Jan 7 2009
Midweek Links of Interest
- Freedom to Tinker provides 2009 predictions which include netbook/larger iPhone at $899; civil lawsuits over violation of terms of service based on Lori Drew case; Obama administration prosecutions for large scale bittorrent abusers.
- Alpha Heroes wonders what is up with the animal-like genetalia. Rhev (the hero in JR Ward’s next book) is a sympath whose penis has a “barb” (google wolves and barb kids). This isn’t the first barb in romance. You can that NYTimes bestselling author Lora Leigh. (Thanks Bec).
- Oprah Winfrey makes a notation on her website about the fabricated Holocaust Memoir and she’s the target of what Ars Technica calls patent trolls, individuals who file for patents for the purpose of bringing lawsuits instead of actually producing something.
- Galley Cat gives a brief history of ads in books. I’m not a fan of that route of monetization.
- Mills & Boon is hooking up with Rugby Football Union to produce Rugby related romance books. Bring some sports to us in the States, Harlequin!! Now I propose we suggest our own favorite titles: BOUGHT: The Revengeful Rugby Tycoon’s Virgin Princess Bride’s Secret Baby. Top that, I dare you. (Thanks Ann).
- Facebook reaches 160 million users. Do you interface with facebook?
- Not to send Nora Robert’s blood pressure through the roof, but Christian author Neale Donald Walsch got caught plagiarising someone, admitted it when caught, and now his fans are all outraged that he’s being accused of doing something wrong because the original content creator, Candy Chand, “might even be flattered by an author of your stature finding in her work such quality that it moved him to breed further life into it.” ha ha ha ha ha.
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Jan 07, 2009 @ 19:52:38
“Oprah Winfrey makes a notation on her website about the “…
what?
::headdesk:: on the Walsch thing. Seriously.
“No, I don’t think Chand should be offended at all. Isn’t that what the cosmic consciousness is all about? Minds and thoughts merging, even if it is a true story for one person, are we betting the odds that it could not have happened to thousands”
Is this the latest excuse for plagiarists? Cosmic convergence? Jeez.
Jan 07, 2009 @ 20:51:26
Neale Donald Walsch ???
**blinks**
And who is he that he’s supposedly so famous that it’s okay for him to do???
Geezus Jenny…and the ‘cosmic convergencer’ must be high. Really high…
*sigh*
Jan 07, 2009 @ 20:56:19
Jeez, guess some of his Christian fans haven’t memorized the 10 Commandments. Check it out Walsch fans: Number 8 Thou Shalt Not Steal.
Jan 07, 2009 @ 21:11:04
I don’t know about Nora Roberts’ blood pressure (maybe she hasn’t seen it yet), but MINE went through the roof when I read this latest plagiarism event. I think readers have to take this kind of thing VERY seriously, because a culture of acceptance starts with us. I know from teaching college students that it takes a prevailing cultural attitude that plagiarism is just plain wrong. If you don’t have that, you’ve got nothing.
Jan 07, 2009 @ 21:15:50
sorry for the incoherence there. I ran upstairs to put my girl to bed and published it before finishing.
Jan 07, 2009 @ 23:26:11
LOL’d at that link, especially at the “orgasmic cock syrup†quote. hahaha .
If the story can stand up to the sex scenes being skipped over I don’t mind the oddities. They’re good for a laugh if they aren’t too bad. I have stopped reading a few that were way to psuedo beastiality to finish.
As if men needed to be portrayed more like animals, just watch one stretch , fart and scratch in the mornings if you want to see the animalistic side of man!
Jan 08, 2009 @ 03:50:15
HQ has done so: their Nascar line–which I find rather interesting considering the NFL and the NBA receive more media attention. Does H/S’s market match Nascar demographics?
Jan 08, 2009 @ 05:31:50
I do! It’s the best way to keep in contact with all of the people I went to HS with, and since I was the class prez and in charge of all the reunions, it’s a real help. And it’s much better than paying for classmates.com.
Jan 08, 2009 @ 07:10:03
Well done that heroine!
If she’d cost Ireland three points, I’d be miffed.
Jan 08, 2009 @ 07:51:16
As someone who has bred dogs, I wonder if the tie only lasted the normal 5 to 30 minutes or if the larger than life canine hero ended up stuck to the heroine for hours at a time.
Jan 08, 2009 @ 08:53:34
The NFL and NBA might receive more media attention, but NASCAR brings in far more in the way of revenue than either of those. Plus, with their drivers so much more accessible than either the NFL or NBA, fantasies and as an offshoot, (all the errors in the books aside) romances about the drivers, owners and crews were the next logical step.
Jan 08, 2009 @ 08:57:29
@theo: I’ve thought it was because, in part, the NFL and NBA is predominantly black and Nascar is predominantly white. NFL is the highest grossing sport in the world, I believe, and it’s probably way costly for any publisher to get a deal with it, but I’ve often wondered at the lack of diversity amongst the heroes in sports stories.
Jan 08, 2009 @ 09:26:44
@Jane,
The DH works for a team owner. The largest track stands for NASCAR hold over 170,000+ spectators and even with the economy, those seats are still filled. In 2007, NASCAR brought in over 3 billion in revenue. They have the most accessible ‘players’ in sports, giving their fans a total of three days out of every week of racing, the opportunity to take pictures, get autographs, talk with their favorite drivers, the chance to visit the pits, see the cars first hand, ride the track with a driver…neither the NFL or NBA offer such ease of access.
The lack of diversity, I agree with. Though there are more blacks coming through the NHRA, both in cars and on bikes, there are teams in NASCAR making the attempt as well. Unlike the NFL or NBA though, where you have a team to carry you if you’re not performing to your ability or are injured, in NASCAR, it’s rare to have another driver who can take your place. Ultimately, the team wins or loses on your ability alone. In a sport which one can play anywhere, such as football or basketball, the opportunity to begin at an early age is much more prevalent than having your family involved in auto racing at an early age.
Most of the drivers are ones whose family has been in a car, on a track, for more than one generation. The kids have been in a car of some sort since they were seven or eight. Football and Basketball allow someone whose family has never had an athlete an entirely different opportunity. And each one, be it driver or player is judged on their own merits! But what inner-city youth has the opportunity to drive in sanctioned events at ten years of age? But they can pick up a ball at that age and over the years, hone their skills to perfection.
When you get down to the bottom line, it’s really apples to oranges I suppose. But with all the perks NASCAR offers their fans that other sports don’t, is it any wonder, really?
Jan 08, 2009 @ 09:47:34
@theo it’s true that neither the nba or the nfl offer the same fan immersion experience as Nascar but the NFL is the worldwide leader in sports revenue bringing in more than 6Billion in revenues so it’s not entirely correct to say that Nascar brings in more than the NFL (not sure about the NBA). I’m wondering how NASCAR will do in this increasingly green economy.
Jan 08, 2009 @ 10:17:49
@Jane,
Does that figure include soccer? The NASCAR figure is US only. Formula One, Indy Car, NHRA all carry their own unique totals. I don’t know about the football though, that’s why I’m asking. (can you tell I don’t pay attention to football? ;-) )
As far as the green economy is concerned, that I can’t answer though I can speculate. Americans like to ‘go fast’. The government and nay-sayers shoved a green economy at us in the late 60′s early 70′s and American cried boo-hoo when the muscle car era passed (I did too! I miss my Cuda though the Chevelle is good) but the auto companies eventually delivered again. And they found a way to do it using no lead, emission controlled vehicles. With a few minor changes, one can power a COT on ethynol just as easily as what they run on now. They won’t make those changes however, until they’re forced to, but they’ll survive, and thrive. Big Three support has surged and waned with their own highs and lows, but they eventually come back, they will now too.
And before someone else says something, I live in Michigan. We have over 125,000 foreclosures in my county alone right now. It’s the worst we’ve had, but not the first. And it won’t be the last. Just have to have a little faith…
Jan 08, 2009 @ 17:45:28
Having now read: ‘The Prince’s Waitress Wife’ – there’s not a great deal of rugby in it. Though, hey, at least it gets the ‘hooker’ joke in. (‘Why’d they call a player after a prostitute?’)
I’ve never been to Twickenham, but I’m not sure that they’d show foreign royalty snogging on the screens during a drop goal attempt – and frankly, even if they had, I think the Captain should be more focused on the match…
Apart from that, I haven’t read a M&B for ages, and I think I need to get acclimatised again. (Major spoilers) She’s a little repressed, a virgin, he’s secretly infertile. She meets him, instantly has sex with him – cos on a table in a box during a major sporting event – that would make anyone lose their inhibitions – and, of course, falls pregnant. He knows the baby can’t be his, so she must be a gold-digging slut, but marries her anyway, because it’ll make his subjects so happy…
Not so much of the rugby.
Jan 08, 2009 @ 20:19:12
I’d just thought I’d point out that Neale Donald Walsch is not a Christian author. You couldn’t find his books in a standard Christian bookstore, because Walsch is a New Age author who claims to be hearing from God. My local independent bookstore has a Christian section, but Walsch’s tomes are shelved in the “Spirituality” section.
Jan 08, 2009 @ 23:00:34
Maybe that will be his defense “God told me to steal it.” I liked the twinkie defense better. This man should be ashamed of himself, calling himself a writer and passing off other people’s work as his own. I wonder if he’s done it before and just not been caught until now.
Jan 09, 2009 @ 10:11:39
As I said on Karen’s blog-
I think it’s absolute crap. He stole it, thinking the original article was long enough ago in a small enough publication that no one would notice.
And as for fans of his saying the real author should be flattered? Absolute crap. Should she be “flattered” if someone were to break into her house and steal her computer, television, stereo? No! This is as much her property as those things, and it’s not flattering for someone to steal it.
And now my blood pressure is high enough for both me and Nora Roberts.
Jan 09, 2009 @ 17:22:53
Football (soccer) is the biggest sport on the planet, played by every nation in the world, including the USA. The World Cup is the most expensive and highest-rated event in the world, outside the Olympics (not sure which is first). The basics are easy to pick up, which makes it great for romance.
I wrote a book with a British footballer as hero (“A Griffin’s Treasure,” no longer available). I won an Eppie with it, and people write to me frequently, asking me when I’m going to write his brother’s story (soon!) So I think the game can do well in romance. Some of the players are really gorgeous, and most of the Italian national team work for Armani as models for outerwear and underwear.
The biggest league is currently the English Premiership – that’s where all footballers want to work. Top players swap teams for millions – I think the most expensive one just went for something like 40 million pounds.
I loved Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s stories about the Chicago Stars, and I know nothing about American football. So why not a series with heroes in another sport? Although I tend to dislike the ones about Formula One, because in real life the drivers are a bit of the short side (so they can fit in the cars). As long as it’s the background to the story, not the main focus.
Jan 10, 2009 @ 08:30:38
Lynne, thanks! :)
The only exposure I’ve ever had to soccer (my girls never played, one did softball and the other figure skated) is watching Game of Their Lives and Victory (yes, I know, Stallone, but the movie was good!).
As to the stature of drivers, they’re all on the shorter side, no matter the auto sport. Well, except Michael Waltrip who is over 6′ and who they use a shoehorn to get in his car…
I have to say, though NASCAR pays the bills, I don’t read those. Too many little mistakes in the first one I tried and I refuse to read a book where I’m grinding my teeth through the whole thing.
Jan 10, 2009 @ 09:00:27
Soccer is something played on a local park on a Sunday morning by men who will go to the pub afterwards.
Football is a tough game, whether played by men or women, one they play without padding, apart from a box and shin pads, and one that features, or used to, players with names like Norman “Bite Your Legs” Hunter and Vinny Jones, who never really needed a nickname after the infamous photograph. I think the “soccer Mom” thing is one of the things that holds the game back in the States.
Try this Youtube film of my team winning one of the biggest prizes in the sport to see a tiny bit of what I’m talking about:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YP2I-hbpq_c
Notice this was headlines and it wasn’t a slow news day.
Jan 10, 2009 @ 09:59:37
Infamous photograph? Sounds intriguing!
I’m not entirely sure why soccer seems to lose steam with the kids once they’re in oh…6th or 7th grade, but it does.
I’ve yet to see a soccer game look like that. Then again, all I’ve seen are kids playing. Other than what one sees in the movies, of course. And you call it football, yes? Yours, I think I could watch and enjoy. :) A big part of the reason I don’t like our ‘football’ (except the UofM/Michigan State game)is because the two minutes on the clock can take ten minutes or more to play.
The only other sport here that I’m interested in is hockey and they don’t write romances with that as a theme either.
I take it rugby is totally different from your football?
And I know, I’m hijacking this thread now, sorry, Jane.
Jan 10, 2009 @ 11:54:45
Get ready to wince.
http://tinyurl.com/7866d8
I tried to get into American football, but all that stopping and starting got on my nerves. There seemed to be no flow to the game. Football runs for two 45 minute periods, with a 20 minute break in between, and there is rarely more than 4 minutes “stoppage time” (for injuries usually) added on at the end. There’s a rhythm to the game, an ebb and flow.
I like ice hockey. Wasn’t there a Deirdre Martin series about that?
Very. More like American football without the stoppages and all that padding. This is what it looks like:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tM-c8GeI1Vc
Jan 10, 2009 @ 16:16:34
OWW! Man, THAT one hurt!! lol
Then again, maybe it was the old saying; desperate times…
*snort*
No, I wouldn’t like the Rugby at all. Like I said, there’s only ever one American football game I’m half interested in. The rest of them, boring…and your rugby is too close from what I can see.
I don’t know about Martin having a hockey based series. I don’t remember that at all. Then again, I’m old and don’t have much of a memory anymore anyway ;-)
Thanks for all the info! I really did learn a lot today :-)
Jan 14, 2009 @ 16:21:04
I talked about Leigh right after Rehv!
Thanks for the link, glad some of you enjoyed the post.
Dec 03, 2010 @ 23:58:24
racing is the first thing in my heart and i also love to join auto racing for the adrenalin rush ;’~