I’d love to talk about how froid my sang was at the prospect of reading from my new contemporary romance in front of a crowd of smart, savvy Salon regulars in a bar in the West Village. I write fiction for a living; I could definitely spin you a tale about laughing carelessly in the face of public speaking, or how I just threw on whatever dress came to hand and definitely didn’t try on multiple outfits or take an extra shower to get my hair looking right.

But I’m not going to lie. I was freaking out. I practiced the section I’d painstakingly chosen over and over. I thought about what I’d say when I got up there, the points I needed to hit. And then it was my turn and Ron Hogan, our emcee, ushered me up those stairs and onto that little balcony stage.

Nearly every second I spent up there is a blur. I can only hope I pronounced my own name correctly, much less the title of my book, On the Steamy Side. I know for a fact that I forgot to mention it was hitting bookstores the very next day! I’m pretty sure I read the right section, but my main memory is of how hot it was under the lights.

And then . . . something kind of magical happened. I know, that sounds lame. But there was this moment, as I got to the banter between the hero and the heroine, and I read a line of dialogue that always makes me smile—and the crowd laughed.

I looked up from the book I’d been clutching hard enough to make my fingers ache. I stared out over the upturned faces of my listeners, perched on couches and poufs, sprawled on the floor and standing by the bar, and realized they were all smiling with me. They were engaged and interested and present in the moment, right alongside me.

And all of a sudden, my nerves evaporated.

What was there to be nervous about? I wasn’t on some random stage in front of strangers! No. I’d stumbled into a room filled with kindred spirits, romance readers and writers and aficionados, just like me. I was home.

That’s the magic of Lady Jane’s Salon. It’s a safe place, a sanctuary for those of us who don’t believe that a fondness for happily-ever-afters makes us stupid. It’s also a way to expand our world and discover new writers, as I did when I got my turn in the audience, gazing raptly up as the fiercely intelligent Cara Elliot and the lovely, frank, funny Mingmei Yip took to the stage.

I can’t wait to go back to Lady Jane’s Salon, to experience that energy and enthusiasm for the genre I love, and that sense of community and camaraderie I miss during my solitary writing hours. And while I’ll probably still choose my next reading—and my outfit—with care, I won’t be afraid.

Louisa

A little over a year ago, I received an email from Maya Rodale, a fellow Regency romance writer, inviting me to speak at a new romance reading series.  It was called Lady Jane’s Salon and would meet at a bar downtown called Madame X.

Huh?  Romance reading series?  Bar? Madame X?  Writers get some strange invitations (I’ll share those stories another time—some of them aren’t internet appropriate), but this sounded pretty weird even by my usual standards.

Upon reflection, it was actually a fairly clever notion, getting together a romance reading series.  Every other literary group seemed to have them.  The poets had their open mike nights (with that strange poet inflection we so mocked in all the writers’ camps I went to as a teen); the mystery writers had their cloak and dagger cabals; the serious Literary writers had their prescribed podia.  Why not romance writers, too?

But, still, reading in a bar?  This was going to work how?  I’d been to bar events before.  They invariably involved a lot of bar and not a lot of event.  I toddled off to that inaugural meeting of Lady Jane’s Salon with a novel in hand—to donate to Maya’s chosen charity, Share the Love—and a whole bundle of serious doubts.

Take crow; roast lightly; chew and swallow.  I am happy to say that I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The upstairs lounge of Madame X was packed with a smart crowd of romance writers and readers, many with champagne flutes in hand.  The interior was all red velvet, lush without being louche, with a tiny stage at one end of room.  Perfect for balcony scenes!  Within in a remarkably short while, the crowd was herded to their seats and the reading began.  And it worked.  People listened and laughed and clapped in the right places.  There was no whispering or chatting at the back of the room—there would be time for that during intermission—just genuine interest and appreciation for the people up there on that podium.

In short, Lady Jane’s was a stroke of genius.

Rather than being a one month wonder, Lady Jane’s Salon has grown from month to month, building up a population of both repeat visitors and friends of friends.  Whether writer or reader, everyone is there for the same reason: a shared love of romance fiction.  Basically, we’re all romance nerds at heart.  This makes for very easy interactions and some occasionally rather bizarre conversations.  A recent favorite: “I’m really not attracted to zombies.”

Nowhere else, folks, nowhere else.

I owe Lady Jane’s a personal debt of gratitude, not just for the friendships formed or the warm reception at my reading last year, but because, without Lady Jane’s, I probably wouldn’t be teaching a class at Yale this spring.  One of the readers at the first meeting of Lady Jane’s was Cara Elliott, a fellow Yalie turned romance writer.  During the intermission, we got to talking about the romance scholarship movement, how much we wished there had been classes taking a serious and literary look at romance novels during our undergrad days.  Glasses of wine in hand, we began brainstorming about how we would go about crafting and teaching such a class, a survey of the Regency romance novel from its origins in Austen to its more eccentric offshoots today—and now we’re teaching it.  Thanks, primarily, to Lady Jane’s.

Lady Jane’s has done all of us in the romance writing and reading community a vast service by providing us a place to meet up and, yes, share the love.

I hope you’ll join me on Monday in raising a great big toast to Lady Jane’s Salon and her founders.  Many, many happy returns of the day, Lady Jane!

Thank you to  the lovely Lauren Willig–New York Times Bestselling author and repeat Lady Jane’s Salon reader–for this wonderful blog post! She will be reading from her latest, The Betrayal of The Blood Lily.

I’ve been attending Lady Jane’s Salon pretty regularly since it’s inception, and so when it became my turn to read, I was both excited and nervous. Excited because I’d come to enjoy both the spirit of camaraderie that the salon offers to the people who come, and the wonderful variety of readers that contribute to the salon’s atmosphere. Nervous, because I wanted to let neither the attendees, nor the other readers nor the founders down.  If I was going to fall, I was going to fall big.

So on December 6^th, it was my turn. Regulars, friends and even my parents were in attendance. After Ron Hogan’s fabulous introduction, it was my turn to climb the famous stairs to the platform at Madame X’s. I made it up without falling, and managed to both sit on the stool and adjust the microphone without causing damage. Then it was time for me to speak.

I happen to be a Jekyll and Hyde for public speaking; I’m not quite sure why that is.  I’m either ‘on’ or …not. I either nail it, or stutter through, and I can never tell which one is going to happen before I open my mouth for the first time. That night, I was on. The audience laughed at the right points, the words came flowing out of my mouth, all contributing to a general feeling of perfect synergy. I even sang the passages I’d chosen to sing well enough that the song was recognizable. It was a victory in the truest sense of the term.

Once I’d finished, it felt almost like any other Lady Jane’s night; there were two other readers to go. Brenda Chin spoke next, and gave us all a summary of Harlequin’s 60^th anniversary year and the amazing changes that Harlequin was instituting starting in January. I also got to hear Hope Tarr, a friend and one of the founders, read from her brand new Scottish Historical, Twelve Nights.

But it also seemed slightly miraculous. That night we also heard about Harlequin’s amazing contribution to ‘Share the Love,’ and I was able to share it all with my friends and family. Thank you all so much for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful community, and I will definitely be attending on January 4th.

Salon guest author Mari Mancusi reports on what it’s like to read at Lady Jane’s…

I have many talents, but reading out loud is not one of them. I think mostly this is because I talk too fast and therefore end up tripping up over my words. Not a pretty picture.

So when Lady Jane Salon co-founder Leanna Hieber asked me if I’d come to Madame X’s in October to take part in their monthly reading series, I was more than a little nervous. I have no problem going up on stage, mind you, or talking to a big crowd. I just hate reading out loud.

But how could I turn up the opportunity to share my book, Boys that Bite (which is about to be re-released by Berkley along with my other Blood Coven Vampire books) with such a great group of people? I had to say yes.

The night came and I arrived at Madame X, greeting my friends and others who had turned out for the event. It was a packed house. Then Leanna came up and told me the other author who was supposed to read had been forced to cancel. She was going to be reading from Kathryn Smith’s book instead.

Oh great, I thought. So now I’m following a reading done by a professional actress! I’m doomed! I sat there, listening to Leanna’s lyrical voice and her proper English accents, wishing at the very least they’d have let me go first.

Soon enough, Leanna had finished and I was up. Gathering my nerve, I mentally reminded myself to speak slowly and headed up on stage. After a lovely intro by Ron Hogan I started reading.

And turns out – it wasn’t so bad. I stumbled a bit and decided against giving my British vampire an accent (I could never top Leanna’s after all!) but overall I felt pretty good up there. The audience was receptive – laughing in all the right places and eventually I got through my passage unscathed. I walked off the stage feeling good about myself and my book.

So thank you everyone who came out to hear me read! I appreciate your laughter and attention – definitely helped me get through it! And I hope to see some of you up on stage in months to come!

Supposedly, New York is deserted in August. Apparently, everyone came down to Lady Jane’s Salon on Monday. It was standing room only our three authors.

Johnny Diaz read from his latest, Boston Boys Club. Anna DePalo read a delicious scene from The Billionaire In Penthouse B. Delilah Marvelle came in a fabulous costume for a fabulous reading from Lord Of Pleasure.

Co-founder Hope Tarr is blogging about the readings and everyone who was there. Visit her blog for the details.

The delightful and talented Biz Urban took many gorgeous photographs! See the rest of her work at www.bizurban.com.

(Photos: Anna DePalo, Johnny Diaz, Delilah Marvelle, and one of my favorite pictures from Biz

Elizabeth K.  Mahon–scandalous blogger and salon regular–has so graciously provided a report of last night’s fun at Lady Jane’s.

Last night, I moseyed on down to Madame X for the July edition of Lady Jane’s Salon.  This reading series has quickly become a must-not miss event here in New York.  It’s hard to believe that no one came up with the idea of hosting a romance reading series in New York until this year! What were we thinking? No matter, thanks to founders Hope Tarr, Ron Hogan, Leanna Renee Hieber and Maya Rodale, Lady Jane’s is here to stay. The wonderful thing about the Lady Jane’s Salon reading series is not only is it a great way to catch up with friends, and also networking, but it also gives the readers a chance to give back by donating gently used books to Share the Love.

Ron Hogan was a delightful comprere for the evening’s festivities. This month’s event was very special because Susie Felber, the daughter of the author Edith Layton who passed away recently, gave a wonderfully funny and touching speech about her mother.  I didn’t think it was possible to laugh and cry at the same time! I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a run on Edith Layton on Amazon.com today after hearing Susie’s memorial to her mother last night.

The next reader was RWA NYC’s own Dee Davis (who was our author of the year at last year’s Golden Apple Awards).  Dee read from her book A Match Made on Madison.  If you watch Millionaire Matchmaker on Bravo, or are a big fan of Sex and the City, you will love this book.  After a brief pause so that we could refresh our drinks (I’m a big fan of the Indecent Proposal), we had two authors whose work I was unfamilliar with, but I can’t wait to read their books, Anthea Lawson and Diana Love.

Again, another fantabulous evening at Lady Jane’s.  If you are in New York the first Monday of the month, you cannot miss this event.

Visit Elizabeth at www.scandalouswoman.blogspot.com or at the next Salon on Monday, August 3rd.

Andrea Pickens reads from her latest book ‘Seduced by a Spy.’ The sound quality is a little quiet, so turn up the speakers for this one.