Yeah. It was mostly the part surrounding the Mountain Meadows Massacre where there were a few things like "the Mormons decided to ..." and he doesn't say whether he means the Mormon Church dedided to or the bunch of Mormons who happened to be right there decided to. I don't remember the exact sentence right now, but there was one sentence in particular where I read the paragraph at least three times and still couldn't figure out which he meant.

I know some people who feel that that book is really prejudiced against the Mormon church, and while I don't think so, I think that some of those ambiguous sentences could contribute to that reading of it.

I can see how it can easily be read as prejudiced. It really points out quite a bit about the Mormon church and church history that isn't all that pleasant.

Now I'm reading Candyfreak and have laughed out loud many times, even though I'm not even to page 50 yet.

This was written by a friend of mine from grad school. I've been meaning to pick it up.

Oooh! Bet Me is in paperback?

It is indeed, Steph. I bought it this weekend. The Barnes and Noble near me had it in one of the New Releases stacks.

I have finally discovered a sub-genre of fiction that gives me a knee-jerk of revulsion. Vampire romance novels.

I had no idea such things existed. I foolishly assumed vampire novels lived in the horror genre, and didn't go wandering through other sections. Plei derived much amusement from pointing out vampire romance novels (all shelved in the overwhelmingly pink romance section at B&N), then watching me wince at 1) the awful, awful cover art, and 2) the equally dreadful back-cover blurbs.

I'm assuming there has to be one or two decently-written ones in the world. But wow, I couldn't tell that from the books I saw today. I'm going to sit over here and clutch my copies of Dracula, The Delicate Dependancy, Anno Dracula, and Lost Souls while I rock back and forth.

Oh, there's lots of them, Jilli. It's quite the trend, these days.

Oh, there's lots of them, Jilli. It's quite the trend, these days.

But are any of them at all worth reading? None of the ones I gingerly looked at seemed like it.

Oh, I don't read them, because they're not my thing. It grieves me as a romance writer to say this, but IMO most romances that attempt to cross over into horror or fantasy are weak, weak, weak. The fantastical elements usually are paint-by-numbers and not well thought out. IMHO, anyway. And I've read some really good time travel romances--it's when you throw in the vampires or mystical powers or ancient gods that all the wheels seem to come off.

Me, I'm just doing my humble best to try to write historical romances that are also good, solid, well-researched historical fiction.

Have I skipped too much to offer that the Sharon Lee/Steve Miller Liaden stories are cross-overs (SF/Romance) that work?

Probably.

Will anyone examine how a testosterone-poisoned male such as myself could be lured into the historical/romance market in a similar way?

There is always hope.