Media Home: The Rebels of Romance

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Shomi is a new publishing imprint launching in July 2007 with Liz Maverick's Wired followed in August 2007 by Marianne Mancusi's Moongazer. It's a new line of speculative romance novels targeted to a younger, hipper generation of readers. Running counter to the stereotypes about old-school romances and those who write them, Liz and Marianne have turned the genre upside-down in devil-may-care Gen X style and opened the doors to the new school with their edgy, out-of-the-box, ass-kicking romance novels.

Romance: The Next Generation
There are no cowboys. No marriages of convenience. No secret babies. And no Fabio in sight. Romance has grown up and gotten cool with hip, urban heroines, fantastic worlds, complex plots, and riveting world building. And yet these next generation tales still maintain that happily ever after readers have fallen in love with. We talk about how the romance market is evolving and what can readers expect for the future of the genre?

Meet the Rebels
When you think "romance author", what first comes into your head? **********************CENSORED!!!*************************** Well, it’s time to look beyond the stereotypes and introduce readers to the Rebels of Romance--two authors whose real lives are as exciting as the tales they tell. From an LA based, world traveling Reality TV writer who once spent a winter in Antarctica driving trucks across the barren tundra to an Emmy Award winning TV News producer from NYC who splits her free time dancing to eighties music and rocking the videogame world. These women are living life to the fullest, writing the books they’d want to read, and hoping to convince the world that today’s romance novels can be evocative, hip, and a great choice for the urban professional.

Bridging the gap
YA romance is hot, hot, hot--with sales skyrocketing and teens clamoring for that next big book. Paranormal authors like Stephanie Meyer (Twilight) and Scott Westerfeld (Uglies) are untouchable--and teens can’t get enough. On the other end, adult paranormal romance is scorching as well -- with authors like Sherrilyn Kenyon and Christine Feehan rocking the bestseller lists. But what about books for the in-between generation? Those too grown up for high school angst, but not about to be seen with a bare-chested man on her book cover? They still want the same paranormal universes they fell for when they opened their first Harry Potter--but packaged and delivered in a hip, cool style that speaks to them. We’ll tell you how romance publishers are stepping up to the plate to bridge the gap between YA and adult romance and give readers something written just for them.

Gen X Gets a Job
Once known as the slacker generation, Gen X has grown up--and is wildly successful--but in a vastly different way then their Baby Boomer parents. Instead of bowing down to lifelong jobs climbing corporate American ladders, these creative survivors of the dot com bomb have created their own life paths and are enjoying every mile. Meet two successful Gen Xers that have worked the system and found their dream lives dancing to their own beats, traveling the world, and, yes, even writing romance novels.