Romance

Urban fantasy, supernatural suspense, paranormal romance--all of these subgenres are hot right now, and Juno Books has been publishing a cornucopia of such novels in bright, sharply designed mass market paperbacks. There's a wide variety of fiction between those covers. For example, Personal Demons by Stacia Kane is about a reporter and a demon lover, while Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliassotti is set in an imaginary world and has more in common with steampunk and epic fantasy. Blackness Tower by Lillian Stewart Carl is in a Mary Stewart Merlin vein, except featuring a Spanish armada. Matthew Cook's Blood Magic chronicles the adventures of a necromancer named Kirin. Three other Juno Books seem to fit snugly into the supernatural suspense category: House of Whispers by Margaret Lucke, Dancing with Werewolves by Carole Nelson Douglas, and Apricot Brandy by Lynn Cesar.

These trends in book publishing appear to be driven by the success of TV programs like Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as the huge success of such writers as Kim Harrison. The audience for such imprints is predominantly women, and most of the writers are women. What's interesting is that Juno, an independent press, seems able to compete on an even playing field with the big publishers for quality fiction in this area. Whether this is a self-sustaining niche or a category that will ultimately become overly familiar has yet to be determined, but in the meantime check out some of these interesting titles.

The Romance Writers of American announced the finalists for their annual RITA awards: the best romance fiction of the year in 12 categories. You can see our full lists of the nominees in the 11 book-length categories, and here, as a sample, are the finalists in one of the hottest subgenres in publishing, Paranormal Romance:

No sign of some of the big names in the genre (Laurell K. Hamilton, MaryJanice Davidson, Charlaine Harris, Sherrilyn Kenyon)--I'm not sure if they qualify as true "romance." --Tom, Amazon Bookstore

We're late in catching up with the PEN/Faulkner award announcement from Monday. It always sneaks up out of nowhere, in part because they don't announce the nominees ahead of time, thereby disappointing office-pool fans across America, and in part, at least this year, because the announcement came the day after the Oscars. This year, for the third time, the award went to Philip Roth, for Everyman, which got solid reviews but until now had been ignored by award juries. He told the Washington Post he was pleased because "there just seems to be a consistency to the quality of the winners" of the PEN/Faulkner. One consistency is their love of Philip Roth: this is his third win in the last 14 years.

The other nominees were all short story collections:

More award news: Yale University's Bollingen Prize, given every two years, usually for lifetime achievement, and perhaps the most prestigious American poetry award, was given to Frank Bidart, who teaches at Wellesley and whose latest collection is Star Dust. (He's also the editor of Robert Lowell's Collected Poems.) The Bollingen Prize winners, as listed on their pretty but confusing and not up-to-date site, are a roll call of American 20th-century poetry: Frost, Moore, Pound, Cummings, Auden, Stevens, Rich, Ashbery...  Jeez, Mr. Bidart: that's a helluva club you've just joined.

And starting a brand new club, the finalists for the inaugural Brontë Prize were announced on Friday. Named after Charlotte B., the prize models itself after the Hugos and the Edgars in honoring one of the most popular literary genres, defined as "romantic fiction." The winner, "One title chosen the best from more than 400 love stories published in North America in the last year," will be named on March 15 from these nominees (and given a $12,500 prize):

In this week's Times there's a terrific article about a new series from Harlequin, who, in partnership with NASCAR, has published a series of NASCAR-themed romances. The development of the series has been a passion project of mine--this branded targeting is brilliant. One of the characters is even modeled after race-car driver Carl Edwards--another cool idea. If you take a peek at our Romance page you'll find a feature highlighting four books from Pamela Britton, one of which is To The Limit. Britton is also actively blogging on Amazon--she's posted the 2007 release schedule for her new books and early reader reviews, such as this one from prolific Amazon.com customer reviewer, Harriet Klausner: "This is a fun lighthearted NASCAR romance that will have the audience wondering who will get the victory flag ... Readers will root for Kristen to win the race as she carries Pamela Britton's tale from the starter's gun to the finish line."

Thoughts from other readers about this trend? Anyone spotting new branding trends? Let us know. --Brooke, Amazon Bookstore