The Journey From The Golden Puma

THE GOLDEN PUMA is a bit of an icon in the world of romance books. Published in the early 1980s, The man is ultra rich and ultra rude, the woman doesn't have a job and spends her time struggling with her healthy sexual urges. She feels so guilty about her sexuality, she secretly welcomes the forceful way in which the hero imposes himself on her. Today, it would be called Date Rape.

I was going to write a post about how far we've come since then, about the intelligent and funny romance books by Jenny Crusie... alas, somebody beat me to it. Their article is brilliant. Read it.

What happens when we read fiction

This is a cool article about what happens in our brain when we read fiction (click here). In a nutshell, we actually experience what we read (we smell the vanilla cookies, we feel the cold, we imagine we're running on the beach). Books are like computer simulations of real life:

Fiction, Dr. Oatley notes, “is a particularly useful simulation because negotiating the social world effectively is extremely tricky, requiring us to weigh up myriad interacting instances of cause and effect. Just as computer simulations can help us get to grips with complex problems such as flying a plane or forecasting the weather, so novels, stories and dramas can help us understand the complexities of social life.”

So, when you read a romantic novel, you learn to love better. And you get to experience the kisses. Right? :-)

Romantic Short Fiction - Chapter Short Story Competition

Just over a week left to send in your entries to the Chapter Short Story Competition. The entries have to be 1,500 words long and have romance at their core. Click here for more information.

This competition is sponsored by Chapter, a book café and tea shop located at 442 Mt Eden Rd in the Mt Eden Village, Auckland. It has the best loose-leaf tea, brownies and books in town!

Killers, the movie

What is it about chick flicks, even those over the top ones, that makes me smile? Is it the make-you-feel-good endings? The promise that true love conquers all? Or is it simply Ashton's naked torso in the hotel elevator in the so-so movie Killers?

Nothing quite as obvious... although I do confess I watched the elevator scene over and over again. What sold me on Killers was the super-realistic marriage dialogue. We should have more romantic movies like this one, to remind us that real couples do bicker.

What is romantic?

Dr. Libby Weaver poses a fascinating question in her latest bestseller, "The Rushing Woman's Syndrome". She asks what women think of as romantic. Chances are, many women would say it's romantic if the husband looks after the children so that the wife has an hour to herself, or if the husband takes out the garbage unasked.

Really? Babysitting and taking out the garbage romantic? Whatever happened to an impromptu holiday in Greece, red roses and little I LOVE YOU notes tucked into your coat pocket?

And so, sufficiently chastened, I've come up with my own list of romantic:

• French champagne
• bubble bath for two
• a luxury cruise
• a holiday in a resort
• reading a book out loud to one another in bed
• a morning cup of coffee shared on the terrace
• cocktails
• sleeping in the spoon position
• the guy really going out of his way to please you...
• and really listening to you...
• preferably somewhere on a magical island where there is no work and no chores.

E-Reader From Red Rose

You know how there are all those competitions online: win a book, a bottle of champagne, a trip to Hawaii? And you know how you always enter and hope and never win?

Well, you didn't win this one, either, I did. Still can't believe it. I never ever win things. I don't even buy Lotto tickets. And still, here I am, dancing on the ceiling because I won an e-reader from Red Rose Publishing. WOO-HOO!!!!!

What is it about romance novels?

"Romance novels are feminist documents. They're written almost exclusively by women, for women, and are concerned with women: their relations in family, love and marriage, their place in society and the world, and their dreams for the future." more