lobelia321 | Feb. 23rd, 2008

I have just spent all morning in a bathrobe (not very Flyladyish at all), reading the first two chapters of a Harlequin Mills & Boon sheikh romance (purchased at a market stall for 50 pence; I've not yet sunk to the depths of paying the full price for one of these BUT otoh, I feel that it would be good to pay the full price thus giving the author royalties because I believe in supporting all living authors) -- and excuse me, why did the LiveJournal spelling tyrant just put a red wiggly line under the word sheikh??? OK, testing: sheik sheikh. Aha. LJ thinks that this word should be spelled 'sheik'. *guffaws*

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes: romance novels!

I do not read romance novels. Up until last year, I did not read genre novels of any stripe. I read 3 Mills&Boons back in the 1970s, as a high school girl (they hadn't yet merged with Harlequin), and then I read another one in the early 1990s, loaned to me by a then-friend and business woman at Berkeley because it was set in California. All I remember about the 1970s one was that the heroine at one point wore a purple knitted top-and-skirt outfit. I was haunted!!

(I only started reading genre in 2002, and my genre was exclusively the genre of fanfic.)

But I am ever in the quest of expanding my repertoire. So, after having put myself through a programme of reading thrillers last year, I came across a how-to-write-romance article in the wonderful Mslexia magazine, and thought: let's get that one under my belt.

Revelation!

There's a commonplace saying: fanfic is Mills & Boon romance with men. I've read this said on LJ and in published academic literature, and I've said it myself. I was ignorant: I have no knowledge of Mills&Boon! I have no way of knowing whether or not fanfic is like Mills&Boon!

But Loreth Anne White's A Sultan's Ransom (Sept. 2007) totally is! Like some types of fanfic. Suspiciously like some types of bad!fic but also suspiciously (omg) like my very own Desert Prince.