Archive for April, 2007
 Honestly Mrs Graves (I noted you’re not an ex wife ;) ) I wasn’t sure if this novel would work for me or not. You see, I’m one of the few Americans who has never watched an episode of “Desperate Housewives.” Yes, yes, I know it’s hard to believe but it’s true. Anyway, I read the blurb and wondered if I would enjoy a book about desperate Rich housewives and wanna-be housewives. Answer? Yes, I did even if I was tired of all the brand name dropping by the end.
Colina Linda is a place where it’s all about being seen in the “right” places with the “right” people doing the “right” things. Money is generally everything everywhere else but here it will only get you so far. True it will make up for a lot of faults but either you’re in or you’re nothing. Lally Chandler-Clemente is definitely in. As the newest wife of multi-billionaire David Clemente, she’s the Queen of Colina Linda society and she’s just back from her three month long, globe trotting honeymoon. Lally’s already known from her days as a Bond girl and star of a few …
Fictionwise uses a rebate system whereby you are given back dollars for purchases which you can then use for future purchases. Each Monday they offer three books with a 100% micropay rebate, meaning if you buy the book, you get the entire amount back to be used on a book in the future. I guess it is like a buy 1, get the second of equal or lesser value free. Or 2 books for the price of one. Whatever way you spin it, it’s my favorite deal at Fictionwise and today it is offering two coveted ebooks for “free.”
 
Ironically, these are both Penguin groups and long time readers of the blog know that I am fairly critical of Penguin’s ebook efforts. In any event, to the next 3 individuals who fill out a RITA Reader ballot, I will give away one e-copy of Amanda Quick’s The River Knows and two e-copies of JR Ward’s Lover Revealed.
 The April 23, 2007, issue of Time magazine contained an article on buzz marketing. Proctor & Gamble signed up 500,000 mothers to evangelize P&G products. P&G sends those women marketing materials and coupons but the volunteers can say anything they want, even negative things, about the products. Recent research has indicated that most people, however, will keep their negative opinions to themselves.
Dorchester Publishing is trying something similar by giving away a number of Advanced Copies of New York Times Bestelling author, Marjorie Liu’s July release, Soul Song. Dorchester will decide who gets the ARCs but there are no restrictions on what you can say about the book. Ms. Lui says:
If you are chosen to participate in the buzz campaign, please post a review on a) Amazon, BN.com, Powell’s and/or any online bookstore of your choice; b) write up a review on your blog; or c) let folks on the message boards know what you think of the book! Please don’t feel obligated to post a good review if you don’t like SOUL SONG.
You have to fill out …
At the Center of the Storm is George J Tenet’s way ofstriking out against the Bush Administration’s war on Iraq. The book is released today by Harper Collins. Problematically, Tenet’s stance is taken at a time that it is politically convenient for him but not for the soldiers who have lost their lives since the start of the Iraq war, 3350 at last count Tenet claims that his statement “slam dunk” comment was not only taken out of context, but that nothing he said would have deterred the war.
“George, how confident are you?” asked the president.
“Don’t worry, it’s a slam-dunk,” Tenet said.
In his book, Tenet acknowledges that the intelligence regarding Iraq’s weapons programs were wrong but points the finger of blame on Cheney and Pentagon officials. All books by a CIA employee have to be approved by the CIA Publications Review Board. I suppose because Tenet is trying to shift the blame from the ineptness of the intelligence that the CIA gathered to the Bush Administration, this book passed without much of a murmur.
Tenet was a 2004 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freeom. Tenet was reportedly …
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 Lisa Marie Rice was one of the first ebook authors that I recall garnering a large internet following. Her Midnight series– Midnight Man, Midnight Run, Midnight Angel are some of the most often recommended Ellora’s Cave books. She is often compared to Linda Howard in terms of blending action with sensuality and her strong male characterizations have garnered her the dubious accusation of actually being a man. She’s not a man, just a good writer who’s able to convey a realistic alpha male. In August, Ms. Rice will make her NY publishing debut with an Avon Red book, Dangerous Lover.
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Is English a native language or is it your second language? If so, does that make it challenging to write for US Readers?
Oh English is definitely my mother tongue, even though I've lived abroad almost all my life. I've been …
 I received an email this week from a reader who wanted to buy an ebook reader. She wasn’t very familiar with ebooks other than the epublished ones and didn’t know at all about DRM (digital rights management). She wasn’t aware that when you bought a Sony Reader, the books you bought for the Sony Reader would be forever tied to the Reader. Essentially this is like buying a house and filling it with furniture. When you decided to a buy a new house, you weren’t allowed to take the furniture with you. The furniture can only be used in the old house. Sure, you legitimately bought it, but the furniture makers have to make money so it is incumbent upon you to buy new.
The laws (DMCA) make it so that if you make a special key to get into the old house to get that furniture over to your new house, you would be a criminal. Crazy? Yes. Unfair to consumers? Yes. Even Steve Jobs thinks so. In February, he wrote an open letter to the music industry advocating the elimination of DRM. The digital music industry is like the digital book industry. In the …
Dear Mrs. Mueller,
 Once again you deliver the goods. A hot story, well told in under 40 pages (on my IPAQ). I’m still trying to find out information about this battle which Kybele took part in which resulted in her capture and eventual sale to our hero, Orestes, in Greece. So far Thessius is only coming up as a person’s name and in information about the latest Star Wars movies. Somehow, that’s not what you seem to be writing about. And was Rome already fighting outside Italy in 483 BC? Oh well, if I had a dude like Orestes save me from slavery, I think I’d be jumping his ass and sticking around the family homestead for years too, waiting to make him mine. B for this one.
~Jayne
Dear Ms. Linden,
 A while back, Jane reviewed your second novel, What a Gentleman Wants, and gave it a B. After enjoying your debut, What a Woman Needs (a B- for me), I thought I'd give your second book a try. I wish I liked it as much as Jane did, but for me, What a Gentleman Wants wasn't quite as enjoyable as your debut.
The first scene in What a Gentleman Wants introduces twin brothers David and Marcus Reece. Marcus is the Duke of Exeter, while David is merely his heir and scapegrace, ne'er do well brother. When Marcus catches David with a married woman, he sends him to Brighton. It's on his way there that David has a carriage accident in the Hamlet of Middleborough. Because he can't be moved, Hannah Preston, the vicar's widow, takes him into her cottage until his recovery.
During his convalescence, David realizes what an admirable woman Hannah is, hardworking and responsible. Although she is not a member of the nobility, he realizes she is a better person than he, and decides that …
 I never was interested in werewolves until I read Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. Her evocative tale of a girl lost suffering the worst betrayal at the hands of her lover but ultimately growing strong enough to take back her life and accept the beast within her was seductive and I became part of her web ever since. Armstrong was one of the first authors I remember who gave away free content. Her backstories of Jeremy, Clay, and Elena fed me during the lean months between books. Her latest release, No Humans Involved, is a return to a high point in her writing with the long awaited story of Jamie and Jeremy who tell us that old ghosts have to be laid to rest before one can live in peace and that desirability is ageless; as is the discovery of one’s power as a woman.
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I've been writing since childhood, but only started “getting seriousâ€? in my twenties. That's when I began taking courses, joining writing groups, reading books on the craft…and working on pieces longer than novellas. During that time, I wrote …
Dear Ms. Lynne:
 Fellow blogger Karen Scott emailed me yesterday and said I should go and buy Ben’s Wildflower. I obediently went and bought it. About 10 pages in, I emailed Ms. Scott back and asked her if I had done something to offend her because I thought she and I were pals.
Katie Crawford is a tiny woman who is working her ranch alone after the death of her parents. She’s at the end of her rope but won’t sell. Her neighbor brings by a friend, Ben Thomas, to see the ranch. Kate refuses Thomas’ offer to sell the ranch but easily capitulates when Thomas offers to buy only half. Kate is a shy woman. She had a terrible experience as a teen at the hands of the bank owner’s son and has stayed away from town ever since. Ben falls in love with Kate immediately but believes that his love can only be an emotional connection rather than a physical one because of bad experience in his youth.
Ben’s Wildflower is a bad book. I don’t know that I can say that any nicer. As with so …
The Baltimore Sun had an article criticizing the selling of books online at ABE and Amazon by the not for profit organization, Book Thing. Under the name, Boards & Wraps, Russell Wattenberg has over 4,000 titles listed for sale online. These are books that Wattenberg receives in the form of donations. Many books are given every weekend, but the cream are being sold.
Booksellers would like Wattenberg to disclose how much profit he is making and where those dollars go in regards to operating Book Thing. Wattenberg is not the only recipient of book donations that sells the best books. Friends of the Library groups do this regularly.
On the one hand, if the money is going to run the charity, it makes sense to skim the cream. On the other, if all the best books are being given away, the people getting the donations aren’t getting to read the best books, or at least the popular ones. I do think that Wattenberg should be more up front with where the dollars are going. People who donate …
The Children of Hurin, a Tolkien book published posthumously, popped in at No. 2 with Rhonda Byrne’s , The Secret, remaining at the number 1 spot. Jodi Picoult’s book, Nineteen Minutes, about school violence reappeared on the list at No. 19. Romances did not appear in any great numbers with romantic suspense being the big winners. Old standards such as Johanna Lindsey still sell well, capitalizing on a huge and loyal fanbase.
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Captive of My Desires (Malory Family), Johanna Lindsey, Pocket, $7.99, No. 7 (paperback release debut).
Hot Stuff, Janet Evanovich, Leanne Banks, St. Martin’s Paperbacks, $7.99, No. 11 (Peak 4) This week, the volume sold 23,344 units.
McKettrick’s Heart, Linda Lael Miller (HQN), $7.99, No. 30 (Peak 5).
Second Sight, Amanda Quick (Jove), $7.99, No. 31 (Peak 11).
The MacGregors: Daniel & Ian, Nora Roberts (Silhouette Special Releases), $7.99, No. 41 (Peak 16).
Prior Bad Acts, Tami Hoag (Bantam), $7.99, No. 47 (Peak 8).
The Perils of Pursuing a Prince, Julia London, Pocket Star, $6.99, No. 50 (debut 50).
Fear No Evil: A Novel, Allison …
Dear Mrs Carsen,
 Thanks for sending us a copy of your ebook “Not Quite Dead.” I think it’s the first time I’ve read a book featuring this particular type of paranormal hero and to be honest, I’m still trying to name him. Is he a zombie? Or should we just settle on the term “undead?”
He’s gorgeous, he’s got great manners, he’s got a mission to accomplish. The only drawback? He’s been dead for a hundred years.
This one starts out with great humor and eerie suspense as we watch the cynical heroine, Sabine watching her flaky cousin Lily and Lily’s goth friends trying to raise the dead. Then to everyone’s surprise, including Lily and Co, it works. And what’s even more surprising is that in addition to raising a dead guy, there’s also a vampire involved in the goings-on in the old Louisiana cemetary.
The humor continues as Sabine tries to maintain her poise and manners while dealing with an undead man who’s invaded her house – which used to be his house 120 years ago, as he tries to figure out how he’s going to get his revenge on the people who killed him. At …
Dear Ms. Burton:
 When you sent me this book to review, you said that your plan was to eventually convince me of your writing genius. I thought to myself, this is one foolish chick because previous reviews have shown that my taste and your books don’t always run in synchronicity, but your devious plan is working because I liked Wild, Wicked and Wanton. While I had problems with each novella, overall this is a great beach read.
The reader, though, will want to sit under an umbrella because the heat generated from this book may cause a stroke. On the Miami beaches, they have beach boys that run around with tanning lotions and spritzers around their waist. A reader will want one of these guys with the spritzer and a tall glass of Long Island Ice tea else she’ll expire before the end.
Wild. Abby is the shy divorcee whose previous spouse had bedroom issues which he projected onto Abby. She’s getting her life back together, finishing vet school and wondering about her future when her two bosses call her in on her last day of internship. …
Booksales are up but bookstore sales are down. Perhaps the difference can be explained by Amazon who reported a profit of $111 million for quarter ending March 31 with sales up 32% from a year ago.
I remember when reports said that Amazon book sales only account for 5% of the book market. I wonder what it is now.
Despite fears of a dwindling readership, February book sales were up. Ebooks had the strongest gains, rising 44.7% with sales of 2.5 million. Adult hardcovers followed close behind with sales of $111.9m and Children/YA hardcovers rose 43.4% with sales of $37.4 million. I read a great young adult book yesterday by Melissa Marr, Wicked Lovely. It’s sure to add to those numbers in June.
Religious books (and I am not sure if this includes inspirationals) also rose $31.8% to 39.5m. Paperbacks increased only slightly with young adult paperbacks increasing 5.7% (34.1m) and adult paperbacks were up 3.2% (97.6 m)
Losers in the February retail measurement included audiobooks (0.5%) and professional/scholarly books (7.3%).
Via Shelf Awareness.
Dear Mrs. Gregory,
 Having read and loved “The Other Boleyn Girl,” I hurried out and bought “The Queen’s Fool” when it was first released three years ago. Then….life happened and despite the fact that it sat on a table right in front of me for that long, it’s taken me until now to pick it up and start reading it. And despite the fact that I had to take my cat to the vet and then my car died on me today and I had to spend a few hours getting towed, borrowing another car, then driving out to pick mine up when (thank God) it only turned out to be a minor problem, I managed to get all 500 pages of it read in only two days. I was glued to it. I devoured it. I once again wondered why I have only read two of your many books. I must remedy that.
A young woman caught in the rivalry between Queen Mary and her half sister, Elizabeth, must find her true destiny amid treason, poisonous rivalries, loss of faith, and unrequited love.
It is winter, 1553. Pursued by the Inquisition, Hannah
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Dear Ms. Chase,
 Your books have provided me with hours of happy reading over the years. I rejoiced when you began writing the Carsington series and for the most part have enjoyed them all. Not Quite A Lady will easily take its place beside them but the grade will Not Quite be up to Lord Perfect.
Lady Charlotte Hayward has made a career out of not getting married. Which isn’t as easy as it might first appear. She’s the cherished only daughter of a wealthy Marquess, she’s beautiful, charming, friendly, nice to those to whom it’s hard to be nice, good natured and if she’s headed towards the ripe old age of 27, her good points still outweigh this. As a matter of fact, it takes a lot of work for Lady Charlotte to not get caught at not getting married. After all, it’s what the daughters of the ton do. Her doting father is baffled but determined his daughter should know wedded happiness. What he doesn’t know, and what Charlotte and her youthful stepmama have taken great pains to ensure he doesn’t know, is the real reason why …
 Authors have been able to blog on Amazon and the results were then fed to your personalized blog which Amazon called a Plog. The problem is, apparently, that few posts ever made it to the reader’s Plog.
Amazon has now eliminated the blog and implemented Amazon Daily. Amazon Daily is available to all visitors, not just those who are signed in as customers. The user gets to personalize the page rather than Amazon choosing what content gets sent to you.
One feature that they have added is “Advanced Copy” which is a category for amazon bloggers to highlight upcoming books.
This is all part of Amazon’s attempt to be responsive to the growing Web 2.0 movement. You can read your Amazon Daily page through an RSS feed.
I was never a big user of the Plog, but probably because it was virtually useless. Further, I haven’t really seen much on the Amazon Blogs by Authors or Amazon that interests me.
Reader Azure noted in the forum that the entire Black Dagger Brotherhood series is now in ebook format. After doing some searching, here are the locations, prices and formats.
- Diesel Ebooks, $6.99 (MS Lit, Palm, Adobe)
- Ebooks.com, $6.99 (Adobe, Mobi and MS Lit)
- EReader, $6.29 (ereader format only, sometimes known as Palm)
- Fictionwise, $5.94 Club Price (MS Reader, Palm)
- Mobipocket, $6.99 (Mobi only)
 This book is more expensive than the previous three books.
 Bob Mayer, the male half of the writing team of Crusie and Mayer, wrote in an interview with All About Romance about the difference between a male writing and a female writing male characters. In Don’t Look Down, the hero, JT, is faced with a naked starlett and does, according to Mayer, what any unattached male would do, and has sex with her. Mayer writes that a female author would have had JT walk away from the starlett but that JT, as Mayer has written him, represents the true male POV.
Other authors want to inject more realism in books. Barb Ferrer commented at the Smart Bitches that she is not writing wish fufillment. Eva Gale remarked that men, reading the thread about whether a man could have sex with someone other than the female lead in a romance book, would be “laughing their collective asses off.”
My response was that just because it was “real” doesn’t mean that it was a justification for putting in sex scenes outside of the hero / heroine connection. My argument at the time was that there are many realistic male elements that never …
Dear Ms. Schwab:
 I remember when The Lily Brand was release in 2005 and many were shocked by its dark tones. I had to read it because it sounded different and back a few years ago, we weren’t really getting the variety that we have today. Like many dark books, in The Lily Brand once the redemption of the heroine occurred, the story began to lose some forward motion but I still anxiously awaited the next book because your voice was so interesting.
Unfortunately nothing came out and I confess to having forgotten about you until I received an email wondering if I would read Castle of the Wolf. Castle of the Wolf was written in a completely different tone than your previous effort. It still had dark overtones, but those were more gothic than horror in nature.
Celia is a 27 year old spinster who lived with her father, brother and brother’s wife. When her father dies, Celia’s sister in law becomes lady of the manor. Dorinda quickly makes it clear she views Celia as an …
 ;Sybil is doing some innovative Guest Author Days this month and next featuring Jennifer Estep next Monday and Kelley Armstrong the following day. Today, she’s hosting Claire Cross, author of All or Nothing, whose book I thought was touching and romantic. You might mosey over there and comment. She’s giving away 6 Claire Cross books.
Publisher’s Weekly reported that The Penguin Group, publisher of books by Nora Roberts, Jayne Ann Krentz, JR Ward, Nalini Singh and Meljean Brook, has finally created a digital director position and named someone to (wo)man it. Genevieve Shore is now the global digital director for Penguin worldwide. She reports to CEO John Makinson and is said to “dentify and facilitate new initiatives, partnerships and innovations around the business.”
She’s based out of London, having formerly beeing group sales director for Penguin in the UK. Ms. Shore, I’ve got some ideas for you. Like releasing the first three books to JR Ward’s BlackDagger Brotherhood series instead of the 3d book or releasing the new releases when the releases are still new and not months old like Nora Roberts’ Angel Falls. Let’s hope that Penguin’s digital program, starting with their sadly out of date ebook site, gets a facelift.
Scholastic CEO, Richard Robinson, was interviewed by NYTimes and hinted that there would be future Rowling books. When questioned about the future of Scholastic without Potter, Robinson replied “We can believe this is the last book on Harry Potter.” In following up on that the Times asked whether Scholastic had first option on any other series. Robinson answered that Scholastic is loyal to Rowling and she to them and that it is “less likely we won’t get it [future book]. It’s more likley it won’t be another Harry Potter.”
It would be interesting to see what Rowling can come up with after Harry Potter. It’s a big lighting bolt to fill but if anyone can do it, surely it’s the creator herself.
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Sandra Schwab first came to my attention with her provocative first book, The Lily Brand. It was a dark, unconventional romance that shocked many romances readers. Castle of the Wolf is her second novel, published several years later. Ms. Schwab is a native of Germany. You would never know, from the elegance of her writing, that english is her second language. Sandra Schwab is a great example of how universal the world of romance can be. Castle of the Wolf is due out early May.
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Do you have modify the language in the books to exclude colloquialisms from your native tongue or perhaps change the language entirely?
Modify the language? Only slightly. *lol* Given that I'm a German author writing for the US market, I necessarily have to write in a second language. This can be a bit of a challenge at times and sometimes makes for rather …
Angie W, Executive Editor of Samhain Publishing, brought a new ebookstore to our attention last week: All Romance Ebooks. All Romance Ebooks or “ARe” opened its doors on November 1, 2006, and while it took a while to get my attention I appreciate it didn’t go around and spam comment on all of our blogs like another ebook company did a couple of months ago.
This ecommerce site offers ebooks from all the major electronic publishers except for Ellora’s Cave. I started with its FAQ section and its suprisingly complete, even bringing up issues I hadn’t thought of such as whether they are selling our personal information to any third party (NO) or whether the “tell a friend” section is a way for them to harvest more emails (another NO). Here’s why I love this idea. As a consumer, I like to go to one place to buy all my books, particularly ebooks. I cannot remember all of the ebook publishers out there and bringing all the epublished romance books together in one location makes for easy browsing and even easier purchasing.
Publishers who …
Dear Ms. Kenner:
I started becoming a Julie Kenner fan with the The Givenchy Code whose title was not only a clever play on the blockbuster, The Da Vinci Code, but also a creative take on the chick lit oeuvre: a heroine who loved shoes and code breaking. In The Prada Paradox, the last in the “Play Survive Win” trilogy, we have a heroine who loves to shop but lacks some skills in the code breaking area.
Devi Taylor is movie star trying to make a comeback by playing Mel in the big screen adaption of Mel’s real life trauma told in The Givenchy Code. The “Play Survive Win” game was an online Role Playing Game where players were assigned to be the Assassin, the Target, or the Protector. In order to “win”, you either lived or killed in the game depending on your role.
The problem is that Taylor’s love interest on screen used to be her love interest off the screen until a Letterman appearance gone bad. Blake Atwood is a new leading man in Hollywood, thanks to Devi. He does her …
 Go vote for the DearAuthor May Bookclub selection. The Ja(y)nes will picked a number of books and everyone who is registered at the forum can vote. The Bookclub selection will receive a review from Jayne and a video review from Jane. Click HERE to see the nominations and HERE to vote.
We choose to require registration to avoid drive by voting.
 I’ve got a hardcover copy of this book to giveaway to a random commenter. You just need to post the best bad date/bad prom night story in your memory banks. The comments will close on Sunday, April 22.
My worst date was in college. I hadn’t much dating experience. My parents were strict and my social circle was small. I was a bit overweight, quite mousy and spent most of my time with my books. By the time I got to college, I may have had a dozen dates under my belt. I fully intended to throw myself head first into the dating pool which we all know is very dangerous.
It was early fall and I owned a pair of white jeans. Yep, white. We all now know where this is going, right? I had a spill. I went to the bathroom and tried to scrub said spill out only when you add water to spills and then adding scrubbing, it only ends in a larger, MUCH larger stain. Luckily I had a cardigan which I …
The Atlanta Journal Constitution has terminated the position of Books editor, Teresa Weaver. The Constitution says that in the future, it will use freelance writers. However, a publicist for Little, Brown based out of Atlanta believes that this is the sign of the book section being eliminated by the paper like so many other print sources before them.
 The Annual Cover Contest is now open for voting. Voting closes on May 11, 2007, so it will behoove those interested to go over and vote now.
You’ll have to forgive me, but I didn’t realize that it was Friday until about three minutes ago. My nose has been in a book since yesterday and I have been reading it non stop. I think my Thursday and Friday melded together in my mind. Essentially, this could be sub titled, Jane’s An Ass, Part the Third, But She Can Blame It on a Book.
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 But here’s the First Sale Story of Jaci Burton. I’ve been a bit hard on Ms. Burton in my reviews but she still comes around. She wrote me an email telling me I should read her May release, Wild, Wicked, & Wanton, because she’s convinced that I am going to fall in love with her writing, someday. Happily (as all romance stories should end happily), I did enjoy Wild, Wicked, & Wanton and would recommend it to someone looking for a hot (you should read it with lots of ice on hand) contemporary romance.
Jaci Burton’s official bio is that she is an award …
Dear Mrs Lovelace,
 I’ve read and heard on numerous occasions that there is at least a 50% divorce rate for Special Forces marriages. Which is why I’ve always looked at these SEAL, Green Beret, Delta force, Whatever romances with a degree of skepticism. And when an author tries to get a whole squad married off, well I just don’t buy it anymore. Thank you for showing the reality of a marriage partner who is gone for weeks and months on end.
Forced to leave her beloved military life behind at the ripe old age of thirty-seven, USAF Colonel Andrea (Andi) Armstrong comes to the Florida panhandle for a fresh start. Little did she knowâ€â€Âat least until that auspicious knock on her next-door neighbor’s doorâ€â€Âthat there were some things about her old life she wasn’t quite finished with yet.
And evidently, if the expression on his love-struck face was any indication, her ex-husband, Colonel Dave Armstrongâ€â€Âaka said next-door neighborâ€â€Âwasn’t quite finished with her yet either. Hmm. Who was it who said the best is yet to come? Maybe there was something to that after all….
Your twenty three year career in the Air Force has always shown in …
Dear Ms. Dean:
 I thought the premise of your story was quite fun. An average girl decides to pen a self help book on how to pick up guys, provocatively titled “The Average Girl’s Guide to Getting Laid.” In the process, she gains self confidence and a man to die for. Overall, the story is a good one but hampered by some convenient and tiresome plot devices.
Ellie is a travel writer who pitched a sex book on a dare. The book is supposed to be about “empowering women, meeting their needs, and helping them get what they want from men.” Of course, Ellie doesn’t know anything about that. She’s like a virgin sex therapist. Only not a virgin, but inexperienced and unconfident. Basically no one is less qualified to write this book than Ellie which makes me wonder why the publisher even bought it. Okay, employing the old Suspension of Disbelief.
Her agent loved the idea and sold it. Now Ellie has to deliver. She moves to New York for a month to “research” her book. She’s very much the rube in the big city at first, …
Dear Mrs Frankel,
 This has to be every woman’s nightmare. The details have been haggled over for months, the $$$ dress has been bought, guests are gathered, the shrimp is marinating, the ice sculpture is being chiseled into shape and the groom is a &^%$#@ no show. And if the wedding is costing her parents a fortune, they have to be out for blood as well. After reading your book “I Take This Man,” I think prospective grooms will know better than to try this with a Jersey girl.
Here comes the bride . . . there goes the groom.
Penny Bracket waited two years to marry dream man Bram Shiraz. Then on the morning of the Big Day, while she’s trying on her veil, Penny receives the worst two-line letter of her life: “Penny, I can’t go through with it. Sorry, Bram.”
Penny’s hurt and upset. But Esther, Penny’s divorced mom, wants Bram’s head on a platter. So Mom ambushes the cold-footed coward before he hot-foots it out of town, bonks him on the head with a champagne bottle, and spirits him away to a hidden room in her gargantuan mansion in Short Hares,
…
I could virtually copy and paste last week’s list, there are so few changes this week. Rhonda Byrne’s unshakeable book, The Secret, remains at the number 1 spot. Remaining true to the age old thereom that art is better recognized when the artist dies, Kurt Vonnegut appears on the list at No. 34 with Slaughterhouse-Five and No. 102 with A Man Without a Country.
The April titles, other than a couple from Avon and the Keri Arthur, didn’t preform very well.
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Hot Stuff, Janet Evanovich, Leanne Banks, St. Martin’s Paperbacks, $7.99, No. 8 (Peak 4) This week, the volume sold 23,344 units.
McKettrick’s Heart, Linda Lael Miller (HQN), $7.99, No. 19 (Peak 5).
Second Sight, Amanda Quick (Jove), $7.99, No. 22 (Peak 11).
The MacGregors: Daniel & Ian, Nora Roberts (Silhouette Special Releases), $7.99, No. 32 (Peak 16).
Prior Bad Acts, Tami Hoag (Bantam), $7.99, No. 37 (Peak 8).
The Last of the Red-Hot Vampires, Katie Macalister, Signet, $7.99, No. 41 (Peak 41).
Shiver, Lisa Jackson (Zebra), $7.99, No. 47 (Peak 9).
Fear No Evil: A Novel, Allison Brennan (Ballantine), $6.99, No. 48 (Peak …
Dear Ms. Piñeiro:
 Blood Calls is Book 6 in the Calling series. This vampire novel raises some interesting philosophical questions such immortality being weighed against the continual loss of loved ones; the sexual fetish of S&M due to psychological ties to torture; being the object of affection by another man; and infidelity. The problem is that these issues are brought up but never discussed and allowed to dangle or disappear altogether. The book had a dreamy narrative but its plot had fits and starts that made the book struggle with coherency.
During the Inquisition, Diego Rivera’s wife testified that he was lapsed and turned him over to the church. During a respite of Inquisition torture, a plain servant girl, Esperanza, snuck in to care for him and brought to him an artist that Diego once sponsored. The artist offered Diego immortality and Diego took it. He transforms his life into a patron of the arts and marries Esperanza after turning her.
After 500 years, Diego finds himself alone after Esperanza died. His loyal retainer is also refusing the bite that …
Dear Mrs. Beverley,
 At last, Rothgar’s story. I think that you did a good job considering the fact that you’d built Beowulf Malloren, the Marquess of Rothgar into an almost superhuman figure over the course of the other four books in this series. He needed a strong woman to balance him and he got it in the person of Diana Westmount, Countess of Arradale.
I do admit to loving Diana in Secrets of the Night. Especially when she manages to best Rothgar not once, but many times over the course of that book. Something that not many men could claim to have done. And I enjoyed the fact that that is what Rothgar freely admits first caught his notice about her. Her strength and courage. She both grows and slightly falters in their book though. The growth comes from her association with Rothgar and seeing the halls and places of power in London. She has exercised power in her own sphere as a peeress in her own right (a rare and, for most men of the time, unsettling creature) but it is not until she sees the glitter and intrigue at court that she both fully comes …
 Publisher’s Weekly reports that the London Book Fair is ripe with gossip about the Amazon Reader. It is reported that Amazon is to release the reader this spring, dependent on content. Amazon Reader will likely run Mobipocket which Amazon purchased a few years ago.
Publishers have already been looking at it for months. Malle Vallik from Harlequin probably reads her ebooks on it.I admit that my jealousy is manifesting itself in an ugly way here, but doesn’t that make you hate these publishers, just a little? The buzz is that the functionality is better and that the cost is to be above $400. The pricing is a bit of downer.
I hope that the design of the Amazon Reader has improved because current pictures show a terrible looking device. I am not sure that I would give up the Sony Reader for it even if there was more functionality. I admit to being vain too. What? Like I’m the only one? Please. How many people own IPODs when there are many other mp3 devices that are less expensive and have more harddrive space? I …
 Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston purchased the rights to The Time Traveler’s Wife when they were still married. After the divorce, the rights went to Brad Pitt’s Plan B company. Production for the movie will start in August with Eric Bana playing Henry and Rachel McAdams, Clare. Robert Schwentke will direct. Jeremy Leven and Bruce Joel Rubin adapted the novel for the screen.
Via IGN
Dear Ms. Hart,
 Elle Kavanagh wears only black and white. She counts things — not just money at her prestigious accounting job, but also stars, marbles, ceiling tiles. She buys her boss’s wife candy to assuage her guilt for sleeping with him years before. She has been celibate for three years, but before that, anonymous sex was a staple of her life. Elle is the heroine of your book, Dirty, and while I didn’t like everything about her, I liked reading about her very much.
It’s at the candy store that Elle meets Dan, an attorney. He gives her a taste of black licorice and a longing for more. She goes to a bar with him and brings him back to her place, but he says a polite goodbye and leaves without even trying to kiss her. Weeks pass, and Elle can’t stop thinking about him. Then she sees him again and things get sexual. Elle expects nothing more, but Dan convinces her to see him again. She has a policy of not dating, so instead of dating, Dan makes appointments with her.
Elle …
 Prom Nights from Hell is a thoroughly entertaining collection of stories from five of the top teen writers in the business. The fresh and fully realized worlds will engage the entire spectrum of readers from tween to adult. While not all of the stories are self contained as some appear to be introductions to future series, there is enough to satisfy. What makes the anthology really shine is the variety of riffs on the same theme: prom night gone bad. Every author tells a unique and different tale from various points of view. Even the guys aren’t left out. Overall, this is one of the best anthologies I’v read of late and would rate the book a B+.
***
Dear Ms. Cabot:
You open the anthology with The Exterminator’s Daughter. Mary is not your normal high school student. She’s a vampire killer’s daughter. Mary’s mother was The Exterminator of all kinds of otherworldly bad guys until, well, the bad guys got her. Mary is determined to take vengeance starting with killing Sebastian Drake, a descendant of Dracula. Besides being a vampire and all around bad guy, Sebastian has …
Melanie Lynn Hauser, author of Confessions of Super Mom andSuper Mom Saves the World, has put her first book, an unpublished work, online. It’s available for free and can give readers a taste of what Hauser’s writing is like. Which, of course, is the whole point of free fiction. If I recall correctly, our blog friend, Tara Marie, enjoyed Hauser’s book, Super Mom Saves the World.
You have to give her your email address in exchange for the book, but I think that is probably a fair trade. We should probably have a free book page as a reader resource! I think what is great about Howard Hendrix’s rant is that it is moving people to offer up more free works.
Via Galley Cat
American Technology Analyst Shaw Wu believes that there are signs which indicate Apple is considering a rebate in the range of $50-$150 to help subsidize the cost of the IPhone. According to the report, AT&T expects to make approximately $1800-$2400 bi annually on an Apple IPhone customer with a 2 year agreement and a cell and data plan around $75-$100 per month fee.
Via Apple Insider.
It seems pretty innocuous but to those in the business, doing a little photoshop editing of a journalism photo is pretty egregious. Allan Detrich, formerly of the Toledo Blade, was found to have photoshopped prints submitted for publication. Most of the editing was done to remove backgrounds according to Detrich.
Two Pulitzer Prizes are awarded to photojournalism, Breaking News and Feature Photography. I’m having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around why this is such a bad thing but I get the point from those in the know that it is.
 No Humans Involved is the latest entry in Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld Series. Jaime Vegas, necromancer, confronts her past while trying to literally put some ghosts to rest. Armstrong brings a new twist to the necromancer mythology by making Vargas one of the weaker paranormal creatures. She can’t cast spells, she doesn’t have super human speed or strength. But she begins to realize that power over the dead can be just as fearsome. Romance fans will be delighted with the inclusion of a quiet but meaningful romance between Jaime and Alpha Pack leader Jeremy who has been an important part of the series since its inception with Bitten. Jane (Hardcover, May 1, 2007)
Sandra Schwab brings back the gothic with May’s release of Castle of the Wolf. This Beauty and the Beast retelling is set in the Black Forest. Fenris, the eldest son of the Graf von Wolfenbach, lives in a castle that heroine, Cissy, inherited. …
 That is the theory proposed by Howard V. Hendrix, current vice president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Hendrix believes that offering up full length novels for free will dilute the value of a book for the short term gain of promotion.
My concern is that, in the long term, as more and more people become schooled to reading off the screen rather than from the printed page, free online whole-book posting may set a precedent of “why buy the cow, when you can get the milk for free?” which in the end will benefit conglomerates rather than authors as a class.
Hendrix is a self proclaimed Luddite and the Internet generation only creates fear and distrust in Hendrix.
I think the ongoing and increasing sublimation of the private space of consciousness into public netspace is profoundly pernicious.
Hendrix is not the only author to feel that way. Samantha Hunter wondered on Writeminded whether the connection to the readers via the Internet is dragging her down and that by giving away books its dilutes the value. She contemplates that there is a certain cache to be inaccessible.
Sometimes I've wondered
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Honestly Mrs Graves (I noted you’re not an ex wife ;) ) I wasn’t sure if this novel would work for me or not. You see, I’m one of the few Americans who has never watched an episode of “Desperate Housewives.” Yes, yes, I know it’s hard to believe but it’s true. Anyway, I read the blurb and wondered if I would enjoy a book about desperate Rich housewives and wanna-be housewives. Answer? Yes, I did even if I was tired of all the brand name dropping by the end.
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