Jill Shalvis (whose books I love like things that I love a lot) has an entry on her blog that’s full of warm fuzzy awesome: What terms of endearment do you love? And which do you love reading? Me, I’m totally up for calling Hubby “schnookums” or “thunderpants” but I doubt I’d read that in any romance novel.
Second, from John, who rocks it hard in this blog entry, a cover.
What do you think that erect tree in the background means? That THIS MAN is MAN ENOUGH to BREASTFEED?
This link is a bit older – a week or more, which on the internet means it has aged into a fine, fine vintage. Heather Massey of Galaxy Express created a fantastic question and answer opportunity over at SFSignal: “Q: Is there a taboo against romance in science fiction? What does romance bring to the SF genre? What are some good examples of romance in SF that illustrate this?”
Oh, the responses, they are full of awesome, win and majesty.
A lot of women, I have come to realize, used to sneak their mothers’ romance novels off of the bookshelves and read them when they were teenagers. I never felt compelled to do so because, as my husband if fond of reminding me, I vowed I would never read “those kinds of books.” It was an opinion I had formed under the influence of 1) having more guy friends than girl friends, and 2) the stigma attached to the romance genre. Besides, I was way too busy reading Star Wars.
But, without realizing it at the time, I was creating romance novels out of the Star Wars books I loved so dearly. After reading a book all the way through I would reread it, skipping to the parts where a hero or heroine and their love interest interacted.
So it was amid lightsaber battles that I learned lessons of love. From the couples in Star Wars I learned that love is about devotion, trust, compromise, honesty. And that true love can endure loss, separation and heartache.
Now that I’m a bit older and wiser I thoroughly enjoy “proper” Romances, from contemporary to historicals to paranormal. But I definitely got my first taste of Romance from sci-fi novels.
Woo, I rocked something hard! 😀
What did I rock?
single62 – I am neither single (woo) or 62, so that fails.
acheter kamas Its benefits can be well illustrated in the following aspects. by xl
RE: the cover, I’ve got to admit, shirtless manfulness all-up-ins the northern woods fiddles with my lady-wiring all by itself. Given that I’m 31 and knock-knock-knocking on motherhood’s door, adding a baby to this already potent hormonal cocktail is just downright reckless.
Beth, about that Star Wars thing…could there have been a hotter pairing than “bad boy” Han Solo and Princess Leia?
Ack! That cover gives me the willies! First, he’s kinda small (just sayin’) for a romance novel cover. And his hair looks like it’s going grey. Second, what kind of doofus takes a baby outside in the wintertime with no blanket and he’s shirtless! Ain’t he cold? There’s snow on them mountains, lumberjack!
Oh and I just noticed the one nipple peeking out at me. It’s a little too far to the (his) right. It’s almost in his armpit.
There’s a taboo against romance in sci-fi? I don’t know that I’d have loved Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders half as much without the love stories. Dragons mating = Rider mating; I was all over that. F’lar & Lessa’s first coupling was the height of sexy to my 12 year old brain.
It may be subtler in sci-fi, and there might be a lot of other things going on, but the romance is still there.
spam word find84. Given enough time I could probably come up with 84 more examples.
Thanks for linking to the Mind Meld discussion! *kiss kiss*