Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Sarah
April 05, 2010 | Monday | 41 Comments
I’ve spent the last three days playing with my iPad. While there are many very savvy and very insightful reviews of the device out there, this probably isn’t one of them. It’s more of a log of my experience trying the device and the things I noticed as I set it up (Oh my God the Setting Up and the Waiting for the Setting Up) and tried to read on it, and my thoughts after a few days of doing so. My apologies in advance for the length of this review, but I think it communicates a lot about a…
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February 04, 2010 | Thursday | 14 Comments
Harlequin has been doing these awesome blogger bundles where romance folks online select a few titles to package together. I’m in volume six: Books that Rocked my Socks. Once there was a blogger who didn’t think category romances could satisfy her needs…but quickly learned the error of her ways! Now Sarah of SBTB has hand-picked a selection of her favorite Harlequin category romances with intricate plots and memorable characters that she guarantees will change the mind of anyone who has ever sniffed at Harlequin titles and thought they were too little to have a big impact. Bundle includes: Sex, Straight…
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October 10, 2009 | Saturday | 16 Comments
Jane Sullivan, a syndicated newspaper columnist across Australia, has written a piece about romance fiction. Smart Bitches, Beyond Heaving Bosoms, and Mavis titled Romance fiction deserves respect. Hell, yeah, it does. And it sounds like Sullivan is a fan of the genre herself. o thank Eros for two Americans, Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan, who dreamed up Mavis for their book Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels. It’s an unashamed celebration of their great passion, and they make no apology for it…. This is the kind of analysis we want: down to earth, cheeky, motivated by…
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September 11, 2009 | Friday | 5 Comments
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’…
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August 04, 2009 | Tuesday | 139 Comments
It’s time for another Save the Contemporary campaign, with Dear Author, Smart Bitches, and prizes from Harlequin! This time, we’re featuring two books - yes, two. Some of the great contemporary stories are found in category romance, so we’ve picked two books that we both really loved: Our contest takes its inspiration from Kathleen O’Reilly, who was explaining to Sarah what made category romance so great: ...a category novel will exactly fit the time it takes for me to run a hot tub of water until the water turns too cold to stand, which is the exact amount of peace…
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July 24, 2009 | Friday | 180 Comments
Great day in the morning! We’re in People Magazine. While the article doesn’t appear to be on their website, in the 3 August issue, featuring a very messy-headed Robert Pattinson and “his messy love life” on the cover, on page 46, there’s BOSOMS! And a list of our very favorite romances. Here, a PDF for your viewing pleasure! People magazine, page 46. People (the magazine, not the plural noun) had asked us for a list of our very favorite romances, and that list was, of course, a LOT longer when we sent it in. Five of our choices made the…
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July 06, 2009 | Monday | 72 Comments
My name is Sarah, and I have a Twitter problem. I actually think Twitter is freaking awesome, and love it and love using it - to the point where sometimes I have to say to myself, “Step away from the Twitter.” It’s almost a default for me - email, Twitter, web. I can think of a few dozen of examples of how Twitter has connected me to people and information I never would have known about if I hadn’t been signed on, and I haven’t been using it that long, either. I can remember when I first signed up and…
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July 01, 2009 | Wednesday | 6 Comments
Spontaneous Tweetup!
Candy is in town this week, so let us gather and seek out romance heroes. Or drinks. Or both. We’ll be at The Irish Rogue, 356 W 44th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues at 5:30 pm today. Come on down - we’d love to meet you.
Come on down!
ETA: I hear from Katiebabs that tonight is $5 frozen drink night at The Irish Rogue. How roguish! Let there be slushies!
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June 29, 2009 | Monday | 4 Comments
In a rare joint appearance, Candy and I will be on a panel today at NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute, which this year is devoted to Book, Magazine, and Digital Publishing. The panel, which is made up of book bloggers, will discuss how publishers promote books and what we think of the state of publishing. Sorry, folks, I don’t think it’s open to the public. But hell, if it were? It would be a Twitter-extravaganza. For one thing, I think 60% of the panel is named “Sara(h)”, which adds fuel to the theory that there are 9 people total in New…
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June 20, 2009 | Saturday | 60 Comments
Dear Jane: I’m so borrowing your format. What a copycat tool I am! I think you and I are in agreement that Diane Pershing’s response to Deirdre Knight’s ESPAN letter was a jaw-dropping exercise. I had hoped for a dialogue on digital publishing and the opportunity to see both sides discussing the issue, but wow, did that opportunity get missed. By about ten nautical miles. However, I disagree with you about RWA. I really hate those falling-on-my-sword pathos-ridden entries that talk about RWA as if it were the most gloriously wonderful group in the world. I like RWA. I give…
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June 11, 2009 | Thursday | 2 Comments
Here at Bitchery HQ, the winners of the Tails of Love Giveaway are: 1. Sarah W 2. lusty reader 3. Laura (In PA) Hooray! Email me at sarah at smartbitchestrashybooks dot com with your mailing address, and the book shalt be yours! Don’t forget that part II, the raffle, ends tomorrow. Just send your receipt for charitable donation to sbj.contests at gmail dot com and you’re entered to win the following books: An arc of LOVE IS A FOUR LEGGED WORD by Kandy Shepard ONE MORE TIME and ALL OR NOTHING by Claire Cross CASTING SPELLS by Barbara Bretton THE…
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June 09, 2009 | Tuesday | 36 Comments
In memory of Edith Layton, Jane and I are hosting a fundraiser/auction/giveaway to benefit the North Shore Animal League. Layton’s daughter Susie Felber told me that while her mother was very quiet about her battle with ovarian cancer, she was not at all shy about “her insane love of animals,” and so the family decided any memorial contributions should be directed to the NSAL. With some help from friends and authors, we’re putting together a three part effort. First: if you’d like to make a contribution in memory of Edith Layton, you can do so online , or to any…
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June 06, 2009 | Saturday | 7 Comments
First: will the party who informed the bugs that I am in the state please refer back to the Treaty of South Carolina 1993, wherein all bugs that (a) bite and that I am (b) allergic to (which is, for the record, ALL of them) agreed to leave me alone whenever I migrate south of the Mason-Dixon line, and remind said bugs that the treaty is in effect in perpetuity? Kthxbye. (I’m going to need some Benadryl like holy shit.) Once the flying part of my travel was done, I arrived in a cool, windy, NOT raining Durham, where everyone…
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June 04, 2009 | Thursday | 11 Comments
Despite the fact that BookTour insists on informing the world that both Candy and I will be in Durham, NC, this weekend, alas, it is just me. The only appearance where Candy and I will be signing together will be in DC, and details are coming soon, mwaaahahahahaha. This Saturday I’ll be at the Barnes & Noble at New Hope Commons at 2pm, and the event is co-sponsored by the Durham County Public Library. It was organized by Fearless Jennifer, Librarian of Excellent, who was kind enough to show me her successful Bosom hunt at the library - which probably…
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May 20, 2009 | Wednesday | 53 Comments
Back in March, Candy and I were interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered, and oh, what a glorious thing. “Magic Hoo Hoo” and “heteronormativity” were said within moments of each other - on NPR? Win. The producer of the show that day, a marvelously savvy woman named Petra, is a romance fan, but alas, the host, Rebecca Roberts had never read a romance novel, and wasn’t sure what to think of them - aside from all the negative stereotypical things one usually hears about romances. When Candy and I recommended a few during the course of the interview, we weren’t…
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