HAPPY BLOG-O-VERSARY!

(See info on Today's Giveaway at the bottom of this post.)

‘Celebrate, celebrate, dance to the music’ is the line of a song that could be the anthem for Romancing The Genres. One year ago today Romancing The Genres group blog launched as a celebration of the universal nature of love stories. We started out with 21 writers/Genre-istas from all across the United States. We had high hopes for instant success…thousands of people would flock to this creative, innovative blog and we’d rocket to the top of Blogdom.

Judith Ashley

 

Our creative, innovative blog had over 1000 page views in its first month…not thousands but over one thousand.  Perhaps we didn’t achieve the splash of our dreams but we did reach more than a ripple. 

 

Although it’s impossible to represent every sub-genre of Romance (For example, the Historical Romance sub-genre can be divided into Medieval, Regency, Victorian, Viking, Australian, the Old West, etc.) we strive to recruit writers across a broad cross-section of the Romance Genre. 

Sarah Raplee

Of course we hoped, once a Genre-ista always a Genre-ista, but we’ve had a few Genre-istas decide blogging or blogging with us wasn’t a good fit. When openings occurred, we looked at our vision of diversity/variety/something for every reader when making decisions about which writers we would try to recruit. 

Initially we were all female – we now have one male. No, George Guthridge is not a token male but an award-winning science fiction, non-fiction and thriller author who is trying his hand at romance.  Terri Molina writes Hispanic characters in her Romantic Suspense books. Laura Baumbach writes Male/Male Romance. B.A. Binns writes gritty Urban Young Adult stories with black male protagonists. 

We decided to expand geographically as well as sub-genre-wise and now have Genre-istas from New Zealand, Australia, and Canada as well as the U.S. Our newest recruits will join us in July: Australian Urban Fantasy Author Erica Hayes, Canadian Erotic Romance Author Opal Carew and Contemporary Romance Author Jenna Burke, an American who hails from Oregon.   

Guest Bloggers post on Saturdays. Last July we decided to bring more value to our readers by showcasing the Romance sub-genres in more depth. In September we began the practice of “Highlighting” where for a month we feature Guest Authors who write in a particular Romance sub-genre. 

When we look back over our list of past Guests, we see many award-winning authors and well-known industry professionals. Without their belief in us, we aren’t sure we’d have grown as fast and as far as we have. We’re celebrating by inviting many of them back this month for an encore, along with some special guests who are making a first appearance. In fact, we’ve scheduled guests for Saturdays and Sundays this month! (You'll find the schedule in the sidebar on the right.)

When RTG launched, our goal was to reach 20K page views by May first – we passed that April 2.  
We've passed 22,000!!!

Future Goals:

• Continue to grow the blog by featuring the vast array of stories available in Romance. We’ll be ecstatic if we reached 30K hits by July 1! And if we miss that, our sights are set on passing 50K before May 1, 2013.
• Continue to support variety and diversity not only in the sub-genres but also in the Genre-istas ourselves. As openings occur, we’ll continue to search for and invite writers and authors from around the globe.
• Learn from the past – what worked, what we need to change to improve and grow.
• Provide a venue for the Genre-istas to share their work with readers in the form of short stories written in the various sub-genres of romance through our sister site “Free Reads From the Genre-istas."

TODAY'S GIVEAWAY ITEMS: 

Many Genre-istas will do giveaways this month on their posting dates. Today, one lucky commenter who leaves their email address so we can contact them will win:

• A Hydra Aromatherapy Shower Burst - Clarity (Eucalytus + Peppermint). Place one Shower Burst in the shower and let the indirect spray activate the aromatherapy experience.

• A super-awesome 3 1/2-inch square ‘Tell Your Story’ refrigerator magnet!

We hope you return often this month to celebrate with us.

Judith Ashley, Sarah Raplee & The Genre-istas

www.RomancingTheGenres.blogspot.com

www.FreeReadsFromTheGenre-istas.blogspot.com