by Jayne Hoogenberk, eHarlequin Community Manager

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Not only is March roaring in like a lion up here in Toronto and in the Eastern Seaboard, it’s also heating up as we prepare to celebrate the 2,000th Silhouette Desire novel, with a month-long ‘blog bash’ on the eHarlequin Community Desire Author blog.

Fan Favorite author, Bronwyn Jameson kicked off the festivities on Monday the 1st and all of your favorite authors will be popping in to post about writing these sensual, irresistible stories about rich, powerful heroes, strong and sultry heroines and scandalous family sagas. Visit their blog daily for new updates.

As you well know, bestselling author, Brenda Jackson has the honor of being the author of the line’s 2000th release, Hot Westmoreland Nights, delivering yet another highly-anticipated installment of the steamy Westmoreland saga and we can’t wait to read about Ramsey Westmoreland’s dilemma with his delectable new cook, Chloe and how she takes him down! It’s also Brenda’s 15th Anniversary as an author this year, so she truly has a lot to celebrate. Brenda gave us some insider info on her latest Westmoreland story in her Inside Scoop interview and says, “Readers can expect a strong, sexy and handsome hero who thinks he doesn’t need love, and a beautiful and feisty heroine who shows him differently. Readers can also expect a hot and sexy love story.”

Brenda is a die-“heart” romantic who married her childhood sweetheart and still proudly wears the “going steady” ring he gave her when she was 15. Because she began believing very early in the power of love and
romance, she can’t help but write stories with happy endings and we love the Westmorelands so much that we can’t wait for even more beginnings!

Don’t miss Hot Westmoreland Nights, one of six new sensual Silhouette Desire titles on sale this month, and don’t forget to stop by the Desire Author blog to say hello. For all of Brenda Jackson’s currently available titles, see her author page on eHarlequin.com.

To learn more about the author, visit her Web site, www.brendajackson.net.

And tell us, who is YOUR favorite Westmoreland so far?

Jayne

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…

As always, it should begin with the books.  We began 2009 with a monthly series spotlight.  Each month we chose a different book series to spotlight in order to showcase the variety of great reads Harlequin has to offer, starting with Silhouette Desire.  If you saw that little red sticker on your book, chances are you purchased a book in the month we were spotlighting it!

On top of that, we did something extraordinary—we started giving away free books.  If you’re a member of our Readers Service, this is not news to you. We’ve been sampling books for almost as long as we’ve been in business. Probably because we’re so confident that you’ll love our books, we don’t mind giving you a couple to try at your leisure.  That said, we launched HarlequinCelebrates.com (now rebranded as TryHarlequin.com), an online library of sixteen free downloadable Harlequins, one from almost each series we carry. They were also available on eHarlequin.com and through various online retailers, eBook and mobile partners.

We wanted to provide a free book to every woman in America and Canada and to highlight the breadth and depth of the Harlequin Series editorial with no strings attached. No DRM. No purchase necessary. No registration. No email sign-up. Just click and download a book.

Our goal was 2 million downloads for the year. We did better than that. We had over 3 million downloads. And that 3M figure is just for the downloads we can track. That does not take into account the pass-along or viral factor.

We would be remiss not to mention the great support generated by the various bloggers, authors and Harlequin fans out there who spread the word about the 60th anniversary.  When you blow by your download target and things go viral there is a reason for that.  We thank each of them for it.

We also had terrific media partners such as MSN and Women’s Day where the 16 titles were promoted to their customers.  On the other side we had digital partnerships with Kraft and Harrah’s to promote our 60th anniversary.  In fact, the Harrah’s online relationship resulted in an offline partnership where our 60th art exhibit ended up as a main attraction in the Paris Las Vegas hotel (but more on that in a minute).

In March, June and September we published the Harlequin Famous First Collection. It featured some of the first Harlequin books by New York Times bestselling authors of today such as Debbie Macomber, Diana Palmer and Linda Lael Miller.

In October we published the Harlequin Vintage Collection—a selection of six vintage books from earlier Harlequin days. And, because we could sense that everyone was feeling the vintage vibe, our Digital Commerce team created a stationery collection based on vintage covers. So now anyone can have a keepsake of their own for the 60th anniversary.

But, of course, we didn’t make it all about the books. We love parties, and what’s a better cause to break out the bubbly than sixty years of sexy, romantic, sometimes suspensful, and always pleasureable books?

In May we kicked off the festivities with an art exhibit in New York entitled The Heart of a Woman: Harlequin Cover Art 1949-2009.  The exhibit includes over 100 works of art, some pieces which have not been seen in close to sixty years!  By presenting sixty years of cover artwork, the exhibition offers a unique insight into the profound changes that have occurred in women’s lives over the past six decades—changes that have been captured and reflected on the front of harlequin novels—from shifts in private desire to the politics of gender.

Isn’t she a beauty? The entrance to The Heart of a Woman exhibit in New York City.

If you missed the show in NYC, it’s not too late.  Currently, the exhibit is showcased at Paris Las Vegas, in partnership with Harrah’s Entertainment Inc.  Las Vegas is known as a place for quick escapes so the tie-in to Paris Las Vegas and Harlequin was a natural match—after all, we’re the kings and queens of quick escapes!  The exhibit will run until the end of February 2010, so do check it out if you happen to be in the area.

In Toronto, Canada, we sweetened the deal even more: Harlequin teamed up with Peek Freans Lifestyle Selections to take a Taste of Mischief with our very sexy cover models.  The boys took to the streets in the heart of Toronto at Yonge & Dundas square, dressed as the dashing heroes straight off of Harlequin Intrigue covers, to hand out Peek Freans cookie samples with a coupon for a free ebook download.

Two of our sexy Harlequin Heroes pose for a candid shot on the streets of Toronto.

As you can see, we went whole-hog on the festivities.  Thank you to everyone who helped us put together an anniversary celebration we won’t soon forget.  I leave you now with one final reminder of why Harlequin is pure reading pleasure: celebrity book readings.

by Jayne Hoogenberk, eHarlequin Community Manager

Don’t miss the Holiday Event of the year at eHarlequin.com! Be sure to mark your calendars for December 16th, 2009 for the eighth annual Holiday Open House in the eHarlequin.com online Community.

We’ll be sharing virtual eggnog and holiday cheer with 22 hours of discussions in the forums, three hours of live chat, over 100 authors, fabulous door prizes and all your favorite romance categories represented, all to celebrate the best of the Holiday Season and give you a sneak peak into what to expect inside your books in 2010!

You’ll meet the authors you love, and a few we know you soon will—from warm-hearted and tender romances to the thrills and chills of the paranormal, they write the stories that keep you turning the pages and churning through that To-Be-Read pile. So make a date to join us as we share the joy of the season, make some new friends, catch up on forum gossip and get up-to-the-minute news about series, books and authors—you might even win a prize or two while getting to know us!

For the newbie’s among you here’s a handy program to the day’s events:

Our authors are located in many places on the planet, from Cairo to California, and so in order to accommodate our many different global time zones, we open up discussions in our Forums for each of the respective lines from 12 AM-10PM ET before we swing into action in the Chat Room from 7PM-10PM ET for three hours of live merriment.

Our discussions are grouped into the various imprints and can be found in the community forums on our Café Social board. Our live chat is grouped into categories such as Home & Family, Suspense & Adventure, and Passion and then themed by the hour and accessed through our Chat Room. Don’t worry about getting lost, our Community Hosts are on hand to show you the ropes and point you to where you want to go; all you need to do is show up!

And just in case I haven’t convinced you that this is THE place to hang out with your favorite authors for the Holidays, here are some comments from previous Open Houses and from some special Community friends:

“I can’t wait for the Holiday Open House! Time to send ‘Cheers’ via cyberspace!”—Geri Krotow

“I love open houses—especially when I don’t have to dust first!”—Lois Richer

“Oh I can’t wait. It was so much fun last year and it looks like a lot of my favorite authors will be there this year!”—Kim

Which Harlequin and Silhouette authors are you hoping to meet this year?

by Dee, eHarlequin.com Community Moderator

The National Novel Writing Month annual writing event, perhaps better known to insiders by its acronym NaNoWriMo, takes place each November and brings together professional and amateur writers alike dedicated to a single purpose: starting AND finishing a novel over the course of 30 days. Now there IS an official NaNoWriMo site, but since the eHarlequin.com community is home to a number of aspiring authors, we’re happy to host our own version of NaNoWriMo and here to explain the ins and outs of the Harlequin “NaNo” is our Community Moderator and NaNoWriMo cheerleader extraordinaire, Dee!

Have you heard the sound? The lumbering thumps of heavy steps that echo through your house and rumble through the neighborhood? Have you felt the ripple of fear course down your spine as it comes closer, day by day, hour by hour? You know what I’m talking about and it’s not just the holidays… It’s NaNoWriMo. Thirty days of writing nonstop. No long, leisurely plotting, no synopsis fine-tuning and mostly importantly, no whining and no–no matter what happens–no stopping until you’ve hit 50,000 words.

It’s HERE!

But before you scream in terror, there’s a virtually painless solution ahead. Over on the eHarlequin.com Write Stuff forum, we run a Nano like no other. Why? Because we know that while writing a whole book in a month is a great goal, sometimes 50k just isn’t what you need. Sometimes it’s 25. Sometimes, it’s 80. Sometimes it’s edits and sometimes it’s multiple edits. Shoot, Harlequin doesn’t even publish anything at 50k, so who are we to demand that specific number? With that in mind, we devised a fiendishly evil plan to take that Nano monster and bring it down to size: “Build Your Own Nano”.

(I just love saying that. In my head it comes with this booming, dramatic echo.)

You name the size, you name the time commitment. Nano at YOUR pace and share with friends who know what it means to write romance. Even better, we share not only our daily word counts, but also our favorite lines for the day and sometimes vent our frustrations when don’t show up on the page.

Believe it or not, the eHarlequin.com Nano gets better! Each week is sponsored by a surprise author, and the writer with the highest word count of the week will win a prize!

So what could possibly be scary about that?

Here’s hoping we get to see YOU at Nano!