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.

She and I had a lengthy email conversation about book trailers – I’m convinced that unless there’s a unique hook or angle to the trailer itself, book trailers that are only about the book itself are only interesting to other authors (who are told they Must Have One). (Note: you do not have to have a book trailer.)

From that conversation, Miller quoted me talking about live action trailers featuring actors who were singularly unattractive to me:

Mind-blowing science fiction about nanotechnology or interplanetary travel is pretty hard to reproduce on your Flip HD, and affordable actors seldom measure up to the gorgeous heroines and heroes of romance. As Sarah Wendell, a co-founder of the Web site Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and coauthor of “Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels,” told me in an e-mail, “as a reader and shopper for genre fiction, I’ve never been swayed to make a book purchase based on a trailer … A few have featured actors so unattractive to me I was totally turned off.”

There have been some great book trailers in romance – many of which created by the authors themselves on a minuscule budget. But most of them leave me uninterested, and I have never purchased a book because the trailer was amazing. They may lead me to look up an author whose trailer is creative and witty, but they’ve never made me think, ‘I MUST have that book.’