"Hi Rob! I'm wondering if you know anything about
Diamond, which published romances in the early 90s. I've only found
historicals, but don't know if it published others. I'd love to find a source
with near comprehensive info like the article available on Bookscan about Pageant, but so far no luck on that front.
I have a feeling Diamond, like Pageant, may have been short-lived."
As it turns out, I knew nothing
about Diamond. I answered off-hand that I thought Diamond was an imprint of
Dell, but I was actually getting it mixed up with Emerald. I also thought I had a few Diamond books in
my collection, but after a quick search was unable to find any. The starting point for my research,
later that day, was when I searched the word "Diamond" on my Romantic
Times index site (which contains scans of various pages of the magazine
from the 1980s and 1990s) where I found the following item from RT #74
(April/May 1990): "Starting in August, Berkley's Charter line will be
revamped and renamed DIAMOND. The line will offer nine titles each month... [which]
will include two historicals... and one Regency... The DIAMOND line will
also publish two mysteries, a western, an occult, a horror, and a Super
Horoscope guide each month." (So,
to answer Daily Clinch's question, Diamond's romance output was mainly
historical, not contemporary romance.)
I knew about Charter, the publisher of the Nick Carter Killmaster novels when I bought them as a teenager back in the mid-1980s. For that reason, I had a vaguely nostalgic attachment to Charter, but didn't know whatever happened to them. Well, now I knew: Charter became Diamond in August 1990. In fact, prior to that month, some Charter books said "Charter/Diamond" on the covers, perhaps to prepare readers for the name change, and the Charter/Diamond name remained for a few months afterwards, including in the pages of RT. Charter may have been gone from the covers, but inside the books on the copyright page, one would find this: "The name 'DIAMOND' and its logo are trademarks belonging to Charter Communications, Inc." (Diamond, incidentally, had been the name of a short-lived Berkley imprint in 1960. So reviving the Diamond brand may have been an affectionate nod to the company's history, or perhaps simply intended to keep a trademark alive.)
Even though I had no Diamond books
myself, I do have a lot of back issues of Romantic Times, and it occured
to me that I might be able to compile an index of their publishing output by
going through the Diamond listings in the pages of RT. There were a few problems with this idea,
though. Firstly, the RT listings were
not always accurate, sometimes listing a book as being from Diamond when it
actually appeared under the Jove or Berkley name instead.
Secondly, romance novels were only
a third of what Diamond released each month, at least at the beginning, so that
meant I would have to somehow magically discover the titles of their
non-romance books and fit them into the chronological list. Searches on Google, eBay, FictionDB, Amazon
and Goodreads would help, but sometimes their info is not always accurate
either (as we shall see). For this reason, I have mostly ignored the horoscope
books that Diamond put out.
The third problem is that for the
period being discussed in this post, from 1990 to 1995, I'm missing 10 issues
of Romantic Times: #86 (April/May 1991), #88 (July 1991), #89 (Aug.
1991), #92 (Nov. 1991), #110 (May 1993), #111 (June 1993), #127 (Oct. 1994),
#135 (June 1995), #137 (Aug. 1995), and #141 (Dec. 1995). So it's possible that there is information
about Diamond in those issues that is not reflected in the post below. Because of the limitations outlined above,
the information in this list gives priority to the romance novels -- since I
had more info about them and that is my primary interest anyway. The romance
titles are listed first for each month's entry, with the other genres (when
known) listed beneath them.
Daily Clinch had mentioned above
the short-lived Pageant publishing house (a few of whose authors also wrote for
Diamond). Originally I had assumed that the Diamond imprint was similarly
short-lived, but in fact it lasted nearly five years -- longer than some
better-known and better-documented imprints (such as the Richard Gallen line
that I've previously attempted to index) and longer than its obscurity would
imply. Its Homespun line used
cartoon-like drawings for its covers many years before they became popular for
romance novels. Diamond also published early novels by Lorraine Heath (her
first two novels were for the Homespun line), Susan Mallery, Hannah
Howell and Peter David.
Before
we get to the chronological list of titles, I want to address the question of
who was responsible for selecting the books that Diamond published. In other words, who ran Diamond, behind the
scenes?
Based
on my perusal of RT issues from the period, my initial assumption was that
Melinda Metz had the most responsibility over the Diamond imprint, since she is
the Berkley editor most often cited by the authors as having bought their
books. See, for example, RT #93 (Dec. 1991), page 40; RT #102 (Sept.
1992), page 63; RT #105 (Dec. 1992), page 84 ("Melinda Metz, my editor
at Berkley/Diamond, suggested I try to write a romance for the new 'Homespun'
historical line they were introducing..."); RT #106 (Jan.
1993), page 101 ("Recently, my editor at Berkley, Melinda Metz, sent me
a copy of the reviews... of my latest Regency...a January release from Berkley/Diamond.
... I had been happy when Berkley thought well enough of my writing to buy [the
book] on a four-and-a-half page synopsis; no sample chapters needed this
time. I was also happy when Melinda told me that they were keeping my original
title, because it truly fit so well the entire premise of the story.")
The
"they" in those words, however, suggests that the responsibility for
Diamond may have been shared across Berkley's editorial team. RT #98 (May 1992)
listed Berkley's editors as Hillary Cige, Carrie Feron, Melinda Metz, and
Judith Stern. RT #101 (Aug. 1992) listed the same names, as seen in the scan
below (Melinda Metz's name is misspelled).
In RT #97 (April 1992), page 37, it is indicated that Hillary Cige had
bought two novels that were released under the Diamond imprint. In RT #120
(March 1994), Diamond author Cait Logan gives "thanks to my fine editor,
Hillary Cige."
In RT #109 (April 1993), page 76, writer Deborah Wood says that "Gail Fortune at Berkley had made an offer for my book for its Homespun line." In RT #129 (Dec. 1994), page 47, author Linda Francis Lee, who wrote two Wildflower books for Diamond, directs any correspondence about her books to editor Gail Fortune at Berkley Publishing. This confirms that more than one Berkley editor was responsible for what got published at Diamond.
In
RT #129 (Dec. 1994), page 115, it was reported that "Melinda Metz has
left her editor post at Berkley and moved to Parachute Press, where she will be
editing young adult books." (Metz
later wrote the series of Roswell High books that became the basis of
the TV series Roswell.)
Two
issues later, in RT #131 (Feb. 1995), page 86, we read that "Berkley is
no longer acquiring for the Diamond Wildflower. They are phasing out the
line." I was not able to find
an announcement or mention in the pages of RT that the Diamond imprint itself
was being discontinued. By April 1995, it appears that the Diamond symbol on
the covers of both the Wildflower and Homespun lines has been
replaced with the Jove symbol. Wildflower
evidently ended shortly afterwards, while (according to FictionDB), the Homespun
series continued as a Jove line until the end of 1997. I will provide a separate list of Diamond's Wildflower
titles at the end of this blog post.
It's
important to remember that Jove and Diamond co-existed as imprints of Berkley
throughout the early 1990s. Diamond had
its traditional Regency line, releasing one thin book per month, but so did
Jove with its own trad Regency line.
Berkley also released some books under the Berkley name (i.e. neither
Diamond nor Jove). Eventually Diamond's
mystery output was moved to the Berkley Prime Crime imprint (introduced in 1994), which was focused
on that genre. It may have made sense, by
1995, to simply fold the Diamond output into Jove and eliminate the Diamond
name entirely, just as its predecessor Charter had been phased out. (Incidentally, an item in RT #125 (Aug.
1994), p. 55, about the "Romance Arrival Schedule at Waldenbooks"
notes that Berkley titles arrive on the shelves in the "middle of
month," while those from "Diamond/Jove" are on sale "early
in month." This doesn't quite match what an ad for a Diamond release in
the same issue tells readers, that it will be "available mid-July.")
This
chronology of Diamond books is incomplete.
If you have any additional information to add, or corrections to make,
please share it in the comments section.
I will likely update this post as more info becomes available. Thanks! (This post was last updated on October 19, 2022 at 4pm.)
--
Rob Imes
___________________________________________________________________
I knew about Charter, the publisher of the Nick Carter Killmaster novels when I bought them as a teenager back in the mid-1980s. For that reason, I had a vaguely nostalgic attachment to Charter, but didn't know whatever happened to them. Well, now I knew: Charter became Diamond in August 1990. In fact, prior to that month, some Charter books said "Charter/Diamond" on the covers, perhaps to prepare readers for the name change, and the Charter/Diamond name remained for a few months afterwards, including in the pages of RT. Charter may have been gone from the covers, but inside the books on the copyright page, one would find this: "The name 'DIAMOND' and its logo are trademarks belonging to Charter Communications, Inc." (Diamond, incidentally, had been the name of a short-lived Berkley imprint in 1960. So reviving the Diamond brand may have been an affectionate nod to the company's history, or perhaps simply intended to keep a trademark alive.)
In RT #109 (April 1993), page 76, writer Deborah Wood says that "Gail Fortune at Berkley had made an offer for my book for its Homespun line." In RT #129 (Dec. 1994), page 47, author Linda Francis Lee, who wrote two Wildflower books for Diamond, directs any correspondence about her books to editor Gail Fortune at Berkley Publishing. This confirms that more than one Berkley editor was responsible for what got published at Diamond.
A
list of titles published by DIAMOND (Berkley), 1990-1995:
- SCREAM PLAY by Douglas Soesbe [horror] (You can watch a YouTube channel's review of the book here.)
September
1990:
Orleans"]
December
1990:
RT #74) (ad on back cover of RT #82; column, p. 12-13; review, p. 37)
- LONG RIDER #13: VENGEANCE TOWN by Clay Dawson [western] (FictionDB lists
this as November, but the Catalog of Copyright Entries says December)
January
1991:
per FictionDB)
of author in RT #98, p. 7)
by Ace, but the front cover says Diamond)
- SECRET PLACES by R. S. Adams [Silk Stockings series]
- SECRET PLACES by R. S. Adams [Silk Stockings series]
Books scan confirms it is a Diamond book.)
- LONG RIDER #14: THE COMANCHEROS by Clay Dawson [western]
April
1991:
- SHILOH #3: BLOOD RIVAL by Dalton Walker [western] (FictionDB lists it as a March release, but the Catalog of Copyright Entries says April.)
May
1991:
column on p. 48-49)
p. 91)
Jasper novels published under Berkley brand, not Diamond?)
- LONG RIDER #15: BLOOD HUNT by Clay Dawson [western] (FictionDB lists this as
May, but the Catalog of Copyright Entries says June)
July
1991:
but Google Books scan of the book's title page confirms it was a
Diamond release.)
photo of author in Flavia's column in RT #95, p. 7)
author
profile in RT #87, p. 23)
- SHILOH #4: THE HUNTED by Dalton Walker [western] (The Catalog of Copyright
Entries says that the author is a pseudonym of Billy Walker.)
August
1991: 
-
DESERT ROSE by Linda Lee [historical]
September
1991:
- THE CHARLESTON WOMEN #3: CAROLINA MOON by Kristie Knight [historical] (final book of the series)
-
CHANCE ENCOUNTER by Diana Delmore (a.k.a. Lois Stewart, a.k.a. Lois Nellet)
[Regency] (review in RT #90, p. 74)
- LONG RIDER #16: SNAKETOWN by Clay Dawson [western]
October
1991:
in RT #91, p. 46-47; column in RT #91, p. 61; book fair photo
in RT #93, p. 7)
- SILK by Eileen Van Kirk [historical] (short author profile in RT #87, p. 23; review in RT
- SILK by Eileen Van Kirk [historical] (short author profile in RT #87, p. 23; review in RT
#93, p. 100-101)
(mention in RT #95, p. 88)
- SHILOH #5: HELL TOWN by Dalton Walker [western]
November
1991:
- OFFSPRING by Jack Ketchum [horror]
December
1991:
-
BLOSSOM by Constance Bennett [historical] (review in RT #93, p. 51-52)
- OFFSPRING by Jack Ketchum [horror]
- LONG RIDER #17: TOWN TAMER by Clay Dawson [western]
January
1992:
as from Ace.)
RT #94,
p. 60)
(FictionDB mistakenly lists it as Ace)
- SHILOH #6: SIDEWINDER by Dalton Walker [western]
February
1992:
small ad on p. 35; review & ad in RT #96, p. 46)
in 1915"]
I ever wrote.")
p. 43-44; column & ad, p. 58) (Note: The illustration in the ad,
presumably used as the
stepback, was the work of artist Robert McGinnis, signed
in the bottom right corner.)
in RT #96, p. 34; short review, p. 85)
- LONG RIDER #18: TEXAS MANHUNT by Clay Dawson [western]
April
1992:
review & ad, p. 45)
in RT #97, p. 53) (The RT #97 review lists it as Berkley, but
FictionDB lists it as Diamond.)
- SHILOH #7: VENGEANCE TRAIL by Dalton Walker [western]
May 1992:
in RT #98, p. 42, column & ad, p. 58)
(final book in the series)
June
1992:
review & ad in RT #99, p. 47-48; column, p. 73)
RT #99, p. 51)
43-44, column & ad, p. 56-57) (Note: Her next Gothic for Berkley, Waltz
in the Shadows, in
Dec. 1993, was published by Jove, not Diamond, even
though RT #117 mistakenly listed it as
a Diamond book in their review.)
- LONG RIDER #19: CHISHOLM TRAIL by Clay Dawson [western] (Note: I was able to confirm the month of June on this book because an eBay seller took a photo of the copyright
page, showing the June 1992 date -- which concurs with the date given for the book in the
Catalog of Copyright Entries.)
July 1992:
Chance at Love #419, with a new cover] (mention in Flavia's
column in RT #98, p. 7)
p. 70)
p. 72)
- SHILOH #8: BLOOD BOUNTY by Dalton Walker [western] (final book of the series?)
August
1992:
imprint will signal readers about more sensual Western
romances, while Diamond's Homespun Romances will be sweeter love stories that
touch the heart of America.")
in RT #102, p. 50)
p. 27,
saying it was "my third Regency for Berkley Diamond"; small ad in RT
#102, p. 81)
p. 47-48)
in RT #103, p. 37: "Berkley Diamond author Lynn McKee has come up
with a lively, eye-catching promotional idea. She is bringing a handsome male
model (Chippendale style) dressed as an Indian character from her Touch the
Stars to all her book signings.")
- LONG RIDER #20: MOUNTAIN KILLER by Clay Dawson [western]
October 1992:
p. 2; mention in Flavia's column of the cover by Pino, p. 7; column, p. 17;
review, p. 44)
by
Walker & Co. in hardcover in 1989.) (RT #101, p. 108, notes: "The
ghost is slated to star in three future novels by this author." Review in
RT #103, p. 76)
#103, p. 45-46)
of author in RT #103, p. 7; review, p. 47)
"the first book in her stunning new Werewolf trilogy.")
November
1992:
Nina Herrmann) (Wildflower line) [historical] (column & ad in
RT #105, p. 28-29; review, p. 46)
(review & small ad in RT #105, p. 49; column, p. 84)
[Teddy London Supernatural Mystery series] (review in RT #105, p.
96)
- LONG RIDER #21: RANCHERO by Clay Dawson [western]
January
1993:
#106,
p. 100-101; small ad, p. 105)
Tempest] (review in RT #106, p. 52-53)
book of the series)
- LONG RIDER #22: CRAZY KNIFE by Clay Dawson [western]
April
1993:
column in RT #113, p. 62-63, about her Zebra Regency novels)
DiFrancesco & Nina Herrmann) (Wildflower line) [historical] (review
in RT #109, p. 47; ad & column, p. 64-65)
p. 55; column & small ad, p. 76, where the author
mentions that the novel's working title was
The Widow Preston. She also
mentions that her next Homespun novel will be titled Hidden
Bonds,
but that title was evidently changed, too.)
May
1993:
this was a June release, but the ad in RT says May.)
p. 42) (RT #108, p. 116, says this is a May release, while
the review in RT #112 says June, and FictionDB says July.)
- LONG RIDER #23: VENGEANCE VALLEY by Clay Dawson [western]
June
1993:
p. 41-42)
July
1993:
#112, p. 16-17; review, p. 32-33 [the ad says "on sale June
1993," but the review says July]; mention in RT #115, p. 38, that the
novel "is to be reprinted in Chinese.")
p.
97; small ad, p. 98; column, p. 99, where she notes that this is "my
fourth Regency novel for Berkley/Diamond.")
#112, p. 40-41)
- LONG RIDER #24: DEAD AIM by Clay Dawson [western]
August
1993:
-
THE PASSIONATE GHOST by Sheila Rosalynd Allen [Regency] (Originally published by
Walker & Co. in hardcover in 1991.) (review in RT #113, p. 110, which lists
it as a Jove release, not Diamond)
(Final Diamond book in their traditional Regency line?)
for the book confirms that Shannon Willow was a pen-name for Gimone Hall.)
#113, p. 39; column, p. 93)
column & ad, p. 60-61)
- LONG RIDER #25: GUNS AND GOLD by Clay Dawson [western]
the cover shows it to be a Berkley book.)
September
1993:
#114, p. 32, review & ad, p. 39)
[historical] (mention in her column in RT #107, p. 101; review & ad
in RT #114, p. 46;
column, p. 108-109)
October
1993:
p. 47; column, p. 104)
- LONG RIDER #26: DEVIL'S GUNS by Clay Dawson [western]
lists it as a Diamond book, but an ad in the same issue says it is Jove, and
the Google Books
scan of the book confirms that it was a Jove book, not
Diamond.)
November
1993:
[Teddy London Supernatural Mystery series] (The rest of the books in
the series were not for
the Diamond imprint.)
- LONG RIDER #27: WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE by Clay Dawson [western] (final book
of the series)
December
1993:
it to be a Jove book.)
January
1994:
February
1994:
-
HONOR
by Lindsay Chase [historical] (review in RT #119, p. 52-53; RT misspells
her first name as "Lindsey" throughout)
p. 49)
#119, p. 46; column, p. 109)
March
1994:
-
NIGHT FIRE by Cait Logan [historical] (review in RT #120, p. 38; ad, p. 39;
column, p. 56)
April
1994:
May
1994:
June
1994:
July
1994:
August
1994:
-
SWEET ESCAPE by Susan Macias (a.k.a. Susan Mallery) [historical]
(review in RT #125, p. 34; column & ad, p. 70-71) (RT #123, p. 30, notes:
"Susan Macias, a western writer for Berkley, has signed with
HarperCollins.")
September
1994:
October
1994:
November
1994:
(Note: The review in RT #128, p. 42, of STOLEN KISSES by Karen Lockwood lists it as Diamond, but it was a Jove book.)
December
1994:
January
1995:
February
1995:
March
1995:
The
FictionDB site continues to list some of the Wildflower and Homespun
books as being from Diamond, but the covers of the books themselves, as well as
their listings in Romantic Times, indicates that these supposedly
Diamond titles are in fact Jove, not Diamond.
See, for example, some of my notes for the rest of 1995:
April
1995:
- FAMILY RECIPE by Pamela Quint Chambers (Homespun line) [historical] (RT #131, p. 122 lists this as a Jove book. As does the review of the book in RT #133, p. 39-40. And the front cover appears to have the Jove symbol. But FictionDB lists it as a Diamond book. This may be the first Jove book in the line, as the rest appear to be listed as Jove on FictionDB.)
May
1995:
June
1995:
July
1995:
September
1995:
November
1995:
Even
a Homespun book published as late as January 1996, HONEYSUCKLE SONG by Lydia
Browne, is listed on FictionDB as Diamond, when the symbol on the cover appears
to be Jove. So, it seems safe to say
that there were no Diamond titles released after March 1995, regardless of what
it may say on a webpage listing like FictionDB.
For Diamond, March 1995 appears to have been the end of the road.
(Note: The review in RT #128, p. 42, of STOLEN KISSES by Karen Lockwood lists it as Diamond, but it was a Jove book.)
It
appears that March 1995 was the final month for books published under the
Diamond imprint.
- FAMILY RECIPE by Pamela Quint Chambers (Homespun line) [historical] (RT #131, p. 122 lists this as a Jove book. As does the review of the book in RT #133, p. 39-40. And the front cover appears to have the Jove symbol. But FictionDB lists it as a Diamond book. This may be the first Jove book in the line, as the rest appear to be listed as Jove on FictionDB.)
The
WILDFLOWER line:
& Nina Herrmann) (December 1992)
DiFrancesco & Nina Herrmann) (April 1993)
Rob, you are such a treasure! I have the same news articles as you do and was planning to do an article on Diamond books. That was months ago. I adore their covers and am trying to collect them all. They had the best cover art.
ReplyDeleteThis article will be a reference for me in the future, if that's acceptable with you. Thanks for all this information!