker and vice versa, Moth, the cat-garbage disposal falling even more deeply in love with Walker, and enough danger to make a spicy, funny story a hit from start to finish. KM takes us into a fantastical world that is an odd blending of the contemporary with the historical. Whether you prefer historicals or contemps, this book fits the bill! Hard Day’s Knight is every bit the funny, sexy, witty story for which Katie MacAlister has made herself known and is still a pleasure to re-discover 3 years after it’s first release.
If you haven’t read it, go find it immediately. If you have, dust off the spine and prepare for a weekend of fun re-reading. I think I am just going to have to dust off my copy of The Corset Diaries (my first KM read—and favourite all-time of her books!) after all the fun I’ve had with Hard Day’s Knight this week.
And, as a parting volley, my final 2 treats for you, dear readers are:
1) Probably the most disturbing thing I’ve done to the dog of late…I present to you Leesha the Ladybug:
Three guesses as to whom she hated the day we tried on that costume! LOL!
2) One lucky commenter will receive the extra copy of Hard Day’s Knight that I just acquired. Seriously, it’s in great condition for a book I picked up used! 
So, my Friday question for you, dear readers, is what favourite reads have you rediscovered lately? Any recommendations?
And don’t forget to tune in NEXT FRIDAY when we treat you to a Halloween visit with Christine Merrill, Lisa Plumley, and Denise Lynn!
It’s Friday and I’m on fall break from school (4-day weekend) and to celebrate this period of fun and frivolity (okay, well as frivolous as I can get with homework assignments to grade for my students by Monday ), I thought I’d post a little Friday funny.
Plus, this made me laugh so hard because I actually have done the first one to my own dog…
So, dear Vagabondettes, any Friday Funnies you want to share?
Alrighty, folks. Here it is, the wrap-up to the RWA photo essay. As we say in French, attachez vos ceintures de securité because this is going to be a fast ride!
Awards, awards, awards! One of the things I love most about RWA is the awards luncheon—no, not just the RITAs, which are delightfully fun, but the luncheon on Friday afternoon where contributors to the genre are recognized. Of course, as a public speaking teacher, it also gives me the opportunity to delight in hearing yet another public speaker. Connie Brockway delighted us all with her tales of the super-hero(ine)’s journey, reminding us that we all are at some stage in the process of our own journey. And no matter what may happen, even when we are certain that we want to refuse the
call, that we always will emerge from the process as a super-heroine. Even if you find yourself a f
eather-duster wielding super-heroine, while you deftly maneouver your family into allowing you a few extra hours working on your manuscript while keeping them at bay with said feather duster.
Hey! Who among us hasn’t had to fend off the forces of darkness, or at the very least distraction, at some point during our writing careers?
Friday afternoon saw many of us queued up to get books signed by our favourite authors. 
As we held our places in line in anticipation of being crammed into a tiny room with hundreds of other crazy fangirls like ourselves, we took a moment to chat and plum through out schedules for the days.
Stephanie Janulis and 
Mary Danielson hung out with us in line as we worked our way toward the front. It was a total blast to get to spend some time with fellow Texans and find out where their writing projects are taking them. Ironically, Steph and I have lived in the same city (except for my absences to the interesting state of Abq) for over 2 years and we finally meet in San Fran! Geez! Those crazy Texans! You just can’t expect us to do anything in a normal fashion.
Naturally, Manda was there to provide the sole source of conscientious effort to our crazy group. She appears here to be thoughtful and pensive, perhaps giving thought to the schedule for workshops and planning which one’s she might be attending next. Awwww…who are we kidding? We all know that she was just wiling away the time daydreaming about Jeremy Northam…but hey, who am I to judge? As long as she leaves my darling Richard Armitage alone, we can be the best of friends and go out on stalking missions together…
Well, Saturday dawn bright and well, not quite so early for some of us. Some went to editor/agent appointments. Some socialized over coffee and tea with friends. Still others got up early to queue up for booksignings. And others (Élodie) slept till 9:00. What a wuss. Who’d have thought she would wimp out on the last day of conference??
But many, many, many of us gathered for a lovely little luncheon at California Pizza Kitchen to celebrate seeing all the EJ/JQ bulletin board friends in one place again. And quite a numerous and somewhat noisy group we were! Here is a table shot of the group from one end. We took up the entire couple of tables stretched out. It was like a family reunion!
Manda and I had the distinct pleasure of eating lunch at our end of the table with past VV Laura Lee Guhrke. Julia Quinn came over and chatted with us for a few minutes and posed for a pic. It was a great respite from the hectic pace of conference to sit and have a bite to each and chat with other authors. 
Of course…we spent most of the lunch laughing and chatting about our conference experience, so maybe we didn’t get too far away from conference after all…Of course, another sure-fire sign we hadn’t escaped the land of conference might be the bright blue nametags we all sported lovingly in our photos!
Lindsey, Sara, Tessa, and Amy (behind them) all posed at the opposite end of our long table for a quick photo of BB and FanLit friends. It was fabulous to see just how many had become friends through so many different forums and still come back together within one group.
Our beloved mother (and sometimes mischief encourager), Kim, poses here between LLG and brilliant research assistant to the stars, Francesca Drouin at lunch on Saturday. Kim was such a bright spot and a point of encouragement for all throughout the conference. Not to mention a major whirlwind! I’ve never seen somebody go 90 miles an hour from 7 am to midnight like she did during that week! Go Kim!
Lunch also included other other familiar guest authors to both the RV site and the bulletin board. Here, Cynthia smiles pretty for the camera between San Francisco native Candice Hern and the delightfully sassy Sabrina Jeffries. It was a real treat getting to sit with these ladies and chat with them about everything from sharing the romance novels with fellow church attenders to entertaining little anecdotes from the conference experiences.
J Perry and Mary also were in attendance, showing off their pearly whites for the camera—
spinach pizza-free, of course.
And of course, no lunch would be complete without a little shout out to Santa—no, not that Santa, the other one! You know the one that’s going to be such a famous author one day soon that we’ll be lining up to get her to sign our books and begging for ARCs (natch). Santa mugs for the camera with Elizabeth Hoyt.
The perfect way to close out the perfect day and the perfect conference naturally arrived with the RITAs. Ah, the RITAs…where women get glammed up in their finest to cheer on the cream of the crop in recognition of excellence in crafting a story. It’s also darned funny to watch some of the videos and hear the jokes cracked by the emcee. Suzanne Brockmann was a delightful emcee for the evening deftly maneouvering humour in her announcements of the categories and special awards presented. Plus, it was pretty darned funny watching the video of her bringing Rita to the awards ceremony!
It was a sheer delight to see Julia Quinn receive, once again, the RITA for Regency Historical for Secret Diaries. 
She accepted the award with all the grace and poise that makes her such a pleasure to meet in person as well as read in her novels. Sara Lindsey and I even managed to cadge a photo op with her grasping her 2nd RITA after the ceremony. She was so excited about the honour that you could see it radiating off her. What a treat to have the opportunity to see her win the RITA two years in a row! We’ll be rooting for you again next year, Julia! 
Congratulations Julia! You deserve this high honour and we know that these 2 RITAs are just the beginning of a fabulously large collection!
One of the greater personal treats for the night was having the opportunity to see 
Vicki Lewis Thompson receive the Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award. And not just because of my own gibbering fangirl worship of such a fabulous writer. She was simply delightful in her acceptance of the award and it was wonderful to see the recognition of the wide range of work she has published.
And, of course, if you can even imagine it, I managed to make my way over to her through the throngs of congratulatory offers and offer up my own greetings and exclamations of delight over her award. And I managed to do it all with out using the words “nerd” and “awesome” in a Wayne’s World kind of way. 
I guess those communication courses really had come in handy by the time we reached the end of the week. There’s nothing like the sense of accomplishment in being able to string together two words in a coherent sentence!
She very graciously hugged me and thanked me for the congrats and then (very important) took a picture with me in her gorgeous gown while clutching her RITA. Isn’t she the most fabulous thing?
HA! I got to be photographed with 2 amazing authors and their RITAs and I didn’t even have to do a dive down a San Francisco hill in a speeding Volkswagon to have the photo opportunity with one.
Of course, a lot of the fun about the RITA evening is getting to show off your gorgeous gowns while mixing and mingling and having a chat with your favourite authors and friends. Here, Lindsey smiles with Diana Holquist. Lindsey and Diana did a fabulous workshop on Thursday about the process of putting together a promotional video for your book. 
Another fabulous author with whom Lindsey did an enormous amount of work video-wise, Toni Blake poses with her in the infamous gown “bought the day after the RITA nominations were announced.”
It was like a FanLit reunion for many of us at the RITAs, too. We gathered in a group to have a photo taken of us all glammed up for the party.
And as always, it was an absolute delight to chat with Kathryn Caskie about her upcoming release and make comparison notes on glam dresses for the ceremony. Naturally, this prompted a call for a photo opportunity in our awards ceremony finery. Isn’t that blue dress absolutely gorgeous? Great buy, KC!
A couple of last shouts have to go out to fellow Richard Armitage stalker, Anna Campbell. Ah, Anna, if they gave out an award for that, I bet we would be at the top of our game. It’s only fitting to have a true fanclub of 2 shot taken after the ceremony.
And Jenna Petersen and I could not resist the opportunity to take a photo (finally) after all the stalking of each other our group did during the last week. *gasp* Proof that the Vagabonds and JP spent the better part of the week chasing each other around. Hopefully we found out that we were interesting enough to follow around.
Well, that’s all for the photo innundation for this year’s RWA wrap-up. If you would like to see any other images from San Francisco and any glam shots that didn’t make it into this extraordinarily long blog, check out my Facebook and MySpace pages. I’ll be posting up all my San Fran images soon. And definitely without a doubt, share your own images. We’d love to hear about your fun experiences with the RITAs.
So, the posed conversation question for the day is what was the highlight of the RITAs for you, if you attended? And if not, have you ever been to an awards ceremony where you had to get all glammed up for the evening? What was your favourite part of it?
Santa, I think we’re gonna need a bigger SQUEEEE!!!! cake… This has been a banner week, and we’re seriously celebrating!
First, our fabulous FanLit/Vano pal, Courtney Milan, has sold her first book, PROOF BY SEDUCTION to HQN (at auction, no less!) in a two book deal. SQUEEEE!!! AND she has adopted the cutest puppy in the entire world. SQUEEEE!!! Congrats, CM, on your doubly exciting week.
And in other double-success news, Vagabond Manda has finaled in both the NJ Put Your Heart in a Book Contest AND Toronto’s Golden Opportunity Contest. Way to go, Manda! SQUEEE!!! SQUEEEE!!! for you! And a clown trumpet salute for good measure: 
But squeees don’t always come in twos – sometimes they come in sixes. Because we’re giving away prizes to six commenters from Monday’s RWA report post. Congrats to our randomly drawn winners: Maggie Robinson, Teresa W, Jane, Cherie J, Amy S, and Di R – email Lindsey for your pick of the conference book booty! SQUEEE!!! for free books and supportive gypsy friends. Thanks to everyone who stopped by this week to comment on our RWA report and pics.
Janga’s blog yesterday, among other things, has gotten me to thinking about the ways in which we play with words. Around my neck of the woods, puns are an everyday occurrence. We even held an informal “Miss Dictionary” contest last summer amongst the 6 of us (my acquired family and the PKs), wherein we came up with a wide array of “definitions” for “mis-” characters. Of course, those characters had to be legitimate words (or at least sound reasonably like a real word) from the dictionary. Among some of the (more disturbed) definitions we “created” were:
Woman lawyer who has trouble with the truth.
-Miss Construe
Part-time translator for the American Embassy.
-Miss Interpret
Woman who likes to make up her own “dances”.
-Miss Interpretation
Headmistress of an all-girls school who owns a private yacht and jet.
-Miss Appropriate
Girl who’s been on one too many interviews.
-Miss Apply
Woman traffic cop who tells you where you can go.
-Miss Direct
Woman from Transylvania who’s bad with numbers.
-Miss Count
Female librarian without a clue.
-Miss Story
Elementary school teacher.
-Miss Education
Woman mechanic working in a body shop.
-Miss Estimate
Woman who thinks blondes are smart.
-Miss Estimation
Girl math student who thought she could get an A by flirting with her teacher. (He’s gay.)
-Miss Calculate
Girl choir member who sings off pitch.
-Miss Vocalization
Woman who has made a career working as a secretary.
-Miss Administration
Woman doctor
-Miss Diagnose
Yes, I know we are rather disturbed. And many of those are from a former boss of mine when he got into playing the game with us. But, I love the idea of playing with words. Incidentally, the favourite among our definitions in the Miss Dictionary contest was and still is Miss Conception. I leave you to figure out what definition we created for that one…
The “among other things” of which I spoke earlier includes my current read, Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next books. I love them. I love catching all the sly literary remarks and the tongue-in-cheek naming of characters. I laugh out loud when I read the name a new one. Naturally, my favourite namings include Jack Schitt and Thursday Next, herself. But, I swear I about keeled over with laughter when I read the names of two agents working together, Phodder and Kannon.
The other ongoing event in my business life is the conversion of tapes of our local Dallas Press Club’s Gridiron shows to DVD. In Dallas we have an organization that puts on a variety show typically every summer called the Gridiron and in it, all the local press people spoof and make fun of the past year’s news events. Typically, there is a theme to it, but there’s always a lot of “messing around” with the lyrics of popular songs. I love it.
There’s something about seeing how writers can take a simple phrase or word and add a zing to it that sometimes catches audience members unawares. Maybe it is because the more I read, the more I wonder at my own adeptness when playing with words. Maybe it is because the more I read, the more adept I become at playing with words and seeing those plays on words in other references.
I remember being in the 8th grade and being assigned by our Honors English teacher to apply all the prepositions we were learning to a song and having to sing it before the class. I know that her intention was to give us a memorization technique, but I didn’t have problems with memorization and was way too shy to sing before the class (clearly, I have cast off my childish ways). Obviously, I laboured under the misapprehension that the assignment was stupid.
In retrospect, it still might have been a bit of a stupid assignment, but I can see the fun in playing with words, the thrill of manipulating a phrase or song to apply different lyrics to it. I have a friend who, when we were in high school and went on a roughing-it campout—no really, roughing-it, not my idea of roughing-it now (Holiday Inn Express, no blowdryer)—and she sang Peeing on the Dirt to the tune of Singing in the Rain. I can assure you there is little else that will do as much damage to your bladder as trying to “hold it” and not laugh while your best friend sings Peeing on the Dirt and you’re next in line to, uh, dig a hole. But I loved it. Mostly, because my best friend was as weird as they come (seriously, who else would have done Star Trek role play with me, but a weirdo??), but also because she was creative as heck! She was the reason I began keeping a quote book and she furthered my mind in the areas of making up the strangest puns, uses of words, and twisting of phrases. Yes, she even helped in my education of manipulating songs.
I’m still not adept enough to take apart a song, like dear Hellion, but I have been known to wing off a really lame pun in my time, sometimes much to the consternation of my dinner companions. But then, I love playing with words.
Incidentally, we still resume the Miss Dictionary contest from time to time just to disturb those in restaurants sitting near us…
So, dear reader, what of you? Do you find playing with words fun? Easy? Hard as hell? What was the most entertaining read (or listen) you’ve had where someone played ball with traditionally-accepted words? Any entries for the Miss Dictionary contest to offer?
We haven’t had a word game in a while, so I thought it was time to indulge the verbivores again. Today’s game is anagrams: a game in which words are formed by rearranging the letters of other words.
Anagrams have an ancient and honorable history. Historians tell us that anagrams originated in the 3rd century B.C. with the Greek poet Lycophron or with Pythagoras, in the 6th century B.C., who used anagrams to discover philosophical meanings. Plato and his followers believed that anagrams revealed divinity and destiny. By early Christian times, anagrams were often believed to have mystical or prophetic meaning. Later, scientists such as Galileo and Robert Hooke recorded their results in anagram form to prevent anyone stealing their ideas. In the 19th century, Lewis Carroll gave us famous anagrams such as: Florence Nightingale= Flit on, cheering angel. After a period of diminished popularity, the Internet and sophisticated anagram-generating software have made the game a favorite again.
The anagrams below are formed from the titles of beloved romance novels. They are in no particular order and are linked to one another only by genre and by their appearance on my personal list of 100 All-time Favorite Romance Novels.
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Confused Rod Rolls
-
Fresher Forms Molt Two
-
Hid Veils
-
A Hugged Lily Snorts
-
Take Her
-
Beg Itch Win
-
A Fearless Purple Roue
-
Head Duet Kin
-
Atlas Felt Thrills
-
Placate Locale Ohm
-
Death Obit You
-
Pa Sets We
-
Innate Hiding Mirth
-
Yearned Meets My
-
Cropper Set Test
Have fun trying your hand at unscrambling the titles. The randomizer will select one poster from those who post before 10:00 p. m. (EST) this evening to receive a free book. Check back late this evening for the answers.
Susan and Bev, you have won the free copies of Kimberly Killion’s Her One Desire! Please email manda with your contact info so Kimberly can send them out! Woohoo!
Over here in the Colonies, we are celebrating the anniversary of our nation’s independence.
The Vagabonds want to wish a Happy Independence Day to all our fellow Americans and a happy Friday to one and all! No reason we all can’t celebrate the day—margarita-style.
Élodie’s breaking out the homemade potato salad; Lindsey’s bringin’ the margaritas; Manda’s got the grill covered; and Janga’s bringing the grands—because the holiday’s more fun with the kiddos to join in the festivities.
Stop in throughout the day and share your own plans for festivities.
HAPPY JULY 4TH!!!
Élodie, Janga, Lindsey, and Manda
A vice may be an evil, immoral, or wicked habit, or it may, less seriously, be a flaw, a blemish, or an imperfection. A verbal vice is a flaw in the use of language; whether the flaw is a wicked practice or merely an imperfection depends upon point of view. George Orwell certainly viewed such flaws as consequential, and most of my teachers through the years have agreed with him.
I think all writers have verbal vices, although it may take a teacher or an honest CP to make us aware of them. My dissertation director once told me bluntly that I overused the dash and refused, quite unfairly I thought, to accept my defense that it was all Emily Dickinson’s fault. Some of you may have noticed in my blogs and comments that I retain an affection for the dash, or no.
But my greatest verbal vice is inflated diction. I confess to a life-long love affair with multi-syllabic words. I love the way they roll off the tongue all pride and importance. I love the way they look on the page in their splendid opacity. I know my goal as a writer should be transparent language and clarity of expression, but my attachment to words like erudite and Brobdingnagian and delenda is deeply engrained. To remind myself of how foolish such an attachment can become, I sometimes pull out the following inflated proverbs from my high school teaching days. The first is from George Orwell’s essay Politics and the English Language; the last one is my contribution. The others are from an unknown source. (I know some of these are posted on various sites. But I have had a copy in my files since 1978, so I know they are not the property of the posters.)
1. Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.
2. An ave reposing in the digital flanges is of greater monetary value than a duet in the shrubbery.
3. A mobile section of petrified matter agglomerates no bryophytes.
4. Desist from enumerating your fowl prior to their emergence from the shell.
5. Scintillation is not always identification for an auric substance.
6. A plethora of culinary specialists has a deleterious effect upon the quality of purees, consumes, and other soluble pabula.
7. A chronic disposition of inquiry deprived the domestic feline carnivorous quadruped of vital quality.
8. It is in the realm of possibility to entice an equine member of the animal kingdom to a source of oxidized hydrogen; however, it is not possible to force him to imbibe.
9. Persons deficient in the faculty of determining values move with impetuosity into places which purely spiritual beings view with some trepidation.
10. If John persists without respite on a constant prolonged exertion of physical or intellectual effort, he will develop into a youth slow and blunted to perception and sensibility.
11. Immediately upon the absence of the domesticated carnivorous feline, the common rodent proceeds to engage in sportive capers.
12. Unselfish concern for the well being of others has its genesis in the personal domicile of the individual.
13. Cautiously survey the perspective prior to going forward precipitously.
14. Aberration is the hallmark of Homo sapiens while longanimous placability and condonation are the indicia of supramundane omniscience.
15. Consumption for nutriment of the round fruit of any of various wild or cultivated trees of the genus Malus regularly during the time occupied by the earth in one revolution on its axis causes the medical practitioner to remain absent or afar.
What are your verbal vices? Do you notice the verbal vices of your favorite writers, or do you think they are free of them? Finally, how many of the inflated proverbs can you translate into simple English? (I will post the answers this evening.)
