Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Signet and Cassie Edwards Part Ways

Thanks to the many, many readers, the first of whom was AnnaPiper, who sent me this link to late breaking news: Cassie Edwards and Signet publishing have parted ways due to “irreconcilable editorial differences:”

Romance writer Cassie Edwards and publisher Signet Books have decided to break up after allegations emerged in January that in she lifted passages in several of her books from other sources.

“Signet has conducted an extensive review of all its Cassie Edwards novels and due to irreconcilable editorial differences, Ms. Edwards and Signet have mutually agreed to part ways,” the publisher said in a statement Friday.

“Cassie Edwards novels will no longer be published with Signet Books. All rights to Ms. Edwards’ previously published Signet books have reverted to the author.”

The news article, which was written by AP writer Hillel Italie, who covered the original story, gives a summary, and there is no comment by Edwards for the article.

Using Historical Facts Without Crossing the Line into Plagiarism

Jennifer Blake, Roberta Gellis, and Bertrice Small led a session that, unlike many of the fan-friendly sessions, was silent, with notetaking, serious faces, and a great deal of attention. Their session, in a word, was outstanding. My notes are below, which don’t really follow a well-transitioned structure (or any structure for that matter) but let me tell you – these ladies rocked this session like damn and whoa.

Roberta Gellis provided a point by point explanation of copyright law in the US. A few facts to chew over:

Until 1978 individual states determined their own copyright law, and since then copyright has been under federal jurisdiction. Ideas cannot be copyright – only the way you express the idea. Copyright provides the right to do and to authorize others to do the following: Reproduce copies, prepare derivative works – e.g. you can authorize Fanfic if you choose - distribute copies by sale, etc.

Roberta Gellis then led a discussion about how to use research material: “I’ve never copied anything from any research book of mine because they’re so deadly dull!”

Overheard at RT

Convention attendee: There’s a full moon tonight for the vampire ball!

Convention attendee to Mr. Romance contestant: Will you kiss my picture with lipstick?

Convention attendee dressed as fanged fairy: Oh yeah, I got my teeth at the RT shop.Same place I got my mask for the ball.

Convention attendee: Don’t drink that.You don’t know where it’s been.

Mr. Romance contestant #1: I’m a model and dancer. Mr. Romance contestant #3: I’m a model. Mr. Romance contestant #2 Jimmy Gaskin: I analyze engineering data for an energy company trying to locate new sources. Sarah: Cool.

Breakfast with Lisa Jackson

This morning I had breakfast with author Lisa Jackson, her assistant and her publicist, who is also my neighbor – thus I was on my best behavior. In classic Pittsburgh fashion the breakfast buffet was the best deal, and featured every breakfast product known to woman. Since breakfast is generally my favorite meal to eat in restaurants, I was very happy. Plus there was coffee.

So after everyone at our table got their healthy breakfast and I had more coffee, we talked about regional accents, small towns in the west, small towns in the south, how many traffic lights qualify for small town status, and how to get to outer parts of Pittsburgh.

Then we started talking about author celebrity, and Jackson had some really interesting thing to say about promotion, the internet, and blogging.

Jackson writes suspense and romantic suspense, and told me about her earlyefforts to promot herself and her books, and how she figured out that authors nowadays often do have to promote themselves as well as, or as an accessory to, their books. As I said during breakfast, it used to be that movies were marketed based on… read more »

Lunch: Tasty WTF, Mmm mmm.

The Helen A. Rosburg Lightning and Thunder Luncheon was today.

First, the food was actually really good, but it was Mexican, so everyone there is going to have their own thunder later this afternoon.

Second, the place was packed - everyone went to the lunch. Holy cow.

Third: it featured the first ever (that I’ve seen) live action promo for a book. An entire skit - featuring a stunt-rigged hangin’! - was a promotional play for Rosburg’s book, Blaze of Lightning, Roar of Thunder. Last year’s Mr. Romance played the hero’s role decked out in more buckskin fringe than I could possibly describe, and at one point the narrator mentioned his hair. Cue Mr. Romance to gingerly touch his black wig (pictures coming soon) and immediately stop touching it. Major acting chops, here, like damn.

The sheriff was also the stuntmaster, and while he was hooking up Rosburg’s daughter, who played the heroine, to a harness so she could be hung without actually being hung, the narrator said, “Hanging her did not seem to bring the pleasure he thought it would.”

Clearly he had eaten too many beans.

JR Ward, Jessica Anderson, Humor and Cussing

From the session with JR Ward and Jessica Anderson on Worldbuilding comes a report of an author using humility, humor and cuss words to strengthen her audience.

JR Ward acknowledged that the number of readers who contacted her after Vishous’ book was released and who were confused and upset by the story means one thing: “I didn’t do my job.”

Ward said that if readers didn’t understand the story or were upset by it, she should have explained more and added 10 more pages to the end of the book to allow for the reader to understand Vishous and Jane’s relationship (not Jane from Dear Author). A conference attendee who saw the session told me afterward that she was SO impressed with both speakers, partially because Ward owned up to the controversy and took responsibility for the uproar.

Romantic Times Day 1

I sat down at the bar this evening and wrote the following: a somewhat poetic word summary of my first six hours at Romantic Times:

beefcake mantitty more mantitty. mantitty is everywhere chocolate gauntlet of author giveaways bookmarks attached to chocolate (nom nom nom) bar! hooray bar! also, hooray bar! 1500 people?! Are you fucking kidding me? SQUEEEEEEE in the elevator as long lost friends unite 4 days of par-TAY i can has more mantitty? YES I CAN.

I’ll be honest: when I arrived I queried anyone who was sitting down (pity my captive audience) my most befuddled question: What the FUCK is going on here? There are readers, avid, dare I say rabid, romance fans, running around in costumes and formal dresses, paying to pose for pictures with the Ellora’s Cave models, squeeing left and right and getting their groove on like nothing else. What IS this place?

LOLCover Snark - A Contest!

Inspired by snarkhunter’s comment in our last cover snark, and clamored for by many, including me despite my own exceptionally poor OMG Bad Photoshop skillz (they are not uber uber l33t by a longshot), behold: a contest to kick off our new site design. I give you: LOL COVER SNARK!

The rules: add your LOLCoverSnark to the comments, and we’ll judge in the comment thread itself for the best of the group. You can .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your vote if you don’t like to comment (Hi Lurkers! Hayadoin?). Comments will close in

24

48 hours (G’day Australia!) and winners will get books and a Romance Novel magnetic poetry set for their very own.

And now, our samples, let us show you them.

Fire the Monkeys: AI To Write Romance

Note: I meant this to run on Monday, but we were using the monkeys that normally write romance to rebuild the database that hosts our site bitty bit by bitty bit. So enjoy - a bit late.

Thanks to SonomaLass for this link that about raised my eyebrows right off my forehead: PoD publisher uses Artificial Intelligence to develop books, and the total number sold puts him among the top authors on Amazon.com.

Of course, that depends on how you define “Author.”

Philip M. Parker, according to the article, has “generated” over 200,000 books on a staggering variety of topics, some of which contain crossword puzzles in multiple languages, and some of which “collect publicly available information on a subject.” Using computers and a few programming humans, Parker prints them on demand of a customer - individuals who are looking for information and who are not familiar with the internet, or medical libraries who collect “nearly everything he produces.”

The kicker? Paragraph 7, as SonomaLass pointed out:

If this sounds like cheating to the layman’s ear, it does not to Mr. Parker, who holds some provocative — and apparently profitable — ideas on what constitutes a book. While the… read more »

Got an Hour? Wanna Read About Hillary Clinton and Feminism?

New York Magazine, which is never afraid to wrap up the lowbrow and sell it as art and vice versa (not that this article applies to that synopsis), has a long, but very thought-provoking article by Amanda Fortini about whether Clinton’s candidacy in the US represents, or has uncovered, the fourth wave of feminism.

I haven’t written much about the presidential campaign here, since this is a site about romance novels and there are few things less romantic in my opinion than the current election campaigns, but since we often deal with women’s issues, and the changing and difficult-to-pin-down definition of “feminism,” I know there are a few folks here who might find it interesting. Feel free to skip this one if such discussions turn you off.

Partially a political analysis and partially an examination of where feminism is, if it’s anywhere, the article made me sit and stare into space for a good few minutes in ponderous thought:

Got Mac? Wanna make your own Audiobooks?

Today’s MacZot is lovely interesting if you’re into hearing your own books: Narrator reads text aloud, using multiple voices if you’d like. Once you’ve selected a portion of text you want to hear, you can identify which voice reads what, and then export the whole thing to iTunes. Make your own audio books? Listen to your work in progress as an editing technique? Ask the different voices to read vaguely obscene phrases so you can giggle like a 10-year-old boy? Whatever blows your skirt up. Very cool.

A Rough-Sketch Guide to Pittsburgh Eateries

Back when I was growing up in Pittsburgh, there were scads of lunch places but few places to dine out downtown, with the exception of the theatre area near Heinz Hall, and some places in the big hotels and up on Mount Washington. Now? There’s a ton of places. Holy crap. I need a few more days to just devote to restaurant crawling. So this is a rough sketch of a few places I know of, and that have been recommended. Also, check out the comments section of the original entry for raves about varying places in and around Pittsburgh. Most folks I know of are not renting cars (parking is hideously expensive) but if you do have a car or want to hop a bus, there are great places in Oakland, Squirrel Hill (where I grew up) and the South Side.

I hear via Colleen Gleason and others that the restaurant and bar are going to be open next week (I bloody well hope so) but in case not, let’s head out.

First, a basic map I built at Google that highlights some of the places Bitchery readers highlighted in their email to me. Note - Starbucks… read more »

Welcome to Bitches 2.0

We’re still working out the little things, but the big picture is in place. Didja miss us? We missed you.

GSvSTA: Ninjas, baby! YEAH!

Bitchery reader and aspiring writer Sarah (not me) writes in with a request:

I am an aspiring writer, and am working on some of my first manuscripts after years of anime fanfiction and original fantasy shorts. Most of my readers have been saying I should get published, even if I’ve never taken one creative writing course, and am finally breaking down to maybe give it a try. Most of what I write currently is almost kitchen-sink type stories, some action-adventure, some suspense, plenty of humor, deep philosophical discussions, and lots of sex and romance. Problem is, I’ve never picked up a full-blown romance before. I’ve been a fantasy/paranormal reader for the longest time, but after getting down right pissed after reading Sara Douglass assassinating her own female characters in the Troy Game series, I gave it reading mass-market fiction of all kind . . . except the last book of Harry Potter. I’ve been working on my own stuff ever since, and want to try to get something published. Only, I don’t know if my ideas would even stand a chance of being publish since the one I’m really rooting to research and start is completely off the wall… read more »

Happy National Library Week

Bitchery reader Kerry forwarded me a most excellent video celebrating National Library Week, and highlighting a most startling statistic about American spending habits.

May I say, if there was a vending machine in my world that had Kleypas novels in it? Like a Big Red Box for books? I’d be all over that. Screw the funyuns.