Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Links! Sales! Announcements! Mayhem!

I've got links to half the internet up in here, plus stuff on sale, and whatever else I can fit in here. I think there's a character limit to the entry fields in this database - and I'm prepared to hit it!

First:

MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY WITH POWER POWER POWER!

The Sizzling Book Club Chat for Katie Porter's Double Down will be tonight at 9pm ET, here at the hot pink palace. Come on over  - it's always a lot of fun and I hope you'll join us.

...

News, Links, Sales and an Infographic!

First, an infographic, which are like the Louboutin shoes of the internet. So trendy! Neomam.com forwarded me a link to their 50 Shades infographic, and I expected to roll my eyes (and possibly bite my lip) a lot, but it made me laugh - especially this part:

If you'd like to see the entire infographic, here it is: 

Links, News, and Sales! On the Internet!

Links and news! You ready? 

Via Facebook, I found this link to a May 2012 explanation of a research project about "experience taking" while reading fiction:

Researchers at Ohio State University examined what happened to people who, while reading a fictional story, found themselves feeling the emotions, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses of one of the characters as if they were their own - a phenomenon the researchers call “experience-taking.” They found that, in the right situations, experience-taking may lead to real changes, if only temporary, in the lives of readers.

I admit, I have often twitched a bit at the presumption that romance readers identify with the heroine, or see her as a placeholder for themselves, as that isn't how I've read romance. But I also know that I've read books with vibrant, complex characters and learned from them in such a way that adjusted my own behavior.

What do you think of the idea of "experience taking?" Has that happened to you after reading a novel?

...

Links and News

It's a sad day here, with bad news, it seems, from every direction, from shootings to drought to cruelty. One thing I find in romance is optimism, a belief that things will work out, that it's important to keep going when shit gets awful, and I'm having a hard time today locating my optimism. It's around here somewhere. Maybe I need to read more books.

Either way, I have an assortment of links to neat and interesting things to interrupt the RITA Reader Review-a-palooza.

Be Ye Warned, I have a LOT of reviews to post, as I want to share all the reviews that people have submitted, and make sure that every book receives 1 review. I'll also have a poll on Friday to see if we can guess the RITA ® winners - and I'll update as the winners are announced on Friday. I apologize in advance for the flood of reviews, but I want to make sure everyone who sent in a review is featured. And big huge thanks to everyone who has participated. It's a lot of reviews, but it's… read more »

Guilty Pleasures on PBS, Surveys, and More

Tonight on many local PBS stations in the US, a documentary called 'Guilty Pleasures' will air. I've been on the receiving end of several messages about it, asking me both whether I've seen the documentary, and whether I'll promote it. I haven't seen it, but based on this review from Jennifer Lohmann from April 2011, I don't think I want to:

I was left with the impression that Moggan had no desire to actually understand her subjects. She was an outsider looking inside a culture and she made a shallow effort to learn why Roger wrote a novel and Hiroko, Shumita, and Shirley read the novels but ultimately it was a superficial effort. She read hundreds of Mills & Boon, but I get the impression that she allowed them to confirm her stereotypes of the genre rather than opening herself up to a new understanding. Perhaps she is confusing understanding with endorsement and, in her effort to make sure she didn’t endorse the genre, she forgot to try and understand it. This makes me wonder about the audience. I worry the non-romance readers in audience left feeling like they learned something about the genre when, in reality, stereotypes… read more »

Links, Pics, Queens, and Other Things

Deb sent me this screen cap of a cover image that's… very popular.

Deb says, "I thought you'd find this as funny as I did. I noticed a month or so ago that there were *a lot* of covers using this photo. It's becoming more and more common to use covers from what must be a very small set of pictures, I think, or maybe I'm just noticing it more. This particular cover is obviously over the top popular! :D 

And it makes the title of this one sort of ironic, given what comes up in the "also bought"…"

Clearly the realm of stock photography needs a few more well-lit shots of two dudes in bed. Stat! 

Links and sales and updates

First, an update to this entry about McDaniel College's courses on romance writing from Pam Regis:

We've added a non-credit option for the McDaniel College romance writing courses which begin on August 27. Essentially, this means that non-bachelor's applicants can take them, and international students don't have to jump through a whole lot of hoops to demonstrate the authenticity of their educational credentials if they are willing to take the courses on a non-credit basis.     From the McDaniel website:   Not interested in receiving graduate credit?
A noncredit version of the program is available for those not wishing to pursue graduate credit.  The noncredit version of the program offers students the exact same program, experience and interaction as the credit version of the program.  Download the noncredit registration form.  Please carefully follow the instructions on the form regarding registration and payment for the noncredit option. Noncredit registration forms can be e-mailed to Ms. Penny Pfeiffer at ppfeiffer@mcdaniel.edu or faxed to 410-857-2515 (attn:  Penny Pfeiffer).   To enroll as a non-credit student you do not need a bachelor's degree, and international students interested in the program do not need to undertake the authentication of their credentials required of degree-seeking, for-credit students.     The courses are… read more »

Links and Other Link Type Things

Nora Ephron died last night at age 71, and I was surprised at how sad I am about it - until I realized that she had a skill that I admire so very much: she wrote and told the truth and was funny about it. As I said on Twitter, a LOT of other people said her words, but we knew the words were hers. When she made movies, we knew it was her voice. That is one powerful writer's voice.

If you have some time today, you might enjoy her 1996 speech to the graduating class at Wellesley College:

I want to tell you a little bit about my class, the class of 1962. When we came to Wellesley in the fall of 1958, there was an article in the Harvard Crimson about the women's colleges, one of those stupid mean little articles full of stereotypes, like girls at Bryn Mawr wear black. We were girls then, by the way, Wellesley girls. How long ago was it? It was so long ago that while I was here, Wellesley actually threw six young… read more »

A Few Coupon Codes and Books on Sale

Thanks to Rebecca (another one) for pointing out that those curious about The Marrying Kind can use coupons at Kobo to buy their own digital copy at a pretty spiffy discount. For example, if you haven't used the following already, try one of these.

The following coupons are good for 50% off. "US" and "CA" indicate for US or Canadian shoppers.

The following coupons are good for 40% off. Again, "US" and "CA" indicate for US or Canadian shoppers.

Links and Sales and Other Awesomeness

First, from Mel J., Ursula LeGuin on the distinction between lit fic and genre fic:

To get out of this boring bind, I propose an hypothesis: Literature is the extant body of written art. All novels belong to it. The value judgment concealed in distinguishing one novel as literature and another as genre vanishes with the distinction. Every readable novel can give true pleasure. Every novel read by choice is read because it gives true pleasure. Literature consists of many genres, including mystery, science fiction, fantasy, naturalism, realism, magical realism, graphic, erotic, experimental, psychological, social, political, historical, bildungsroman, romance, western, army life, young adult, thriller, etc., etc…. and the proliferating cross-species and subgenres such as erotic Regency, noir police procedural, or historical thriller with zombies. Some of these categories are descriptive, some are maintained largely as marketing devices. Some are old, some new, some ephemeral. Genres exist, forms and types and kinds of fiction exist and need to be understood: but no genre is inherently, categorically superior or inferior. This makes the Puritan snobbery of “higher” and “lower” pleasures irrelevant, and very hard to defend.'

Well, that was just stone cold awesome, ma'am. 

Links: Including Something about Nipples and Feet

Via @rocza on Twitter: the Two Nerdy History Girls blog (which is pretty much the gold standard of awesome sauce) has a profile of a ring owned by Jane Austen set to be auctioned off by Sotheby's.

There's no dispute over the latest piece of Jane Austen memorabilia to come to market, however. The ring, left, has never left Jane's family, being passed down from Jane to her sister Cassandra, and then through various Austen descendants to the present day. The ring has been so privately cherished that, as the auction catalogue notes, it has been "hitherto unknown to scholars."

The pre-sale estimates, they report, are between £20,000-£30,000. This leaves me with two questions:

1. Who here thinks the final price will be much, much higher? *raises hand* 2. Was this ring used to assist Jane in battling zombies, vampires, vampire-zombies, werewolves, selkies, pestering obsequious clergymen, or elves? Expect the final bid to be in the millions, then.  

Links and Sales!

Links! News! Things people write online - and some sales and coupons! Oh, the excitement, it might knock your flip flops off, unless you're in the southern hemisphere, where it's fall, and you're probably not wearing flip flops.

PN Elrod sent me a link to Mother Jones' timeline of sexual treatment for hysteria, and it's fascinating. I especially like the idea that vibrators and massagers were used for health reasons. Yes, indeed! 

Meanwhile, I am over at Kirkus this week talking about why so many characters of color are described in coffee terminology:

There's a lot to be said—and not much of it good—about describing people as beverages, as liquids that can be consumed in cups that are disposed of after. The fact that this motif of description is so common adds another layer of WTF to the idea that in romance and other fiction genres, "coffee people" are not those who enjoy drinking coffee (as opposed to Mr. Pibb or tea) but are more often those who are some other color than white.

Links and News and Brides on Sale!

First: From the Inbox! Of me!

Back in April 2008, a reader named Eleanor was looking for books from historical romance author Stella Riley.

Well, hold on to your hat of happydance, Eleanor, because I have an email from Ms. Riley:

Some time ago, someone on your website was looking for Stella Riley [ie. me] whose novels were published in the 80's and 90's. I'm not exactly recommending a book - well, you can't really when it's your own, can you?

However, I thought some of your followers might like to know that I've begun preparing my back catalogue for publication as e-books. 'The Marigold Chain', originally published in 1983 but now substantially revised, went live on Amazon Kindle yesterday.

[There are a couple of glitches with lay-out right at the beginning, but it's OK after that so don't be put off! It was a first attempt, after all.]

I've started working on 'The Parfit Knight' and hope to get it out by the beginning of August to be followed, ASAP, by 'The Mesalliance' and, finally, by… read more »

Links: Romance in the Washington Post, Comic Sins, and Someone is Thrilled

The Washington Post has published their summer reading section (or will this weekend) (I don't actually see the WaPo as I live in NeJe). This year they decided to feature a round up of summer romance reading, and they asked me to write it -hot diggity!

Let me tell you. I HAD A WORD LIMIT. Out here in the hinterlands of the internets? NO WORD LIMIT. For WaPo? Word limit! I had a word limit and I wanted to mention as many great summer reads as possible, while also featuring books of several different lengths. I was trying so hard to fit one more book in that column; I was about ready to end with "BOOK. GOOD. READ." But alas, word limits, they are mighty things - and so is being edited. I've never been so terse in my life.

But I'm so, so pleased that WaPo is featuring romance in their summer reading section - woohoo!

More links in bullet points! PEW PEW! 

Links and Silliness: Kirkus, Libraries, and Assorted Updates

Consider this a week in review, because there is so much to talk about!

First up: Kirkus!

Last week, a librarian named Maureen drew my attention to a review of Mary Balogh's "The Proposal," which contained the following concluding paragraph:

Balogh contravenes the conventions of historical romance by introducing an ingredient the genre is not always known for: intelligence. 

This week I called Kirkus out on that review, explaining all the reasons that review sucked mightily and reflected poorly upon them as a publication, because I was HOLY CRAP MAD. Like, steam emerging from my ears and making my hair frizzy so I looked like a cocker spaniel mad.

Kirkus has responded, and requested that I post their response, to which I replied, "Surely!" (I'm not calling you "Shirley.")

Earlier this week, Kirkus published an article by Sarah Wendell titled “Bad, Kirkus, Bad,” and it stimulated quite a bit of controversy. As the fiction editor of Kirkus, I thought it appropriate to respond to the heated comments both in the article and contributed by passionate readers.   First, I want to set the record straight about what Kirkus really thinks about the romance… read more »