Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Criticism
August 18, 2011 | Thursday | 94 Comments
One thing I have noticed in the past year or so is that the more romance readers are online speaking with one another, the faster we all get a working understanding of the publishing process. We learn more about how a book is produced, in other words, the more we speak with writers, editors, and publishing professionals. Remember Navarro’s Promise, where the promised sex scene was entirely missing? That scene is available as a download on her site. But alas, it seems the error-filled Lora Leigh books continue: the reviews for her latest book, Midnight Sins, are cringeworthy. But what…
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April 19, 2011 | Tuesday | 99 Comments
I was contacted over the weekend by a reader from Ireland who was irate about the quality of a book she’d purchased from Amazon for her Kindle. She was horrified to discover that a book which had received many five star reviews, Lora Leigh’s Navarro’s Promise, was full of typos, subject/verb disagreements, errors, and what appeared to this reader to be scenes missing from the story altogether. I have just finished a book (part of a long series) by an author, published by a big publishing house and was struck by ongoing editing issues, storyline inconsistencies, general WTFery, and a…
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April 18, 2011 | Monday | 18 Comments
Guilty Pleasures is a movie about romance, by which I mean the genre, as told through three readers, a writer, and a cover model (Sounds like the start of a bad joke, doesn’t it?. It premiered in the US in North Carolina at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and mega-power librarian Jennifer Lohmann went with her book club to see it. What follows is her review and reaction. I found it very fascinated particularly in light of my own questions about the Mr. Romance pageant at RT, and the ever-changing way in which romance and its readers are portrayed…
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October 14, 2009 | Wednesday | 46 Comments
Since the FTC released it’s guidelines for blog reviewers, I’ve been trying to coalesce my reaction and explain why I’m so irritated. The reaction to this post will likely be that I’m arguing against transparency. I’m not. I’m quite in favor of it. What I am against is whining. Since the FTC guidelines were released, I’ve heard and read several versions of the following statement on many, many sites and from many people: “I think this is a great idea. I can’t understand why you’re disinclined towards transparency. Shame shame! I myself have been burned by bloggers not disclosing the…
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April 28, 2009 | Tuesday | 88 Comments
At the RT booksigning on Saturday, someone came up to meet me. I absolutely love putting faces to names that I read online. When this very kind and interesting person left, she said, “Thank you for being honest.” I loved that. I so appreciate when people let me know that they enjoy the site, and I love how she put it: “Being honest.” There’s no implication of acceptance or even of agreement with what I say. But there is acknowledgment of honesty, and its value. At the panel Jane and I gave Thursday about blogging, I said that any person…
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April 17, 2009 | Friday | 20 Comments
Behold: the Heaving Bosoms Hunt Photographs! After we challenged the Bitchery to find the Bosoms in the wild, oh boy, did you deliver. There are so many pictures of Bosoms it’s a long, long entry, so enjoy. The winner of the $100 bookstore giftcard for finding the first evidence of the Bosoms in a bookstore will be announced at the end. But! But but! Everyone’s a winnah! If your pics are here (or if you sent ‘em and I missed them, please nudge!) please .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with the subject line “Bosom Sighting Prize” (I can’t even tell you what…
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April 16, 2009 | Thursday | 5 Comments
As Lindsay alerted me, two notable and amazing women died this week - and that their passing, and the significance of their lives and contributions may have been missed in the brouhaha surrounding #AmazonFail.
Judith F. Krug, founder of Banned Books Week, died of cancer in Evanston, IL. She was 69.
Ms. Krug was the director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. She also helped establish the Freedom to Read Foundation in 1969, an organization that in part helped defray litigation costs for freedom of speech cases.
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December 01, 2008 | Monday | 21 Comments
Here’s the final episode of DocTurtle’s snarking of a contemporary category romance novel: a mathematician reads Kathleen O’Reilly’s Sex, Straight Up! Almost there, folks. It’s been a few weeks since I last snarked on this book, and even longer than that since I read the chapters I’m supposed to be snarking, so I’m finding myself re-reading the book trying to recapture my feel for it. As I admitted in my last post, I finished reading the book in one sitting one morning before heading off to class. Although it would be a stretch to call the book’s ending thrilling, I…
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November 20, 2008 | Thursday | 36 Comments
Welcome to another edition of Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from Romance Novels, where I attempt to give advice. Or talk out of my ass. Or both! Today’s letter comes from Frustrated, who is friends with an aspiring novelist. My longtime friend and I have always talked about writing a romance novel. Recently she finished writing a novel that she’s enormously proud of. I’m proud of her for finishing it! Now here’s the problem: she wants me to help her get it published. A guy I used to work for now works for a publishing house in New…
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June 30, 2008 | Monday | 24 Comments
On the front page of today’s Star Ledger, above the fold, even, is an article about Jersey’s own Barbara Bauer, an alleged literary agent who is allegedly suing several alleged websites, including, allegedly, Wikipedia for libel. Wikipedia, joined by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have filed a motion to have Bauer’s suit dismissed, and they begin arguments tomorrow. Wikipedia’s lawyers argued in court papers that the site is protected by a section of the federal Communications Decency Act that says the owners of interactive websites cannot be held liable for comments posted by their users. Wikimedia Foundation general counsel Mike Godwin…
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April 29, 2008 | Tuesday | 83 Comments
So here is a six dollar question: On one hand, you have me musing that poor and unprofessional behavior on the part of some authors could in fact drag down the entire genre, and such behavior ought to be discussed because if I have one WTF question about the community of romance, it’s “Why on earth do so many people act as if writing romance is akin to joining a social club? It’s a business, for fuck’s sake.” And on the other hand, or the other side of my arse, depending on your point of view, there’s Karen, and Jane,…
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