Hey everyone! Well it’s definitely been a while since I last managed to get here to indulge one of my favorite pastimes… Blog(hogg)ing! Anyway, here I am and it’s good to be back, and I do have good reason for my absence!

Actually, I’m really excited. My “baby” has grown wonderfully and is now officially launched into the world! It’s a major milestone for me, and reflects a lot of thought, time, effort, energy, brain-drain… Still it’s worth it – Classic Romance Revival now has its own website! Yep, that little idea – first conceived in March this year – has surprised all my expectations and mushroomed into a “grown-up” group in an amazingly short time-frame.

When I first started CRR as a little private Yahoo group for authors in March, it really wasn’t much more than an experiment, a “testing of the waters” to see if there was a need out there for authors who, like me, felt the need for a place where readers, authors and publishers of “Classic Romance” could meet, find common ground, and grow the Classic Romance Genre in the romance industry. A few tentative emails soon got the ball rolling with a vengeance, and by early April we launched our Readers Yahoo Group “with a bang and not a whimper” along with our blog. The response was huge, and had me hopping to keep up with the new additions that literally poured in over a week or two!

Since then, we’ve continued to grow at a steady pace, adding readers and authors and our Review service which is showing signs of healthy growth too (so much so that we’re needing reviewers again, so if you’re keen, please email reviews@classicromancerevival.com with REVIEWER INTEREST in the header) with submissions starting to come from publishers themselves.

From June this year, work on the website started in earnest, and what a learning curve that was! Being “the other fella” rather than “Rockerfella” I needed to take the “me, myself, I” route, which meant searching for user-friendly database-driven software, installing it on “localhost” to learn how to “drive” it, customize it and generally teach it who really was the “Mom” in the whole create-a-website scenario. It proved to be a satisfying but also exceptionally frustrating (nothing worse than ignorance!) journey, with any number of long delays while I learned “techi-speak” and searched the forums for answers, but here we are – live and launching, and looking forward to a month-long “maiden voyage” for the CRR “flagship”!

From a Mom-perspective yes, it definitely was (and is) worth it. I have met and got to know some amazing people from all over the world. It seems like every day someone lets me know how excited they are to have found a group that has “Classic” in its name. I’m blessed to have on board a wonderful “crew” of authors who are committed, enthusiastic and supportive – I always say a group is only as good as its members, and we have (I’m allowed to say this, it’s what Moms do) the very best!

We have run some wonderful contests (our first ever Blog Carnival being the highlight) and there are still a lot of plans for future growth. With our website, we launched Classic Promotions, which offers affordable ad options for all Classic authors (not just our members). Soon this will grow into other promotional activities – promo on the loops, new release events, website hosting and development, publisher showcases… Right now we’re researching the need, so feel free to let us know what you would like on promotions@classicromancerevival.com and we’ll see how we can help.

We’re also looking to grow the services to existing and aspiring authors – relevant links, submission requests, promo tips, editing tips, submission tips… the list goes on!

So, like any Mom out there, right now I’m looking at my “baby” and going “Wow! Did I really grow you?” It’s an immensely satisfying feeling, but I couldn’t have done it without a little help from my friends. So, to all CRR members, a huge thank you for your ideas, input, support, encouragement, patience… okay, for everything! I love you all, am immensely honored to be able to spend time with you and work with you, and am looking forward to the future.

To end, a toast: To the good ship Classic Romance Revival and all who sail in her! May the wind in our sails be a good one, and may it be a voyage worth remembering, an exploration worth undertaking, and a journey that lasts a long, long time!

If you’d like to climb aboard for our month-long maiden voyage or check out our list of planned and upcoming activities, click on the website link image to get to us!

Take care everyone! And stay with us…

The Revival Has Just Begun!

Jude