by Sulemaan Ahmed, Olga Kwak, Lori Meyers, Karen Queme, and Michelle Renaud

How do you celebrate sixty years of pure reading pleasure?  All year, of course!

And you’d better believe that we did—there were so many ways that we celebrated in 2009 that I had to enlist the help of several people to write this post.  Like all good families, we gathered together and put together a celebration of our sixty years in publishing that won’t soon be forgotten.  It took blood, sweat and tears, it filled our heads day and night, but ultimately, it was worth it.  It’s not every year you get to celebrate such a milestone, after all.  It’s hard to see how we’ll top this anniversary off, but I suppose our centennial is coming along…

And I’m sure you’re not entirely surprised.  After all, we did mention it (once or twice…).  In honour of the end of our celebrations, I’d like to take the time to show and tell you just how much celebrating we did.

Come along…

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by Michelle Renaud, Senior Manager, Public Relations

How far would you go to be “in the know”? According to the Harlequin Romance Report 2010: Tempted, a whopping 48% of North Americans reveal that they have peeked at a colleagues’ pay stub, admitting that they have given in to temptation and crossed the line to satisfy their curiosity.

At Harlequin, Romance is our business and we know it better than anyone. The Romance Report, now in its 21st year, is examining the topic of Temptations. We explored the notion that temptations are really about recognizing a want or need and deciding whether or not the risk of pursuing it is worth the reward.

Last year the world witnessed the downside of giving into greed, indulgence and ultimately, temptation. The current economic situation has forced us all to think hard about where we spend our money. We asked survey respondents to tell us what one temptation they could not give up, even when money was tight.  Seventy-five percent of respondents said books were the number one temptation they couldn’t live without! Instead, fancy dinners, shopping and vacations were sacrificed.

Our survey also found that over 60% of men and women agreed that when it comes to relationships, they want a partner who is honest with them about temptations.

Looking at a few years ago when we focused on confessions, it seems men and women have come full circle. Rather than dealing with a confession that happens after a transgression, men and women want to know about temptations before they happen.

So whether it’s looking at a colleague’s paystub or snooping through your partner’s personal belongings, we want the truth, even if it hurts. Today it seems ignorance is no longer bliss, information is.

Tempted to know more? Have a look at the video below!

MIRA author Laura Caldwell, who publishes her Izzy McNeil Mysteries series with Harlequin, will be appearing on The Dr. Phil Show to discuss her Life After Innocence Project—a program she developed which is dedicated to helping the wrongly convicted begin their lives again.

Laura’s taping will be broadcast over three days—February 4th and 5th have been confirmed, with the third broadcast yet to be announced. We’ll certainly have more information as it becomes available, so tune in on the 4th and 5th to learn more about Laura Caldwell’s Life After Innocence program.

Curious about the Izzy McNeil Mysteries? Have a look at the Browse the Book widget below for a sample of the first book, Red Hot Lies.

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Congratulations to all of our authors who are in this week’s New York Times bestseller list.

Trade:

#25 Duets by Nora Roberts (Silhouette, week 2)
#29 The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf (MIRA, week 21)

Paperback

#11 Forbidden Falls by Robyn Carr (MIRA, week 2)
#10 The Man You’ll Marry by Debbie Macomber (MIRA, week 2)
#32 Shattered by Joan Johnston (MIRA, week 2)
#27 Amazing Gracie by Sherryl Woods (MIRA, week 2)

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by Amy Wilkins, Assistant Manager, Digital Content and Social Media

They say don’t judge a book by it’s cover, but sometimes it’s very hard not to…especially when a cover doesn’t quite turn out quite like you imagined. And some covers can become notorious–even non-romance fans know about the infamous three-armed woman! (In fact, my college publishing instructor brought in a copy of the original Castles in the Air to class one day. Though I think she might sell it on eBay if she knew how in demand it is now!)

The original release of Get Lucky by Suzanne Brockmann was one such cover. The hero, Luke “Lucky” O’Donlon, is supposed to be the hottest member of the Navy SEAL team that stars in her Tall, Dark and Dangerous miniseries — along the lines of Brad Pitt. The cover? Well, not so much Brad Pitt… Luckily, author Suzanne had a good sense of humour about it!

So when it came time to release more titles from the Tall, Dark, and Dangerous series as part of our eBook program, we thought it was time to give Lucky a cover he deserves. Armed with a budget of next to nothing (so sadly Brad Pitt was out), the Harlequin digital team picked out some potential Luckys from stock photos and sent them to Suzanne to make the final selection.  She ended up choosing an image of a smiling (and most attractive ) man since she describes Lucky as a “happy-go-lucky” kind of guy.

And here is the final cover!

We hope you like Lucky’s makeover as much as we do! And for fans of the Tall, Dark and Dangerous series, we’re thrilled to announce that all 11 books in the series are now available in eBook format individually, as well as the whole collection in bundle format. Click here to see all the available titles.

So now that you’ve seen our pick for Lucky O’Donlon, I’d like to know who you would have cast as the sexiest SEAL of them all?

by Olga Kwak, quoth the blogger, “Nevermore.”

We certainly love this book and we’re pleased that the Mystery Writers of America association agrees!

I’m very happy to announce that Heather Gudenkauf’s The Weight of Silence has been nominated for an Edgar Award in the Best New Novel category.

Winners will be announced on April 29, 2010 in New York City.

The Weight of Silence is Heather’s first novel and it has already spent an incredible twenty weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list.

Congratulations to Heather!

For a sample of The Weight of Silence click on the Browse the Book widget below.

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by Deanna Raybourn, author of the Lady Julia Grey series and the upcoming The Dead Travel Fast.

One of the great pleasures in having books brought out electronically is the chance to write enriched content. This is usually an assignment I get months—sometimes years!—after the book was first written, and I adore getting to revisit my favorite characters. When I write a book, I have maps and family trees and backstory anecdotes that may never find their way into the novel itself, but enriched content offers me a chance to share those juicy little morsels with readers. I love to include mentions of food in my books, and the enriched content often includes actual recipes so readers can create the same foods my characters are eating and munch along as they read.

Another favorite bit of enriched content are the letters I write between characters. There might be an occasional note in a book, but the letters I create for the ebooks are special. They are much more detailed, and often they give a much fuller picture of the relationship between characters. In the enhanced ebook edition of Silent in the Grave, there is a letter from the main character, Lady Julia Grey, to her sister, Portia, years before the main action of the novel opens. But it sets up that action, even foreshadowing a few events that did not unfold for my characters for several years and giving readers a little peek at what is yet to come.

As the first in the series, Silent in the Grave lent itself particularly well to enriched content. Due to the vagaries of publishing, I had actually written the extra material for the second and third books in the series before I tackled the first! But writing that additional material for those novels made me all the more eager to contribute to the ebook of the first. For me, every book I write has something I wanted to explore further but had to leave out for reasons of space or time. Enriched content is the perfect place to bring those treasures out to play!

Editor’s note: to thank Deanna for writing us a great post, we’re rewarding you, our readers! Let us know if you’ve ever bought an enriched ebook edition in the comments by midnight EST January 25th and we’ll send you a real book: an advanced reader copy of Deanna’s upcoming The Dead Travel Fast. That is, when we get a copy of it! Contest only open to residents of the US and Canada. Full contest details here.

By Margie Miller, Creative Director, Single Titles

Women fall in love with them. Men want to be them. Everybody loves a cowboy.

The ultimate strong silent type—fearless, honest and hard working. They’re never afraid to roll up their sleeves and jump in when a crisis hits. They’re tough to pin down, but once you do, you have a friend and partner for life. They are an American icon, the epitome of what it means to be an honorable man, and as Linda Lael Miller puts it. They are “the equivalent of the British Knight”.

Last June, on a ranch outside of Los Angeles, and together with a team that included a photographer and his assistants, a wardrobe stylist, an animal trainer, and other really helpful people from the ranch, we began the task of bringing Tate, Garret and Austin McKettrick to life for the covers of the new, upcoming Linda Lael Miller books. This year, we added film to the mix, in order to provide the readers with an added glimpse into these characters.  John Logsdon of Blind Vision Films came on board to join in a really long and exceptionally fun day of shooting.

I hope you enjoy watching and reading about these three cowboys as much as I did bringing them to life!

Visit Take A Cowboy Home for the full-length version of this documentary. For more info on the McKettricks of Texas and the Take A Cowboy Home website and sweepstakes follow the McKettricks blog tour to:

Beyond Her Book – Jan 18 (that’s today!)

Super Librarian – Jan 19

Petticoats and Pistols – Jan 21

Dear Author – Jan 21

And don’t miss the spotlight on Linda Lael Miller and the McKettricks men at Love Western Romances in March!

Congratulations to all of our authors who are in this week’s New York Times bestseller list.

Trade:

#27 Duets by Nora Roberts (Silhouette, week 1)
#30 The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf (MIRA, week 20)

Paperback

#8 Forbidden Falls by Robyn Carr (MIRA, week 1)
#9 The Man You’ll Marry by Debbie Macomber (MIRA, week 1)
#18 Shattered by Joan Johnston (MIRA, week 1)
#23 Worth the Risk by Nora Roberts (Silhouette, week 6)
#29 Amazing Gracie by Sherryl Woods (MIRA, week 1)
#35 Reese’s Bride by Kat Martin (MIRA, week 1)

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Editor’s Note: We finish our series about eBook Blogger Bundles with Wendy, the Super Librarian whose bundle is Blogger Bundle Volume III: Super Librarian Selects the Harvey Girls (containing The Doctor’s Wife, The Lawman’s Bride and The Preacher’s Daughter.)

by Wendy Crutcher, the Super Librarian.

I rediscovered the romance genre over ten years ago when I took my first professional library job, and I quickly developed an insatiable appetite for historical romances. Joining various e-mail loops, doing some reviewing, and starting my own blog in 2003, led to the accumulation of a TBR pile that can be seen from space and a reputation for being a champion of historical western romances.

So it’s really no surprise that I’m hopelessly devoted to the Harlequin Historical line. While the western once ran amok in the romance genre, the number of titles has dwindled in recent years. Harlequin Historical is one of the few places where I can routinely get my western fix, and I’ve discovered many wonderful writers through them.

Cheryl St.John is easily my favorite of the bunch. She really has a knack for making her characters sing. These are people with pasts, and typically a fair amount of emotional baggage, but who don’t wallow or throw pity parties for themselves. She routinely writes determined, yet vulnerable heroines, and pairs them with strong heroes. The best part, is that being romance novels, the reader knows that no matter the odds, no matter the terrible things that may have happened in their pasts, the author is going to make everything alright in the end. Nobody really does this better than Cheryl St.John, whose stories exemplify the term “comfort read” for me.

When Harlequin asked me to propose an eBook bundle from their expansive backlist, I knew I had to include a bundle of nothing but Cheryl St.John Harlequin Historical titles. She’s written many wonderful books over the years, but I think a good place to start is with her loosely-connected Harvey Girls trilogy. They are textbook examples of why I enjoy her stories so much. I hope you enjoy them as well.