Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Katia forwarded me a link to today’s Achewood comic, which features a custom romance novel that seriously had me spitting coffee out of my mouth onto the screen.

I will never look at pepperoncini the same way again. 

Purely on the basis of the “I gave her my heart, she gave me a Peep” entry, I had to share this with y’all:

The Washington Post’s Gallery of winners in the Peep Diorama Contest.

A graceful curtsey to IL#2 for the link.

EDITED TO ADD:

A link from the intrepid Zoe:

Passover Peeps!

I am so building that on the seder table next year. No question.

And verily my TBR pile is too large, and my time to read too short to do appropriate justice to a Harlequin with a short window of availability, but I wanted to bring attention to something cool that Cynthia Reese is doing with her April 2007 release The Baby Wait.

The book is about a couple who is already married seeking to adopt a baby from China. In her words:

I promise: it is not your garden variety category—for one thing, it’s in first person. For another, it’s about a married couple. For a third… well, the baby’s not a secret baby....

Reese has pledged a portion of her royalties to two charities that directly benefit Chinese orphanages:

One is Love Without Boundaries and the other is Our Chinese Daughters Foundation . There were so many worthwhile organizations that I found it extremely difficult to choose just two! LWB will use my donation to help an older, medically-needy child in Changsha, Hunan.

OCDF will use the money to support Coal For Kids, a program which provides coal to northern Chinese orphanages who get little or no funding from the Chinese government—some of these kids have lost fingers and toes because the orphanages couldn’t afford fuel for the winter!

I wish THE BABY WAIT were a NYT best-seller so that I could drop whole boatloads of cash on several of the very worthy charities out there! But I plan to do this for each of my books—give $$ back, so maybe my small offerings will add up
and make a difference in the life of a child.

So if Harlequin SuperRomances are on your romance shopping list, or if you’re interested in this particular story, your purchase funds a couple of worthy causes.

And behold, a topic near to Candy’s heart, and mine: the geek hero.

Seems Wired Magazine loves them as much as we do (obviously) for they have compiled a somewhat tongue-in-cheek list: The 10 Real Reasons Why Geeks Make Better Lovers.

The best part? The supportive echo of Candy’s previously published sentiments:

I’ve read recently that geeks make better lovers because they are so unaccustomed to romance that they will do anything for their mates. Also because geeks don’t have the social skills to cheat (wanna bet?).

Yeah, ha ha, let’s chuckle at the stereotypes. Might as well add that geeks won’t waste valuable relationship time watching football. Or that geeks are clueless and fashion-impaired and have the social skills of a bowl of fruit.

But you know what? Humorous Top-10 lists aside, geeks really do make the best lovers, for reasons that have nothing to do with adolescent ostracism or puppy-like devotion.

It’s all about sex-tech.

From increased sensitivity to environment, even if that environment is virtual, to role playing and intimate familiarity with fantasy enactment, geeks have it going on.

Which we knew, of course. 

Last Friday it was otters holding hands, and this Friday? Well, I won’t tell you and spoil the ending, but thanks to nanolucas for sending me the hot mantitty video. Yes, it’s safe for work. No worries.

Enjoy!