Today I opened one of old book boxes that I hadn’t sorted through. Found Homebody by Louise Titchener. I had to smile because I remember recommending it to a couple of friends. I flipped through the book and something fell out. It was a bookmark of my old blog.
I forgot about that blog. I flipped the bookmark over and there was a pencilled scribble: “Don’t forget Gail49′s birthday: 12 February 2000!”
Gail49 was a regular on a message board at KMKMTM (a review blog that revolved around rom suspense). She was going through a difficult divorce and so we banded to send her surprise birthday cards and presents. I was ordered to note down her birthday because of my notorious bad memory. I grabbed the nearest thing, which happened to be this bookmark.
I flipped back to the front and smirked at how 1990s it looked. Look at the clipart! Whoo hoo! Then it hit me. This bookmark shows that I was interested in two particular sub-genres even back then, in 2000. Here’s a scan:
Of course, I visited the blog to see if it was still there. It isn’t. I don’t remember if it was flushed by blogger.com or I deleted it. To be honest, I can’t remember what I wrote in the blog. I’m quite certain I mentioned Emma Bull and War for the Oaks.
Although I was quite terrified of the faerie and similar, I was hooked on War for the Oaks and wanted to read more. There were certainly some around, but many readers shied from Urban Fantasy Romance; like they did with SF romance, Speculative romance, Supernatural romance (a spin-off of Gothic romance), Futuristic romance, Paranormal romance, and (cough) Horror romance.
All these sub-genres struggled against Contemporary romance, Historical romance (popular settings: Viking, Western (Western, Americana, Gold Rush and Frontier), Native American, Medieval and Pirate; also, Guardian/Ward, Russian Prince and so on) and Category.
Paranormal romance were dominated by psychic heroines, time travel (popular because of Somewhere in Time, Quantam Leap, The Portrait of Jennie and Jude Deveraux’s Knight in a Shining Armor), ghost (usually the hero), and Dara Joy-type SF as well as (slowly and increasingly) vampire. It didn’t seem Urban Fantasy Romance had a chance in Hell of catching interest.
Now? Speculative romance and Supernatural romance disappeared. Futuristic romance seems to be ignored. Horror romance? Hahaha. It’s gone, too. SF romance seems to still troddle along. Paranormal romance is massive and almost the catch-all label for anything that is out of the norm.
Urban Fantasy Romance? It still doesn’t exist because according to what people say online, if the romance is the central focus, it’s Paranormal Romance. And if it isn’t, it’s Urban Fantasy. Hm, okay.
As for steampunk, I don’t remember how I became interested in steampunk. I wanted to read steampunk romance novels and there weren’t any. I think the blog was designed to promote the idea. Who knows what went on in my head back then?
Gotta love those finds.
Though am impressed you were blogging in 2000, I think I was still learning how to use ebay and email then.
Don’t be so impressed. I didn’t know what I was doing back then. I think I blogged about ten posts before abandoning it. Was much more involved with newsgroups and mailing lists. No wonder why I’m still so chatty.
But ebay? Impressive.
Ebay was one of the first things I found online, but might have been better off without making that discovery. LOL