Help wanted - links to romance blogs/online communities?

[jo_blogs]

I just might need to include a couple of examples in my thesis.

I have done some reading around in the past, but I'd really like a couple of up to date examples that romance readers/writers think are a) fun/inviting, b) useful and/or c) have a high level of interesting, quality discussion (most importantly about the books themselves, but also stuff for writers if it's that kind of site/community)

I'm interested in blogs/sites/communities discussing all kinds of romance (I know there's a massive range), including stuff that might overlap with other genres such as urban fantasy or historical. 

Comments

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Do they have to be strictly romance? There's a site that centers around Earth's Children, which doesn't have much if any romance in the first book but is mostly romance (and, tbh, NC-17 sex) the rest of the time. It's prehistoric fiction. http://ecfans.com/cgi-bin/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?

Some threads you might look at, which discuss the romance:

Jondalar as of LoPC (the most recent book, which pretty much everybody hated): http://ecfans.com/forums/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=000017 Incidentally, I'm Azaelia. *Waves* It's related to the male lead of the series, who technically cheated on Ayla, the female lead. While their culture doesn't have the same views on adultery, she had always made it clear she wanted it to be just them.

Is Ayla tooo Perfect? http://ecfans.com/cgi-bin/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002717 Not related to the romance, but Ayla is basically a Mary Sue - this thread discusses that. It may or may not be relevant to your overall thesis.

And I found an interesting comment here: http://ecfans.com/forums/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=003193;p=1#000001 "MH" is The Mammoth Hunters, where there was a love triangle.

Actually, it seems like for all romance and sex is emphasized in the series, the fans want less of it - which is ironic because in series with less romance and little or no sex, they want more. I think that fans really just wanted a focus on prehistoric fiction.

They also discuss a lot of other works, many of which are historical romance or just plain historical fiction: http://ecfans.com/cgi-bin/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=2

I hope I haven't bombarded you with links, and that they're somewhat useful!

[jo-blogs.livejournal.com]

Thanks Amy, these could well come in handy sometime!

I probably wasn't specific enough in my post - examples focused on specific fandoms are not quite what I need for this particular section. It's more examples of general review and discussion sites focused on different genres/imprints of romance novels, i.e. sites where romance readers (and writers) talk to each other about books they've enjoyed and maybe stuff like the writing process and getting published. But thanks anyway, I totally appreciate this and will file it away for future reference!

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

In order of my preference:

Dear Author
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
All About Romance.

[stmargarets.livejournal.com]

Ros has listed "the biggies" Dear Author, Smart Bitches and All About Romance. There's also Teach Me Tonight (for scholars) and Home Heroes and Heartbreakers (a blog space off a corporate website - I forget which one)

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

I think I saw recently somewhere that Teach me Tonight has/is going to stop soon.

[jo-blogs.livejournal.com]

Thank you both so much - this is perfect.

I hadn't come across Teach Me Tonight before - it's incredible!

[megan29.livejournal.com]

Joanna Bourne discusses writing on her blog. See the list of relevant posts here:

http://www.joannabourne.com/writers.html

She might also link to other writers' blogs.

[jo-blogs.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Megan!

She seems like a really cool person - I like her taste in TV!

I probably won't be putting in examples of individual author's sites because they're so pervasive - it seems it's virtually impossible not to 'do social media' if you're a commercial writer these days, but I really like hers because it's old school - nicely personal and not too polished.