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

Monday Linkage

First: so many people forwarded me the link to today’s XKCD, I can’t possibly thank them all, but they are ALL awesome.

Porn for Women - and make sure you hold your mouse over the comic, too. Extra more win that way.

If you want more laughter, here’s a link courtesy of Gail Dayton, who was pretty sure we’d written about were-duck-erotica before.

Oh, yes, we did. it was a sad chapter in our history, when we were temporarily absorbed into the Dear Author Media Network.

But we had nothing to do with the creation of this book, Duck Fart, by Jade Buchanan.

This review, by Sidney, is rather marvelous:

:bent over laughing till my balls feel like falling off: I get the whole duck fart title now and I’m not telling. Read it for yourself to find out.

Now, I cannot read a book and laugh myself nutless, but if a book makes me laugh so hard my boobs fall off, you’ll be the first to know.

Another five star review states, “Throw together a timid siamese shifter, a twinky duck shifter with attitude, and a big, strong human and you get a fun read.”

Yes. That is exactly what I think when I put those three things together in my mind. Along with the thought that “twinky duck shifter” would make a GREAT name for a blog.

You can buy this book from Aspen Mountain Press and online from AllRomanceeBooks.

Yes, I’m buying a copy. Who knows if my breasts will fall off?

 

And finally: I’m over at the Harlequin blog this week talking about why romance is awesome in honor of National Women’s Month: Top 5 Ways Romance Novels are Important to Women’s Lives. My favorite part: “Romances celebrate women, and I can’t think of a more important reason to celebrate romances in return.”

DA BWAHA Recently Asked Questions

Jane and I have received a few email messages and some questions about the 2010 DABWAHA so she and I drew up a brief FAQ to answer them. Feel free to ask if you’re confused about anything!

Q.  Who picked the books?

A.  Sarah and Jane did with some help from Jane’s blogging mates

Q:  Why isn’t X book on there?

A:  We don’t know but probably because there were so many good books, it was hard to cull down to just 8 per category.

Q:  Why does the Bracket have abbreviated titles and no author names?

A:  The software has a character limitation and so we are only allotted so much space.  You may want to print out the printable finalist lists to help you discern the title of each book with the author.

Q:  Can I submit more than one bracket?

A:  We ask that you don’t.  We will have a second chance tournament.

Q:  Can I resubmit my bracket choices?

A:  Yes, anytime until Wednesday at 8 pm, EST.

Q:  I’m trying to tell people to vote for me - but they can’t find where to vote! What’s going on?

A:  Voting hasn’t started yet. Voting begins on Wednesday on polls that will run on the DABWAHA Blog.

Right now, people are selecting their brackets - who they think will win each round until Book of the Year is selected.

The iRex 800SG: A DNF Review

When the wireless iRex was announced online, with the news that it would be available at Best Buy online an eventually in stores, I was so supremely curious. Even though the price tag is still way high, and way out of reach for most people, I ordered one thinking that if it would solve my Kindle problems, and perform the way I wanted a wireless reader to perform, it might be a better option for many.

Currently, I’m using Kindle II for most of my reading. I was using a Sony 505, but it had a very sad and unfortunate accident with the leg of a table, and half the screen doesn’t work. Plus, I have difficulties loading the content onto the 505 because I can’t always connect external devices to the computers I’m using.

I like using the wireless connectivity to load books on the Kindle. I like how light it is. I like the sticker I have on the back. I especially like that I can buy .mobi files from vendors other than Amazon and, by using Calibre’s preference set for Kindle, email those files to my device.

But I freaking HATE that I can’t organize my files. Holy crap, it makes me miserable, that hot mess of content organized by date added or date read or by author. “Most recent” could be the last file I looked at (because it arrived on the device with a name I don’t recognize) or the last file I sent (and I have to peek at it multiple times to see what it is).

So when I saw the iRex 800SG with onboard 3G wireless, along with on-board links to bookstores like Barnes & Noble, AND I found a link to a a potential hack to enable file organization, I thought, OH HO. This might work!

Alas, my impression of the IRex 800G: utter lamesauce. This is the first digital reader that I’m tempted to give a DNF review to - it’s that bad.

DABWAHA 2010: It’s Selection Time!

UPDATE: Site is working now. “ENTER YOUR PICKS” link is right next to the “Contact” but in case something goes screwy, the direct link is below or if you go to “http://dabwaha.com“, the “PICK YOUR BRACKET” button goes directly to the bracket page.

Ladies and gentleman, it’s DA BWAHA 2010 TIME. You can see all the books who made the slate of 64 at DABWAHA.com, and read about the prizes at the DABWAHA blog.

And now… it’s time to pick your brackets! And read a truly informative and utterly important FAQ.

How do I enter my picks?

PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE FOLLOWING WORDS.

To enter your picks, click ENTER YOUR PICKS in the top menu.

Then, at the top right, select “NEW” and enter your name LAST, FIRST. i.e. “Litte, Jane,” or “Sarah, Smart Bitch.”

Enter your email address in the box provided.

Make your picks by clicking on the title you think will win each competition.

Enter the tiebreaker, which is the total number of entries in the main tournament. (Yes, we know it says ‘points’ - more on that in a minute.)

This is the important part: when you click “SUBMIT PICKS” in the bottom left, your entry will not appear right away.

Let me say that again: Your entry will not appear right away.

But whyyyyyy am I not seeing my entry right away?

Because each entry is stored off line and must be compiled and uploaded into the server in batches. This is done manually. By Jane. So she’ll collect the entries in groups through the selection period and upload them in groups.

What’s the deadline for making my selections?

8:00 pm, Eastern Time, Wednesday 17 March 2010.
Ready to make your picks? Head on over to check out the 2010 DA BWAHA Tournament Bracket.

Harlequin books now on Nintendo DS (In Japan)

I sit next to a lot of kids on their way to school on the subway, and many of them have a DS or other small gaming device, though I don’t often see them reading unless it’s a text screen from a game.

Not so in Japan - “Love Stories for Grown-Ups,” better known around here as “Harlequin romances” are now available for the Nintendo DS in Japan.

Can we discuss my jealousy here? Not over the books - the features of the DS Harlequin selection. Check out the features:

Love Stories for Grown-Ups enhances the reading experience by offering a number of interactive features accessed through easy touch screen operation—a “concierge” that allows you to navigate stories by mood or type of heroine, character correlation charts and lists that are updated along with plot developments, narrative annotations including maps for locations, digital bookmarks, story recaps that bring readers up to where they last left off, a choice of background music, Author introductions and images, polls on hero ranking, review rankings by other users via Wi-Fi connection and more.

That is an amazing mix of social networking and personalization - and here I can’t even hack a Kindle to organize my books by genre and subgenre. Seriously. It’s enough to make me want to go to Japan, buy a DS, and ... wish I could read Japanese.

I can’t even imagine the device that would organize such features and make them user-friendly here in the US. Isn’t that sad? I’d love to be able to, for example, read a romance by the mood I’m in, and see who I know is in a similar reading mood - amazing. ETA: it reveals a little bit about the cultural differences and the resulting electronic usage differences between US and Japan, I think.