Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Douchebaggery
December 28, 2011 | Wednesday | 139 Comments
As was reported in the NY Times back in 2007, the NASCAR Harlequins have some specific rules by which they must abide: no sex, no crashes, no drugs, no alcohol use in the content of the story. Back in 2007, Mark Dyer, VP of licensing for NASCAR, said in the article, “Look at our stats. Forty percent of our fans are women, and among younger fans it’s trending toward 50-50.” He added that according to Nascar surveys 72 percent of female fans enjoy reading and are more likely than nonfans to purchase books. This is particularly interesting (and somewhat…
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December 08, 2009 | Tuesday | 82 Comments
Huffington Post invited me to submit a rebuttal to the article by Alan Elsner that I mentioned in passing late last week. Mr. Elsner took a stack of romances from the library, read them, and pronounced the entire genre as absolute crap. My response is now up over at Huffington Post’s book section: Pride and Prejudice and Pedantry. An excerpt: In response, I refer to that book he holds in such high regard, “Pride and Prejudice”, by Jane Austen: “You have insulted me in every possible method. You can now have nothing farther to say.” A shabby, patched-up survey of…
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October 02, 2009 | Friday | 54 Comments
If some guy said to you, “A Jewish guy cut me off while driving on the highway, so I hate Jews,” you’d think he was a complete bigot and a tool. We certainly wouldn’t think he was romance hero material. So how is it a justifiable plot point that a guy is unwilling to commit because one woman, ONE. JUST ONE WOMAN broke his heart, dumped him, slept with his best friend, or committed some other act of douchebaggery? I realize asking these questions may undermine the emotional tension of 65% of romance plots, particularly those in the category category,…
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January 01, 2009 | Thursday | 8 Comments
Want to get drunk really fast this evening? Here: read this article about male Mills & Boon romance author Gill Sanderson. Every time the reporter makes a snide or unnecessary dig about romance: drink!
You’ll be blotto by the midpoint. I’m counting at least 10. I’m enormously impressed with Mr. Sanderson’s forbearance with this article, but I throw a flag and issue a 15 yard penalty for reporter Peter Jackson. Unnecessary roughness, loss of down.
[Thank you to the many, many readers who forwarded me the link.]
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July 28, 2008 | Monday | 21 Comments
From the “Holy Shit I Haven’t Even Packed Yet” and the “There Goes My Hopes of Traveling Carry-On Only” department comes Louisa Edwards’ account of pre-conference mishigas at the San Fran Marriott. Honestly, this does not bode well. So, looking for alternate accommodations that are walking distance from the hotel? Good luck with that. There’s the Four Seasons across the street but if you’re not familiar with the Fo-Sea, every one of those seasons is damn hell holy shit outta your budget expensive. Same with the St. Regis. If you’re feeling the first stirrings of a need to make backup…
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July 03, 2008 | Thursday | 35 Comments
From the “Now See Here, Motherfucker, We Work Hard On Those Reviews” department comes word of an eBay store swiping the reviews written by other users on Amazon and review blogs, and posting them on their own book listings under their own name. The EDson Financial Group has posted over 220 reviews on eBay, and according to a few online sources, including Joyfully Reviewed, those beefy reviews were swiped from other sources, usually from among Amazon featured reviews. Kathleen Gilligan has posted about it and has started notifying reviewers on Amazon via the comment feature that their writing has been…
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