Hey all! It’s Wednesday; can you believe it?!
August is wrapping up and to that, I say, “Thank god!” I am over it and so ready for the fall seasons. I’m a cozy person by nature. I love to nest. I love mountains of blankets and pillows and burning an autumnal candle.
Sure, yes, I could do that in whatever season I choose, but I don’t need the extra sweat that comes along with being buried under blankets.
Anyone else ready for a change in seasons?
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Did you all have a great Bookstore Romance Day? What did you end up doing? I loved this adorable spotlight on East City Bookshop and their welcoming of romance readers. Sarah was quoted in it as well!
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This link was sent in by Agnès. Thanks, Agnès!
NPR is discussing the buying power of Gen Z and how they’ve played a big driving force in getting romance onto bestseller lists. Of course, the article does touch on the lack of diversity in buying patterns and how TikTok has been both a blessing and a curse.
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Author Nora Roberts donate $50,000 to help save a defunded Michigan library! What a generous donation, but also it’s shameful the library was defunded in the first place because of its decision to keep certain LGBTQ+ books on the shelves.
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Fantasy author Alix E. Harrow wrote a tender and touching review of the forthcoming Nona the Ninth and kept spoilers to a minimum. I’m so excited for this one and am doing a re-read before pub date.
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I love when the interests of crafting a romance reading intersect! This embroidery from Reading Stitches is definitely NSFW.
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Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting 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!
Speaking of stitching, I just published an article on “subversive” stitching with the Craft Industry Alliance: https://craftindustryalliance.org/samplers-swearwords-and-sass-a-look-at-modern-cross-stitch/
Nora Roberts: class act! This fundraiser is not a permanent solution to the library’s woes, but it WILL buy it some time to rally people before the next vote, and funds to counteract all the deceptive messaging that was used in the last election. SMDH!!!
I am SO ready for the change of season. There are supposed to be two mornings this week that will be cool enough (low 60s Fahrenheit) for me to throw open the windows when I get up at 3 a.m. and enjoy air until the sun comes up and ruins it. I start getting lethargic at 70, so I’m a summer sloth. At this point in the year, I have a backlog of Shit To Do and need my energy back to play catch-up.
I came across the word “estivation” – means sleeping through the summer, like hibernation is sleeping through the winter. I often think I’d like to be able to just sleep through the hottest time of the year.
I’ve read some articles about that library and a big issue they had with the millage is they only had $1,000 the first time around to spend on advertising/getting the word out, while the “conservative” minority of loudmouths posted signs around town and blasts on social media accusing the library staff of “grooming children”. Of course, the loudmouths aren’t the ones who use the library and aren’t the ones who would be hurt by its closing. They’re going to use a portion of the money they’ve raised to increase outreach and advertising this time around, so that people will actually understand what they’re voting on.
Apparently a lot of the residents didn’t KNOW that “defunding the library” meant CLOSING the library. Lord save us from people who vote for measures without understanding what they mean.
Also, La Nora donated 50K because that was the most GoFundMe would allow from a single donor – she wanted to give more and if the library had fallen short of their goal, they needed only to contact her and let her know and she would have made up the difference.
Great article, Carol!
As we head into another blistering weekend, I am more than ready for a change of seasons.
Thanks for sharing the D.C. romance story! I had so much fun writing it.
So ready for the season to change. I feel like my brain melts every summer and I don’t come back to life until it’s cooler, and this summer has been pretty bad where I live (tho, I mean, we have water and A/C so it could be worse.)
I really appreciate that library for not taking the books off the shelves. It’s so easy to say that a couple titles aren’t worth a whole community losing access to books… Good for them sticking with what’s right.
Still 90+ here – I look forward to “fake fall,” let alone a real one.