Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Make The Burning Stop
May 21, 2012 | Monday | 35 Comments
First, via Katiebabs and KatiD on Twitter: More from Plagiarism Chutzpah! YA Author Sarah Cross has a guest blog about plagiarism and how it sucks a lot (which it does). It's not a bad post, as it discusses the different types of plagiarism. But it's a guest post on Kristi Diehm's site, The Story Siren, where plagiarism occurred last January, and was discovered last month. Unfortuantely, this guest post, if you're keeping score at home: 1. includes as a description the exact thing Kristi Diehm did when she lifted content from fashion bloggers Beautifully Invisible and Grit and Glamour. 2.…
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May 18, 2012 | Friday | 13 Comments
Should I infict the clown cover upon you another time? Yes, I think I shall:
She's got pigtails and a considering expression on her face.
He's, well, if you have a clown phobia, he's the most terrifying ever. If you don't have a clown phobia, he's still kind of terrifying.
So who wins the caption that cover HORROR EDITION?
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May 17, 2012 | Thursday | 86 Comments
I received the following book rant from Nali, and it's totally over The Top and back down the other side of The Top and climbing back up again. But this time - there is book rant challenge! I challenge you to guess which book this is? I'll give you a hint: it was published in the late 70s, and when I read this, I remembered reading it, and remembered the highfalutin' hilarity therein. Hang on, folks. It's wild. I am so glad I found your site this week. The timing, it was Serendipitous, falling into place with the convenient ease…
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May 16, 2012 | Wednesday | 24 Comments
As the Washington Post reported, romance author Adele Dubois received a "notice of copyright infringement" from Google, which then removed a post from the Romance Books R Us blog based on the entry "ADELE + EXITOS." The e-mail from Google stated, “Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog is alleged to infringe upon the copyrights of others.” The e-mail lists the copyright owner as Sony, the copyright work description as “Adele + Exitos” and the “location of the infringing material” as the post by Dubois, which…
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May 16, 2012 | Wednesday | 144 Comments
I apologize in advance for this cover, as I know you're all going to scream. I tweeted it last week and people were hollering at me on Twitter for hours afterward. Nightmares, twitches and phobias, all awakened by a single romance cover.
It's so awful, I'm going to put a second silly cover beneath it to help sooth your ravaged psyche. You ready?
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May 14, 2012 | Monday | 72 Comments
WTFery of the morning, as reported by Dianna Dilworth on GalleyCat: Brevard County Public Libraries in Florida have pulled their 19 copies of 50 Shades of Grey from the shelves. Why? HuffPo has a quote from Don Walker, a spokesman for the library, who said, "it's semi-porgnographic." The HuffPo article indicated that several other libraries in Florida had refused to purchase copies, but Brevard bought 19, then took them out of circulation, sending notices to the 200 or so people on a waiting list. Library services director Cathy Schweinsberg told Florida Today: Nobody asked us to take it off the shelves.…
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May 10, 2012 | Thursday | 45 Comments
I receive many requests for review daily. This is probably not a surprise. It increases with each review we do, particularly if I review a self published romance. I've begun to notice a pattern with the requests, and so I put together this list of tips to address them. Here are a few hints on submitting for review here: 1. I don't accept every book pitched to me, nor do I guarantee a review. 1.5. We review romance fiction, with the occasional, and I mean occasional, diversion into novels with a strong romantic element, or nonfiction that might appeal to…
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May 02, 2012 | Wednesday | 56 Comments
Contining the theme of Book Rants, books that really, REALLY pissed a reader off, I bring you Leslie, who picked up a re-issue of a book originally published in the 80s, and found it to be jaw-dropping horrible angry-making. Sometimes it's the nonsensical plots, and other times, it's sexism, racism, stereotypes, and complete asshattery. When a romance lets a reader down, the result can be epic. Book: The Bronzed Hawk by Iris Johansen Originally published: 1983, Bantam Loveswept Reprint edition: 2011, Bantam Loveswept And now: here's Leslie. Grab a drink and settle in, y'all. Iris Johansen wrote the second historical…
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April 28, 2012 | Saturday | 118 Comments
A few of us have been joking about making plagiarism bingo cards so we can check off the predictable responses to any discussion of plagiarism. It is jaw-hang depressing to see the same repeated responses, patterns and excuses, but we really could fill a bingo card at this point. AnimeJune rounded up a perfect list of responses to the clarification and comments at The Story Siren's page, and I want to focus on this one: 7. Plagiarism is not less wrong than BRINGING UP PLAGIARISM Clearly, this blogger tried to go the "silent but deadly" route but misjudged the amount…
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April 26, 2012 | Thursday | 43 Comments
It seems I have been looking at book covers for far, far too long. I now recognize when Ewa Da Cruz is featured on a cover, and I can almost tell the artist when I look at a picture. I'm not the only one keep track - this Pinterest board has artist and model notes, too.
But I'm beginning to think there's something seriously wrong when I can recognize the same two people from a very sexual photo shoot. Have a look - and BE YE WARNED. This is so not safe for work:
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April 24, 2012 | Tuesday | 22 Comments
First! A friendly reminder: the Sizzling Book Club Chat for Tamara Morgan's Love is a Battlefield is Thursday night at 9pm! Need a handy button to add that to your trusty calendar? Here you go: I hope you'll join us! I'm trying to figure out if I can simultaneously host the chat at the SBTB Facebook page, too, so you may be able to hang out at Ye Olde Face Booke and join in from there. I have been on a serious contemporary romance kick lately, and I hope you enjoyed this book as much as I did. Jim C. Hines…
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April 23, 2012 | Monday | 197 Comments
In a series of links that dropped my jaw, made me shake my head, and feel a boatload of "Oh, No," here's an eyeopening series on how to catch someone stealing your content online, which was posted today by CuddleBuggery after Katiebabs saw an anonymous link on this older post on plagarism. The follow posts are from January 2012, and I'm not sure why the book blogging community wasn't aware of it until now. Kristi Diehm, better known as The Story Siren, was allegedly caught lifting articles about blogging and making minimal changes to them for her site. Bloggers B from Beautifully…
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April 20, 2012 | Friday | 20 Comments
Via Angela James and several email messages comes this PSA about sexually transmitted diseases among senior citizens: Link! While the PSA is hilarious, the facts are that STD infections and HIV infections are on the rise among senior citizens in the US, particularly in Florida, where many retirees live or spend the winter. This is a group of people who grew up without safe sex counseling, and, as the article above states, were in their 20s in the 1960s. (My favorite part of that article: "As a result of the increase in infections, Medicare is considering providing coverage for STD…
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April 15, 2012 | Sunday | 8 Comments
Oh Geez. At RT, even, people came up to tell me how funny that comment thread was. You're ridiculous good, people. Choosing a winner is seriously difficult.
So, here, have a last look at Fire's Tender What Now:
The Honorable Mentions go to:
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April 01, 2012 | Sunday | 11 Comments
I had to learn to do very bad things. Holy crap, was it fun! This is our eighth year of April Foolery, and it gets more fun every year. Here's a look back at the horrible splash pages we'ver inflicted upon you: April Fools 2012: Smart Bitches Who Love Great Web Deisgnz! April Fools 2011: Announcing The TBR Press: Just Another Digital Publishing Endeavor April Fools 2010: Only the finest hand-crafted reviews for sale! April Fools 2009: The ICH and Jane Litte threaten to sue us over the Bosoms book. We’re being bloody sued?! April Fools 2008: We’re assimilated into the…
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