Happy Wednesday! In Boston, Monday was Patriot’s Day and my schedule is all thrown off, but big congrats to all the runners! I’m turning 30 tomorrow and tonight I’m celebrating with pizza, beer, and ice cream. I’ll admit it; it’s a pretty good Wednesday. Hope you all are having a great week and, if not, fingers crossed it gets better.
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Have you heard about Love Africa Press? They’re a relatively new publisher that “celebrates all things African in romantic fiction.” The covers on the site are flippin’ gorgeous. If you want to give them a try, they also have some free reads.
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Publishers Weekly had an interesting article about Netflix’s push to develop more adaptations from books. While I am all for it, Netflix’s offerings seem to skew heavy on the YA side. I’ve enjoyed what they’ve produced so far, but I’d like to see romance get some love too.
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There are meet-cutes in romance, but have you heard of a meet-hate? It makes sense and I don’t know why it never occurred to me before. There are a handful of romance recommendations for you over at Frolic.Media!
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I love fanfic. I used to write it, though now I primarily read it. Tor.com counts the ways that fanfiction can help us all become better writers:
Practical Exercises
One of the things I love most about writing fic is the option of writing from prompts—give me one or two characters, a setting, and a situation, and I will write you a story right now. It’s like wind-sprints for your brain, and it is tiring but also exhilarating, and the more you do it the easier it gets. It works in the realm of original fiction just as well—if you’re writing within a universe you’ve already invented, you are doing precisely the same work as if you’re writing prompt fanfic, with the added benefit that nobody can accuse you of being out of character.
Shoutout to all my fanfic writers out there, as sometimes it’s a thankless task! Keep going!
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Enjoy this Twitter thread of cats being naughty, little scamps!
My terrible, ungrateful son grabbed my subway sandwich, ran as fast as he could to get some distance between us and then took a massive bite out of it, paper and all. pic.twitter.com/cXLvSlMS7Z
— Alexandria Neonakis (@Beavs) April 15, 2019
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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!
Happy Birthday Amanda!
And I love some of those covers from Love Africa Press – some of those should qualify for Cover Awe!
Happy birthday Amanda!
Happy birthday and thank you for the cats!
Your birthday-eve meal sounds perfect. Enjoy all the days, thank you for everything you do.
Happy Birthday, Amanda!
Happy Birthday, Amanda!
In fun things from the internet, Ilona Andrews posted the first chapter of their new Hidden Legacy book, Sapphire Flames: http://www.ilona-andrews.com/read-first-chapter-of-sapphire-flames/
It’s so dang good I honest to god screamed when I realized it’s not available until AUGUST.
Thank you for the link to the fanfiction article. It was a good reminder and a bit of validation that I need right now.
Happy birthday, Amanda! I’m a long-time reader of this blog but rarely post, so I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank you – your contributions are one of the reasons that I read SBTB every day.
Thank you all for the birthday wishes and kind words!
I’m late to the party, but still, happy 30th, Amanda!
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday Amanda!
Back in the day, I used to say “over the hill” for 30, but now it’s more like 90 years old. 🙂 Wishing you all the best today and in the year ahead.
Happy Birthday Amanda! The 30’s are better than the 20’s, or at least one knows herself/himself better and feels more agency and self-determination. The work you and SBTB does lifts us all. Thank you. Best Wishes to you! Cheers!
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As much as I’m excited for the Grisha series adaption by Netflix, I agree that Romance adaptions are severely lacking. And I don’t want them to group them in with Hallmark, who cut out all the sex.