Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Linkage! Round up the Mice!

Thanks to Dr. Vivanco, who is 200 times more cool than “Los Vivancos,” we have… an academic paper about you.

No, really.

Awhile back Candy and I were contacted by a grad student doing an ethnographic study of the Bitchery style of communication.

Miriam Greenfield Benovitz presented her paper, “The Interactive Online Romance Community: Contests and ‘Covers Gone Wild’” at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association in May 2008, and her paper has been made available online. You can find a link to the PDF on that page.

Another link to the PDF can be found at the Romance Wiki page on Academic Essays online.

Wow. Dude. AWESOME. Way to go, Miriam!

Getting ready for RWA National? We are. So are the folks at Blogging National. Jane and many others did a group blog last year, but we’re not doing it this year - so if you’re looking for a pile of RWA news, look to Twitter, and to that site for all the latest.

Stay tuned to this spot for details on Bootleg Bosoms Signing on Thursday night during Happy Hour.

What you got in the way of plans for RWA?

Friday Videos are Late, But Still saying WTF?

So you know how people picture different actors or models or even random dudes they know in the role of fictional heroes? Yeah. I would be shocked if anyone pictured any of these dudes as the heroes of the Black Dagger Brotherhood.

Especially fluttery Brad with his long long hair.

Romantic Suspense Blurbs Gone Wild: Teh Winnahs!

Question: are fill-in-the-blank javascripts the most funnest thing ever? Y/Y? Y!

Thank you to the HOLY CRAP THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THREE of you who had fun with the Smart Bitch Romantic Suspense Blurbs Gone Wild! I’ll have to hang out with Mr. Java and his script to make more fun, huh? Woo!

And now, a special message from Roxanne St. Claire:

Two hours? Just gone. Two hours laughing my ass off at those mad libs, trying to pick winners, which was flipping impossible. I loved so many of them. Here are three that really caught me because they were either hysterical or possible.

Andieg (at 12:39)
Passions Succulent Thunderheads

Tanja Cilia (at 1:25)
Passion’s Blithe Thunderstorm

tracyleann (at 2:59)
Passion’s Grizzled Tornado

Congrats folks - please email me with your mailing address, and Roxanne will send you a spicy, tornadic copy of her upcoming book, Hunt Her Down.

Sony Test Drivers: Start Your Engines

Thank you to the many, many, nearly 200 applicants who gave me a righteous smacking lesson on how curious readers approach digital books. I have learned so much from reading your applications, such as how many forms of poetry can be created when one desires a digital reading device, and how frustrating it is for readers in locations with faraway bookshops to secure new reading material.

With no further ado, I announce the thirty Test Drivers for the Smart Bitches Sony Reader Test Drive. Many, many thanks to Sony Electronics Inc. and to Harlequin for making this program possible.

I will be emailing the winners personally with additional details, and I will also be emailing those of you who applied and weren’t selected. I can’t tell you all adequately how amazed I was by the response, and knocked over by your creativity and eagerness to experience a different method of reading. Thank you.

The Test Drivers are:

Lesley Knieriem
Tami Moore
Mary Granade
Billie Bloebaum
Robin McDaniel
Melonie Johnson
Jeanette Cogdell
Lindsey Schmidt
Liz Montgomery
Phyllis Laatsch Wilke
Sabrina Heise
Evangeline Adams
Lee Gorton
Deanna Duffy
Kristen Painter
Tina Chaney
Nikkie Cooper
Elizabeth Krentz-Wee
Corrina Lawson
Randi Willis
Jessica Borchetta
Shannon Stacey
Jennifer Lohmann
Anita Draper
Laura Grunzinger
Karen Shepherd
Laura Phillips
John C. Bunnell
Sandra Coburn
Theresa Meyers

Smart Bitch Tweetup with Irish Rogues!

Spontaneous Tweetup!

Candy is in town this week, so let us gather and seek out romance heroes. Or drinks. Or both. We’ll be at The Irish Rogue, 356 W 44th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues at 5:30 pm today. Come on down - we’d love to meet you.

Come on down!

ETA: I hear from Katiebabs that tonight is $5 frozen drink night at The Irish Rogue. How roguish! Let there be slushies!

Romantic Suspense and Roxanne St. Claire: ARC Giveaway!

Since I poked a little fun at vaguely religious pseudonyms, and since Roxanne St. Claire isn't a pseudonym, I thought, let's have another ARC giveaway, shall we?

Yes, we shall!

Your task: more fun with romantic suspense! Using your power of Word Knowlege, use the form below to generate a title and its tagline.

As always, copy and paste your brilliant results into the comments. Two winners will be chosen to receive an advanced reader copy of Roxanne St. Claire's next book, Hunt Her Down. 24 hours, so grab the hand of your nearest male silhouette, and run, run like the wind!

Note: the results appear in a popup window, so be ye warned.

NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute, with Smart Bitches

In a rare joint appearance, Candy and I will be on a panel today at NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute, which this year is devoted to Book, Magazine, and Digital Publishing.

The panel, which is made up of book bloggers, will discuss how publishers promote books and what we think of the state of publishing. Sorry, folks, I don’t think it’s open to the public.

But hell, if it were? It would be a Twitter-extravaganza. For one thing, I think 60% of the panel is named “Sara(h)”, which adds fuel to the theory that there are 9 people total in New York publishing, and at least two are named Sara(h).

I’ll be the one twitching in awe at the other panelists, who include Sara Nelson, Sarah Weinman (aka, The Real @SarahW), Jessica Stockton Bangulo, Sarah Burningham, Ron Hogan, and Richard Nash.

Seriously, this panel should be so much fun and information, I hope someone tweets - or at least takes notes.

T.A. Pratt Offers Reader-Supported Serial Novella

T.A. Pratt, author of the Marla Mason urban fantasy series, is embarking on a reader supported serial novella called Bone Shop. Editions will be posted on Mondays, and readers can donate whatever they like for the chance to read it.

The proceeds benefit Pratt’s family as his wife has been laid off. As Pratt said in his LiveJournal entry:

As I mentioned yesterday, my wife was laid off this week, and while we both hope she finds a new job soon (and that I sell some more novels, as far as that goes), we’re in sudden need of money now. I could have just straight-out asked for financial help—and for those who’ve offered that, thanks, it’s appreciated—but I’m a writer, and if there’s one thing I have in ample quantity, it’s stories to tell.

Specifically a story I’ve been wanting to write for a while, but couldn’t find the right market for: a longish piece about the early adventures of my series character Marla Mason.

Bone Shop is a serialized, donation-funded urban fantasy novella, available for anyone to read for free.

I know a few folks have been talking via Twitter about how they’d be more than happy to purchase a book directly from an author. Here’s one opportunity from a frank storyteller.

Winners of Leslie Parrish Pseudonym Giveaway

Thanks to Leslie Parrish, whose real name, as I revealed in the contest announcement is Bestselling Powerhouseauthor Withfabulousshoes (or, “Bes”), we have teh winnahs of our ARC giveaway. The following three entries were picked as winners - hooray! Shirin Dubbin’s Martha Goose Saint-Helsing Author of the Tumbling After series, the trying tales of zombie-resurrectionist and private investigators Jack and Jill as they battle dominant vampire [read bloodsucking top] Humpty Dumpty – climaxing ever closer to exposing Nursery Rhymes for the bottom-feeders they are and riding them straight to hell. Buy all three pulse-pounding volumes: La Petite Mort In The Cathedral, The Agnostic and the Ecstasy and, the triumphant finale, Requiem For An Orgasm Tina C’s Mary-Katherine O’Conavent writes mysteries set in an all-girls’ Catholic school in South Boston. The series follows former police detective Maggie Malone, who, after seeing too much on the hard streets, hung up her shield and took her vows. Sister Margaret (as she is now known) now teaches PE at Saint Agnes Catholic High School and, due to her previous experience and contacts, solves any crimes that place on campus. Surprisingly for a school full of nuns and teen-aged girls, the high school has an incredibly high crime rate as evidenced by the 10 books in the series. Leslie says this last one wins the final spot in the winner’s circle because “I really want to read about the Schlamazal Tycoon’s very nice cousin from New Jersey. I think it has Harlequin Presents written all the hell over it!” Anony Miss’ Shprintze Christianson’s series on love, religious identity, bagels in a manger and travels through ancient Arabia, “Ayatolla Once, Ayatolla Twice, Put That Veil Away,” its sequel “The Shlamazal Tycoon’s Very Nice Cousin from New Jersey,” and the thrilling conclusion, “Shmaltz.” (cover caption - He liked her chicken soup, but would the oily broth be enough to loosen the shackles of love?) Sarah asks: shackles, or shekels?! HA! So, folks, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with your mailing address (please put in subject line “Parrish Prize Winner”), and ARCs will be on their way to you. Happy reading and thanks for playing.

Links! It’s like we’re on the internet, you know?

Few things could be more awesome than a site called Garden Rant. No, no, I’m wrong.

This entry on Garden Rant is so full of turgid, erect win, I have to go lie down for awhile. Flaccidly.

[Thanks to Jane Moore for the link.]

Thanks to Scrin for this bit of penalty: flag on the play. 10 yard penalty, massive spanking to babynames.com for offering crap advice on naming characters:

Tip 3: Exotic names are for romance novels, soap operas and strippers

Romance novels and soap operas and strippers all have one thing in common—they evoke a fantasy of romance and/or sex. Characters in these genres tend to have names that are more exotic, like Chesapeake Divine or Rod Remington. If you are not writing a romance or soap opera, however, this kind of name can sound silly and out of place.

Well, crap. I just finished a romance novel and the hero’s name was… Ben. Oh, and here’s one. No, his name is Harry.

Screw you, Babynames.com. Says Scrin, “I have to say, you’ve corrupted me. I now get angry when I see a slight towards romance novels.”

And finally, here, have a massive suckage of your free time if you like words and word usage as much as I do - but don’t blame me. Blame Betsy who sent me this link:

http://wordnik.com gives you not just an (out-of-print) dictionary definition, but cites in context, recent tweets (!) and a graph showing common usage over time.

Check out “sarcenet”
http://www.wordnik.com/words/sarcenet
and then “sarsenet”
http://www.wordnik.com/words/sarsenet

and note the different contexts and uses.

Yeah, see you in about 4 or 5 hours.