Pearls and Libraries and Fabio...Oh, My.

As excited as I am to have discovered the awesomagnificence that is Fabio's love album, all things funny and Fabio must take a backseat to time travel romantic fiction here at the Vortex. Priorities, people. Fabio's sultry strains and broken English words of woo-wisdom will be here on Wednesday. I promise.

P.E.A.R.L. (Paranormal Excellence Award for Romantic Literature) nominees were announced today and five yet-to-be-read-but-now-seeking time travel romances are awaiting your reader's choice. Though the PEARL is but an online community of dedicated paranormal romance readers and writers, it is a great litmus for reader response and market demands in this sub genre. The time travel romance market has been on a tenuous climb since the last popularity crest and fall at the end of the 1990's and this year's PEARL nominees reflect that instability. Three of the five nominees are from major New York publishing houses, suggesting a stronger market favor than in years past. Here's a bit about each one:

Time for Eternity by Susan Squires

St. Martin's-Mass Market paperback

Squires (One with the Darkness) brings her flair for historical vampire romance to revolution-era France. Henri Foucault, the charismatic, wicked duc of Avignon, accidentally turned young Françoise Suchet into a vampire. A few centuries later, Francoise, now jaded San Francisco bartender Frankie, gets the chance to travel back in time and kill Henri. When modern Frankie merges with her 18th-century self, the resulting mix of innocence and experience makes her even more fascinating to immortal Henri than the first time around, while the wise future voice in Francoise's head allows her to discover more of Henri's complexity and secrets. The heroine's dual nature is exquisitely executed, and Squires's lush writing skillfully entwines the dramatic story of an aristocratic smuggler's resistance to corrupt revolution with the romantic tale of lovers drawn together across time. (~Publisher's Weekly)

Guardian: The Time Hunters by Angela Knight

Berkley-mass market paperback

Riane Arvid is a superhuman cop from the future, trapped in the year 2009 by group of murderous fanatics called the Xeran. Nick Wyatt is a handsome twenty-first century warrior who has been a target of the Xeran his entire life. He's the only one Riane can turn to, but his intentions are as mysterious as his origins. In an attempt to discover the truth about each other, both Riane and Nick decide seduction is the best tactic. (~publisher's synopsis)

What Would Jane Austen Do? by Laurie Brown

Sourcebooks-Casablanca

Modern-day Regency fashion expert Eleanor Pottinger consorts with ghosts and travels in time in Brown's charming romance. Eleanor discovers her hotel room is haunted by sisters Mina and Deirdre Cracklebury, and she agrees to a deal: she will save their brother, Teddy, from a deadly duel by keeping the wicked Lord Shermont from seducing one of the sisters, in trade for meeting Jane Austen. Eleanor wakes up in 1814, meets smarmy Teddy and is instantly attracted to Lord Shermont, who is not all he seems. Soon she's forced into a terrible choice: Hot sex or the real Jane Austen? True Janeites will find scant evidence of Austen's acerbic wit in either character or tone, but the sprightly humor, handsome hero and twisty ending will please most Regency romance fans. (~Publisher's Weekly)

Creighton Manor by Karen Michelle Nutt

Tease Publishing LLC

The last thing that Gillian Metcalf remembers before she passes out is being aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, where she witnessed a dog disappearing as if it were a phantom. Now she’s aboard the riverboat, Ida Belle, traveling down the muddy Mississippi. It is 1870, where men carry guns and throw knives. It is a time where reputations mean everything.Before she can determine how she’s miraculously stepped from one world into another, she is being forced to marry Zachary Creighton. Trouble follows the man and it looks like she’s along for the ride.As she attempts to understand why she was sent back to 1870, she struggles to come to terms with her own desires that tempt her to surrender to a man she barely knows. (~Publisher's synopsis)

Time Plains Drifter by Cheryl Pierson

Class Act Books

Trapped in Indian Territory of 1895 by a quirk of Nature, High School teacher Jenni Dalton must find a way to get her seven students back to 2010.Handsome U.S. Marshal Rafe d'Angelico seems like the answer to her prayers: he is, after all, an angel. In a race against time and evil, Rafe has one chance to save Jenni's life and her soul from the Dark One—but can their love survive? (publisher's synopsis)

Congratulations to all the nominees mixing luuuvre with a heady dose of time travel.

If you write your heroines on the curvy side, Accomplice Press may be right for you. They're actively seeking submissions for their Curvalicious line. "The Curvalicious line will be short novella length stories featuring plus size heroines. Curvalicious heroines are beautiful, strong, intelligent women who get the guy without losing weight or changing their bodies.
Curvalicious will have two categories. Curvalicious Sweet is romance with sweet or sensual love scenes, but no explicit language or sex. Curvalicious Spicy is erotic romance containing explicit language and sex scenes." Top three submissions in each category score a publishing contract. FMI.

Lastly, Woman's Day and the American Library Association invite you to submit a 700 word or less essay on what makes your library special to your community. Up to four submissions will be featured in an upcoming WD issue. FMI.

In preparation for our Fabio-fest on Wednesday, let's celebrate all the ways Fabio has entered our pop culture vernacular as a verb courtesy of urbandictionary.com!

verb:

1) (of a bird) the act of flying, unprovoked and inexplicably, into something it should never have any contact with (i.e. your face) 2) to get hit in the face with any live flying object (i.e. insect, flung cat, etc.) 3) to throw something at someone's head in an attempt to hit them in the face 4) to inadvertently hit someone in the face with something you've thrown

examples:

We were going down Hines Drive at one in the morning when a duck totally fabioed my best friend's car.

My mom was on her bike on campus and got fabioed by a big junebug.

My husband said he couldn't see the dirty diaper on the floor, so I fabioed him with it.

The wind caught my cigarette butt as I pitched it out and I ended up fabioing myself.

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Here's your chance to use Fabio as a verb...go!