From several awesome people comes this video of spoken word poet Mark Grist, discussing what he likes: Link! Hope your weekend is full of the books that make you happy and thinky. read more »
This Sunday is the Brooklyn Book Festival, which is highly awesome and highly literary. There are events all day focusing on poetry, literary fiction, biography..and hello, what now? Romance! At 3:00pm on the Main Stage at the Borough Hall Plaza, I’m moderating a session all about romance novels: 3:00 p.m. Love: The Unstoppable Bestseller. A panel of romance authors discusses the longevity of the industry and how they keep readers coming back for more: Rochelle Alers (Man of Fate), Anna DePalo (The Billionaire in Penthouse B), Donna Hill (Temptation & Lies) and Sarah Wendell (Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’… read more »
A nice person over on my Twitter feed asked my why I call my Kindle “Sir Kindle the Fusspot.” Well, the short answer is, Sir Kindle is very fussy and requires some delicate care in file transfer and management. The longer answer is, I’m embarrassed to say, the honeymoon of me and Sir Kindle is over, and I’ve recognized some serious flaws both in the unit itself, and in the way Amazon is electing to do business as a purveyor of ebooks and ebook readers. First, the Kindle itself: I like the unit, I’m used to holding it in a… read more »
I intended to post the last of the Videomo entries on Friday, but things stylesheet and whatnot interfered. So here are the last five of the Videomo entries for the Videomo contest. Voting from the Bitchery will begin on Monday and continue through Tuesday, and the winner will be announced on Saturday 14 February. The winning video will be used all up and down the joint, and mugs will be geeked. So without further ado, here’s the final five. read more »
Petty larceny time! I’m stealing an hour of your life by giving you the heads up about Literature Map. Name an author, see the orbit of other authors similar to that one. Keep clicking. Look up - it’s an hour later. Heh. Orbit has a new book available for one crispy American dollar, or one folded up, soft and fuzzy American dollar, which ever you have. This month: Iain M. Banks’ Use of Weapons. (Is it me or is the use of additional vowels in names like “Iain” and “Niall” somehow intriguing?) Visit Onedollarorbit.com for details. (And coming up in… read more »
The National Endowment for the Arts released their report “Reading on the Rise” on 12 January documenting that for the first time in 25 years, more Americans are reading. An increase in readers? Excellent! According to the demographic breakdown, young adults show the biggest increase (yay!) and fiction is the largest growing market in adult readers (also yay!). Here’s my favorite statistic from the report: “Online readers also report reading books. 84% of adults who read literature (fiction, poetry, or drama) on or downloaded from the Internet also read books, whether print or online - and nearly 15 percent of… read more »
After reading two romances, one historical and one category, DocTurtle, it seems, has fallen and fallen hard… for you guys. He had such a great time reading and blog-reviewing Sex Straight Up and An Infamous Army that he asked for more romances to read and review for the awesomeness that is the Bitchery audience. As he wrote to me: I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve had reading these books and writing these reviews, and how much I will be delighted to continue my association with your blog in whatever way you’d like me to…. I’ll leave it to… read more »
Today’s holiday? It’s Haiku Poetry Day! I wish you nachas. May all spoken words fly out from your unchapped lips In 5-7-5. read more »
ToroHo sent me a link. It was very mean of her. It was a link to the book you see pictured over there: An Enema, A Birthday Spanking, A Love Story. The title of the actual paperback seems to read “When the Jonquils Bloom Again: Book One,” but the Amazon.com title is all enemas and spanking. Is there a better way to catch people’s attention as they look for something to read? Spankings and poo? Sign me up! No, wait, don’t. I downloaded the Kindle sample (Kindle: Nom nom..What?!) and, well, in the interest of complete honesty, I went to… read more »
Behold, the winners, after careful consideration, much giggling, and a great deal of snorting, of What a Scoundrel Wants giveaway”>the What a Scoundrel Wants giveaway. Well done with the poetry, y’all. Carrie Lofty and I had a nearly identical list of favorites. The winners are: Sarah F’s “Robin! Robin! Burning bright.” Because I’ve said at least three times, with varying degrees of volume and inflection, “What the hand dare seize the cock!” Tina C’s “A Really Bad Poem.” Because you had me and my abdominal muscles at “Fad dad glad mad schmad. Oh, hell, schmad isn’t even a word!” It… read more »
The Smart Bitch Book needs a Smart Bitch Book Videomo*. And who better to make us wet our pants with laughter than the collective brilliance of The Bitchery? *You’re probably asking yourself, “Self, what the fuck is a videomo?” Well, the answer, Self, is that it’s a pastiche of “video” and “promo.” Why not use the words Book + Trailer? Because “book trailer” is trademarked to Sheila Clover English, CEO of Circle of Seven Productions. So, Videomo it is. Sounds like Tony Romo, only not so much a Dallas Cowboy. And we doubt that any promo videos will date Jessica… read more »
Ever wanted to read an audio book? (I so do, it’s like a fetish almost. I would love to do voice work. It’s bizarre, how fascinated I am with the whole industry.) Or maybe volunteer your time in an entirely new way? Check out LibriVox, where you can volunteer your time, and your sexy voice, to read audio books of works in the public domain. They have a whole process in place where books are announced, chapters are assigned, and voices are collected - so that folks who prefer audio books or who need them for a variety of reasons… read more »
Your Quest: Kinsale Poetry about, in tribute to, regarding, or generally celebrating any of Laura Kinsale’s books, characters, etc. You can write it in the voice of one of the characters, or you can write it to one of the characters (though I believe Candy will fight you over more than a few of them). Whatever floats your boat, it’s business poetry time. Your Poetic Format: Limerick or haiku. The choice is yours. You can enter as many times as you want. Bring it on, bring it often. Just bring it. Your Judge: Laura Kinsale will judge the entries, and… read more »
What’s this? You need an excuse to bank your head in that nice head-shaped divot on your desk? We here at SB HQ are happy to assist, as is Zumie, who sent me these excerpts from her creative writing textbook, The College Handbook of Creative Writing by Robert DeMaria. Excerpt the first, from page 16: “Male-female relationships have become very complex since the so-called sexual revolution of the 1960s. Nowhere has the loss of tradition and structure in society caused more confusion than in the relationships between men and women. Romeo and Juliet may have had their problems, but they… read more »
Thanks to Star Opal, a few neat-o links. First, never doubt the power of your local library, particularly one that rents typewriters for .10 cents an hour. Otherwise we might not have books like Fahrenheit 451. The library was Bradbury’s personal office. Note to self: do not write evocative, chilling, and profoundly thought provoking poems about knives in England unless you’d like that poem to be removed from the GCSE syllabus because knives are scary (so is the poem, which is chilling). . Note to self: if one day you are spankingly good poet whose work has been removed from… read more »
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