Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Vampires
May 01, 2012 | Tuesday | 6 Comments
Thank you to everyone who entered the Under a Vampire Moon giveaway - now I want to spend a lot of hours on the beach, which isn't happening to day at all, since it's miserably rainy outside. The grand prize winner is: April McGlamery! April wins a Baggalini roller carry on stuffed with Lynsay Sands' Argeneau backlist - a total of 16 books! The winners of Under a Vampire Moon ( A | BN | K | S ) and a Lynsay Sands beach ball are: Jessica D. Lavonne Page Elizabeth JoAnn Parker Fran Annie Q. Winners, please email me at sarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTcom with your address…
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April 24, 2012 | Tuesday | 487 Comments
I have a fun and funky giveaway today, so get ready!
Lynsay Sands' Argeneau series has a new book, Under a Vampire Moon ( A | BN | K | S ), and Avon has offered some very fun prizes for you.
Because Under a Vampire Moon is partly about travel to exotic locales (in this case, St. Lucia), the prize is travel and beach themed, and I think the grand prize is really spiffy.
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May 01, 2011 | Sunday | 30 Comments
Dust off those digital reading devices, because it’s Sizzling Book Club pick time, and I’ve picked a digital novella for your reading pleasure. This month’s pick is, I kid you not, a steampunk erotic paranormal wild west romance novella: Wilder’s Mate by Moira Rogers. I will have to re-read to see if there’s any mention of Almack’s in there because if it were also somehow Regency it would be INSANE. But I don’t think so. Unless, of course, one of the bordellos in the book is named Almack’s. I’ll have to ask the authors. If you’ve been curious about steampunk…
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September 22, 2010 | Wednesday | 34 Comments
From Orbit Books comes the very sad news that author Jennifer Rardin passed away suddenly on Monday 20 September. I am so sorry to hear this news, and my condolences to her friends and family. Jennifer Rardin wrote one of the best kickass heroines I’ve read. Her Jaz Parks series had a way with building the tension and never allowing the heroine to become weak or scared or in need of constant rescue. Jennifer also hosted one of our haiku contests a few years ago. You can get a sense from her judgment of the winners how funny she was:…
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August 05, 2010 | Thursday | 10 Comments
Looking for a job? Tor.com has suggestions: Best and Worst Job Prospects in the Urban Fantasy Economy. My personal favorite: 4. Leather clothing manufacture and repair. But who repairs the belt? [Thanks for the link, Jane Drew!] The first issue of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies is online, including articles from Laura Vivanco and Kyra Kramer that cite the Bosoms as a secondary source (WOOTY!), and a fantabulous interview with Beverly Jenkins who rocks so hard, it’s impossible to measure. There’s a new collaborative author blog among romance writers: the Heroine Addicts is the group venture of Julie Cohen…
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May 13, 2010 | Thursday | 36 Comments
For a debut book, this story has an incredibly strong and funny main character - it is first person, for those who abhor the I, me & myself - and a strange and interesting world of characters. Even though it had some flaws in characterization and evenness, I had some difficulty extracting myself from the book. It’s fun and different and the narrator is bizarre and goofy and doesn’t take herself too seriously - which I adore in an over-emo-paranormal-flooded market. First, look at the cover. Holy SMACK is that a good looking cover. If this were on a shelf,…
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January 28, 2010 | Thursday | 18 Comments
Pam Samuelson writes up the Proposed Amended Settlement Agreement with Google Books on HuffPo: Read on and educate yourself. 28 January is your deadline for opting out or protesting the settlement. Julia Rachel Barrett interviewed me for her blog and asked me about writing, tv, reading, and vampires. Have a look-see. And I got this really cool email from Harry about OKCupid, the dating site, keeping stats on how their users interact: The online-dating service OkCupic has been keeping a blog, and on it they post stats about the way people behave on their site: Who rates which pictures as…
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December 29, 2009 | Tuesday | 24 Comments
Jami has the most insane inquiry, and I’m so curious what series this is. Ever since your blog about vampires and werewolves, I’ve been trying to remember this series I was telling another lady about in that same thread. It all centered mostly around the one vampire, however in a side role was a female vampire. Here’s what I can remember about the series - Both vampires in question were French. He was originally going to go into the priesthood until he was seduced by his childhood friend who would one day be the female vampire in this series. After…
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November 25, 2009 | Wednesday | 145 Comments
I was pondering my continued enjoyment of werewolf fiction, especially in the wake of the polarized reaction to my review of Bitten, and started to wonder why were-predators and vampires seem to be still the dominant paranormal motif in romance. There are other paranormal creatures - faeries, were-amphibians, were-birds, demons, ghosts, incubi and succubi, for example - within the paranormal romance shelves, but the predominant creature, both in continued fascination and in number of titles, seems to be the weres and the vamps. Why is that? There’s a lot of questioning as to why the Twilight series sustains its audience…
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November 24, 2009 | Tuesday | 19 Comments
Time again for Billie Bloebaum, Powell’s Airport book buyer, matching readers to books - a dying art that I can’t get over. Amy writes: The last book I read that I really, really loved was “Sugar Queen” by Sarah Addison Allen. Billie: My first impulse is to go with Alice Hoffman or maybe ‘Like Water for Chocolate’ or ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ or ‘Chocolat’, but to find a good romance novel with a touch of magical realism that doesn’t veer into schmaltz is more of a challenge. ‘The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes’ by Crusie, Dreyer, and Stuart has that…
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November 22, 2009 | Sunday | 4 Comments
Time to announce the winners in the Harlequin Notables Contest. The two winners will get tote bags filled with one of every item in the Notable line, thanks to Flower Pot Press (yay!). With 167 votes, first place goes to Elizabeth for her re-title of Twilight as The Nonagenarian Teenage Vampire’s Doormat Virgin Lab-Partner. And, with 118 votes, second place goes to Mickie for HER re-title of Twilight as The Undead Billionaire’s Suicidal Virgin Bride. Ah, Twilight. The joke that keeps on giving. Or the gift that keeps on joking. Either way - congrats to Mickie and Elizabeth! Email me…
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October 22, 2009 | Thursday | 36 Comments
It’s not just links, it’s an internetical experience. Ready: First: from SpiritHorse, a link to MookyChick’s list of Victorian slang sexual terms. Warning: NSFW due to very hot vintage nude photographs and daguerrotypes in the margin - gosh, remember when you saw pictures of women naked and your first thought wasn’t “Get her a sandwich, stat?!” No? Neither do I. I’m not entirely sure of the source of the MookyChick list, as I don’t see a citation - unless I missed it in my re-read. I am planning to work “green gown” and “whirligigs” into conversation as soon as possible.…
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September 25, 2009 | Friday | 47 Comments
I’ve long stated that I’m paranormaled-out, that the struggle of Good vs. Evil with the hairy and the fanged doesn’t do much for me anymore. Too often the Presto Instant-Lurrrve because They Were Meant To Be frustrates me and I stop caring about the fate of the world. Really, if the planet blew up because there wasn’t enough emotional tension between the protagonists, it’s a justifiable loss. I much prefer a plot that forces the hero and heroine to come to terms with their relationship for reasons other than The Fate of the World, and having the attraction and fated…
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September 23, 2009 | Wednesday | 39 Comments
Could it be? Why, yes! It’s a summary of Chapters 41 through 44 of J.R. Ward’s Dark Lover! Howdy all! It’s been a few weeks since I’ve had a chance to sit down and snark on a few more chapters of Ward’s much-vaunted vampire tome. (I blame my tenure packet, due in a little over a month to my department Chair.) I need to get back in the saddle and ride on through these last chapters, as there aren’t many left. These last few chapters are for the most part short, silly, and incredibly oy-inducing. I hope y’all enjoy. Chapter…
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August 27, 2009 | Thursday | 27 Comments
Please, sir, I’d like some more…of J.R. Ward’s skillfully crafted paranormal masterpiece, Dark Lover! Chapters 36 through 50, comin’ up! As the book goes on, the chapters become shorter (thank the Scribe Virgin!) and sillier. The next several are all some of the book’s most delightful. We get to meet a goddess, we’re treated to more stilted dialogue from Marissa and Butch, and we’re exposed to dangerously high levels of over-the-top masculinity. One note before I continue: I should say that if Ms. Ward is reading any of these reviews, she’s being a tremendously good sport about it, and she…
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