Reports of Our Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Just wanted to surface from Deadline Purgatory to clear up an email rumor some of you may have heard. The RUMOR: Harlequin's Intrigue line is not doing well and is being shut down. FACT: The Intrigue line is one of Harlequin's bestselling lines, and it is not going anywhere. This is straight from Denise Zaza, Intrigue's lead editor. (Actually, it's from Julie Miller, who e-mailed Denise and received a phone call from her in response aimed at quashing this horrible rumor immediately. But I didn't want to sound all: "My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with a girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night.")

We suspect that the person who started the rumors of Intrigue's demise was confused by the imminent changes to Bombshell and Intimate Moments. Long story short, Bombshell is being phased out. The Silhouette Intimate Moments line is shifting slightly, so ALL of the books in this line will be romances with a suspense element. The suspense element cannot overshadow the romance in this line, unlike in Intrigue, where the suspense is emphasized to the point where the books are quite mainstream in tone.

In a move I confess I find a little baffling, HQ/Silh. marketing is changing the Intimate Moments name to Silhouette Romantic Suspense. I find this a little confusing, because it seems to place more of an emphasis on the suspense than the "Intrigue" title does, so I think it will confuse readers. Perhaps they should call the new line "Silhouette Romance With Some Suspense" or "Silhouette Romance With a Little Suspense But Not Enough To Give You A Bad Case of The Heebies."

I wonder why marketing doesn't ever check with me about these things? Clearly I am a marketing genius.

Anyway, long story short, Intrigue=selling well; sticking around. Bombshell=sadly going away. Intimate Moments=Changing to Romantic Suspense (though not as much suspense as in Intrigue).

So I've done my part to straighten out this mess. My work here is done.