look I'm clueless but if you want to EMAIL me please go to nodoubtchick@hotmail.com I don't know how to access my clueless mail at spring.com

We can fix you up and you'll be clueless no more when it comes to email. We can make you 'clueful'. Email me mailto://terry@spring.com and I'll fill you in on all the fascinating details. You're so, so, clueless, sometimes.

Yes, I will admit to reading romance novels. On the quiet. When no-one else is looking.Last one was "Once a Knight" by Christina Dodds. Very funny.Good escapism.

HI I AM NEW HERE AND I AM JOINING ALL OF YOU FROM PR.CHINA IF YOU REA THE WURTHERING HEIGHTS PLS DO REVERT ME I WANT TO TALK WITH YOU THKS

HI I AM NEW HERE AND I AM JOINING ALL OF YOU FROM PR.CHINA IF YOU REA THE WURTHERING HEIGHTS PLS DO REVERT ME I WANT TO TALK WITH YOU THKS

Welcome Chen!

Hi: I write, don't sell much, have trouble giving it away but--a writer must read and I find the romance genre absolute divel. When you've read one you've read them all. Why don't you guys/gals try some of the stuff out there with more meat. Try The Book of Ruth, forget the authors name, but if you want romance you'll find it all in this wonderful book Hi Chen! been all over China and love you country and your people.

Are you going to post some excerpts of your work in the writers conference?

Hi! I'm new. I read all kinds of fiction--at least I used to, before I had a son 20 months ago. I also keep my romance reading quiet. I can't explain why it's so comforting, but predictability has something to do with it. I read more sophisticated things, too, but romance is the chicken noodle soup of literature for me; if I'm tired, sad, stressed, it doesn't demand much of me, and there are a few authors who can make me laugh...that's the most important thing. I also read young adult fiction when I need omfort. I worked in bookstores for about ten years and started out--right out of college--completely oblivious to anything contemporary...I would have classed anything written since Virginia Woolf died as "drivel". My customers taught me that there are good books in every genre and that I love people who read!

I, too, am a novice in the romance genre, but based on a recommendation somewhere in cyberspace, I gave Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" a try. By the time I finished this novel I felt like layers of plaque had been scraped off my heart! There are 2 sequels I can't wait to read, but they're both checked out right now, so I'll have to reserve them another time.

I blush! I stammer! I wasn't going to confess it, but I'm reading "The Drums of Autumn" (the forth in the Outlander series) right now. I really like the multi-dimensional characters, and I like the fact that the story doesn't end when Claire and Jamie have sex or get married, or whatever the end of romance is supposed to be. They have adventures together! I like the fact that they rescue each other and that Claire is brave and smart and that she and Jamie share their joys and sadnesses and get cross with ach other and then can't keep their hands off of each other--now that's romance! ...and you've gotta love all that scottish detail!

Belva Plain's Evergreen and Fern Michaels' Desperate Measures. Very good. It doesn't matter what happens in the end (unless everybody dies-Titanic) but what happens between the covers (of the book). But I refuse to read any of those dimestore paperbacks like Harlequin Romance, to me, they're just plain dumb (no offense to anybody who likes them).

I've never read Belva Plain or Fern Michaels, but it'll be nice to add them to my mental list for escape fiction. Have either of you read any Georgette Heyer? My sister owns every book she ever wrote, romance and mystery both, and I go for a raid once or twice a year when I'm in just the right mood. Her books are sweet and mannered regency romances with girls dressed as servant boys and smoldering viscounts and a lot of wit and charm. Not a lot of sex. Not that I object to sex in general, but it gets to be like the exhaustive descriptions of whaling in Moby Dick...maybe I'm getting old, but I find myself skipping over the sex scenes (his throbbing manhood, her sensual core, yada, yada) to find out what the character will say next. I agree about the Harlequins, Wolf, but there have been dark days in my life when all I could do was roll over and eat an oreo and pick up another one. They serve a purpose, but it's nothing like education or enlightenment--more like sedation.

I read one Georgette Heyer, "Charity Girl", because I heard that her regency tone closely echoed Jane Austen's. It was pretty good--can you recommend other titles of hers that you especially liked? The library has a bunch of them. So, 'fess up, did you skip the sex scenes in "Outlander?" While reading one afternoon,I was supposed to go to my daughter's kindergarten class to help them make xmas cookies, but there was no way I was leaving the house until they consummated that marriage!

*giggle*

You'll never believe me if I say I can't remember the sex in Outlander! I just flipped through it, though, and found a scene where Jamie discovers that the woman can be on top--is that sweet or what? I don't find the sex scenes a hindrance in Gabaldon's books, I think, because they're character driven. In the formula romances, I swear there's a quota of heaving whatsises, and it's just boring. (gulp.) I think I'm confessing to a familiarity with the genre that I'd rather not reveal to people I don't know...I'm feeling a sudden urge to adjust my glasses and use big words and mply that my interest in romances is purely clinical. I hate to admit this, too, but I don't exactly have a favorite Georgette Heyer...they kind of run together in my head. I think my sister's favorite is called "Friday's Child", and it seems to me there was one called "The Devils Cub" which was a sequel...the father of the "Cub" was the dangerous and dashing hero of an earlier book. I love sequels and series...

Well, "Dragonfly in Amber" was on the shelf today! But, gulp, it's nearly 800 pages long...of course, if I can't put it down I'll finish it in no time! I also checked out the Fern Michaels one. Another 400 pages! I have not read other romances to be familiar with the formula, but if it's anything like the formula mystery writers--well, read one you've read 'em all...

Finished "Dragonfly", moved on to "Voyager", and just got "Drums of Autumn". Checked out Diana Gabaldon's website and see she has 2 more in the works, "Fiery Cross" and "Farewell to something", as well as a prequel about Jamie's parents, Ellen and Brian. I'm in deep....!

Hi, Autumn! I finished "Drums of Autumn" and immediately went into grusome withdrawal. There really is noone like her! I'm almost (almost!) glad that I have to wait for the next one, because I can savor this one while I anticipate the next. The problem is that I'm grouchily flailing around for something to fill that Gabaldon niche in my life and there ISN'T ANYTHING! Pace yourself!

You know, I thought about delaying "Drums" for a good while, but frankly, I couldn't get Jamie and Claire out of my mind! Isn't that asinine? I went to D.G.'s website and wrote down the names of the authors that she says she enjoys reading, so maybe I'll check those out when I'm done and need something to tide me over. Besides, she has excerpts from her future novels there too...If you're interested, it's: www.cco.caltech.edu/~gatti/gabaldon/gabaldon.html

Hi people, I do love to get lost in a good book. I havn't started reading it yet but a friend of mine lent me DG's Outlander recently. Everyone here seems to think very highly of it so I'd better get reading. Anybody familiar with Jayne Anne Krentz aka Amanda Quick? She's a favourite of mine. Romance is my comfort, The Flame and The Flower-Kathleen Woodiwiss my ultimate romantic reading experience.

i do enjoy the romatic under (or over) tones in many novels but i find it very difficult to sit and read a pure romance novel. Boy woos girl in amazing fashion, girl plays hard to get, catastrophe strikes, boy and girl try desperately to overcome obstacles and in the end they do... with their love/passion. When i've finished i rarely believe that the book has brought me anything. Nothing to think about, talk to others about, realize about myself... But often my tastes in literature run very far from the 'beaten path' so please don't think i am slamming the genre. Just find it hard to relate.

don't care too much for the template romance novels, either. enjoy belva plain, and kathleen woodiwiss, fern michaels is good, too.

Kathleen Woodiwiss keeps coming up--it must be my turn! I've read Amanda Quick and she makes me giggle! Her characters are always so brave and smart (but silly)--she's kind of a bridge between Georgette Heyer and the (oxymoron?) modern historical romance. I've never read her Krenz books, but I've heard they're really good. Stacey--you can't explain the romance urge to someone who hasn't got it. I'm pretty selective, but I can read a harlequin in a pinch. I keep meaning to do a really thoughtful study of "pulp" fiction--those disreputable genres that inspire such devotion and such derision...but who has time to be thoughtful!?

*smile* as a 'pulp' fiction fan, I must tell you, thoughtful is not necessary!

I just finished a genuinely ridiculous piece of drivel called "Knight in Shining Armor" by Jude Deveraux, which someone had the nerve to equate with "Outlander"! The author herself in the prologue states that so many people have written her to tell her "Knight" is the best book they've ever read--*gag*!

guess you didn't like it...

that's the understatement of the year (she said dryly)