Happy Wednesday! Most of the SBTB is currently at RT in Reno. If you’re here (or there), we hope you can say hi to us. We’ll even be carrying some sticker swag if you happen to corner us.
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REMINDER: SBTB will be doing a live taping of the podcast on Thursday, 5/17 at 5:30pm local time. Unfortunately, we won’t be doing a Reader Recommendation party this year, but we hope you can make it out to see Elyse and I compete in a Family Feud-style romance competition.
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Need more lesbian and queer romance in your life? Please check out the Sapphic Book Club on Tumblr. We hope you find a new, great read.
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I found this profile of a veterinarian to the pets of Emirati royalty to be utterly fascinating. The animal photos are also a great bonus:
An animal lover since birth, Dr. Stewart did stints in Namibia and Hawaii before ending up in the UAE. She says she was shocked to see pet hyena cubs when she first arrived but now considers them totally routine (“They’re regional!”). Most of the exotic pets she treats at the hospital are actually exorbitant gifts. “It’s the equivalent of champagne or a fancy car; it’s something that wasn’t cheap, which very few people have,” she explains. “It’s also very bad in Arab culture to give away a gift. You have to keep it to say thanks, but it’s not like you chose it.” This gives her work extra urgency. “My job is just to give the animals as much as I can physically provide for them.”
I would love to see this as a character in a romance novel.
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Big congratulations to author Tracey Livesay! Her book Love on My Mind has been selected to represent Virginia in Route One Reads. Do check out all of Route One Reads! I believe they’re focusing on romance and I’m very curious to see what you think of the entire collection.
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Love chocolate? I learned so much during this taste test of cheap vs. expensive chocolate! They also have similar videos for meat and cheese. And yes, I’ve watched all of them.
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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!
Wow, that was an interesting video on chocolate. Now I am craving some nice chocolate!
Interesting (and, in parts, infuriating—although not because of what the writer is saying) article on Vox about Schneiderman’s claim that his abuse of women was “consensual role-play” and how men use the “consent” lie to avoid responsibility for their behavior. TW—but worth reading if you can do so without being triggered or having a rage stroke:
https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/5/11/17341330/new-york-attorney-general-schneiderman-resigns-assault
Also, on the lighter side and a worthy result of Cockygate:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D41XGR3/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1526495919&sr=8-1&keywords=Cocktales+Penny+reid&linkCode=sl1&tag=edgyreviews-20&linkId=594de072fe17b9037d7dfb832ddd8a0c
Re: the vet – Lori Andrews is an American law professor who’s advised governments about biotechnology. If I remember correctly, she went to Saudi Arabia in the late 90s/early 2000s to help them write legislation around cloning – apparently a lot of oil billionaires would like to literally raise clones of themselves – and the government representatives who met her were surprised to learn she was a woman! “Sheikh invites renowned expert to help him write legislation and is shocked to learn she’s a lady” sure sounds like the start of a romance to me.
Andrews also has written books, including a fhriller trilogy with a female protagonist who works in STEM: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0312352700/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1526528226&sr=8-5&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=lori+andrews&dpPl=1&dpID=51mYuV2VQGL&ref=plSrch
I LOVED the chocolate video! Thanks so much!
[…] Linkity from Smart Bitches. […]
That cocky BS is not limited to the the literary world. A large franchise—that does not own the copyright to the name—just went after an independent knitwear designer who named her colorwork yoke sweater design Blåfjell. (There are several mountains named Blåfjell in Norway. It’s not that special.) No “please change the name of your design because you are causing confusion to our brand” just “you have three days to act or we will sic our lawyers on you and it will be expensive because even though this is bullshit, we have more money than you do.” So she had to change the name of her sweater, and all the social media hashtags, friendly mentions on podcasts, word of mouth etc. under the old name are now a dead end.
She seems more reasonable about it than I would be. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAI5g1r_njY