Happy Pink Day

Today, June 23rd, on National Pink Day, 

we celebrate the color of romance. 

The blend between the passion of red and the purity of white, pink is the color of love, nurture, and compassion.

Barbara Cartland one of the best-selling romance authors of all time, with a prolific output of over 700 novels, left 160 unpublished manuscripts when she died in 2000. Her son, Ian, published these brand-new Barbara Cartland books in 2004 as the Pink Collection. He named it that because his mother’s favorite color was a vivacious shade of pink.

Pink is a popular hue for romance book covers, from sweet to sexy novels.

• Goodreads has a list of 24 romance reads with pink in the title here. 
• Goodreads also has a list of books with pink covers, including one I happen to be reading now, The Ex Talk here. 
• The deluxe edition of Effie Campbell’s dark mafia romance—Dark Obsession, even has pink pages.

Speaking of pink and romance. 

I attended a romance convention in San Antonio once that was loads of fun. One of the events was a luncheon at the hotel where everyone was encouraged to wear pink. An author won the Best Pink Dressed contest. She had blonde hair like Marilyn Monroe and her gorgeous pink vintage dress looked a lot like the iconic gown Marilyn wore in 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'.

Pink was the favorite color of one of the most famous of all King’s mistresses—Madame de Pompadour. Her attire of elaborate fashionable pink gowns popularized the color in 18th-century Europe. The Sevres porcelain company even created and named a shade of pink after her—pink pompadour.  

Since then, people have introduced other shades of pink. Notably, Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli’s Shocking Pink in 1937. And Hot Pink was hot in fashion and advertising in the 1950s and 60s.

We writers and readers love words and the color pink has had a big effect on the English language.

• In the pink: Healthy

• Seeing pink elephants: Drunk and hallucinating

• Pink slip: A termination of employment notice

• Pink-collar worker: employed in a traditional woman’s job

• Pink money: The LGBT community’s economic power

• Tickled pink: Thrilled

• Pink Book: An annual publication from the UK’s Department of National Statistics

Suggestions for thinking pink today:

. Drink pink lemonade

. Wear a pink dress or blouse

. Give someone a pink flower

. Write in pink ink or on pink paper 

. Put on your favorite pink lipstick or nail polish

Happy National Pink Day

 

I wrote a few romance books that have pink covers you can browse here

Please comment on your favorite romance book with a pink cover or what you plan to do for Pink Day.