Mar 29 2013
Once upon a time, I accidentally read every romance Georgette Heyer ever wrote. My Grandmother had a box of them in her attic – I still remember those yellow-grey dust jackets and the faint smell of damp that rose from the pages – and I was still too young to understand that these were Girl(…)
Jan 17 2012
As more authors bypass traditional publishing to bring their products directly to the consumer, the greater the risk is to the reader that she wastes her money (albeit a low amount of it) and her time (possibly more precious) on a sub standard product. The benefit of a book that is published by an(…)
Dec 27 2011
Although I’m not exactly a devoted reader of John Scalzi’s Whatever blog, a Twitter retweet last week drew my attention to a recent post, in which he announces that readers protesting ebook prices on his “Big Idea” posts will have their comment deleted: Why? Primarily because here at the tail end of 2011, I(…)
Jun 14 2011
Last month, Sunita sent me a link to a book inspired by a schoolteacher in Paris named Daniel Pennac. Pennac had created a readers’ list of rights to encourage young people to read. This list was combined with illustrations by Quentin Blake and then published. The U.S. version has only black and white illustrations, but(…)
Apr 27 2011
Dear Ms. Paris, Around the time we were having the discussion of rape fantasies here at DA, Jane asked for recommendations of books similar to Cara McKenna’s Willing Victim, and your novella, Petals and Thorns, came up on Twitter. Reader MaryK, who hadn’t read it, thought it might fit the bill of what Jane was(…)
Mar 22 2011
(Note: I’m a writer, but for the purposes of this blog post, I’m wearing my “reader” hat.) Given the seeming hatred toward ebooks and library lending and so on and so forth, the profile of an ideal reader for the Big Six appears to be something like this: 1. Buys print (to prevent piracy) 2.(…)
Feb 14 2011
Sarah Wendell and I were invited to give a presentation this week at Tools of Change on the end user experience of ereaders. We want to share your thoughts so please leave a comment on what you think of ereader hardware, software, and the purchasing environment. What you like. What you don’t like. What you(…)
Sep 28 2010
Note: I know this is a bit long, but it’s already a drastically shortened version of this argument. Consent at your own risk. When I first started reading Romance, I was stunned by the genre's apparent comfort with sexual force against female characters and uncomfortable with both the contention that it's pure fantasy and therefore(…)
Sep 7 2010
We have a lovely op ed piece by Janine due for tomorrow so this morning we are going to run a poll instead. I recently read a blurb for a story that featured the heroine working for a tabloid and was trying to write a tell all story. It appeared, by the blurb, that she(…)
Jul 15 2010
The second part of the Reader Roundtables was content. (I really could talk about covers forever but we had to move on). Readers said that they were tired of paranormals and to expand on that, they may not be so much tired of paranormals but rather they want something fresh. One reader commented she wanted(…)
Jul 11 2010
It’s hard to say whether this year’s RomCon reflects what next year’s RomCon will be like because this year was a first. If next year’s RomCon was like this one, I would recommend the conference to readers who want to mingle with a group of A list authors in an informal and fun environment. The(…)
Jun 10 2010
Booksmugglers (one of my favorite blogs) reviewed Daniel Ehrenhaft’s book “Friend Is Not a Verb” and because of a multitude of issues, Ana was not able to grade the book, but the review and following comments are a fascinating and thought-provoking read. That is, to what extent should authors being including provocative elements without addressing(…)
May 25 2010
May 4 2010
see more Lolcats and funny pictures Not too long ago I had a brief exchange on Twitter with Maili in which she stated her belief that Romance is a hero-centric genre. That view seems to reflect Mary Jo Putney's assertion in her Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance(…)
May 2 2010
I had written an entire blog post about RT 2010 and lost 10 paragraphs because of the [insert your own profanity] WordPress blogging app on the iPad. I think my tongue is bloody from biting it to prevent the rage from spilling forth. Probably, though, it was for the best. I will now be ultra(…)
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