Welcome to Wednesday Links! This is where we share some pretty neat things that we’ve found floating around the internet. We hope these provide a nice moment of distraction!
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Sarah backed this project on Indiegogo and wants to share it with all of you! Bookseller Noëlle Santos wants to bring a bookstore to the Bronx! Shockingly, the borough doesn’t have any. It’s been fully funded so far, but it can always use more support.
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Just a reminder that we currently have an ARC giveaway for THE ROMANCE READER’S GUIDE TO LIFE by Sharon Pywell going on! The giveaway ends this Friday at noon EST.
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Harlequin’s yearly video campaign is back. This year, the theme is #MakeADateWithHarlequin! What they wanted to do was take a romance hero on a date into the city. Their first video captures the reactions of bystanders as they notice a woman on a date with a viking!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OIxBqJu5NI&feature=youtu.be
Additionally, Harlequin is also offering 17 free ebooks over a TryHarlequin.com!
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USB Wall Outlet Adaptors!
What do we want? More USB ports! Where do we want them? EVERYWHERE!
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I was emailed several times about this scifi/fantasy flash fiction collection at Tor.com entitled Nevertheless, She Persisted. Thank you to everyone who brought it to my attention!
The collection includes stories by Seanan McGuire, Alyssa Wong, and more!
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I grew up watching Sailor Moon in the mornings. I’m also obsessed with talented makeup artists on Instagram, but my makeup routine consists of trying not to make myself look like a mashed potato.
Picturresque on Instagram has brought the Sailor Scouts to life with a variety of makeup looks and they’re all freaking gorgeous! Be sure to check out her account for close-ups and other Sailor Moon collages.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRavh3hlMed/
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Don’t forget to share what super cool things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
That was the most incredible video ever, I couldn’t stop laughing. Pretty sure other people thought I went crazy sitting all alone in my office.
Am I the only one who cringes at these Harlequin commercials?
I both loved and cringed at the commercial, but that’s pretty much how I roll with PDAs anyway. Very funny.
That Sailormoon pic is EVERYTHING
The nice thing about growing up without Instagram is that at least we USED to be able to convince ourselves that women could only look that gorgeous if they had a whole team of professional makeup artists.
And to connect the themes of free fiction and teams of magical girls (who grow up, in this story): “Hurricane Heels” by Isabel Yap.
The concept of that video campaign is the best! I can’t wait to see the rest of them. What a hilarious and creative concept. Bravo Harlequin!
I’m dying over that Harlequin video. Though I must say, I suspect people’s reactions are more to the extreme PDA than to the fact that he’s a Viking. In my experience, the most attention “Vikings” seem to get is from people asking them how long it took them to grow their beards.
Hi, I NEED to say, I just finished Her Naughty Holiday by Tiffany Reisz from Harlequin’s list of free ebooks linked up there and it is the most perfectly satisfying read, so thank you for the link!
Did we know about this new Hulu series???? Harlots, premieres on March 29th. Not sure about the plot, but looks like lots of lovely Georgian outfits and sets!
https://youtu.be/JmUP1idcOhU
*puts on fun ruiner hat*
Ok, yall, I’m conflicted as a mother trucker.
On the one hand, I love the #MakeADateWithHarlequin video. It’s fun, well acted, cute and just a tiny bit silly to make it entertaining.
But then…there’s a part of my brain that doesn’t like its subtextual message. As I watch the video, it seems as though the female is a stand in for us, the readers. It’s obvious The Viking is a stand in for heroes. So if that’s correct, isn’t the video saying…romance readers are “dating” romance heroes?
And isn’t that what we’ve always fought against? The critics who dismiss us with the claim we ONLY read romance because we insert ourselves into the role of the heroine? *eye twitches*
Now, of course it’s not necessarily WRONG for the reader brain to self-insert. To some extent I think that’s the whole point of fiction; to experience a reality not your own, to stand in someone else’s shoes.
I might just be speaking for myself here, but I believe romance readers don’t cast themselves as the heroines. Instead, we want to relate and dwell in BOTH the heroine’s perspective, AND the hero’s. So to say women only read romance “to be the heroine” is at best dismissive and at worst downright disrespectful.
And yet, that seems to be the underpinning message of this video. That romance readers are, in fact, “dating the hero.” Granted, I could be over analyzing this video. Maybe the female wasn’t supposed to represent the reader, but rather the heroine. But that’s kind of hard to buy with the “Make a Date With” aspect to the campaign.
Obviously Harlquinn isn’t anti-romance reader, because duh. But that still doesn’t stop me from side-eyeing the direction of this campaign/video.
Am I the only one with this take away, though? Sigh. Probably. *Quietly takes off fun ruiner hat*
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