JANET DAILEY'S BESTSELLING HEIRESS BACK IN PRINT

Heiress, the Janet Dailey novel breakout bestseller, is available once again. E-Reads has just issued it as a trade paperback, where it can be purchased on amazon.com. It's also available as an e-book download.

In Heiress, two sisters meet at the funeral of one of the most prestigious men in the country, Dean Lawson, their father. Abbie Lawson, the dutiful genteel daughter bred in the lap of luxury and, Rachel Farr, a mistake born of a passionate love affair, are almost identical in appearance but are worlds apart. Only one daughter can be the heir to the endless oil fields and magnificent thoroughbreds. A fierce competition has arisen between the women, not only for the inheritance but also for the proof of a father's love. They should have been devoted to each other as friends and sisters, but they have become the most embittered of enemies. The Texas men they love watch as the rivals tear themselves apart to become Dean Lawson's heiress.

E-Reads publishes over fifty classic Janet Dailey Romances including the Americana Series, one novel set in every state in the union.


RC

Something Extra from Janet Dailey

Janet Dailey fans will be glad to see the print edition of Something Extra reissued. It's also available as an e-book download.

In Something Extra, Jolie Antoinette Smith wants to marry the man of her dreams. But when she meets that man in the form of brash and confident Louisiana native Steve Cameron, he quite clearly wants something different. Jolie's sensitive soul and passionate heart are now at odds--and she wishes she had never found true love!

E-Reads publishes over fifty classic Janet Dailey Romances including the Americana Series, one novel set in every state in the union.

RC

The Faithful - Chapter Ten ("White People")

Pennsylvania is a bad news state for everyone on the campaign, from Barack Obama down to Reggie, Caroline, Chloe, and Kanesha. While the professional pols are desperate to spin Reverand Wright and Barack's "Bitter" gaffe, and Hillary relentlessly plays the White Worker card, our cast is desperately seeking to uncover the spy in their midst, the one they've been calling "X". Now that they know who it is, they discover there may also be a "Y"!

It's not all bad. Kanesha enjoys an hour of majorly rough sex before dismissing her lover from her life. And Thomas, our gay narrator, is on the trail of a hot new attraction.

Despite a loss in Pennsylvania, Barack is moving inexorably to victory and The Faithful to its climax.

Check out Chapter Ten of The Faithful.

The Faithful - Chapter Seven (The Inevitable Candidate)

In Chapter 7 of The Faithful, the Obama campaign team speculates that the spy in their midst was planted by the Clinton camp. "Suddenly," says our narrator, "I realized just how dangerous a Clinton camp spy in our midst could be. These people are ruthless. Winning, winning, winning - winning is everything. They have no soul. Hillary didn’t care if her dirty politics hurt the Democratic Party and the nation. Wouldn’t some of the people who worked for her stop at nothing to help her?"

They become desperate to find X, who's been reporting their steamy sexual liaisons to a snoopy New York Times reporter. But any one of them could be the traitor.

The Faithful - Chapter Six (Obamentum)

In Chapter 6 (Obamentum) of The Faithful, New York Times reporter Jilly Norton is hot on the trail of sex scandals in the campaign workers, and now a spy in the Obama organization has confirmed every sordid detail. He -- or is it she? - is referred to only as X. But Thomas has a wicked ploy up his sleeve to thwart the dogged journalist's expose.

The Faithful - Chapter Three ("Yes, We Can!")

In this week's installment, Chapter Three ("Yes, We Can!"), of The Faitfhful, a glamorous friend of Oprah solves the mystery of the missing engagement ring. And Kanesha turns up ravaged - was she attacked, or was it consensual?

What Did He Expect When He Invited a Lingerie Saleswoman into His Life?

The cooler they are the hotter they get, and Hunter Adams fancies himself to be as cool as frost. But vixen Trisha Malloy is hotter than a blowtorch, and it will be a long time before his temperature returns to normal.

Read The Harder They Fall and learn by Jill Shalvis is a bestselling author.

- Richard Curtis

No Cold Showers, Please, We're British: Elizabeth Chater's Regencies

In just a generation, the erotic content of romance fiction has gone from demure curtsies to Four Cold Showers, from Nothing Spoken to Anything Goes. How to explain, then, the eternal allure of the Regency Romance, which leaves all to the imagination, where everything you need to know about sex is conveyed through a glance or the flutter of a fan. The answer, I think, is that it's all about sexual tension, communicated through the impeccable manners and exquisitely nuanced conversation of civilized ladies and gentlemen. But if you think Regencies are quaint and "so yesterday," the fact is that readers just can't get enough of them.

Among the most popular Regency authors I know of is the late Elizabeth Chater. E-Reads has over a dozen, and though they are all hugely popular with fans, one of their favorites is The Elsingham Portrait.

You'll need no cold showers after reading Elizabeth Chater, yet you'll learn as much about what goes on behind closed doors as you would from the explicit sex scenes of a contemporary novel.

- Richard Curtis

The Elusive Miss Chesney

It's always nice for a publisher to know something about the authors it publishes. Sorry we can't help you with Marion Chesney.

But at least we're not alone. Despite a huge list of books published under the Chesney name, to say nothing of such others as M. C. Beaton, Sarah Chester, Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Marion Gibbons, Jennie Tremaine, and Charlotte Ward, personal information about her is shrouded in obscurity, and if that's the way she likes it, far be it from us to inquire further. She doesn't even have a website, and who can blame her? If she did. the prolific Miss Chesney would have to spend all her time uploading information about her titles. We are reliably informed that she's a Scotswoman and lives and writes in a village in the English Cotswolds. I would therefore have to speculate that she's not tall, because Cotswold villages were created when the English were eight or ten inches shorter than they are now. I know this because I forgot to duck when I passed beneath the lintel of the entrance to a hotel in a Cotswold town called Broadway, and I have the scar to prove it.

The one thing I'm certain about is that E-Reads has eleven of her Regency novels and they are delicious examples of a genre that still holds allure for readers who love civilized and elegant dialogue between ladies, gentlemen, and cads. You might start with Sins of Lady Dacey, but every one of them will reward those with a taste for Things Edwardian.

- Richard Curtis

You Can't Get a Man With a Gun -- Or Can You?

USA Today bestseller Linda Winstead Jones's Guardian Angel is living refutation of that famous tune from Annie Get Your Gun. But there's much more to this romance than a gal with a gun, especially when you realize that the guardian angel of the title is named Gabriel.

Paranormal twists come as no surprise to Linda's fans. It's hard to think of any book of hers that can be categorized in fewer than two words - fairy tale romance, romantic suspense, time travel romance, paranormal fantasy, historical ghost stories - you see what I mean. Nor should it come as a surprise that three of her books have been Rita Award finalists and one of them won it in 2004. So, don't even think of predicting which way her stories are going to jump.

E-Reads has a lucky thirteen Linda Winstead Jones novels.

For a complete overview of Linda's books, visit her website, www.lindawinsteadjones.com .

- Richard Curtis

Maggie Davis: "To Be Read with Suntan Lotion"

"To be read with suntan lotion" is how Romantic Times described Maggie Davis's Hustle Sweet Love. That's because "It's hot enough to give you sunburn in the dead of winter!" But Davis's books are not just sexy, they're witty, too. The fact is, she's classically educated and trained. How many romance writers do you know who gave writing courses at Yale and were guest writer/artist at the International Cultural Center in Hammamet, Tunisia?

Nevertheless, at the end of the day you want characters you love, a story that soars, and -- yes -- that sunburn-inducing heat. E-Reads has nine delicious Maggie Davis novels on our website. Suntan lotion not included.

- Richard Curtis

Your Wife May Not Understand You, But Laura Kinsale Does

In 2005 I accepted the Rita Award, the Romance Writers of America's highest honor, on behalf of my agency's client Laura Kinsale, who was unable to attend the ceremony. With tongue in cheek I presented her with an award of my own: the Damaged Men's Lifetime Achievement Award, explaining that, "Laura Kinsale understands men! Whenever we feel our wives don't understand us, we turn for consolation to Laura Kinsale."

It's hard to pick a favorite among the three novels of Kinsale that E-Reads publishes, but if hard-pressed I'd have to pick Prince of Midnight. Its dark, damaged male protagonist (a lot darker and more damaged than Fabio, the heartthrob model who posed for the cover of the original edition) called for a truly heroic woman to redeem him from bitterness and self-loathing. But in Lady Leigh Strachan, Kinsale produced a heroine every bit up to the task. Little surprise that Prince of Midnight won Romance Writers of America Golden Choice Award for Best Romance of the year in which it was published.

Laura Kinsale's resume is replete with awards and nominations for awards, and that is only fitting, as many fans (I among them) believe her to be in the first rank of the historical romance authors of our time. If you love Prince of Midnight, try Seize the Fire and Midsummer Moon next and you'll understand why the hearts of romance awards committee members beat a little faster when a Kinsale novel comes before them.

- Richard Curtis

Spanish Moss and Steel Magnolias

Speak to Jennifer Blake and you hear the lilting voice of the antebellum south; read one of her books and you're transported there. Small wonder: she is a seventh generation Louisianan and not only does the Old South course through her bloodstream, it flows like honey from her fingertips onto the keyboard. Indeed, it has flowed into over fifty books, many of them New York Times bestsellers, and E-Reads is reissuing at least half of them. But don't make the mistake of equating sweet with saccharine. Her heroines are often strong, willful, and lusty, and heaven help any man who underestimates them. It should come as no surprise that their creator, proud winner of Romance Writers of America's Lifetime Achievement Award, has been called the Steel Magnolia of Women's Fiction.

Which novel to start with? You could throw a dart at a list and land on a winner, but you can't go wrong with Love's Wild Desire.

- Richard Curtis

Love in (Every One of )These United States

How many writing careers are born when a fan puts down a book and says, "Hell, I can write better than that!"? That was pretty much what Janet Dailey said to her husband Bill one day in the early 1970's after reading a particularly tedious English romance. Janet had married the flamboyant and plain-spoken land developer after working for him for ten years, and he thought Janet ought to put her money where her mouth is. "Well woman, get off your behind and write one!" Dailey commanded.

She did and submitted it to Harlequin. They bought it, and another, and another after that. In fact, they bought another 56 after that. The Daileys toured the United States in a camper and their tour inspired Janet to set a romance in every state of the Union. (A few states inspired a second novel.) Taken altogether, they were called the Americana Series and they launched the fabulous career of one of America's reigning queens of romance.

Janet did a dozen more romances before moving into bigger single title mass market paperbacks and the Calder series, one of her hallmarks. But she didn't stop there, rising to the challenge of mainstream women's fiction and the bestseller list.

E-Reads is happy to make the Americana Series available to you both in download and print editions. We're particularly delighted to be in production with No Quarter Asked, the novel that Janet "got off her behind" and wrote at the behest of her husband, and you can look for that one in the coming months. Meanwhile, start with A for Alabama (Dangerous Masquerade) and work way through W for Wyoming (Darling Jenny). Or pick out a novel set in your home state. All roads lead to Janet Dailey's America!

- Richard Curtis

Running Very, Very Scared

If you've ever traveled through the Ozark Mountains you'll appreciate how challenging it is to run up, down, over, and through its rugged terrain. Even when you're not carrying a baby and fleeing for your life, it's all but impossible. But Kate Reed is carrying a baby and there are some really bad men after her. They've already killed her husband and they won't hesitate to kill her too if she doesn't give them her child. Kate's marathon training helps to navigate the hills and hollows, but there's no way to train for an event called Hush Your Crying Baby When Killers Are Looking For You.

It seems that Kate's husband arranged for a no-questions-asked adoption. She should have asked a few questions, like whose kid is this and are you sure they were okay about giving it up? The answers are, a) it belongs to a mob family and b) they're not okay about it. They're not okay about it at all.

That's the premise of Linda Ladd's thriller Running Scared. Linda is a leading romance writer who has successfully evolved into a thriller author. In those earlier romances you'll see Linda's gift for creating suspense and action. E-Reads carries seven of them. Linda lives on an Ozark lake and though I've never visited her home, I image it's just like the one her heroine Kate lived in when intruders broke in demanding she return the baby she had grown to love more than anything in the world...

- Richard Curtis

Maggie Davis Interview

E-Reads spoke to Maggie Davis about her novel Stage Door Canteen in February 2004.

E-Reads: Many readers of romance are familiar with you as Katherine Deauxville, but over your career you've stepped out a few times from behind the pen name as Maggie Davis. Did you know from the outset that this would be one of those projects that would defy the Romance fiction category?

Maggie: Well, it was hard to think of Stage Door Canteen as a romance, even though it does have at least three "love stories." But WW2 has often been dealt with romantically, even sentimentally. The men and women in many recent films and books about the era often seem candy-coated, as if writers are afraid readers don't want to see us as we really were then. I wanted to take a different, more realistic approach.

Of course there's a lot of passion - and sentiment, too - in Stage Door Canteen. Some is even pretty raw and unvarnished. I tried to handle the action scenes the same way. To do this, I went straight to the men and women who were actually there. Thank God there are still many of them around. They told me themselves what it was like. I owe a great deal to them, as they helped me re-create the dark days in New York in the winter of 1942-43, when the electric lights were turned off and people were genuinely afraid of an enemy attack like the one that had happened a bare year before at Pearl Harbor. Our country was at war; there was no telling where the next blow would fall. Today is very reminiscent.

The backstage production for the Broadway musical Oklahoma! figures prominently in your story. What drew you to this as a story line?

Every biography or autobiogrpaphy of people like Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Agnes de Mille and others connected with the original production tell the turbulent but true story of the problems involved in getting Oklahoma! (originally called "Away We Go") to Broadway. Most of the critics and newspaper columnists were betting Rodgers and Hammerstein's first effort as a team would never open. The director and choreographer hated each other, the lead dancer had a drinking problem and the ballet girls were ugly. Worse, in spite of heroic efforts, no backers were willing to invest money in what was definitely an oddball project by then-current standards!

The Stage Door Canteen, just off Broadway in the basement of the Forty-Fourth Street Theater building was staffed by volunteers from the New York theater (including, in the story, members of the Oklahoma! cast). Famous stars donated their time to fix food, wipe off tables and wield a mop, while pretty actresses danced with servicemen and generally kept things lively.

Oklahoma! when it finally opened, became an icon of World War Two. To everyone's amazement - except the people who were connected to it - America and the whole world fell in love with this bouncy, poignant story of cowboys and their girlfriends and frontier life in the American West.

Right away critics recognized Oklahoma! as unique, even though Walter Winchell had scoffed that Agnes de Mille's ballets were "cowboys in toe shoes" The music was wonderful. "People Will Say We're In Love" and "Surrey With The Fringe On Top" went around the world to troops everywhere via radio. The songs are standard hits today, sixty years later.

SDC was a real club in New York during the forties and became widely publicized, even resulting in a classic movie. How were you inspired to bring that special ambience back to life?

The Stage Door Canteen was famous from the moment it opened because so many theater and movie stars were connected with it - Katherine Hepburn, Ray Bolger (the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz) Tallulah Bankhead, Ava Gardner. And on and on. A weekly show featuring dramas written around the Canteen ran on radio, and in 1943 a movie called Stage Door Canteen (1943) began filming on the premises. In the past few years the old black and white movie has become very popular on video and DVD. Over the last two decades I've seen the movie Stage Door Canteen (1943) many times, but I've always had a feeling a bigger, more comprehensive story could be told. There are spots that make modern day viewers like me wince, such as the awful Gracie Field song and that endless, rather sappy love story.

When I started doing research for Stage Door Canteen, I found my hunch was right. There were many more stories - moving and authentic - about the Stage Door Canteen and New York City in that fateful wartime winter of 1942-43. I am grateful, now, to be able to put them into my book.

Thank you, Maggie.