Several of our blog visitors come via Google searches. Most of those searches are pretty straightforward--prospective authors seeking info on "Avon Books" or a specific author. Often they're looking for one of us (editors).

However, sometimes we get visitors from some unusual and interesting sources. One of my favorites of all time is the visitor who stumbled upon us while researching "Victorian cartoon erotica." We all know those Victorians were less prudish than convential wisdom leads us to think. Queen Victoria herself, don't forget, had nine children, so clearly something more than mere conversation was going on between her and Prince Albert!

Here's another: "I only read romance novels with heroines with dark hair." On the surface this seems limiting but, when I was a teenager, I'd only read romances set in the 1800s. All the marvelous contemporary (to that time) writers bored me: Phyllis A Whitney, Mary Stewart's contemporaries, etc., held no interest. Those girls having adventures just served to remind me that I was stuck at home. It was much more pleasing to imagine myself in a different time.

So, picky reader, I understand.

Speaking of adventures, have you checked out our British Virgin Island contest? It's easy to enter and get a chance to win an amazing vacation. This vacation is so spectacular that everyone at the office wishes we could finagle a way to enter...if it weren't for those pesky laws that say we can't! Just click below to get the details.


(And to all our friends in Canada, just click through on your flag.) Good luck!

As for those searches, I'm sure my computer could tell some tales--all in the name of research of course! What would we have done before the internet?