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.
What’s this? You need an excuse to bank your head in that nice head-shaped divot on your desk? We here at SB HQ are happy to assist, as is Zumie, who sent me these excerpts from her creative writing textbook, The College Handbook of Creative Writing by Robert DeMaria.
Excerpt the first, from page 16:
“Male-female relationships have become very complex since the so-called sexual revolution of the 1960s. Nowhere has the loss of tradition and structure in society caused more confusion than in the relationships between men and women. Romeo and Juliet may have had their problems, but they knew exactly where they stood and what was expected of them. Today’s proliferation of paperback romances may be an escapist reaction to the confusion, or even a simplistic way of dealing with the varieties of interpersonal problems. There are also, of course, many worthwhile literary works on the subject, most of them by women who have been writing with greater freedom in an atmosphere of liberation—writers such as Alice Walker and Cynthia Ozick.
Your Quest: Kinsale Poetry about, in tribute to, regarding, or generally celebrating any of Laura Kinsale’s books, characters, etc. You can write it in the voice of one of the characters, or you can write it to one of the characters (though I believe Candy will fight you over more than a few of them). Whatever floats your boat, it’s business poetry time.
Your Poetic Format: Limerick or haiku. The choice is yours. You can enter as many times as you want. Bring it on, bring it often. Just bring it.
Your Judge: Laura Kinsale will judge the entries, and has the following words of encouragement for you poetic masterminds out there: Hints for contestants: My taste in limericks and haiku would probably be similar to Miss Leda’s. I will try not to give hedgehogs an unfair advantage.
Your Time Limit: You have 24 hours to post your poetic awesomeness in the comments.
Your Prize Booty: Thanks to SourceBooks Casablanca, we have a kickass set of prizes to give away.
The grand prize winner will receive a three-book set of the Kinsale books being released from Sourcebooks Casablanca: Midsummer Moon, Seize the Fire, and The Prince of Midnight, signed by Laura Kinsale.
Three honorable mention prizes will also be awarded, and the winners will receive one of the three Sourcebook Kinsale releases, also signed by Laura Kinsale.
So get your poetry on, folks. In order to inspire you, we provide samples.
Ever wanted to read an audio book? (I so do, it’s like a fetish almost. I would love to do voice work. It’s bizarre, how fascinated I am with the whole industry.) Or maybe volunteer your time in an entirely new way? Check out LibriVox, where you can volunteer your time, and your sexy voice, to read audio books of works in the public domain. They have a whole process in place where books are announced, chapters are assigned, and voices are collected - so that folks who prefer audio books or who need them for a variety of reasons can access classic writing from poetry to fiction.
So cool. Just as soon as I find the microphone on my laptop and also find a spare hour or so, I am all over that.
The Smart Bitch Book needs a Smart Bitch Book Videomo*. And who better to make us wet our pants with laughter than the collective brilliance of The Bitchery?
*You’re probably asking yourself, “Self, what the fuck is a videomo?” Well, the answer, Self, is that it’s a pastiche of “video” and “promo.” Why not use the words Book + Trailer? Because “book trailer” is trademarked to Sheila Clover English, CEO of Circle of Seven Productions. So, Videomo it is. Sounds like Tony Romo, only not so much a Dallas Cowboy. And we doubt that any promo videos will date Jessica Simpson, though one never knows.
This is probably one of the bigger contests we’ve run, so get ready for a lot of explanation. The nutshell: you make a promo video about our book, upload it to YouTube and alert us to its presence. We collect all the entries on our channel, and showcase as many of them as possible as part of our Friday Video collections. A panel of Extremely Erudite, Intelligent, and Awesome people will select the winner, and the winner gets a holy shit huge prize package.
What’s a holy shit huge prize package? Behold:
A website that reviews romance novels from a couple of smart bitches who will always give it to you straight. No bullshit. No gushing--unless the author really deserves it.
Salon’s Stephanie Zacharek wrote an interesting, really smart review of the movie.
“The vibe of ‘Twilight’ is one of erotic innocence—which is not to say it’s un-erotic. When I was a little girl and just falling in love…
From Twilight Reviews
If we can get baseball dads reading Austen, certainly getting Joe the Plumber turned on to some m/m can’t be far behind. I heart Colbert too.
I love it. I still have it but can’t remember name or author. Thanks.
Awesome, I actually managed to get one.
Thanks for the link, and kudos to LeeAnn Burke and LBF for giving the proceeds to the ABCF.
From Free EBook Alert!
Free e-book :) And not in kindle edition :D
*gone to read*
From Free EBook Alert!
