Courtesy of The Biochemist.
Of course, after being appropriately horrified about the poor guy's death, we both wondered: what do you do with the chocolate now? It can't be used to make hot chocolate, since it is presumably "contaminated" for use in food preparation of any sort.
And now I need a dress? How dressy is this event?
And also, due to RWA (#RWA09) (and because I've now been nagged by TB, BFF and C), I've signed up for Twitter. Not really sure what to do with it, really. I heard it likened to a cocktail party, which is unfortunate, because I hate cocktail parties (except for the booze) and the small talk. Guess I'll figure it out.
Must also figure out which authors/books I'm going to purchase for the literacy event. K.A. Mitchell and Ann Aguirre definitely. Others I'd like, but am not sure I want to stand in what I'm sure will be hella lines. (La Nora signing my worn first print run/edition of Naked in Death, frex.)
Also:
Dear MTA --
You suck humongous donkey balls. The 6:17 train left the station on time this morning; it usually reaches Union Station by 7:12. Today, it was 10:08 before we hit DC. The communication was pathetic, and what little information was communicated to passengers was outright WRONG. First it was this, then it was that, then it would only take another 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, then 45 more. Whatever.
All this despite copious promises to improve communication and the fact that stimulous money is (in theory) being devoted to upgrading the system. Ridership is up 35%. It's a shame your performance seems to be down correspondingly.
No love,
jmc
Okay, here's a quick and dirty SBD: ebook mislabeling. I've complained before, as have countless others, about mislabeling a book as romance in order to sell to an audience that is avid and willing to shell out bucks. But it pisses us romance readers off to buy a book labeled as romance only to have it not be genre romance.
So yesterday I was checking out the offerings over at Fictionwise and stumbled across an anthology labeled "erotica". The excerpt didn't strke me as particularly erotic, but the stories in the anthologies were written by authors of m/m romance. And m/m romance seems to be labeled as erotica even if it isn't particularly hot. [I dunno, is it the mere fact that the sex in the book isn't het that earns that label? But that's another post. Or dissertation.] Anyway, I bought this book and downloaded it; having read three of the four stories, I can say that this book is neither erotica nor romance, gay or straight. If the protagonists were women, I would call it women's fiction. So is this men's fiction? Lad lit?
I'm not sure what it is, only what it isn't. Of the three stories I've read, only one comes anywhere close to being genre romance -- the heroes meet during the course of the story, fall in love, and say The Words at the end. It fails as a romance only because the relationship is not the focus of the story; outside events are -- even the relationship arises from those outside events. The other two stories happen to have a couple of sex scenes in them, but they are primarily about coping with the sudden advent of children into previously child-free lives. Even though the relationships were also previously child-free, the arrival of the children (via death and abandonment) and its effect on the relationship itself is never addressed.
The stories are actually rather sweet. But romance they were not. And erotica they were not. Clearly, whoever labeled them as erotica was going based on the authors' backlists rather than the actual content of the book.
Which is just half-assed, IMO.
Of course, what should I expect from a company that labels Laurell K. Hamilton's Skin Trade (which I believe is self-indulgent crap masquerading as porn and horror) as romance. WTH? By what definition is the boink-fest that is Anita Blake a romance of any sort? Gah.
It's enough to make me distrust almost any labels. Especially since I can't return an ebook if I get half way through and realize that it isn't the romance I was promised.
PS: Everytime I use my Smart Bitch icon, and look at the title, a scene from the 1995 version of Persuasion plays in my head. "A viscountess. She is a viscountess!" So says Miss Elliott.
I registered for RWA today. Waited almost till the the last minute, wibbling about whether it was the right conference to attend as a reader rather than writer or aspiring author.
Need to look at the schedule and figure out my plans.
Any RWA attendees want to meet up?
ETA: iPhone, please to stop "fixing" my typos. I really meant RWA, not TEA.Posted via LiveJournal.app.
Dear Andy Roddick,
I've never been a huge fan of your game: mostly because of its dependence on your HUGE first serve and lack of variety. Plus you remind me of Stiffler in the American Pie movies. But I have been impressed by your effort this season, when you seem to have decided to go all in.
And now the final at Wimbledon against Federer, who has more or less wiped the court with you in earlier W finals.
Congratulations on not folding when he had you at break point 5-5, and for going on to break him to win 7-5.
I hope you can win two more sets, and your first Wimbledon. Even if you can't, you'll have changed at least one casual tennis fan's opinion.
ETA: What a match! Tied in the 5th set, 12 games all! Andy's serve hasn't been broken yet through the match, with Federer's sets coming via tie break.Posted via LiveJournal.app.
( Photo under the cut )
So I checked with The Biochemist, purveyor of all things FOB. Nope, didn't happen in her copy of the video, which was downloaded from iTunes. Huh. I dl'd the whole album, including the video, from iTunes too. Why the difference? Who put it in and why? Are there different versions of the video on the album vs. other sources? [Turns out that it was intentional, according to Wikipedia.]
The numbers are up a little -- 18 books or novellas. Three of those were re-reads and two were DNF. The best new read was Frank Tuttle's Dead Man's Rain. Most of the other reading was fairly average; not bad, but not necessarily keepers.
1. Crash Into Me by Jill Sorenson. Contemporary romantic suspense. C-. Agree with a lot of Jane's review. Secondary romance (YA) carried the book. Had big, big problem with Sonny's lies/deception/manipulation through out the book. And getting caught in bed with the prime suspect by her boss had no repercussions? Whatever. My ability to suspend disbelief goes only so far.
2. Fair Game by Jasmine Haynes. Contemporary. C-. Bored by the games and the sex, which seemed more about control than pleasure or relationship building. Thought the heroine made a crappy manager of people, even if she was good at being a project leader. In the end, didn't believe in HEA or even HFN
3. Deadly Dreams by Victor J. Banis. Gay mystery. B-. Mentioned here.
4. Silent Blade by Ilona Andrews. Fantasy, ebook. C+. Felt like this wanted more space. Ages/timing didn't seem to add up right. A lotof telling rather than showing (ruthless assasin? ruthless businessman?).
5. Chasing Smoke by K.A. Mitchell. M/m romantic suspense. C+/B-. Relationship stuff was good; the mystery was...not up to snuff.
6. The Madness of Lord Ian McKenzie by Jennifer Ashley. European historical. C+. Liked the relationship part, and dealing with Ian's disability (Aspbergers?). The family series bait? Blech. The mystery/suspense portion was dull. And the revelation about the inspector was predictable.
7. The Cubicle Next Door by Siri L. Mitchell. Inspirational chick lit. Re-read. B. Upon re-reading, liked this book a little less; thought the heroine needed major therapy. But still liked her. Hero was a little too good to be true, but still hot/sweet. Fairytaleish.
8. Angel's Blood by Nalini Singh. Paranormal. C. Interesting concept. Didn't work for me though, felt like the kick-ass heroine was overshadowed and wasted on an uber-alpha hero (and I mean uber-alpha in a not flattering way).
10. Deception by Sharon Cullen. Contemporary, ebook. Free give away, which makes the DNF less painful. "Hero" lied to heroine about who he was, was fundamentally dishonest with her, left without a word, and then returned to endanger her. NOT romantic. Loser.
11. Adder by Ally Blue. Contemporary m/m romance. C-. The conflict between the heroes felt forced and over the top. Bleh.
12. Dead Man's Rain by Frank Tuttle. Fantasy. B+. Another free Kindle giveaway from Samhain. A very nice little short story; I would be interested in reading more from this author, more set in this world.
13. Sunshine by Robin McKinley. Urban fantasy. Re-read. B+. Love this book...except the ending, which feels unfinished. I understand that McKinley has no plans to write a sequel, which is her prerogative, of course. I do wish, however, that if this was going to be the only book with Rae as protagonist that she had managed to tell the whole story, rather than leave what feels like two or three more scenes off.
14. Somebody Killed His Editor by Josh Lanyon. Gay mystery. B. Pretty abrupt ending. Haven't decided what I think entirely. Told that narrator put career above relationship, not really shown it. Ostrich-like, which makes him a little hard to find sympathetic.
15. Str8te Boys by Evangeline Anderson. M/m romance. D. I like Anderson's The Assignment. The only other thing I've read by Anderson is an anthology that did not really work for me. This ebook...was not very good IMO. Gaping plot holes, little character development.
16. Naked in Death by J.D. Robb. Futuristic romantic suspense. A. Re-read.
17. Snowball in Hell by Josh Lanyon. Gay mystery. B. Clearly gay mystery rather than m/m romance; relationship defined by constraints of the era. Mystery itself felt predictable and a little hurried.
18. Be With Me by Maya Banks. Contemporary erotic romantic suspense. DNF. Picked up a copy of this based on the nomination in the DABWAHA tournament. Didn't believe in suspense or the relationship building. Abandoned half way through.
One of the front page stories on the Washington Post online described the whole Sanford debacle as not the ordinary sex scandal, but being instead a Shakespearean love story. As if comparing the real life embarrassment that this man caused to his family to the classic story of Romeo and Juliet, Heloise and Abelard, Antony and Cleopatra makes the entire situation any less tawdry.
Also, yay for Al Franken and Minnesota!
And lastly: I get that Michael Jackson is a cultural icon and touchstone for millions, but JFC, there's more going on in the world than his family soap opera. Hello, coup in Honduras; continuing developments in Iran wrt the election; the pull-back of US combat forces from cities and the turn over of "control" to Iraqi authorities; etc.
Dear DC: you are made of win.
Dear Colleagues: there is a distinction between an order vacating a judgment (in its entirety) and an order affirming judgment and remanding for clarification the calculation of the money award. Pls to be learning this before you attempt to lecture me on civil procedure again. Kthx?
I fail at social networking via Facebook. Must log in (haven't in almost a month) and update it. But who are some of the people who have friended me? Some names are familiar but others just...aren't.
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
My new favorite word, courtesy of Dictionary.com's word of the day: quidnunc. Meaning one who wants to know everything, or who pretends to, or busybody or gossip. Sounds like it could be neutral or pejorative. I just like the sound of it, especially the second syllable and the sound of the last two consonants. Qwid-nunk. Now I need to work it into a sentence.
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
Also in the chat was a lot of mourning for Farrah Fawcett. One chatter mentioned being worried about Patrick Swayze, since bad things come in threes (Farrah, Ed McMahon, and ?). But instead it was the passing of Michael Jackson that surprised
The title of this review (In Plain Sight: A Cougar Falls Story) first made me think of the TV show, then of a potential romance novel with the older woman-younger man theme. Not so much.
Also, the pistachio and almond crisps by True North? Addictive. Worse than potato chips.
And the house next door has been sold after spending 9 months on the market. I've heard people coming and going but not met them yet. I hope they are good neighbors. Of course, at this point, a good neighbor in that house would consist of someone who 1) didn't have parties every weekend that lasted until 4am and 2) didn't piss off their back deck into my flower pots (yes, really).
Checking my spam folder, I found a bunch of emails about christian dating sites. WTH? How did they get directed to me? I am a heathen and I'm happy that way. And with them, a form solicitation from Human Rights Campaign. The HRC email sandwiched by the christian dating ones...just made me laugh.
I used what little brain power I had left this evening to finish up (not very satisfactorily, tbh) a post on ebook pricing for Readers Gab. There's nothing left for SBD, which is a shame. Maybe next week?
Unrelated: Wimbledon began today, but I cannot muster much enthusiasm because the prohibitive favorite is Roger Federer. Nadal is out with tendonitis; Andy Murray is probably going to choke on the expectations of millions of Britons; Djokovic has been head casey since his heart-breaking loss to Nadal in Madrid (maybe the best match I've seen all year). The others? Eh. What's my problem with Federer? Well, I can appreciate the genius of his tennis, but something about his personality just rubs me wrong: he comes across as smug and snobbish. Is he so in real life? I have no idea, that's just the vibe I get. And frankly, the omnipresent monogram, gold man purse and this year's Wimbledon kit are not serving to diminish this impression but to reinforce it. I get that he is the GOAT according to conventional wisdom, but Nike is doing him a disservice with that get up. The jacket? The vest? [He's married now; why isn't his wife checking what he wears before he leaves the house? Seriously, just because he's friends with Anna Wintour doesn't mean he won't make fashion mistakes.]
I don't ride the Metro on the stretch of Red Line upon which today's crash occured, at least not during my work commute. But I appreciate the thoughts of the people who called to check on me.
Today I bought an iphone at long last. First apps? Kindle and eReader.
Need a name for it. Suggestions?
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
So, in the Post's "The League" section, today's editorials were in response to the question, Is the NFL ready for an openly gay player?
The homophobia exhibited in more than one of those editorials was frightening. One particular point really pissed me off: the denial of equality to gay men and woman is not a civil rights issue? Why, thank you for redefining the concept of civil rights violations to specifically include only the harm done to black people.
I was thrilled to read that K.A. Mitchell is working on a book for Dr. Jae Sun Kim, a minor character from Collision Course (best "straight" -heh- romance I read last year).
Mitchell's latest book, Chasing Smoke, is #2 on Samhain's best seller list right now. I'm about half way through, but floundering with the mystery portion, which seems a sort of reminiscent of both Scooby Doo (predictable) and a Hollywood blockbuster (predictable in a different way). It's really dragging down the romance/relationship part of the book, which is pretty good.
And after that, I've still got The Clockwork Heart to be read, and Josh Lanyon's new mystery.
The New Yorker profile of LaNora (courtesy of SBTB) was refreshingly not condescending...but nothing new either, really. More interesting to me in that issue was the article on the exhumation of Granadino Republicans murdered by the Falange during the Spanish Civil War, particularly that of Federico Garcia Lorca. It reminds me that I need to find my copy of Ghosts of Spain.
Caught part of the Jays-Phillies game earlier this evening. Ryan Howard, Phillies' 1B, has the longest current active consective games streak - 339. Which reminds me again of the glory days of Cal Ripken and his 2,632 games.
I'm sure the book and the show have nothing in common but a name. It's just weird the free associations that the mind can make, and the leaps in thought.
For the past few Fridays I've seen intimidating Secret Service guys in Union Station at about 3pm, hanging around, scowling at people, wearing Kevlar (tm). I'm guessing that the VP is taking the train to Wilmington when this occurs. Cool for him. Not so cool for commuters, because the 4:35pm MARC is now habitually late in order to accomodate the (higher priority) Amtrak train. Security precautions of some sort?
I'm curious: what kind of "smut" is being read to prevent all those cobwebs? Romance? Erotic romance? Porn? [All distinctly different things, mind you, but often all labeled "smut".]
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