It’s the first Wednesday Links of 2023! How exciting is that?
You all deserve some recognition for making it through 2022 and the holiday seasons. My holiday celebrating was pretty low key. I made some cookies, spent a lot of time with my partner, and we watched my favorite movie (The Fifth Element) on New Year’s Eve. We’re traveling in a couple weeks, so we weren’t looking to go out. We also finally played the board game Wingspan! Definitely would recommend for all your board game fans out there.
How about you? How did you ring in the new year?
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Tara discovered that the snowplows in Calgary are named! Apparently there was a naming contest and you can see the big list of winners here. I think the SBTB favorite is Brinestone Plowboy.
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Between the popularity of Only Murders in the Building and Deanna Rayborn’s Killers of a Certain Age, I’m loving the trend of old characters solving crimes. If you’re on board as well, Crime Reads has even more recommendations.
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Over the holiday break, the romance community discovered that California rep Katie Porter is a romance reader! (And yes, we’ve already nudged Sarah to try and get her on the podcast.)
I read a stunning number of romantic comedy books each month. I love the escape from my life. Some favorite authors are @ChristinaLauren (constituent!), Emily Henry, Jasmine Guillory, @evie_dunmore @TaliaHibbert
— Katie Porter (@katieporteroc) December 25, 2022
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Speaking of Sarah, she was featured in a Wired article about romance!
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The HarperCollins Union has surpassed a month of being on strike. They still aren’t calling for a boycott of authors, but if you want to buy titles and help the union, you can make purchases through their Bookshop.org link.
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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!
Minnesota snow plows are also named, if anyone needs more snow plow names joy: https://www.dot.state.mn.us/nameasnowplow/
Does bookshop sell e-books or audio? I’ve been hesitant to buy from there, since I cannot read hard copy print.
19 Books by Asian and Pacific Islander Authors for your 2023 TBR, including romance, fantasy, thriller, horror, mystery, middle grade, and more:
http://dailywaffle.com/2023/01/02/19-books-by-asian-and-pacific-islander-authors-for-your-2023-tbr/
@Stefanie: They don’t do ebooks and while there is an audiobook option, it redirects you to Libro.fm. Libro benefits indie bookstores, so I’m unsure if the HarperCollins Union earns anything if you click through and buy on Libro.
I haven’t read anything this bizarre involving a romance novelist’s real life since Sherrilyn Kenyon claimed her husband was poisoning her (CW/TW: suicide, presumably faked):
https://jezebel.com/novelist-appears-to-announce-shes-alive-2-years-after-f-1849949521
Major Wingspan fan here! I’m super competitive, but it’s the one game where I care more about having cool birds in my sanctuary than winning.
I live in Calgary and when I check out road conditions on the city site it shows the named snowplows on the map. Cute!
Scotland’s road gritters are named too! There’s also a live map where you can see where each one is https://swtrunkroads.scot/winter-service/meet-our-gritter-fleet/
Wingspan is terrific and created by a female designer, Elizabeth Hargrave, which is very unusual in the board game space.
The comic strip Luann just started an arc about her mom and Bernice (the “sensible” friend) being romance fans: https://www.gocomics.com/luann/2023/01/03 Kinda glad they’re using Bernice for this as she is the scientific, serious-minded character, so hopefully it will show that smart women can enjoy romance too.
There are videos from other authors regarding the alleged fake death story.
Watched WILL TRENT the other night, and it didn’t disappoint. Based on Karin Slaughter’s books.
oops, that last comment belonged on the other post.
@EC Spurlock: Just took a look. There’s an awful lot of pearl clutching and accusations of female pr0n in the comments. Apparently it’s inappropriate for Luann’s mom to share her romance novels with Luann’s BFF, who is also an adult. When will people ever learn?
@Sandra, I normally don’t read the comments, but it looks like that only happened on the first day; by the second day the regular readers had ousted the trolls and were happily speculating on who the author would turn out to be.
@DiscoDollyDeb
What in the ever loving ice cream coated winter was that? I read the article, clicked on some of the links to tweets and what not and I still have so many questions. Like why did her “family” think it was best to pretend that she died? and then Why did she re-join her facebook group under another handle and re-take over admin duties for it? I’m gobsmacked at the sheer audacity of it all. Did anyone actually attend the funeral that the fundraiser was for?
@Melody Prime: what I found equally intriguing (or baffling, depending on one’s POV) was that someone in the comments said the writer wasn’t the first indie author to fake their own death just the first to be exposed, which now makes me wonder about any recent(ish) deaths in the indie author community. Perhaps the commentator really knew something or perhaps they were just being a troll, but the story is just mind-boggling on so many levels.
So glad to see the Wingspan love. It’s such a great game (although the initial learning curve is a little steep – definitely recommend watching a couple how to play videos first if you’re just getting started).
Most of my extended family plays and I have two regular family Wingspan games. I have a weekly zoom game with my parents and sibling – we all use our boards and it works remarkably well. I also play it online using Steam with my 20-something niblings, more or less monthly. It’s a great way to keep in touch.
I wishlisted the digital version of Wingspan at Steam and just got a notice that it’s on sale through the end of Jan.