Behold, the winners, after careful consideration, much giggling, and a great deal of snorting, of the What a Scoundrel Wants giveaway. Well done with the poetry, y’all. Carrie Lofty and I had a nearly identical list of favorites.
The winners are:
Sarah F’s “Robin! Robin! Burning bright.”
Because I’ve said at least three times, with varying degrees of volume and inflection, “What the hand dare seize the cock!”
Tina C’s “A Really Bad Poem.”
Because you had me and my abdominal muscles at “Fad dad glad mad schmad. Oh, hell, schmad isn’t even a word!” It is now!
Eve for “Will Scarlet and the Merry Men.”
Because she’s right, I did dream of Christian Slater, AND I bought the PUmp Up The Volume DVD after I finished the book. It’s my favorite Slater vehicle - and aren’t blogs the 21st century version of pirate radio anyway? Yarrrr!
Mzspell’s “Execrable” poem.
Because dude. Burma Sauce? Word.
and Inez Kelly’s “Hodded wooded men of class.”
Because “so dashing, so daring, so damned well-hung?” Full of turgid win.
Honorable mention to Kathy for a haiku tribute to my review - well done, ma’am! And to RebyJ for rhyming “tater” and “Slater.” Oh hell, yeah.
Thank you very much to the spiffy folks at Kensington for the five copies of What a Scoundrel Wants, and congratulations to the winners.
Roxanne St. Claire and her publisher, Pocket Books, are giving away a free novella, the very first in the series to feature a female Bulletcatcher.
Originally part of the holiday anthology I’ll Be Home for Christmas, the story is now online for free download as one big honking PDF that is free, cheezy bread, free. According to the author, it stands alone, doesn’t require any familiarity with the series in order to read it, and is a great opportunity to sample the Bulletcatcher series.
My Kindle says, “Nom nom nom. Delicioso!”
Dear Author and Smart Bitches are teaming up to offer an item for the Jo Leigh auction to benefit author Jo Leigh, whose husband died of cancer on 13 June 2008 (coincidentally SB Sarah’s birthday) three years after they married, and whose medical bills are astronomical. Authors, editors, and bloggers have all donated a mess of items, from books to critiques to mentoring sessions.
Our contribution is a Winter Survival Kit, including a grab bag of 25 new Romance novels, both paper and audio, plus a $30 gift certificate to Fictionwise and a $30 gift certificate to Amazon.com. The link isn’t up yet but it will be soon.
But the total list of available items is astonishing, and we’re humbly pleased to be part of a stunning expression of generosity on the part of the romance community. Bid early, bid often.
Breaking news from GalleyCat: iPhone app Stanza has partnered with Fictionwise to create one hellabig ebook access point for all the iPhone ebook fans out there:
The deal brings 40,000 new titles to the Stanza e-reader for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The “Stanza by Fictionwise” store will be accessible through the Stanza app on the iPhone and iPodTouch, creating an entirely new need for me to download Stanza and give it a test drive. Until now I’ve been happy with BookShelf, but this is a whole new ballgame of options.
Kudos to Fictionwise and Stanza-creator Lexcycle for pulling that off.
Here’s some lunchtime reading for you, should your day be at that point where you’re hungry and looking for things to read and ponder whilst you munch: The Atlantic has a fascinating article by Caitlin Flanagan about the allure and, dare I say, sparkle of Twilight for adolescent girls. Flanagan gets a few things spot-on, in my opinion, most notably the secret world of adolescent girls and the walking, shifting maelstrom of ambivalence that is your average pubescent female barely balanced between childhood and adulthood, and how the novel allows readers to access that time in their lives, regardless of age. I mentioned in my review that reading the book reminded me of my angsty teenage self.
While I didn’t continue past book 1, I watched many people around me gulp all four volumes in as few days as possible, downing the novels in a drive so intense I’m surprised they didn’t leave flaming tire tracks behind them as they revisited that teenage angsty wasteland themselves. And while I still have bone-deep problems and a not-insignificant level of discomfort with the degree to which Bella subsumed her identity into Edward’s - she herself wanting to be ‘gulped down’ literally and figuratively - I find myself pondering the article, because perhaps Flanagan has identified part of the element that makes these books so very, very gulpable - and it’s not gullibility on the part of the reader. It’s a vulnerability to teenage emotional time travel.
[Thanks to Holly Watson and Barb Ferrer for the link.]
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.
I feel for you, sister! Not Enough Time is something we all deal with. Lots of great advice here.
Two years ago I had a newborn and a 3-year-old at home with me full time. I didn’t get…
Time to write is made and taken. Truer words have never been spoken.
That said, I’d pose this question to the advise-seeker...do you think that published writers all stay home and write all day, with no other responsibilities?…
Books like that always make me realize that while the response of 99.99999% of people who hear about it will be WHAT THE FUCK??? there will be that 0.00001% for whom it’s the book they were waiting for all their…
From An Enema, A Birthday Spanking, A Love Story by J G Knox
There are not enough acronyms or emoticons or LOLcats in the world to convey my utter bogglement that this piece of excrement (liquid alternating with solid) was a) written and b) published.
Ha! position11. I wasn’t really sure…
From An Enema, A Birthday Spanking, A Love Story by J G Knox
Yum! Jason Lewis! Nice casting.
I second that one.
I still need to read the book. It’s on my shelf.
