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

There are two really, really great words in this article about the new line of Mills & Boon romances that will focus on more sexuality than you can shake an erect stick at.

Those two words are: Breezy Malone.

Wonder if she queefs? And if she’s having adventures in the Australian bush, does that make it Mills & Boon lesbian erotica? (I’m making really bad jokes to avoid the involuntary twitching at the repeated use of the word “porn” in the article. Feel free to join me). 

Thanks to Star Opal, a few neat-o links.

First, never doubt the power of your local library, particularly one that rents typewriters for .10 cents an hour. Otherwise we might not have books like Fahrenheit 451. The library was Bradbury’s personal office.

Note to self: do not write evocative, chilling, and profoundly thought provoking poems about knives in England unless you’d like that poem to be removed from the GCSE syllabus because knives are scary (so is the poem, which is chilling). .

Note to self: if one day you are spankingly good poet whose work has been removed from the GCSE curriculum due to some wanker’s complaining about it: respond in the poetic equivalent of a pile driver by writing a new poem that is so awesome, I had to read it three times.

News alert: A judge has ruled in favor of J.K. Rowling in her suit against the Harry Potter Lexicon and RDR Books.

In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson said:

“While the lexicon, in its current state, is not a fair use of the Harry Potter works, reference works that share the lexicon’s purpose of aiding readers of literature generally should be encouraged rather than stifled...”

He added that he ruled in Rowling’s favor because the “Lexicon appropriates too much of Rowling’s creative work for its purposes as a reference guide.”

Thanks to Kalen Hughes for the link. 

From yesterday’s Publisher’s Lunch:

Creator and executive producer of the CSI television franchise Anthony Zuiker’s series of three suspense-thriller “digital novels” (every five chapters readers are given website codes to access two-minute films that bridge to the next five chapters) beginning with SQWEEGEL, about an former FBI forensic investigator who retired after his whole family was murdered but continues to work a variety of grim cases, to Brian Tart at Dutton, at auction, for publication beginning in fall 2009, by Dan Strone at Trident Media Group (world).

Variety says “Zuiker will write a 60-page outline for each book, then supervise a novelist who’ll turn it into a 100-chapter book. Zuiker will write and direct 20 “cyber-bridges,” the two-minute video segments that supplement the pages.”

Aside from the whole “supervise the novelist” thing that makes me think of James Patterson and not in a good way, is anyone else kind of befuddled by this announcement? Cyber bridge videos between chapters that mix vieweing and reading? What the huh now? Generally speaking, I read on the bus, and on the treadmill (thank you Kindle and your absolutely gi-hummuna-normous text size - all the better to bounce you with, my dear) and am nowhere near a video-enabled computer, much less with the patience to wait for my iPhone to load the video. I can’t say I’d be all excited for a book that ties me to a computer to view the video bridge - half the time reading is a break from the computer, not that I can stay away long, oh Internet, how I love thee. Seems overly complicated, but then, I’m often mystified by Facebook.

Does anyone else think this is a rather bizarre concept, or is this the Future of Reading, with YouTube on Your Kindle?

Thank you to the many people who forwarded me this article: The Jewel of Medina has a new publisher, according to the AP, the NY Times, and the Guardian. Independent British publishing house Gibson Square will publish the book in October in English.

Gibson Square, according to their website, “specialises in books that are able to contribute to a current debate. Each title is supported by a vigorous marketing campaign to provide a broad platform for the book and its ideas in the booktrade.”

I’m still trying to battle my way through my copy of the ARC. To be honest, it’s not easy reading, as the narrative seems to hover on the edge of impending disaster in the form of impetuous decision making by a heroine who longs to be a warrior while simultaneously pining for a man, who is not Mohammed, to come and rescue her from her impending marriage.

Mohammed, however, is a marvelous, marvelous figure in this book. I haven’t made up my mind on the portrayal of Aisha, but in the first fifth of the book, Mohammed, he rules.