Romance Blog Archives
Romance Blog posts insightful comments on the latest international news that render us taken-aback in the domain of the romance facet of life. Romance Blog: Romance-Books News 1 Alice Borchardt, who wrote historical romance novels in a second career after nursing, has died at 67: August 3, 2007 by Mary Rourke
Alice Borchardt, who began a second career writing historical romance novels after she worked as a nurse for many years, has died. She was 67. Borchardt, the older sister of novelist Anne Rice, died July 24 at her home in Houston. The cause was cancer, her husband, Clifford, said Thursday. "Alice loved to write," Anne Rice said in a statement to The Times. "She had a natural ear for beautiful language and was a natural storyteller." Borchardt was in her mid-50s when the first of her seven novels was published. Her name is perhaps best known for her trilogy about werewolves in medieval Rome. In "The Silver Wolf," "Night of the Wolf" and "The Wolf King," the orphaned Regeane and the gladiator Maeniel both are part werewolf and part human. They contend with bullying chieftains, embattled emperors and supernatural interventions. The last book in the series was published in 2001. Romance Blog: Romance Books News 1 (Continued) Many reviews compared Borchardt with Rice. "She shares with her sister an ability to make a historical era come to life and a knack for placing sympathetic supernatural characters in them," wrote a critic for the Free Press of Ontario, Canada, in 1998. Earlier in her literary career, Borchardt wrote more conventional historical romances. Her first novel, "Devoted" (1995), and its sequel, "Beguiled" (1997), are set in medieval France, where Owen, a powerful bishop, and Elin, a sorceress raised by Forest People, struggle to escape marauding Vikings. "Devoted" belongs in the "heaving bosom, swollen manhood" tradition, wrote a reviewer for Booklist. The story is at its best in the "gut-roiling battle scenes," according to Publishers Weekly in 1995. "Beguiled" got similar reviews. Borchardt was born Alice O'Brien in New Orleans on Oct. 6, 1939. She was one of five sisters. Her father, Howard, a postal worker, helped her apply for her first library card at age 7. "It was the best gift I ever received," Borchardt said in a 1999 interview with the Austin American-Statesman. Romance Blog: Romance Books News 1 (Continued) Her mother, Katherine, was a feminist who taught Alice to pursue her career goals. The O'Brien family moved to Richardson, Texas, when Alice was a teenager. She began her nursing career in Houston, where she met and married her husband. In addition to her husband and Rice, who lives in Rancho Mirage, Borchardt is survived by sisters Tamara Tinker of Daly City, Calif., Karen O'Brien and Micki Jenkins of Dallas. She is also survived by two nephews, Christopher T. Rice of Los Angeles and Daniel Tinker of Oakland. Romance Blog: Romance Books News 1 (Continued) After a 30-year career as a licensed vocational nurse, Borchardt faced staff reductions at the hospital where she worked. "I prayed about it," she said in 1999. "The next day the idea for a short story came to me. A door opened, and I walked through it." Rice encouraged Borchardt, helped her find an agent and wrote introductions to several of her books. "We want to be the Bronte sisters," Rice said in a 1995 interview with the Houston Chronicle, referring to the sisters who wrote the gothic novels "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights." "We want to go down in history." Romance Blog: Romance Books News 2 Love affair with romance novels: August 18, 2007 by JAMIE REID  In a real world where good men die at war, innocent children suffer from abuse, and strong women lose love, 69-year-old Lloyd Hebert looks to the equitable world of romance novels for escape. "They are how you would like the world to be," said Hebert of Nederland. "The real world upsets me. Why would I read about theft and child abuse when it happens in real life?" Hebert, a retired Lamar University accounting clerk, has been reading romance novels about 50 years and now averages two a week. She keeps the paperbacks handy near her bed, in the car and at the family lake house. "I love the characters," she said mentioning the "plain Janes" who discover their worth during the novel's length and the "crafty little people" surrounding the main couple. Romance Blog: Romance Books News 2 (Continued) Hebert is part of a throng of romance readers who have made the idealistic genre into a billion dollar industry that accounts for more than a quarter of all books sold each year, according to the Romance Writers of America. The novels continue to grow in popularity: 64.6 million Americans read at least one romance novel in 2004, up from 51.1 million in 2002, according to the association, in the latest figures available. Those readers are more likely to pick up a romance right now, when the weather matches the novel's heat. At local libraries, interest in the romances has made its usual summer spike, said Geri Roberts, branch manager of the Beaumont Public Library. Although the library does not track the popularity of specific genres, Roberts said that romance novels make up the vast majority of adult paperback fiction, which rose from 982 checkouts in January to 1,282 in July. Romance Blog: Romance Books News 1 (Continued) In Beaumont, former bookstore owner D.J. Resnick said romances accounted for more than half of all his sales at The Book Rack, which recently closed due to high rent prices after Hurricane Rita. "Some people read a book a day. The Harlequins are quick reads," he said. "Several men also read them. Truck drivers who want something fast." Women - and a growing number of men - are attracted to the fairytale endings, which some critics call trite and dull. Critics also label the books as overly romantic and "slightly dangerous" because they could lead women to search for an unattainable relationship, fiction author Melissa Pritchard told "Publishers Weekly" in 2004. For some readers, the criticisms have turned romance novels into a guilty pleasure. Romance Blog: Romance Books News 1 (Continued) Celebrity librarian Nancy Pearl, who was the model for a 5-inch tall "Librarian Action Figure," wishes critics wouldn't rank a Kathleen Woodiwiss reader as less literary than, say Toni Morrison. "When you start talking about reading in terms of literary value, you are devaluing reading," she said in a telephone interview from her Seattle home. "As a librarian, we need to validate people's reading (choices)." If it were up to Pearl, libraries would not group books into genres such as mysteries, westerns and romances. "It narrows the world of the reader," said Pearl, a frequent book reviewer on National Public Radio and best-selling author of the 2003 "Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason." "Romance readers are looking for a particular thing: A happy ending," Pearl said. "And what is so bad about that?" According to the readers and writers, nothing. Romance Blog: Romance Books News 1 (Continued) In fact, a happy ending can be a form of therapy, points out 61-year-old Judy Linsley, Beaumont historian and co-author of three romance novels, two published by Harlequin and another published by Penguin's historical romance novel line. After publishing "Katherine's Song," Linsley got a thank you letter from a Vietnam veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. His letter said that a therapist had recommended he read romances as part of his therapy, Linsley said. She understands why. Readers know how the story will end and don't get overly worried or upset. "Readers don't have to worry that the author will betray you and kill off someone at the end," Linsley said. Romance Blog: Romance Books News 1 (Continued) She believes that many romance writers are as skilled as literary writers - they just aren't as cruel. "The only way to get literary acclaim is if you mistreat your characters," she jokes. Romance writer and reader Donna Grant, 33, of Orange doesn't mind if the stories aren't realistic. In fact, the books she has published - historical dark fantasies - contain unlikely characters like fairies, griffins, shape shifters and gargoyles who time travel through centuries. "I don't like the contemporary stuff as much," she said. "I am already living in this day and age. I want to be transported." Romance Blog Comment: "Is reading romance books a sin?" President of ChristiaNet, Bill Cooper, stated, "Anything that could lead Christians into a compromised lifestyle should be avoided at all costs." What is your opinion on the issue - romance books as well as romance blogs? I invite you to subscribe to my E-zine titled Life Coach, free of charge. This E-zine publishes insightful comments on the latest international news that render us taken-aback in the domains of various facets of life. 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