Hey there! It’s April! For me, that means gearing up for allergy season. Has spring sprung where you are? Or is winter still desperately holding on? We also hope you all enjoyed this year’s April Fool’s joke. Brainstorming copy for it was so much fun.
…
Have you subscribed to our Books on Sale newsletter yet? The newsletter goes out every Friday morning, eastern time. You can sign up here!
…
Author Karen Booth is at Frolic.Media discussing older couples in romance, and her motivation for starting the Seasoned Romance Facebook group:
Getting older can be amazing and falling in love is one of the true joys of life. So why wouldn’t we want to read about it? I think an awful lot of us do. The good news is that the Seasoned Romance Facebook group is growing like a weed. RWA (The Romance Writers of America) just approved a Seasoned Romance chapter. The Book Industry Study Group, added the BISAC code category Romance> Later in Life last year, and romance publisher Entangled, introduced a line called August last year, featuring romance with characters who are beyond their 20s.
So happy to see the success of this group! Are you a member on Facebook? If not, are you excited to join?
…
A New Jersey school put in a production of Alien. You can see the original Reddit post here. There are also additional links to photos and clips. Funding was cut for a lot of the arts programs and so the sets and costumes are all made from recycled materials.
…
There’s a fascinating new book out on the woman who designed the Creature from the Black Lagoon and her forgotten accomplishment:
Ricou Browning was one of the two actors who got zipped into the creature’s costume for the movie (he was the one who swam).
“At first it was a little awkward,” he says. “But I got used to it and got to where I could swim in it very easily.”
Browning, now 89 years old, doesn’t know for sure who designed that costume. But he remembers meeting Milicent Patrick on set: once when she measured him for leotards, and once when he was in costume.
“She was painting something on my chest with a paintbrush,” Browning says. “She said, ‘I’m giving it a touch-up.’ I said, ‘Well OK, but you better let it dry, I’m going in the water.’ And that was the last I saw of her.”
Have any of you read The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara yet?
…
Love spooky stories? Check out this Twitter thread on an author’s writing retreat in a creep cabin.
So, hey.
I somehow managed to book a creepy log cabin to do some intensive writing in for a few days…— Tom Taylor (@TomTaylorMade) March 25, 2019
..
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!
I 1) have a rib inflammation, 2) live in a city regularly named by allergist as the worst city for allergies in the US and 3) started to get a stuffy nose/cough which is hell on the ribs. I’m on both Zyrtec and Claritin every day, year round, plus a nasal spray. And I still get allergy attacks that will have me on my ass for two weeks at a time. I heard a couple of people talking about salt therapy rooms. And, while it sounded a bit woo-woo for me, I was will to try anything so went last week. No joke, I could feel the mucus clearing while I was in the room, and by the next day, all signs of the sniffles were gone as well. If you have one nearby, check it out!
@Jen M: I went in one at the spa in the hotel for RT Reno. It was amazing.
@JenM and Amanda: So are you inhaling salty air? could this be accomplished with a basin, boiling water, salt, and a towel over the head? For me, too, the snezzes have started and I would not object to a solution.
Darn, the Seasoned Romance group is only visible to people with Facebook accounts. 🙁
A recommendation that might fit it, though: Courtney Milan’s latest (Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure) is a FF romance whose main characters are 69 and 73. It made me SO happy.
I was stuck in hellish jury duty for April Fools, which is the worst joke of all. Thank goodness for that one time the judge said we could turn our phones off or “set them to vibrator.” Said, of course, with a straight face her being a srs judge and all. Me I doubled politely over so I could invisibly quietly laugh. That was the one bright spot. (Okay and reading The Dutchess Deal in the waiting room until I could no longer focus enough.)
Fun story Tom Taylor wrote a couple of my favorite recent comic book runs: All-New Wolverine, and X-Men Red. I recommend both to everyone who loves kickass female leads in their superhero works. and I def need to read more of his stuff, including that thread…
For Romances with couples beyond their first blush you can’t beat author Sandra Antonelli. Her latest, Forever in Your Service, came out last week. It’s the second book in her Secret Service series. If you wish James Bond had an inner life and would enjoy seeing someone like him fall head over feels for his female butler, Mae Valentine, give it a try. Antonelli is a delightful writer. Link!
I see that linking magic is not with me today. Maybe it’s punishment for unseemly cutesy-ness with “head over feels.” I deserved it. Forever at Your Service is not cutsey and you can find it with an easy search.
Mzcue: not punishment at all! I fixed the link for you – and thank you for the rec!!
Thank you SB Sarah. It looks much more seemly with a nice hot link.
Here’s a nice April Fools’ Day leftover from the good folks at Fantasy Flight Games and their… different take on the Lovecraftian mythos: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/4/1/the-dogwich-legacy/
By the time I realized it was April Fools, I rushed to this site, and for Google List of Pranks. Loved the names for the sauces. And the Space Invaders Game over at Google Calendar is still working.
Pew! Pew!
Good April Fools, all in all.
I have Lady from the Black Lagoon on hold at the library, but I’m about 12th in line so it may be awhile! I heard a podcast interview with the author and while I’m not really a horror fan, I am a fan of kickass women in history so very excited to read this.
I’ve got a hold on Lady from the Black Lagoon and I can’t wait.
Mallory O’Meara also has a really fun podcast on reading called Reading Glasses that I highly recommend!!
Yay, 1 of the 5 libraries I’m a member of just got both of Sandra Antonelli’s books! But it’s a 20 week wait, boooh!!
Elena, what library is that, if you don’t mind my asking?
@SB Sarah
Thanks for giving Seasoned Romance a shout out!
You know I’ve been writing it (and academically researching it, and being all ranty and scholarly about the audience and the need to make it real and easy to discover) for years. I cannot tell you how pleased I am that the Seasoned Romance Facebook group gives further credence to the doctoral research I undertook (had I finished it when I last saw you?) as well as the books I, WE write that feature older women (and men, but there have always been silver foxy men) as intelligent, interesting, confident, powerful, sensual, sexual, whole human beings who just happen to be older. It all speaks to the viability of an audience of readers who have been are still waiting to see more. And frankly, romance publishers are lagging behind Hollywood in recognizing this.
We need to pushback harder against how society that subtly stigmatises ageing, treats it as a disease to be fought, and derides human beings—particularly women—for getting older, and leaving us out of romance fiction. Hooray Seasoned Romance!
I thought this might be an April Fool’s prank; so far, this looks legit.
https://boingboing.net/2019/04/02/burning-libraries.html?fbclid=IwAR2FtFM0nJQiHdGgLqZuW-tTEuG-8kdW839KD5dYSkuj1bwPFX71qQ7Hp9Q
Thanks for the shout-out to Seasoned Romance. I have to say as a author, it is a blast to write women with life-stories, and couples having fun!
@Kathryn Jane: Are you also the TK HF volunteer? If so, many thanks and hugs.
@Mzcue: Thanks for the rec.