Once upon a time …. there was an event called the Romantic Times Booklover’s Conference which was held every year. Founded by Kathryn Faulk, it was the largest romance novel conference in the U.S. and it held the Mr. Romance Pageant which was the start for many famous cover models, one of the most famous being Fabio.
The RT Booklover’s Conference drew romance readers, authors, booksellers, publishers, editors, agents and tomorrow’s novelists to a week-long annual event, which was held in different cities each year. In 2011 the event was held from April 6th to April 10th in Los Angeles, CA.
Romance author Debra Parmley bought raffle tickets during the conference, and because the raffle was to raise funds for an animal shelter in L.A., the cause called to her heart. She bought five tickets. The raffle was set up by International Cover Model Jimmy Thomas and the prize was breakfast in bed with Jimmy which included a photo shoot.
She bought the tickets, happy to help the animals in her small way, and thought no more about it.
But then, at the big 350 author book signing where she was signing her books, Jimmy Thomas drew her name.
She’d won! She double checked her tickets twice to be sure. Then she got someone to watch her table and went to let them know she had the winning ticket. They set up a time for the photo shoot and she hurried back to her signing table.
The morning before she was to fly out was the photo shoot, and she was nervous. She didn’t have anything to wear except her regular pajamas. When mothers hand out advice about always wearing clean underwear, they say nothing about being sure to pick out pajamas to wear in the event you’re having a breakfast in bed photo shoot with a cover model.
All Debra had with her was her black and pink polka dotted pajamas. So, polka dots it would have to be. She hoped they didn’t make her look like a twelve year old.
Sometimes there’s no fairy godmother to spin up a new set of clothing for you, and you have to go with what you have, and who you are. But this is a blessing, because you should always be who you are.
So, there Debra was, nervous and wearing her polka dots. She wondered how she’d ever be able to eat with the camera clicking away, but soon Jimmy and his photographer Bruce Heinsius had her relaxing and joking around like the best of friends.
Jimmy told her he’d do an interview with her and she could post it on her website. The interview was such a success, having 5,000 views in a very short period of time, that soon another cover model (Jason Baaca) approached her, asking to be interviewed. She agreed to do his interview and this is how Cover Model Corner was born.
Readers wanted to learn more about cover models and cover models wanted to be interviewed. Since then, Debra has interviewed many famous cover models. Later, her interviews were picked up by Affair du Coeur Magazine and she began to freelance for the magazine.
The last RT Booklovers convention Debra attended was in 2012 in Chicago, IL. It was the 29th annual convention and there were 2,000 industry people in attendance. That year, as Debra was riding the train home, she heard from Jimmy Thomas. He asked many questions about the convention and she would later learn that he was creating his own convention in Las Vegas, the RNC (Romance Novel Convention). She attended the first RNC and then took a break from attending conventions.
After having a new website built, despite being told that content on the old site would not be lost, many of the old interviews were. No one could get them back. To prevent this from ever happening again Debra decided to set up a dedicated blog for Cover Model Corner. It launched here on May 26, 2015.
The Romantic Times Book Lovers Conventions are no more. Several thousand people attended the annual convention, which featured author signings, a costume ball, and a male beauty pageant. In May 2018, Kathryn Falk and her co-owner, husband Kevin Rubin announced the closure of the magazine. The last RT Booklovers Convention ended with the one held May 15–20, 2018 in Reno NV.
In 2019 after cover model Jimmy Thomas made posts on social media about overweight people, upsetting many readers and people in the industry, many authors removed his images from their books and public pages. Debra believes in preserving history, not erasing it, so you will still find the history of cover model corner and of her time spent with Jimmy here on this blog. You can read more about this in the post When a Cover Model Disappoints.
Here you will find new and revisited interviews with the cover models and actors which grace the pages of thousands of romance novels. You never know who Debra might be interviewing next here in Cover Model Corner. You will find new interviews with cover models and you will find glimpses of past RT conventions Debra attended.
Enjoy!
Cover Model Corner Interviews by Debra Parmley since 2011 