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by SB Sarah | by SB Sarah | March 28, 2012 | Wednesday at 12:34 pm | 14 Comments

I have a ton of links and interesting things to read. Isn't it awesome how the internet is full of words to read and things to look at?

From Janice G. an online game based on Pride and Prejudice, wherein you role play your way through several different options.The game is called Matches and Matrimony and, among other things, it promises "Emotionally stirring Music!" The fact that it's emotionally stirring AND that music is capitalized gives me much curiosity, I confess.

From Jennifer B comes an article that details the history of banned books in Australia - what was banned and why few people knew about it - from a book by Nicole Moore titled The Censor's Library:

Intrigued by rumours of a censor's library, literary historian Nicole Moore went searching for the old customs archive of banned books. In 2005, she tracked down the collection seven storeys underground in a huge repository in western Sydney. Thousands of banned books, all neatly covered and catalogued, filled 793 boxes. As Moore shows, such secret collections have accumulated in many parts of the world, often carefully tended by censor-librarians. Private Case, Public Scandal, the book that revealed the contents of the British Library's secret collection, was itself banned in Australia in 1966. Not surprisingly, the 20th century's largest and most notorious repository of forbidden literature was in the Soviet Union, with more than 1 million items.

Having uncovered this long-buried Australian archive, Moore set about the daunting task of charting its history.

From Andy W, creator and publisher of BadDollar.com comes an innovative method of selling short stories: matching the length of a story to one's subway or underground commute. There are short story recommendations for New York commuters coming in and out of Brooklyn, and London commuters on the underground. The stories cost a dollar, and are all "short stories about the terrible things that could happen if you spent your dollar less wisely."

Over at Kirkus, I've been talking about romance cover art, and why photographs for historical romance covers confuse me - but ultimately work for me.

Now that I've ruminated about the cover change on the Noble book, I realized that, despite my not liking it, it's worked. I've looked closer at the book, I've read the back cover and reserved a copy to read. The name of the author might have grabbed me first, as it's a name that's known to me—and boy did I like her previous books!—but the cover also caught my attention longer than most, and that's definitely the job of the cover art.

If you're in LA, there's a play you might want to go see: Lights Off, Eyes Closed is running at the SkyPilot theatre. The play has received some good press already, but what caught my attention is that the playwright, Liz Shannon Miller, is also the daughter of Ellora's Cave novelist Cricket Starr. The play is about a young woman whose romance novelist mother dies, leaving an unfinished outline and a request that her daughter finish her work:

LIGHTS OFF, EYES CLOSED is the story of an inexperienced young woman, cynical about relationships, who has to take her mother's work seriously when her mother passes away, leaving only an incomplete novel as her inheritance. But LIGHTS OFF isn't just about romance, or a mother and a daughter -- it's a play about romance novels, and how as much as the books might raise our expectations, they do also inspire people to believe in true love.

I kind of wish I was in LA so I could go see this play. I'm so curious. If you go, please let me know what you think!

Filed: General Bitching, The Link-O-Lator

Tagged: romance, plays, links, banned books, australia

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Amelia said on 03.28.12 at 01:21 PM • [link]

I love Matches and Matrimony, though it does drive me up the wall. Of all the endings you can get I keep getting the same two. I either end up married to Mr. Collins or alone. I keep trying to get married to Captain Wentworth and I haven’t achieved that goal yet!
Ann Blackie said on 03.28.12 at 02:00 PM • [link]

The last time I played, I ended up married to Mr. Darcy but he was so ashamed of me he spent a lot of time in London and kept me hidden away in the country. I’ve avoided Mr. Collins so far (Thank God)!
Emily said on 03.28.12 at 02:46 PM • [link]

I agree with you about the Kate Noble cover, except I like the one for If I Fall. I am not sure those are sequins. It looks like a braided tri. That and the title seems to be inspired by a Beatles song make me want to read it.
Emily said on 03.28.12 at 02:47 PM • [link]

I had typed braided trim. I am sure how the m was deleted last minute.
LJmysticowl said on 03.28.12 at 05:30 PM • [link]

I love it, too! I got all 9 endings, although I did have to cheat and look up some hints for Mr. Darcy, he’s the hardest to get. I know there are certain decisions you can make pre-Wentworth appearing that will nip that right in the bud, he won’t even approach. He’s the one I was aiming for too, he’s my favourite Austen hero.

For anyone curious, M&M uses P&P, S&S, and Persuasion for its story, it smushes characters in the funniest ways. (Guess who Wickeby is a smush of. Go on, guess.)
DreadPirateRachel said on 03.28.12 at 05:32 PM • [link]

Not that it matters, but your question about whether sequins existed during the Regency period made me curious. According to ye olde Wikipedia (which we all know is never wrong), sequins have been around since 2500 B.C. I wasn’t previously aware that our Bronze Age ancestors also had Las Vegas showgirls.

The more you know.
KarenF said on 03.28.12 at 08:38 PM • [link]

Yikes, I can see how Matches and Matrimony could get really addictive… I’m a horrible person, though because I accidentally killed off one of the main character’s sisters and ended up alone.
DreadPirateRachel said on 03.29.12 at 12:23 AM • [link]

Damn it, SBSarah, I’ve spent the entire afternoon playing Matches and Matrimony (in between making and freezing copious amounts of food in preparation for the next term—yeah, I do that). I’m blaming you for a wasted afternoon and a now-empty bottle of cabernet, not to mention my bruised ego because Darcy is too ashamed of me to defend me from all the cruel high-society types.
SB Sarah said on 03.29.12 at 07:44 AM • [link]

THAT is so cool. I love that back in the way back day, there were sequins. KICKASS.
SB Sarah said on 03.29.12 at 07:44 AM • [link]

Sorry about that.
Stephanie Takes-Desbiens said on 03.29.12 at 08:28 AM • [link]

Back in the Day all Nouns were capitalized. This is rather odd for We who live in this Day and Age as We know that all proper Nouns do not count in Scrabble!
Nikki said on 03.29.12 at 09:22 AM • [link]

In the past, sequins were better known as spangles and were made of precious metals. They were quite popular during the Rococo period (18th century aristocrats did love their sparklies), and some of that carried over into the Regency era, where spangles were mostly used to embellish evening garments.

I don’t think the dress on the cover in question is a good example - it looks like a day dress to me, and the trim around the sleeve and waist seems out of place for the style.

*takes off costume history nerd hat*
kkw said on 03.29.12 at 12:37 PM • [link]

In true everything I know I learned from romance novels form, I looked into the history of sequins because Babs Childe has a spangled dress in Infamous Army. Spangled just doesn’t sound awesome (spayed meets tangled is sexy how?) but I needed to know more, because everyone is so mesmerized. To be fair, I’d seen plenty of ye olde costumes in museums with sequins so I knew they existed and were popular with religious leaders, so maybe not *everything* I know. But close. She also gilds her toe nails, which I hadn’t known they did back then.
Rebecca said on 03.31.12 at 12:44 PM • [link]

What a shame that the online Austen game doesn’t include Mansfield Park, the Austen novel with the most interesting potential for marrying a reformed seducer. (I like to think that Mary Crawford eventually settled down into a happy spinsterhood and wrote novels.)