The Salon meets on Monday, January 3rd, 7-9 PM at Madame X (94 W. Houston St.). Cash bar. Admission is $5 or one gently used paperback romance novel.Net proceeds support an end-of-year donation to a NYC based women’s charity.

Wishing you Happy Holidays & a Joyous New Year,

The Lady Jane Founders Team

Ever since I visited Lady Jane’s Salon in New York as an observer last fall, I’ve been dying to go back.  Romance readings! A venue that looks like a cross between a brothel and an Italian granny’s bedroom! Free-flowing liquor!  Romance fans!  What’s not to like?

Unfortunately, I don’t live in New York City, so my first chance to attend the salon as an author giving a reading was at the RT Booklovers Convention in Columbus, Ohio, this past weekend.  The lovely ladies of the salon (waving to Maya Rodale, Leanna Renee Hieber, and Hope Tarr) and their debonair master of ceremonies (Ron Hogan) made do with swashes of red net and champagne to transform a hotel meeting room into the usual sultry setting.

I felt right at home.

The night started out well.  I’d showed up with reading in hand, had talked to Hope about the length of the reading (no more than 15 minutes), told her that it was really only about 10 minutes, pulled out my pages, and discovered that I’d lied.  Somehow I’d miscounted the length.  My reading was long.  Really long.  Twenty minutes at least, if not more. That’s when panic set in.

I didn’t want my performance to be too long, because nothing is as unnerving as watching people snooze while you read.  On the other hand, the scene I’d chosen from my upcoming October 2010 release—A Hellion in Her Bed—was the one I thought most interesting when read aloud.  Frantically I started cutting.  I had two people ahead of me, right?  Plenty of time to trim if I ignored the other readings.

But I didn’t want to ignore the other readings.  That would be just plain rude—and ultimately impossible for a romance lover like myself!  Ack!

In the end, I started cutting, got sucked into Delilah Marvelle’s reading, then Linnea Sinclair’s (both books promptly added to my massive TBB list), and then it was my turn.  I prayed my excerpt wouldn’t put people to sleep and headed to the stage to read.

Fortunately, the people who frequent Lady Jane’s Salon (even on the road) are incredibly wonderful and forgiving people who actually like and read romance (there wasn’t a snooty litfic critic in the bunch).  And apparently there is no such thing as too long with them.  People listened, laughed (at the appropriate points, thank God), and applauded.

It was wonderful.  (And the champagne was good, too.)

Thanks for a lovely time Lady Jane’s Salon.  I can’t wait to read again in New York in October.  And this time I promise not to panic . . . and to keep it to 15 minutes.

To the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention in Columbus Ohio! (My home state! Yes, this is Leanna posting this) Here is our fabulous lineup. If you’re going to be at the awesome RT Con, we hope you will join us Saturday, May 1st, from 7-9pm, for greatness!

Featuring:

DELILAH MARVELLE

An RT Nominee for Best First Historical Romance (Mistress of Pleasure) and Bookseller’s Best Award Delilah Marvelle has a flare for researching all the beautifully naughty things in history.  Her upcoming three book Scandal series with HQN in 2011 will be highlighting history in the hopes of making every reader blush.  For more about Delilah’s naughty research, you can visit her blog www.DelilahMarvelle.blogspot.com or visit her website at www.DelilahMarvelle.com

LINNEA SINCLAIR

Rita, Prism, Pearl and RT Gold Medal winner Linnea Sinclair leads the Sci-Fi Romance world with her Dock Five Universe series. A former news reporter and retired private detective who yearns for more adventure than ‘Hold the presses!’ and stacks of case files can provide. The role of starship captain was her dream long before James T ever uttered “Beam me up!” Writing stories is her way of living that dream. When she’s not tinkering with a recalcitrant sublight drive, you can find her in southwest Florida (winters) or central Ohio (summers) living with her very patient husband and thoroughly spoiled cats.  Visit her at www.linneasinclair.com Upcoming release: Working Title Songs of Love and Death: Tales of Star-Crossed Love, Anthology Release Date: November 16, 2010

SABRINA JEFFRIES 

In the past decade, New York Times bestselling author Sabrina Jeffries has penned 18 Regency romances and five novellas – becoming a regular on both the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists in the process. New Orleans-born, Thailand-reared, the novelist attributes her success to listening to what peers, her publisher and her own common sense told her she should be writing.  “I write what I enjoy reading:  lighter, sexier historical romances,” Jeffries said, “with more dialogue and more sensuality.” Writing about 19^th-century English life comes naturally.  Not only is Jeffries a lifelong Jane Austen fan, but she has a doctorate in English lit from Tulane (as well as a specialty in Early Modern British literature). Yet the impetus for her stories, Jeffries says, is always “what if” – not what if her hero likes this or that but what if this happened and this happened … what would it do to a person?  “I have stories in my head, and I have to get them out,” Jeffries explained. Her ultimate goal in life would be to have “everybody reading one of my books.” The Truth About Lord Stoneville, which was released in January, is the 29^th book of her entire career.  Her next title will be A Hellion in Her Bed, Book 2 of the Hellions of Halstead Hall series, coming this Fall.  With it, the novelist will have more than 3 million Sabrina Jeffries books in print. Visit her at www.sabrinajeffries.com

And we’ll be back just in time for our May 3rd Salon back in NYC!

May 3rd at Madame X will feature Christina Britton Conroy, Jeri Smith-Ready and myself, Leanna Renee Hieber.

We will see you there!

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

Delilah Marvelle, Anna DePalo, and Johnny Diaz. That’s right–a boy!

Best of all? This month, we are waiving admission. So re-read your old romances once more and spend five bucks on a drink at the bar. Come September, we’ll be back to collecting books and bucks for Share The Love.

WHEN: Monday, August 3, 7-9 PM; monthly meet-ups to follow on the first Monday of every month.

WHERE: Madame X, 94 Houston Street (btw LaGuardia and Thompson Streets), New York, NY 10012, 212.539.0808. Nearest subways: F,V,B,D at Lafayette, N, R at Prince Street.