On Thursday (the 24th) I'll be the guest blogger on Michelle Buonfiglio's fun, sexy, romance-novel blog, Romance B(u)y the Book, hosted by Lifetime TV.

Please join me as I ask: What's your idea of the unattainable man--and what would you do to get him?

Here's the address:
http://www.lifetimetv.com/lifestyle/entertainment/romance-buy-the-book

Go to the blue blog box on the lower left, then just lurk or register to comment. I'll be chained to my computer (and loving it) all day, replying to comments and questions, so check in any time from about 8 AM on.

Hi, Everyone,

I realize that there is at least one other big event happening on the day that my book is being released, but any of you who can't make it to Albany or will be back in the city by 7 are invited to celebrate the release of my bisexual (m/m/f) historical romantic comedy, Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander.

Where: Revival (upstairs in the lounge, of course)
129 East 15th Street (between 3rd Avenue and Irving Place) Manhattan Gramercy-Flatiron area 212-253-8061
When: Tuesday, April 29th 2008 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 PM

Admission and snacks are free, and there will be a limited number of free books!

This event is being hosted by the meetup group NYC BiChoice.

Library Journal said of Phyllida: "Sparkling with Regency wit and panache, Herendeen's debut novel ... is a brilliant exploration of love, sexuality, class, and gender, but above all, it is a wonderful love story. Highly recommended for those readers comfortable with alternative sexual and erotic literature."

I hope some of you can help me celebrate this happy occasion.

Ann Herendeen

Nothing original here. I have encountered two quotations that encapsulate everything that is going on with me, so thought I'd post them.

The first is the famous Epicurean "Riddle of Evil." I heard it on Jonathan Miller's show on Channel 13, A brief History of Disbelief. Epicurus did not consider himself an atheist. But anyone who is an atheist, like me, will surely have gone through this same thought process:

If God is willing to prevent evil, but is not able to / Then He is not omnipotent.
If He is able, but not willing / Then He is malevolent.
If He is both able and willing / Then whence cometh evil?
If He is neither able nor willing / Then why call Him God?

The second quote is from the novelist Reynolds Price, posted in the blog of Theresa Duncan, a video-game designer and filmmaker, who killed herself recently. I read about this in today's New York Times:

"A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens--second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter."

There are smart people all around us, thinking and saying and writing intelligent things. There's no need to croak ourselves--only connect.

Lambda Rising, GLBTQ Bookstore (the one in Washington DC), is featuring Phyllida among the its top 24 friends on its MySpace page.

Take a look: http://www.myspace.com/lambdarising

And naturally Phyllida is listed on Lambda Rising's online bookstore. Here's the link to their Home/Search page:

http://www.lambdarising.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

Thanks, LR!

I only recently discovered that there was a review of Phyllida on the website Pod People : a review site for self-published books and e-books. Don't know why I missed it, but I'm glad to have seen it now...

Back on October 28 (!) reviewer Emily Veinglory rated Phyllida 8 out of 10, and had this to say:

Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander both is, and is not, your mother's Regency romance. It is a love story with a plucky heroine and a dark, brooding aristocratic hero, there are some balls (yes, I mean dances) in pretty frocks, there is a marriage of convenience, a string of misunderstandings (531 pages worth!) and a happy ending. There are also the husband's new and former male lovers, a rent boy and his girlfriend, a club for wealthy sodomites, intrusive and eccentric relatives, friends and associates, French and British spies and quite possibly (somewhere in the mix) both a kitchen sink and a partridge and a pear tree. One gets the feeling that in limiting herself to these mere 500-odd pages Ann Herendeen was in fact showing a significant degree of restraint. Perhaps this story would really like to be one of those three novel sets a lady novelist of the era would have produced!

Here's the link:
http://podpeep.blogspot.com/2006/10/phyllida-and-brotherhood-of-philander.html

You can also read the rest of the review here: ( Read more... )

There's a lovely review of Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander in the Winter 2006 issue of Bi Tribune. Natasha Dowell, the editor, calls it "a long, luxurious read filled with wealth, power, lust and rage" and a "brutally beautiful" love story. She also says "the only disappointing part of the entire novel is that [Phyllida] isn't real."

You can see the full text on the Reviews page:
http://www.annherendeen.com/Reviews.html

There's a very interesting discussion about Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander on the blog Riding With the Top Down, a group of professional women writers and publishers. Naturally, I'm honored by the attention.

Here's the link:
http://ridingwiththetopdown.blogspot.com/2006/11/alternative-romance.html

I've noticed that many readers naturally assume that: 1) My heroine should be shocked, outraged and disgusted at being asked to marry a man who openly and honestly admits to being bisexual (or gay, as he sees himself then); and 2) Since same-sex activity between men was a capital offense, shouldn't all the gay male characters be cowering, timid little worms instead of the rather forceful and masculine gay blades I wrote them as?

If you're interested, you can click here for the answers ( Read more... )

There's 4 1/2 strawberries (out of 5) review of my bisexual Regency romance at Forbidden Fruit : the original slash fiction magazine for girls who like boys who like boys.

Reviewer Emily Veinglory said: Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander ... delivers page after page of rollicking regency romance ... [with] two main characters that charm and exasperate and a plot that bolts out the door from the first page and never slows down right to its climactic ending ... Phyllida was clearly written by a woman who enjoys a good story and is pulling out all the stops--if you can read with the same ‘damn the torpedoes’ attitude this is definitely the book for you!

She also called many of the scenes "laugh-out-loud funny."

Read the complete review on the Reviews page:
http://www.annherendeen.com/Reviews.html

My encore guest-blogging on Michelle Buonfiglio's romance-novel blog, Romance: By the Blog, was, of course, a wonderful experience. All the "Bellas," as Michelle calls her regular commenters, are so enthusiatic and supportive, and write in such interesting comments.

Naturally, I blogged about--what else?--my bisexual Regency romance novel, Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander.

To see this latest discussion, go to:
http://romancebytheblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/ann-herendeen-guestblog-phyllidas-law.html

My first guest-blog, back in June, was on the topic: Why a bisexual hero? (Quick answer: hot hot hot!)
To see this discussion, go to:
http://romancebytheblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/ann-herendeen-why-i-wrote-bisexual.html

This second time I wrote about my sexy, spirited heroine--Phyllida herself--and why she's the perfect match for her masculine bisexual husband.

And of course you can always check out the latest romance-blogging at the home page:
http://www.romancebytheblog.blogspot.com/

Reviewer Natasha Smith gave my bisexual Regency romance novel a 4 (out of 5) on the Romance Junkies Web site

Here's an excerpt from the Blue Ribbon review:

“Romance abounds in Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander … At 528 pages, it is not a short, quick read but a tale well told. I soon found myself fully immersed in the story [and] quickly forgot about everything but finishing this book. Although not for underage readers, Ann Herendeen has woven a romantic story that I found satisfying."

Read the complete review on the Reviews page:
http://www.annherendeen.com/Reviews.html

Queery is Madison, Wisconsin's longest-running LGBT radio show. On June 28, interviewers Sharon Osterloh and Shawn Neal spoke with me, Ann Herendeen, about my bisexual historical romance novel, Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander.
Questions focused on how a bisexual romance differs from a traditional historical romance; whether the idea of a bisexual man making an arranged marriage is historically accurate; and what sort of gay subculture existed at the time of the book's setting, 1812 London.

Here's the link to the audio and the transcript:

http://www.annherendeen.com/Interview.html

Of course, as with any first-time experience, after the fact I thought of all the trenchant, sparkling, profound yet witty things I should have said. If you'd like to read them, here's the link to the LJ post where I wrote them down later:

http://ann-amalie.livejournal.com/4383.html#cutid1

There's a fun little interview in the Riverfront Times, St. Louis's alternative weekly paper. Ben Westhoff asked the questions.

See how the cool people react to the idea of the first-ever bisexual Regency romance:
http://www.riverfronttimes.com/Issues/2006-07-05/news/unreal.html

The one answer I'd like to change: I'd prefer to see Heath Ledger as Matthew Thornby, the hero's boyfriend, when my ideal movie version is made.

And my one quibble: "Cucumber sandwiches"?

For those of you who don't like to buy online, my book, Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander: a bisexual Regency romance, is now available at an actual store in New York City:

Bluestockings
172 Allen St. (between Stanton and Rivington sts.)
Phone: 212-777-6028
Price: $19.95.

Anybody who lives in or near NYC, or is visiting, check it out. Bluestockings is an activist center and a café as well as a bookstore. Something interesting is always going on there.

To get to Bluestockings by subway: take the F train to the 2nd Ave. stop and exit from the 1st Ave. end of the platform. There's an exit directly onto Allen Street. Walk down one block.
2nd Ave. is also the last stop on the downtown V train.

I've made it in the world of Amazon.com--I've been reviewed by the most prolific and influential online reviewer, Harriet Klausner!
You can see her review at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1420869639/102-7693220-1548908?n=283155

To learn more about Ms. Klausner and her speed-reading life of reviewing, check out these two articles:
First, from the Wall Street Journal http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110006483

and from Wired News: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,53488-0.html?tw=wn_story_mailer
( Read more... )