Romance Authors and Social Media

socialAfter finishing a good book, do you find yourself wanting to learn a little bit about the author?  Do you want to know what other books the author has written?  Are you reading a series and want to know the titles in sequence?  Well, most authors are really into social media and have their own blogs, facebook accounts, and twitter accounts.  Some of the author’s blogs are wonderfully entertaining, funny, and loaded with personal information.  Some authors even have give-aways, usually books, or bags – even heartdinner with the author.  They also list where they will be personally appearing.  They let you into their personal lives, even sharing pictures of their families or vacations they have taken.   Do you wonder what authors are reading?  They’ll tell you – even promoting and recommending other authors’ books.  Romance authors really enjoy their readers and are willing to share just about anything with them.  Romance authors are also a very tight knit group.  Even though they live all over the country, they form very close friendships among themselves.  For example, author Kristan Higgins’ husband traveled out West to attend a ceremony for fallen firefighters (he is a firefighter here in Connecticut) and he actually stayed with author Robyn Carr’s family.

followRomance authors give us insight to how they came about writing their novels.  Sometimes, they put a call out for readers to suggest names for upcoming characters.  Authors read every comment a reader makes and sometimes write novels based on what their readers are looking for.   If you have a favorite author, it’s easy to just google their name and see what their website has to offer.  Below are two of my favorite Romance authors websites.  I try to read them once a week because they almost always give me a good laugh.jill 2

Jill Shalvis – Her site is very informative and her blog and facebook page are hysterical!  She shares a lot about her daily life and she posts lots of pictures, including what some of the heroes of her books might look like.  She has been reprimanded a few times by facebook for posting ‘too hot to handle’ photos!  The library has a great assortment of her books here.

kristanKristan Higgins – Her site is also very informative.  She and Jill Shalvis have similar writing styles in books and their blogs/facebook are quite similar.  They are also very good friends even though Kristan lives here in Connecticut and Jill on the West Coast in a small town in the Sierra Mountains.  The library also has a great assortment of her books here.

Some other interesting Romance authors websites are:

Robyn Carr – website          library catalog

Suzanne Brockmann – website      library catalog

Susan Elizabeth Phillips – website    library catalog

Julie Ann Walker – website     library catalog

Elle Kennedy – website      library catalog

 

Spotlight: Author Kristan Higgins

Kristan Higgins

Kristan Higgins

Kristan Higgins is a New York Times and USA Today best selling author and two-time winner of the Romance Writers of America RITA Award.   She’s a Connecticut girl, living in Durham.  She is married to a firefighter(who also happens to be a fantastic cook) and has two children, a cat and a dog.  In addition to being an award winning author, she is an award winning baker.  Previously a copywriter, Kristan took her lifelong love of romance novels and began writing when her kids were little and napping.  Her stories are infused with humor, focused on relationships and her characters are just regular, everyday people.

Her latest book is The Pefect Match.  Honor Holland has just been unceremoniously rejected by her lifelong crush. And now—a mere three weeks later—Mr. Perfect is engaged to her best friend. But resilient, reliable Honor is going to pick herself up, dust herself off and get back out there.

Charming, handsome British professor Tom Barlow just wants to do right by his unofficial stepson, Charlie, but his visa is about to expire. Now Tom must either get a green card or leave the States—and leave Charlie behind.

In a moment of impulsiveness, Honor agrees to help Tom with a marriage of convenience—and make her ex jealous in the process. But juggling a fiancé, hiding out from her former best friend and managing her job at the family vineyard isn’t easy. And as sparks start to fly between Honor and Tom, they might discover that their pretend relationship is far too perfect to be anything but true love….

The Cheshire Library has a wonderful collection of Ms. Higgins’ books.  You can find them in our catalog.