Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Paranormal Romance
April 23, 2012 | Monday | 17 Comments
Betty Fokker wrote a guest review of Lucy March's "A Little Night Magic," and I wanted to share it with you. must make with the confession. I am an Internet-Pal of Lucy March/Lani Diane Rich. It is like being a real-life friend, except we’ve never gotten drunk and talked each other into getting a Tramp Stamp of jumping dolphins at 3:00 AM. (Not that this has happened to me.) This means that I am not without favorable bias when I read her work. However, my mild mannered mundane self is an academic, and I swore on a Roget’s Thesaurus that…
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March 22, 2012 | Thursday | 60 Comments
This is a big ol' podcast: we start out talking briefly about novellas and short digital reads that Jane liked, but our main topic is the canon. What romances form the genre's canon for historical, contemporary, and paranormal? We talk in circles a good bit (sorry about that) and we discuss what a canon is, and why it means different things to different groups. Writers and readers, for example may have different ideas of what their romance canon would be. I'm sure there's many writers you think have been left off, and so if you'd like to add or subtract…
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February 08, 2012 | Wednesday | 84 Comments
I think there's a missed opportunity in romance land, particulary in paranormal romance land, particularly in the lucrative gifting market. I'm talking about anniversary gifts. You know how there's a chart of what gifts are symbolic of each year of marriage, and people can get downright goofy adhering to the suggested gifts? Like, say, my husband, who, for our tenth anniversary, wrapped my present in tin foil because the traditional gift was tin/aluminum. I should be thankful I didn't also get a tube of Reynolds wrap, too. Some of the traditional lists I've seen stop usually at the 60th anniversary,…
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December 14, 2011 | Wednesday | 39 Comments
I am not sure what the word is - overheard? read? visually eavesdropped? - but I read a conversation between Shannon Stacey and Angela James about paranormal vs. contemporary romances, and why the fanbase for some paranormal series is more active, involved, and at times rabid than the fans for contemporary series.
This idea made me ponder for a good few weeks now about why that is.
First, the idea that a paranormal romance series can enjoy a more active and sometimes coordinated fanbase is true, but that doesn't mean there aren't well-coordinated efforts on behalf of contemporary romance series.
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November 28, 2011 | Monday | 17 Comments
We're back, with more podcasting fun, this time as we chat about what we're reading. We discuss cursing in romance - and whether there's more cursing and blue language in romance published recently. And we talk football. NFL, specifically, and which players are the most hated. The music this week was provided by Sassy Outwater, who knows a heaping ton of musicians and finds original music for us for each episode. This week's music is "Sonata for Piano, Op. 26: Fuga: Allegro Con Spirito" and it's performed by Jade Simmons. It's from her album Revolutionary Rhythm, which is on sale…
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October 13, 2011 | Thursday | 25 Comments
A reader wants to know what happened to an author she enjoyed - and my google-fu yielded little.
Sarah, here’s a “Whatever happened to”.
I loved the Enchanted, Inc. books by Shanna Swendson, but after she couldn’t sell the 5th book (per her out-of-date website), I see nada.
From what I can tell, I think the story, unfortunately, ends there. But perhaps she’s started writing under a new name?
Anyone know what’s up?
ETA: Sorry comments were closed - open sesame!
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September 20, 2011 | Tuesday | 597 Comments
According to Jeaniene Frost, our review of Halfway to the Grave was the first review for her 2007 debut novel. I still remember Hubby picking the book up off the dining room table and asking me what it was - the cover is still very striking, and I believe the same model has been used for the series. This week, starting today, actually, Halfway to the Grave is on sale for $1.99 as an ebook, along with bonus materials like deleted scenes and excerpts of the new book. There’s never-before-published scenes, the first four chapters of One Foot in the…
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September 29, 2009 | Tuesday | 9 Comments
My internal monologue while reading this novella went as follows for the first third: “Oh, now that’s different.” “Ok, cool.” “Huh. That’s some smart use of rock and fire imagery.” “Ok, now that’s COOL.” “This is really, really different.” I love cool and different. The story opens on Aera’s final test as a priestess of fire: she must enter a labyrinth of the volcano, pass through multiple gates to the eye of the maze, and find a criminal who has committed blasphemy. Her job is to kill him to appease the Fire God before the priests release the lava to…
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July 24, 2008 | Thursday | 124 Comments
Angie Fox won an Smart Bitch Interview in the Brenda Novak Diabetes auction, prompting me to freak the hell out because dude, I don’t know of a single question that would adequately measure up to the bid she made to fight diabetes and be interviewed by yours truly. So first and foremost, thanks to Angie for supporting a great cause, and giving me an inferiority complex that is barely contained by my undershorts. Onward to the interview! Sarah: Ok, the obvious part! Pimp your book in a handful of words! Angie:Newly anointed with demon-fighting powers and suddenly able to hear…
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May 12, 2008 | Monday | 105 Comments
When a certain notorious biology professor from Minnesota notices the massive wall o’ befanged man-titty adorning his local Wal-Mart, and finds it notable enough to blog about. Poor PZ. I can only pity his eyeballs. I don’t know if this is a sign that paranormal romances have finally hit the big time, or whether they’ve jumped the shark.
It’s always interesting to pop outside the romance community and see how people outside of it perceive the genre. Do I have thoughts on that? Boy howdy do I ever.
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