USA Today also has a fantastic new romance blog headed up by author Joyce Lamb that features interviews, reviews and news about new romance novels, and content from fantastic romance bloggers including Mandi from SmexyBooks and other romance writers. SO AWESOME.

Way to go, USA Today. Thanks for helping us spread the word about how powerful and positive romance can be!

I believe that people genuinely want to help, but not always monetarily. If I could generate a list of specific items that were needed, and locations to which to mail those items, I thought that folks who read my site would feel the same way I did: motivated by the need to do something specific and immediate to help, even from far far away. As one author said to me (and I don’t know if I can quote her so I’m leaving her name out): Money can’t make these organizations mobilize faster.

So I prepared a list of items and coordinated volunteers to accept mail drops of packages that they could then deliver to local relief distribution centers in urban and rural Alabama. I had three maildrop volunteers and over 100 email messages asking for an address. People bought stuff on Amazon and Prime shipped it down to Alabama. Others cleaned out their closets of gently used clothing, and a few folks went shopping at the CVS and then walked over to the post office to mail it all down. Duct tape, bug spray, bras and underwear – from places like Maine and Minnesota, packages arrived. Have a look at one day’s delivery at one of the maildrops.

Seriously, I am so proud and pleased and happy we could do something concrete and immediate to help out. I know the media moved on covering other stories while Alabama was still hurting, but I know I felt horrible about how much they were struggling. Glamour.com picked up the story, as did others on Twitter, and now the UPS delivery team in Alabama is bringing our donations where they are needed. That is so awesome. Thank you.

“The era of Fabio is long, long, past,” said Sarah Wendell, a romance novel fan who runs the extensive blog Smart Bitches Trashy Books….

“It’s more of the guy next door look, rather than the Fabio beefcake look,” said Green.

Many publishers feature a headless man or couple, showcasing just their lusty bodies. “Readers don’t want to be told what the hero or heroine looks like,” said Wendell. “They want to control that with their imaginations.”

It’s true- the covers have moved away from beefcake to images of women of unquestionable strength. Next up: I hope we can move away from the clinch cover featuring hair styling via absolutely bizarre wind patterns.

As Media Bistro’s GalleyCat wrote up today, I started a Twitter hashtag of #jerseylibrarians based on my knowledge that when potential library-budget-cutting amendments are proposed and then withdrawn, it’s likely because librarians, particularly JERSEY librarians, are fearsome.

And would make a MUCH better reality show than any of the other Jersey-based entertainment currently on television. Which is your favorite? I think my favorite of the #jerseylibrarians tweets are this one from @eanicol: “Starring Bookie and The Circulation? #Sorry #couldnthelpmyself” and this one from Julia Spencer-Fleming: “The Friends of the Library promise their undying friendship if you would do them a small favor.”

I’m so happy with this article, not just because I’m in it, but because romance is on the front page in a positive article with a collection of quotes and comments from booksellers, publishers, and, anchored on either end of the article, romance readers.

Sarah Wendell, blogger and co-author of “Beyond Heaving Bosoms,” is passionate about romance novels.

Except for the covers, with their images of sinewy limbs, flowing, Fabio-esque locks or, as she put it, “the mullets and the man chests.”

“They are not always something that you are comfortable holding in your hand in public,” Ms. Wendell said.

So she began reading e-books, escaping the glances and the imagined snickers from strangers on the subway, and joining the many readers who have traded the racy covers of romance novels for the discretion of digital books.

If the e-reader is the digital equivalent of the brown-paper wrapper, the romance reader is a little like the Asian carp: insatiable and unstoppable. Together, it turns out, they are a perfect couple. Romance is now the fastest-growing segment of the e-reading market, ahead of general fiction, mystery and science fiction, according to data from Bowker, a research organization for the publishing industry.

Hooray for romance!

“It’s a lifestyle for me, but I give all the credit to my mom for making [me] this way,” he says, with a humility befitting one of his romance Romeos. But if his workout regimen could make many a fitness freak swoon, it’s his fantasy-inducing face that has romance readers’ loins quivering.

“This guy’s very special,” says Sarah Wendell, co-founder of the romance review site Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. “There are only a handful of people you see over and over again that become an icon in the romance-novel cover world.”

Wendell notes that publishers usually put Adams’ entire head on covers, a rarity in the “decapitated-male-model central of the romance novel aisle.” And with romance fiction sales totaling $1.36 billion in 2009, according to the Romance Writers of America, the choice of cover stud is crucial.

“The cover is a very big draw, especially for impulse shoppers,” says Wendell. “If you’re very lucky, you’ll get pectoral muscles that could shelter you under a rainstorm.”

I wish the caption hadn’t labeled him a “professional beefcake,” as clearly Adams works very hard at his job and at staying in shape.

What floored me? This man is 43 years old! He can climb 183 flights of stairs in a single hour and leap tall bicycles in a single bound and he is 43? I need to go work out. That is awesome – way to go, sir.

Today, she’s published an article about the surge in popularity of Amish-set romance: Romance novels set in Amish country are growing apace:

“It’s a huge, huge, huge trend,” says romance blogger Sarah Wendell, co-author of Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels….

And that low-tech lifestyle creates a small-town atmosphere, which has deep appeal for readers who may find Wi-Fi-only connections emotionally isolating. “Even within your own neighborhood, you feel alone,” says Jane Little of the influential romance blog Dear Author. In an Amish inspirational, “we’re all one big family,” she says.

“Here you have this agrarian society that is closed to outsiders right in the middle of the Northeast,” says Wendell. “It’s both historical and contemporary.”

I reviewed an Amish-set book a few months ago, Cindy Woodsmall’s The Hope of Refuge, and gave it a C. The themes were fascinating but the religious revelations came far, far too easy.

I don’t think the Amish fascination will decline any time soon, though it eventually will. As complex and connected yet distant as our lives are now, revisiting that type of simplicity in fiction is a curious and compulsive indulgence for many readers.

Romance is often dismissed as mindless dreck with predictable plots, but really, the best of romance is far from mindless and silly. Each of these books — and many others — feature savvy, sharp women, and stories that won’t let go of you.

So they are perfect for a hot, sunny day when you want to relax and escape for a few hours to find your own happily ever after.

I created a hot summer reading list for Salon.com, including books from paranormal, contemporary, and historical authors.

Even if you’re not at the beach or anywhere near sandy relaxation, a great romance novel can provide the perfect escape from everyday stress. The best part of romance fiction is that happy endings are guaranteed. While the perfect tan requires careful sunscreen, enjoying a romance requires only two things: a belief that everyone deserves a happily-ever-after, and the ability to ignore anyone who sniffs at your choice of reading material. A good romance novel is like the perfect day at the beach: wonderful and restorative from start to finish.

The best part, though, are the comments, like this one from Matt: “A friend of mine buys romance books and leaves them around for her teen-age son to pick up. She thinks that the books contain some good role models for the kid, who like many, is growing up with a single parent who hasn’t had a lot of luck in real life romance. I think he probably likes the sexy parts, but if he can learn anything about mutual respect and how not to smother his girlfriends with demands and jealousy, I’m all for it. From what I’ve seen of the new romance novels the female leads are not the weak Cinderella types, either – a lot of them may be insecure but they get their acts together by the end of the books. (Yep, I’m a reader, too – although the pink & rose bodice-ripper covers have to be hidden when I commute to work.)”

And also, this comment from Dabney rocks my socks: “this article, up front and center, about romance novels made me realize that the site still is capable of greatness.” Dabney and Matt, drinks are on me.