I mentioned this in the Books on Sale post today, but it’s worth mentioning again: today is the 20th anniversary celebration of Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase. The book is on sale for $1.99 ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ) and Avon is encouraging people to share their memories of the first time they read it, or what they love about it, using hashtag #LoSLove on Twitter. They’re giving away signed copies of the book randomly all day, too. Nice!
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I tweeted this earlier this week when the information landed in my inbox, but I must share it everywhere I can: please meet Princess Cupcake Jones, the heroine of a series of books.
I CAN’T WITH ALL HER CUTENESS.
Ahem.
In the first book, Princess Cupcake Jones and the Missing Tutu, Princess Cupcake Jones learns how to be tidy with her things. The second book, Princess Cupcake Jones Won’t Go to School ( A | K ), came out in September 2014.
I’m not sure why I landed on this PR firm’s email list — maybe because of the podcast discussions on diversity in books for young readers — but I love it. And the reviews are positive, too. I hope there are more on the way!
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This article on The Toast made my week when I saw the link: How to Interview a Woman Writer:
If she is a writer of colour; compare her skin to food; chocolate, caramel, coffee, raisins, tater tots, brown bread. If she is white don’t worry about it; your readers know what that looks like.
If she is a writer of colour; ask how her race has impacted upon her writing. Try to make it both your first and last question, after the attractiveness and skin thing.
If she is blonde; mention it.
If she is slim; mention it.
If she is a woman; mention it.
Ever read something so thuddingly true you had to go lie down a minute because the laughter was painful? Yeah, like that.
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If you like fanfic, you might be interested in this event on February 15th from the Organization for Transformative Works:
As part of International Fanworks Day celebrations, our organization is hosting a live chat with three romance authors who got their start writing fanfiction.
The Organization for Transformative Works will be hosting a live chat with authors who got their start writing fan fiction and have since published commercial works. Francesca Coppa, director of film studies and professor of English at Muhlenberg College, will moderate the panel on “Why Fanworks Should Be Celebrated.” Authors Rachel Maltese, Tara Sue Me and Cecilia Tan will discuss the topic from 12:00-2:00 PM U.S. EST on February 8, 2015 in the OTW’s Public Discussion chatroom. The panel discussion will be a lead-in to other events held on International Fanworks Day.
Cecilia Tan wrote a long post about fanfic and transformative works that I saw a few people tweeting about over the past week. Among other things, Tan looks at fanfiction from an author’s perspective, and tells her own story of writing fanfic:
When I joined the OTW the first time it was under a pseudonym, a fan name I had adopted so that I could write Harry Potter fanfic. I had been writing professionally for years, but Rowling’s imaginary world sparked many debates in me that I wrestled with through fanfic: did wands work like guns, directional and potentially accidental? what did Harry actually think of Draco crying in the bathroom?
Some questions were answered within the Potter books. Others were left untouched or unexplored in Rowling’s books, like, what would magical higher education be like? And what would happen when you mix magic and sex? Those were the questions that led directly to me writing the Magic University series. Ultimately I disagreed with both Rowling’s conception of wand as gun and the wizarding world’s conception of good versus evil. The only way to answer the questions in my mind for myself was to write something new. I could have tried to stay within Rowling’s universe and written it as fanfic. Instead, I needed to invent a new magical system from scratch and I needed my own characters. So, original fiction it was.
Much like figuring out how to operate and interact on social media, within the realm of fanfic and publishing interacting, and authors and readers interacting, everything is still evolving. It wasn’t until recently that I fully understood the reasons why someone would devote hours of their creativity to transformative works, and what kinds of stories and worlds engender that kind of response. I’m very curious about this discussion and am looking forward to reading the transcript.
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I’m not sure who the original artist is, and neither is the person who posted this on Ask Metafilter, but this graphic on “Should You Ask a Question After a Speaker’s Presentation” is a work of art. So I wanted to share it with you because IT IS GREAT, and also – maybe you know who created it?
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ETA: I had to add this because I am laughing so hard. In today’s Shelf Awareness newsletter is an ad for an upcoming book about Rosa Parks.
YOU GUYS. This looks so much like a Harlequin Presents I cannot stop laughing.
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What have you been reading online this week? Anything fun or funny or thoughtful you want to share?
I’d put Lord of Scoundrels up there with The Windflower as one of the best hist roms of all time.
On the OMG This Book Is So Good front – Thru either a review or a comment here on SBTB – I can’t remember which and I’m too lazy to look it up now – I learned of Barbara Hambly’s book Bride of the Rat God. I was aware of Hambly but had never read her. I picked up BotRG and loved it. Since then I’ve tried a few more of her books that didn’t do it for me but I recently started her James Asher series and OMGICPTDTD (OMG I Can’t Put The Damn Things Down.)
Asher is an Oxford prof of folklore and languages and also a retired spy; his wife is a research physician – it’s set in Edwardian England and there are vampires. Soooo good.
Hambly writes so beautifully it makes me ache w/envy. Lyrical and deft and colorful and elegant and she knows lot of stuff about lots of stuff. It’s not romance, but there are romantic elements.
@Kinsey:
That sounds AWESOME.
I love Cecilia Tan’s Magic University series. I was completely obsessed with it when I read it. It’s a little uneven and there’s not a romance with an hfn until the fourth and last book, but it’s So Much Fun, and also thought provoking. I’ve always described it as if Harry Potter went to college, had a lot of sex, and then saved the world, so it makes sense that she also wrote Harry Potter fan fic.
I want this book!
Oh wow, Cleo – I need to read that. I’m currently reading something in the same vein – well, actually, I sort of got stuck but I have to get back to it – Lev Grossman’s The Magicians – it’s a NYT bestselling trilogy and SyFy is adapting it into a series. Teenagers are identified and invited to attend a university for magicians. There’s sex and humor and heartbreak. Kind of afraid to keep going because I know there’s gonna be a lot of angst before the hopefully happy ending.
I’ve never quite got LoS. Dain was too angsty and I didn’t see why Jessica fell for him. Chase is a good writer and, thus, the book was okay, but I liked Your Scandalous Ways a lot better.
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