Categories: Ranty McRant
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by SB Sarah • Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 06:40 AM
Kathleen sent me an alert that Australian booksellers Angus and Robertson are holding a writing contest to celebrate relaunching the Mills & Boon line.
Kathleen’s take on it is similar to mine. Holy crap. Are they kidding me?
Fans of the ‘bodice ripper’: unite! From March 26, Angus & Robertson are relaunching Mills & Boon books in 108 of their stores nationally.
To celebrate their return, Angus & Robertson are giving aspiring romance novelists the chance to win one of five ‘pamper hampers’ valued at over $350 each. Hampers include a sensual mix of champagne, chocolates and gourmet food, Mills & Boon novels, scented candles, and a deluxe dressing gown.
This is your chance to probe your talent in the world of romance writing.To win entrants must write the first paragraph of a novel in Mills & Boon style and send to . Submission must not be over 200 words. Submission will be judged on the skill of their writing, use of detail, development of character and understanding of the Mills & Boon genre.
Competition runs between March 26 and April 18, with winners announced on April 20.
by SB Sarah • Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 06:31 AM
Gemma has compiled the ultimate list of reappearances of cover art from Harlequin and Mills & Boon. I would seriously love to get a look at their art book, because some of the covers that would seem dated at first glance can be reused some years later with little problem.
Gemma says,
One of my favourite sets is:
* Marshall, Paula - Hester Waring’s Marriage
* Rowell, Patricia Frances - A Scandalous Situation
* Ames, Laurel - BesiegedThe hero has a freekin’ eyepatch on the cover of Besieged (as per the plot) which is not present on the other covers. Was the eyepatch in the original artwork and removed for the other books, or vice versa?!
I’m partial to the title of Pianka, Phyllis Taylor’s book The Tart Shoppe, 
Two words: “Thundercats. Ho.”
13 comments •
Categories: Covers Gone Wild! (Non-Snoop Dogg Edition)
Categories: Covers Gone Wild! (Non-Snoop Dogg Edition)
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by SB Sarah • Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 04:37 AM
The list is up, for the RITA and Golden Heart. I’ll be honest, and I’m not sure if this is a reflection of me, of something else, or just the way it played out this year but I have not been near or even in the same room as some of the books nominated for a RITA. I’ve never heard of some of them.
But I am very pleased to see Elizabeth Hoyt, Anna Campbell (who is up against herself, heh heh, with the pair of her dueling against Julia Quinn) and Melissa Marr on the finalist slate. I’ve pasted the list below the fold.
by SB Sarah • Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 06:08 PM
Here’s the upcoming schedule of voting. We’ll be holding the votes open from noon to midnight for each round from now until the finale. (Hello, again, South Korea! G’day, Australia! And you, too, New Zealand!)
Round 3: March 27-28 (Sweet Sixteen)
Round 4: March 29-20 (Elite 8)
Round 5: April 5 Final Four
Round 6: April 7 Championship
Don’t forget we have 2 tourneys going on. The first is the original DA BWAHA with the finalists (the author of the winning book and the owner of the winning bracket) getting mad props, big ups, a six-month subscription to Paperspine, books, feathers and a dirty locket or whatever she chooses from Lochers.com.
The Second Chance tourney was set up for the poor fools whose bracket was kicked out of competition early on. We are giving the second chance bracket winner some random prizes like books, both paper and audio on CD and - hooray! - from Bruce Wilder’s Turn the Page Bookstore, a $25.00 gift certificate for any book that TTP has in stock. Or they can order. Or they can whip one up really damn fast because he knows this author? Who writes like the wind? Yeah. Anyway. TTP is in the house.
Give it up for our sponsors:
Paperspine
Thanks folks!
by SB Sarah • Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 02:04 PM
From the “Someone Alert a Grant-Bestowing Organization STAT” department, we have Mary Behr’s art in progress that mixes CraigsList missed connection posts with vintage Harlequin covers:
In the form of stickers, these mash-ups are then reintroduced to the public by placement in a subway car, not incidentally the site of many of these “missed connections.
I love the Missed Connections section of CraigsList, to be honest. Some of them are beyond creepy, but every so often there’s reassurance that in a sea of people who don’t seem to notice they are surrounded by thousands of other people, sometimes, someone is watching, sees you, and wonders. In a non-creepy way.
9 comments •
Categories: Covers Gone Wild! (Non-Snoop Dogg Edition) • The Link-O-Lator
Categories: Covers Gone Wild! (Non-Snoop Dogg Edition) • The Link-O-Lator
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by SB Sarah • Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 07:57 AM
RWA RITA and Golden Heart finalist phone calls are going out - who’s getting one? I hear word that a certain critique partner of a published YA author next door is a GH finalist. So - what’s the news? Share share!
ETA: A few sites are keeping track as word gets out. Take your pick and keep hitting refresh.
by SB Sarah • Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 04:20 AM
The last set of polls have closed. Results are as follows. See the updated standings at the Official DA BWAHA site.
by SB Sarah • Monday, March 24, 2008 at 09:11 AM
The last set of polls have closed. Results are as follows. See the updated standings at the Official DA BWAHA site.
by SB Sarah • Monday, March 24, 2008 at 07:08 AM
As of 1 April 2008, erotica publisher Dark Eden Press will close its doors.
In an email marked for forwarding and sent to the EPIC groups, owner Debra Durham announced that due to personal health reasons, her publishing house will be shutting down. Her email details the specific reasons why, and also outlines her plan of action for bringing her business to a close.
All of you deserve an owner who is going to be here, who is able to get the things done that need to be done. I don’t want my authors trying to figure out why I haven’t answered emails for a couple of days, or why royalties are late, or wondering when the things that need to be taken care of are going to get done, when the reality is that I will be too sick to do it.
I will spend the next two weeks preparing letters to release your book rights to you, doing March royalties, and closing the readers group. I will then begin shutting down all the DEP email addresses except for my own and forwarding all mail from that to my personal email address. By May 1st, I would hope all payments have cleared the bank, and on that date I will also close the author group.
Best wishes to Ms. Durham for a speedy and complete recovery.
by SB Sarah • Monday, March 24, 2008 at 06:07 AM
Courtesy of Barbara Ferrer, her local Barnes & Noble, and her camera phone, we have a picture that really may be worth a thousand words.
Which words? The ones you use when you defend the accusation that romance is “porn.”
by SB Sarah • Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 05:50 PM
The last set of polls have closed. Results are as follows. See the updated standings at the Official DA BWAHA site.
by SB Sarah • Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 11:01 AM
I had five minutes to read the funnies today - which is rare and also completely excellent - and today’s “Frazz” made me grin. I know a lot of writerly motivational sites have various running or driving analogies for the process of writing, from driving in total darkness with your low beams on to ultra marathon running.
Sometimes reading is like that for me - the running part. I try not to read while I’m driving. Sometimes I run shabbily as fast as I can just to get to the end because I just want to know what happens. Sometimes I set a slower pace and force myself not to go to fast because the pace heightens my reading enjoyment. And sometimes I have to walk down the stairs backwards when I’m done because the book is following me around for days afterward. What books are like that for you?
by SB Sarah • Saturday, March 22, 2008 at 10:10 AM
So your bracket didn’t work out the way you wanted? We are giving you a second chance.
We have a second chance pool available to you (and newcomers) starting with the winners of the first round and extending to the final round. The details will be up at Dear Author and Smart Bitches tomorrow. You’ll have two days to fill out the brackets before voting starts again on Monday.
Your slate is fresh without a strike or a win. Pick anew. Prizes to be announced but you’ll definitely get the “mad props” and “big ups.”
Click here to see the 2nd chance pool site and here to enter your picks.
by SB Sarah • Saturday, March 22, 2008 at 09:55 AM
The last set of polls have closed. Results are as follows. See the updated standings at the Official DA BWAHA site.
by SB Sarah • Friday, March 21, 2008 at 05:24 PM
The last set of polls have closed. Results are as follows. See the updated standings at the Official DA BWAHA site.
