Great New Winter Reads from Harlequin Books

The New Year is here filled with new beginnings, resolutions and fresh books to read. This coming year in 2011, we have a couple of really great milestones to celebrate and I thought I'd take the time to outline a couple of them and point out our new Harlequin corporate logo. You'll see that we're using it across our website, community, in print, online and in retail locations with the tag line, entertain, enrich, inspire. That's something we hope to do each and every day in our Community and do hope that you find the time you spend with us to be ALL of those things.

This year Harlequin Blaze is celebrating their 10th year of red-hot reads and we want you to be in on all the excitement with a highlight in August when we're bringing back the Original Sexy Six, the authors who created the launch books for what would become such a popular series. Look for books from Vicki Lewis Thompson, Jo Leigh, Julie Leto, Tori Carrington, Kimberly Raye and Debbie Rawlins. Along with it's sexier editorial the line is also known for being home for a number of firsts. Stephanie Bond wrote the first first-person Blaze, My Favorite Mistake. Susan Kearney wrote the first (and we think only) futuristic, Beyond the Edge. Hope Tarr wrote the first historical, Bound To Please and Chris Green introduced vampires to Blaze with her book, The Ultimate Bite! As Julie Leto says, "Blaze has always “blazed” trails, so this is the go-to line for something new."

Beginning in January, Love Inspired Historical will be bringing us more of the engaging stories rich with romance, adventure and faith with a total of 4 NEW titles available every month and a new look.

Don't forget to look for a sizzling new miniseries from USA Today bestselling author Katherine Garbera that kicks off with Taming the VIP Playboy. Katherine confesses "I’m addicted to the reality TV show Dancing with the Stars. I don’t know what it is I love about it, but I can’t resist watching it every week while it is on and using everyone’s phone to text in votes! That show is where the seeds of this story started" She says she was thinking about the couples on the show and what if a romance developed between them and a story was born. So if you're a DWTS fan, this series is for YOU!

Historical Romance author Bronwyn Scott is known for writing stories with scandal, passion and wit. She's also one of my auto-buys and lucky for me has a new title out in January with A Thoroughly Compromised Lady. Jack and Dulci made their first appearance in Pickpocket Countess, and they just seemed to beg for their own story and that wasn't the ONLY begging going on, LOL. Bronwyn said she'd received many letters from fans asking when it would happen. She gives us a sneak peek into their story, "Jack and Dulci are wild ones, and a grand adventure in the New World seemed like the right venue for them. When I discovered the beginnings of the Venezuela–British Guiana controversy over a shared but undefined border, I knew Jack and Dulci had found their adventure and I inserted them into history."

And just in time for Valentine's Day I can whole-heartedly recommend the following great new Valentine themed stories. In His Valentine Surprise by Tanya Michaels, a single dad is pleasantly surprised when his daughter enlists the entire PTA to find him a Valentine in a February American Romance. Silhouette Special Edition author Patricia Kay says that Meet Mr. Prince "is a Cinderella story and I loved that Georgie's so stubborn and adamant about not wanting to get married or have children. Nothing is more fun than knowing a character is going to have to eat her words." And if you're a thrill seeker, why not dive into Deadly Valentine , from Justine Davis and Cindy Dees in two stories of whirlwind romance and danger.

Want to try a new series? Don't forget you can try on any of our great series at www.TryHarlequin.com to choose from over 15 FREE books to read and download.

Happy Reading,

Jayne

Do you know a real life Heroine?

Every year, Harlequin honors women who make a difference in their communities through their selfless dedication to a chosen cause. We also understand the power of stories and their potential to move and inspire people. The More Than Words program and our philanthropic strategy aims to enhance the well-being of women, and to support those causes that are meaningful to them. The More Than Words annual anthology is a collection of stories by 5 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling authors that honor the recipients of our annual More Than Words awards, the stories in turn are inspired by the accomplishments of these real -life heroines.

Our fifth annual More Than Words anthology is on the shelves now, but we need your help finding candidates for next year's book. We are soliciting nominations of ordinary women who have made extraordinary contributions to their communities. Five women will be chosen as award recipients, and Harlequin will make a donation of $10,000 to their chosen causes. Their stories will be published and shared with our readers, with proceeds from the book being reinvested in Harlequin's charitable initiatives.

With your support, we hope to turn awareness into action, and mobilize others to become engaged and make a difference.

We need new stories inspired by real women who've changed lives in their communities. If you know a real life heroine in your community that deserves recognition, we'd love you to nominate her for the More Than Words program . You can submit online nominations now at http://www.harlequinmorethanwords.com/ by completing the online submission form that you'll find there. You can also watch THIS VIDEO that gives some background on the program and previous recipients. The potential Winning Submission will be selected no later than November 11, 2009 but hurry, time is running out for nominees for next year's awards.

Nominate a woman you know and celebrate a real life heroine today!

Jayne

FREE Blossom Street book by Debbie Macomber!

Knitting and life. They're both about beginnings—and endings. That's why it makes sense for Lydia Goetz, owner of A Good Yarn on Seattle's Blossom Street, to offer a class called Knit to Quit. It's for people who want to quit something—or someone!—and start a new phase of their lives.

Debbie Macomber's famed Blossom Street is positively blooming with excitement this month as the fifth book in her Seattle-based series, Summer on Blossom Street goes on sale in bookstores everywhere!

As millions of women know, Debbie Macomber understands their lives and writes the stories they want to read. And now we're bringing you a chance to WIN a signed Debbie Macomber hardcover book just by sharing the news about Summer on Blossom Street.

Put this SUMMER ON BLOSSOM STREET badge on your website, blog, MySpace, Facebook or other social networking page and post the link to where you've posted it in the comments section of my blog here on eHarlequin.com. Twenty five people will be picked at random to receive a copy of Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber.

Here is the code to use to add the image to your page:

Image: http://community.eharlequin.com/sites/eharlequin.com/files/debbie%20badge.JPG

Link: http://harlequin.promo.eprize.com/summeronblossomstreet/?affiliate_id=1a

Jayne

Romance Rocking the Recession

Anyone catch Nightline on ABC News the other night? They ran a piece on Harlequin's 60th Anniversary and the success of romance novels during the Recession, and featured an interview with paranormal romance author Gena Showalter! Our CEO Donna Hayes is quoted as saying, "in the case of Harlequin, the must-have in the formula is that you must have a happy ending. Trials and tribulations as you date and break up, argue or all those things, but at the end you are going to be together with the love of your life and you are going to feel really good about it. So that's the key and that's why people love to read our books."

So what could be better in tough times than a little romance and the certainty that things will all work out? It's like comfort food for the soul.

If you missed it, you can watch the video online here and read the accompanying article that includes more quotes from Gena. The Romantic Readings by various celebrities are hilarious, I loved Wolfgang Puck, who was YOUR favorite?

Jayne

Harlequin Fun Facts

At Harlequin our guiding vision is to be a leading global publisher of great reading entertainment for women. And we've been working to fulfill that vision for some 60 years now. In this Anniversary year, we're celebrating some unique and wonderful accomplishments, such as unprecented appearances on the New York Times bestseller list, our gift of 16 FREE downloads that will put a book in the hands of every woman in America, and our recent acknowledgement by Book Business Magazine as 2008 Publishing Innovator of the Year. It's also very nice to brag about our Community challenge to donate 100,000 books to the National Center for Family Literacy. But, I'm always astonished by the sheer number of books we publish on a monthly basis, and of course by some of the fun facts listed here:

• Over 1,200 authors from around the world are currently published by Harlequin.


• Harlequin publishes over 120 titles each month under the Harlequin, Silhouette, Red Dress Ink, MIRA Books, LUNA Books, Steeple Hill Books, Steeple Hill Café, HQN Books, Kimani Press, SPICE Books, Gold Eagle and Worldwide Mystery imprints in North America. In addition, Harlequin publishes four Spanish-language series (16 titles monthly) and four French-language series (20 titles monthly) in North America.


• During the past decades, Harlequin characters have kissed each other over 20,000 times, shared about 30,000 hugs, and headed for the altar at least 7,000 times.


• If you set out to read all of the Harlequin books sold over the past 10 years, and averaged about two hours per book, you would be reading for the next quarter of a million years.


• Harlequin sold 130 million books worldwide last year, or just over 4.1 books per second.


• Approximately half of Harlequin’s books are sold outside North America through a combination of wholly owned subsidiaries, joint ventures, licensee arrangements and multi language exports.


• An average of 12.5 million Harlequin Presents books are sold every month around the world.


• Over 800 Harlequin titles hit the stands each month around the world, generated from publishing operations in 15 countries. In total, Harlequin has shipped more than 5.63 billion books around the world.


• More than 50 million women read Harlequin books worldwide.


• Harlequin books are sold in 107 international markets on six continents, in 29 languages around the world.


• Approximately one in every six mass-market paperbacks sold in North America is a Harlequin or Silhouette novel. More than one third of American females have read a book published by Harlequin Enterprises at some point in their lives.


• Harlequin purchases more than two original works of fiction every day.

I'm also VERY proud to say that more than 53 of our Community members have been included in those recent purchases. So, if you have an opportunity (and a finished manuscript) don't hesitate to sign up to pitch your work in one of our many online editor appointments held in our eHarlequin.com chat rooms. Keep your eyes peeled on our Write Stuff forums for announcements, but in the meantime....KEEP WRITING and reading all the great stories we have planned for YOU in our in our 60th Anniversary!

Jayne