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

I just checked the stat counter, and we have crossed the big 10k - anyone got me a screenshot of 10,000? Bring it on!

E.D’trix had the correct answers for today’s Personal Ad Contest: Princess Olympia St. Leger of Seize the Fire by Laura Kinsale. All hail E.D’trix! She rocketh our world and deserveth the tasty bon-bons, but alas all we have is this spurious Photoshopped prize.

Kneel, E.D’trix, and receive your title (and new Russian name):

Go forth and do your title proud!

Candy and I are agog with the knowledge that we are a few hundred hits away from 10,000 visitors - a huge figure for a site that is just about 4 months old.

So! We have decided to launch a small contest, because we are Smart Bitches, after all!

The first person to send or a screencapture of the StatCounter at the bottom of the page registering you as the 10,000th visitor will win a $10 Amazon.Com gift certificate, and a chance to be a Guest Bitch reviewer.

Yes, that’s right, you’ll have almost enough to purchase your own romantic fiction novel (can you believe some of the prices these days?! It’s like gasoline, only with explicit sex!) AND you’ll get to review a romance of your choosing as a Guest Bitch reviewer. So start hitting reload like the obsessive-compulsive creatures we know you are. Good luck!

I can’t believe I forgot to mention this when Candy and I were writing about it earlier, but I have a definite theory about why paranormals are so very hot and the market is almost oversaturated, as white raven said, especially in the vampire romance department.

I think this stems from the hyper awareness we carry now of terrorism, and how, unlike in prior wars where we knew who the enemy was (Germans! Russians! Japanese! Canadians! No, wait, not Canada - sorry), we don’t know who the enemy is, and we can’t place them in one convenient location. Terrorists don’t walk up to you and say, ‘Hi! I’m a terrorist and I hate your capitalist agenda. Pull this string on my jacket, would you?” Terrorists are among us and we have no idea who or where they are, and it’s really freaking scary.

Now I could be feeling this more acutely because I live near and work in Manhattan, and it’s generally something I’m aware of, but I think it’s somewhat a national trend- and the reason paranormals are popular right now, along with monster stories and creepy crawly mysteries in general, is that it’s comforting to visit a world where the enemy is very, very easy to spot, and at the end of the story, the obvious evil is vanquished or neutralized. I think paranormals and monsters specifically are attractive as fantasy-relief for readers because supernatural evil is a sort of uber-evil - about the only thing MORE scary than wondering if any of the people on the train with you today are terrorists, and dude, it’s 70 degrees, what’s up with the heavy down jacket? Seeing fangs or claws or watching them molt into a hairy thing at the full moon is a big clue: yo. Dude is baaad news.

Being able to identify and vanquish an evil that is so powerful it’s not even human, or, better yet, to tame and accept that supremely powerful and scary creature with the Healing Power of Luuuuv (tm) is enticing, and helps assuage the fears that a good number of people might carry around. Psychologically, we know we can’t return to a time where terrorism was something that happened somewhere else, but if we look at alternate universes, somehow the uber-scary isn’t so scary anymore when compared with present day life. 

As with the previous two contests: Guess the character’s name, the title of the novel and the author in the comments, and the first person to get everything right will be bestowed with a unique, hand-crafted, guaranteed sweatshop-free title. Smart Bitches, Inc. is a Fair Trade-certified organization. (OK, that last bit is a lie. But we would be, if we actually sold anything. Or were actually, y’know, incorporated.)

FORGET TINA TURNER: WE DO NEED ANOTHER A HERO

Shy princess of small European principality seeks noble, courageous, well-decorated military hero for assistance in progressive nation-building exercise. Must be ready to weather adversity, up to and including imprisonment, shipwreck and rebellion. Fondness for zaftig white girls a plus. PTSD OK.