In this week’s podcast episode, we’re looking at the incredible ads and features for the December 1997 issue of RT Magazine.

Thank you to Mari for this issue!

You can also find all the RTRW content at our category page for Romantic Times Rewind. 

And, most importantly, if you want to listen and follow along with this entry, we have more detail in the audio, but you can click play and listen and read and absorb all the visual goodness:

Ok, let’s get started!

Oh, this is such a cover.

How many fonts can you count on this one cover?

Is that a belly dancing belt on her forehead?

It’s interesting to have the stepback image of Sheik by Connie Mason ( A ) as the magazine cover – you can see the book cover in the lower left corner, there. I think the stepback is much more visually intriguing, but that’s the case with most stepbacks in my experience. The good stuff is hidden inside!

Then, on page 2, aka the inside cover is for Kathleen Morgan’s Strands of Gold ( A ):

One thing Tara regularly notices in Cover Snark is how many covers feature text colors that are impossible to read against the background. The dark pink text is not great.

Is this a third nipple? Due south of the right nipple?

Either way, that is a very impressive sword. And arm cuff.

On page three, there was a giveaway for a miniature tea set. This is the picture of the tea set:

It looks like it’s made out of muffin batter and barnacles. Amanda thinks it looks like it was salvaged from the Titanic wreckage.

Flavia Knightsbridge, eternal mystery, has a two-page spread right at the front of the magazine with information about Anne Rice’s sister Alice Borchardt and her contract with DelRey, and assorted promotional copy about different authors and releases.

This contest is freaking amazing and we’re both bummed to have missed it:

If that text is too small:

Great Marketing “Scents”

Trust Jennifer Blake to come up with a novel contest to promote her January paperback, PERFUME OF PARADISE (Fawcett). One lucky winner and her guest will be flown from any destination in the continental U.S. to New Orleans for a weekend in the romantic French Quarter. The most exciting aspect of this gala affair will come when Bourbon French Parfums designs a personal scent for the winner, a scent only she will be able to buy!
The 150-year-old perfumery has already created the Perfume of Paradise, a scent Jennifer commissioned when the trade-size edition of Perfume of Paradise was released in 1988. Samples of tthis exotic perfume and entry forms will be mailed to 600 bookstores across the country in September to promote the contest, and entry forms will also be available on Jennifer’s website http://www.jenniferblake.com) and at Bourbon French Parfums.

Readers can also enter by mailing a number and e-mail address, where applicable, to Jennifer Blake’s Perfume of Paradise Contest, c/o Nancy Berland Public Relations.

HOW COOL IS THAT? A winner gets a custom perfume and a trip to New Orleans? Publishing was a different industry in 1997, my goodness. Bourbon French Parfums still does custom blending, and the initial sitting is $95 for women, with a 1oz perfume, and $75 for men, with a 4oz cologne.

Honestly, what a cool book promo.

Congrats to Cathy Rachide from Books, Books, Books on being Bookseller of the Year in 1997!

AWARDS AND THE LOO

There’s one thing I have to mention. The next time you want to give me an award [for Bookseller of the Year] please let me know before I read it in your newsletter first. I was in the bathroom at work when I read it and nearly fell off the toilet seat. A person could hurt herself getting news like that. My employees thought I had killed myself from the cacophony emitting from the loo. I called and told my husband right away. He was very happy for me. When I told my kids I had some wonderful news to tell them, they thought that I was pregnant. God forbid such thoughts. This is much better! 

There’s another house tour, this time of Diana Gabaldon’s home in Arizona. The magazine spends a fair amount of time describing her bathtub:

I wonder if Architectural Digest’s house tours on YouTube have through about an author series? I’m curious what Diana Gabaldon’s bathtub looks like now (I’m not, actually, feels very intrusive). Like, I don’t need to know what an author’s bedroom looks like? I don’t know, I’m clearly not the audience for this feature. It’s very Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

The text reads:

Romance on AOL

In prior columns, we’ve covered many aspects of Writers Club Romance Group: In the Spotlight, Up Close & Personal Author Interviews, Recommended Reading and the WCRG website. Other facets include our message boards, chat room, libraries, contests and reviews. But this is not what makes the Writers Club Romance Group unique. It is the people inside. Those that post on the boards, frequent the chat room, read our newsletter. And we cannot forget the volunteers who work long and hard behind the scenes to bring all this forward. Reflecting back over the past year, I realize I didn’t tell them thank you as often as I should have. And they truly deserve the thanks and the honor their position gives. So the next time you’ve been blessed by someone’s help in the WCRG, please be sure to express your thanks.

Libby Hall and Debbie Hancock, RWA president and vice president respectively, recently informed us that the chat “RWA on AOL” is not a registered chapter.
Therefore, we removed it from our schedule.

AOL Romance Chat Room Line-up

FOR WRITERS:

Inside Romance (Mon., 10pm)
Writers Interactive (Tues., 10:30pm
Ask the Mentor (Wed., 8pm)
Romance Co-op (Wed., 9am)
Writing the Romance (Thurs., 10pm)
Researching the Romance (Fri., 10pm)
Western Historical Romance (Mon., 11pm) *New!

FOR READERS:

Johanna Lindsey Chat (Sun., 9am)
Jude Deveraux (Ist Tues of the month., 9:30pm)
GABwithGIS (Tues., 11am & 8pm)
Readers Chats (Wed., 12am)
Romance Anonymous (Thurs., 9pm) *New!

All times Eastern Standard Time. The Romance Chat Room can be found at keyword: WCRG. For those who aren’t already online, call The Writers Club, Lid. at 1-888-SCRIBES (toll-free) for a current copy of America Online.

Then sign on and visit the Writers Club Romance Group. Use keyword WCRG or RomanceGroup. E-mail hostess Brenda at Write4now@ool.com

Remember AOL chats and keywords? Ah, what a time. Readers were always looking for ways to talk with other readers, whether it was reader profiles in RT or chat rooms on AOL or the comment sections of blogs, videos, or social media. The venue changes but we still want to talk to each other. (Thanks for hanging out and talking with us here, btw!)

TW: antifat bias.

Then there is the absolute terribleness of this response to a reader letter:

 

Dear RT,
Authors and publishers of series romances should take note of Marilyn Tyner’s first paperback romance, Arabesque’s Step by Step (June ’97) ( A | BN ). Her heroine is short and full-figured, not the usual tall, slim model type.

Romance authors should be writing about heroines of all ages, size, shapes and shades, loved and cherished and appreciated by handsome heroes of all ages and careers.
Step by Step is definitely a “keeper” book! Please write about heroines of normal, realistic sizes.
Ms. J. Watson, Winnipeg, Canada

Dear Ms…. Watson,

Once again we must emphasize that this is purely a matter of taste and preference. One might argue that most women read romances for the fantasy and that they want heroines that are idealistically beautiful. Those same women read romances for heroes who are young and virile (even if they better resemble their sons instead of their fifty-something husbands)! It doesn’t mean they don’t see larger women as beautiful or that they don’t love their husband’s love handles or that they are obsessed with younger men.

Don’t we all get lost in the fantasy of Cinderella, seeing ourselves riding into the sunset with Prince Charming? The reality  is that not even Cindy Crawford has a waist that small yet we love Cinderella because she represents sheer beauty -a beauty from within. That is what we want in our heroines a beauty that is pure and transcends the physical. If larger-sized heroines can be created with that kind of beauty, then why not?

This response is trash and should be put in the trash fire if burning garbage is permitted. What the fuck: “…young and virile, even if they better resemble their sons instead of their 50 something husbands?”

I particularly take issue with this point:  “It doesn’t mean they don’t see larger women as beautiful…”

Yes, actually, it does. If only one body type (and skin color, ahem) is written for the heroine, that narrow definition of beauty also becomes a narrow definition of who is deserving of love, and does influence who is and isn’t seen as ‘beautiful.’ UGH.

Even the weakest-sauce, talking-out-of-both-sides-of-their-mouth ending is dreadful: “If larger-sized heroines can be created with that kind of beauty (“a beauty from within,” “…that is pure and transcends the physical”) then why not?

Gee, thanks for disagreeing then approving the type of ‘larger-sized heroines’ that are permissible.

J. Watson of Winnepeg, if you are still among us on this earth, your next drink is 100% on me.

Jesus in a sidecar. Pass the brain bleach.

Then there’s a two page article collecting author reactions to the death of Princess Diana, which happened in August 1997. Here are a few of our favorites:

Belva Plain wrote,   “The tragedy of Princess Diana began with a fraudulent ceremony in the Cathedral of St. Paul, where a man stood beside a trusting young girl and made vows that he quickly broke. So she suffered, and their children suffer, along with millions of others in ruined families. In the end, adultery can destroy the entire culture of the West. We need to take a long look at the Seventh Commandment and give it some thought.”

Ok, Belva, don’t hold back! Especially because Diana Gabaldon’s comment is…confusing:

Diana Gabaldon: “God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong.”

HUH?

Jude Deveraux had some thoughts:

Jude Deveraux: “Diana, Princess of Wales, was a sacrifice. Her death shows us what we do to high-profile people -we devour them. We forget she was a real person. Her death is on all of us.”

Janet Evanovich suggests a change of focus for collective fury:

Janet Evanovich: “I think it’s a terrible tragedy and I think we need to direct less anger toward the media and more toward driving drunk.”

And then, for some yikes, we have this write up of “a special memorial gathering,” and it’s like a whole other reality.

The caption reads, “Kathryn Falk arranged an impromptu memorial where friends, family and booklovers gathered to mourn her loss and honor Diana’s life with an ancient Chinese ceremony of burning cut-outs of items that she would like with her in the afterlife.”

And the text: “We mourned the Princess of Wales in a special way. Friends and strangers drove in, flew in, and some traveled great distances to arrive at Camp Royal, my home in Alvin, Texas, on Friday evening, the 4th of September. We donned black and brought out a box of tissues, especially needed when Elton John sang. Staying up all night and watching the funeral is something no one will ever forget.

“Afterwards, our group performed an ancient Chinese ceremony to honor the Princess. We cut out red paper figures of things we thought Diana would like in the afterlife, then threw them into a fire, and watched the smoke symbolically carry them to her. We made books, flowers and music cassettes, along with a moon, a star, a lotus flower, a musical note, a hat and, of course, children.

“Sharon Middleton, a local lawyer, played her Irish harp beside the pool as the sun was setting. Susan Paul is now working on a novel inspired by the events. Vicki Province, Camp Royal’s manager and my father’s nanny, made a delicious buffet, organized the big guesthouse to sleep the crowd and made everything go smoothly. My 82-year-old father enjoyed the company of all the ladies, although he couldn’t quite follow what was going on. He did say, “driving fast is dangerous and 36 is too young to die.”

The context of this article is really fascinating: it’s in Romantic Times, and so is part of underscoring the personality and the individual behind the magazine.

That is a very rich text.

This ad grabbed me – did you know Romantic Times was a publisher of discount copies of romances for Dollar Tree and Walgreens?

I looked online for copies of these books, but couldn’t find any visuals or evidence of them. Did you encounter any of these books? They’re specifically for dollar stores and drugstores, priced under $2, which makes me wonder if any survived.

The Tête-a-Tête column had two articles we wanted to highlight. Amanda thought this announcement of Monica Harris’ departure from Arabesque was interesting:

Alas, Monica Harris passed away at the age of 44 in 2012. Romance writer and RWA Past President Michelle Monkou wrote her obituary in USA Today:

Monica’s next job, at Kensington Publishing, escalated her profile with a wonderful challenge to find authors for the new African-American Arabesque romance novels. In July 1994, Arabesque launched with Forever Yours by Francis Ray ( A | BN | K | AB )  and Serenade by Sandra Kitt. ( A )

By 1995, Monica acquired historical titles, along with contemporary and romantic suspense. She took an aggressive stance toward marketing, including a publicity drive to celebrate February as Arabesque Month. More than 20 Arabesque authors met readers and promoted their work on radio and television. She also established newsletters Love Notes and Read My Lips, which provided information about Arabesque books and authors to independent and major book chains, a unique approach at that time….

Her innovation didn’t cease when she was tapped to create and serve as editor-in-chief of the first African-American book club with Doubleday. The Black Expressions book club successfully persuaded publishers to increase their lists and remains one of the most popular direct-mail book clubs.

Ms. Harris made such an impact in such a short time. What a loss.

I also noticed this time capsule: eSoaps by Email!

Or maybe “e-Soaps by e-Mail” would be better formatting. Either way:

If you can’t read that:

esoaps.com introduces the world’s first e-mail soap opera. Subscriptions to the soap opera e-Tanglements are free, and daily episodes are delivered via e-mail Monday-Friday. The soap opera is written bs romance writer Joanne Reid, who weaves a tangled web of love, hate and deceit set in the New England town of Walkersville, where past sins are never forgotten. To subscribe: send an e-mail to etanglements-request@esoaps.com. Type “subscribe.” Or visit website www.esoaps.com

This is cool considering how much romance is published serially now – and how many soaps are still on the air!

Amanda is tempted by this ad for Jacey’s Reckless Heart ( A ):

Amanda is disappointed that in this ad for Christmas Pie by Emma Craig ( A ), there is no recipe for pie of any kind, here or in the article alongside the ad:

Do you have a recipe for Christmas pie? Amanda is curious!

And then, the cover model search. Send pictures of hot men in your life to Love Spell to launch their newest line.

“Remember, readers like cover models with bare chests, bedroom eyes, and in a sexy pose.”

WOW. There’s no mention of whether the models get paid, or what you win.

WE, however, WE win. We get this COLLAGE. Look at all the DeSalvos! Nipples Ev. Ery. Where.

Amanda tagged herself as this one:

The perfect hero inside the C, and it’s Third Nipple (maybe?) Man!

This guy looks like Richard Gere:

And I swear I have seen this cover, but I can’t remember what book it is. I tried reverse-image searching but, alas, all my results were gay porn.

Do you recognize that cover? I’d swear his name is “Cody” but I may be wrong.

I swear I’ve seen that guy and that vest before.

This ad contained Amanda bait – scary books! – but the font choice was terrible:

We were very curious about Shadows in the Flame by Tess Farraday ( A ) – and there’s a cat on the cover!

The description sounds incredible.

Fall in love RIGHT NOW, says the lusty ghost mom!

The 1997 Romantic Times Book Lovers Convention was on…drumroll please…a CRUISE!

This is like the fourth or fifth time that cruises have been mentioned in RT. Which makes me wonder if I should try to organize a Smart Bitches Romance Reader Cruise. Like, is this a SIGN. From the UNIVERSE?

I have polling software, so let’s use it!

The RT cruise left out of Tampa, and there was a whole preview of Florida theme park ticket prices from 1997, which Amanda found extremely quaint:

Busch Gardens, $59, and Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and MGM Studios? $70! Universal Studios: $67. WOW. Universal Studios now is two parks, and the price for a ticket to both is $316.

This was a seven day cruise on Carnival, and the prices are really incredible given that they included the cruise fare, and the conference fees – and the cruise fare includes room and food!

PRICES START AS LOW AS $820
Per Person, Double Occupancy

Price Includes All Convention Fees Romantic Times Convention & Cruise
Costs:
Inside Cabin (category 4/5]
twin/king$820-840

Ocean View Cabin (category 6/7)
twin/king-$920-940

Ocean View Cabin (category 8/9)
twin/king $960-980

Third/Fourth Person Rate
For triples and quads:
Rates-$700 extra per person
Price includes…
•All-Inclusive Seven-Day Cruise
•All Romantic Times Convention Fees
Romantic Times’ events, seminars and give-aways are available only to those who register through Romantic Times!

Other Charges
The following are standard charges which each person must pay but have nothing to do with the cruise line or Romantic Times Magazine:
PORT CHARGES: $109
GRATUITIES: $54.95
FEDERAL FEES: $9.50

Due to changes in federal law, cruise fares now have to include the port charges, fees, and tax in the published fare, but even without those figures, RT was about $500 for the conference by the end, right?

I have a bunch of magazines, and my registration receipts. They’re right here. Let me look that up. *headdesk*

OK, so in April 2016, which was the year the conference and the magazine folded, the conference was in Vegas, and the conference fee was $489, and that was just the conference. The (TW/CW) Rio was $109 a night, so five nights was about $550 give or take, so before flights and food that’s almost $1000.

The cruise rates are in 1997 dollars, so let’s say you got an inside cabin for $840 in 1997. That’d be $1644 in 2024 dollars.  (The RT 2016 conference fee of $489 in 2024 dollars: $640.)

I’m fascinated. I wonder if it was a total pain to plan, or if it was a good time. Did you go on the 1997 conference cruise? Did anything fun happen?!

Then, there are the PARTIES and the CONTESTS.

A scavenger hunt!

Swashbuckler Leland Burbank plans a scavenger hunt to end all scavenger hunts on and off the Carnal Celebration during the Romantic Times Cruise.
Participants will be asked to retrieve articles featured in romance novels. Fabulous prizes are planned!

And for those who dream of spending all night long with this black-hearted pirate, Leland will be hosting a slumber party (time and date to be announced). The first 50 people to write to Leland Burbank do Wild at Heart!
Cruise, P.O. Box 682 Waucanda, IL 60084, will be invited to this wild all night party. 

Slumber party? Yeah, no thanks. I like sleep.

But look at the value of this prize!

One lucky grand prize raffle winner will win a day on the beach in Cozumel posing with gorgeous cover model Cherif Fortin. If that weren’t enough, Cover Illustrator Lynn Sanders will create a 16×20 parting from the cover shoot! The lucky winner of  this incredible prize will be announced al the RT Costume Competition onboard the Carnival celebration.

$2500! And a painting! Of you and a cover model! Who won this? Do you have the painting? Can you show us?!

As usual, Heather Graham is throwing the greatest party of the week:

Heather Graham’s Scuba-Dooby-Doo
Rock and Roll Rum Party
Begins sunset, April 21, aboard the Carnival Celebration. After a sun-kissed day scuba diving and snorkeling, Heather Graham will host a party for all deep-sea divers and bathing beauties. A certified diver, Heather is excited about exploring the beautiful waters and majestic reefs off Grand Cayman. After diving, whether you’re an experienced or novice scuba or deep-sea diver, plan to attend Heather’s sunset “rum” scuba, where we will rumba to the beat of the ocean as the sun sets and we sail on to Cozumel.

SCUBA. DOOBY. DOO.

A Heather Graham party is unparalleled. Every year it was something new, different, and interesting. Incredible.

Scuba dooby doo.

I spend some time with the two-page article on the Janet Dailey plagiarism scandal, also in 1997, and I’ve shared the article here – PDF DOWNLOAD (51MB, right click and save as). 

The article is really off of every wall, especially in how it talks about mental health. But for the definitive deep dive of Janet Dailey, please check out the two-part deep dive on the Reformed Rakes podcast. 

The most startling thing: it is heavily sympathetic to Dailey, and Roberts is hardly mentioned at all.

Hey, wanna pay a startling amount of money for the Essence of Romance database?

On Diskette! Just because I have the inflation calculator open, $70 for the dos-based diskette in 2024 dollars: $137. Damn!

The classified as always are a delight and a fun moment in the past:

24 hour shopping by email and the US Postal Service! Somewhere Bezos is quaking in his very expensive boots. (hahaha not).

Indigo Love Stories, published by Genesis Press, has a gorgeous ad on the inside back cover:

Genesis was founded in 1993, and here we are four years later with this incredible eye candy and a terrific ad. Compared to other publisher ads inside, this is truly stellar.

The back cover is Brenda Joyce, and it’s fascinating to me that it’s as much an ad for the author as it is the book:

The fandom aspects of the magazine are still active in this issue, alongside the authors-as-celebrities elements – the ad above is a good example. Branding was very different in 1997, too.

And to see the early days of reader communication online? VERY cool.

So that was December 1997!

Remember, if you join the Patreon, you’ll get access to the entire issue as a PDF.

What do you think? Do you remember any of these books? Did you go on the cruise?!

How are you enjoying the RT Rewind episodes?