Archive for November, 2007
Dear Ms. Culver,
 I’m a big fan of fairy tale retellings. It doesn’t matter how often it gets done. I will never grow tired of them. So when I realized Manderley Prep was a Cinderella retelling, my interest was piqued. But even my love of fairy tales was not enough to make this book an enjoyable read.
After her father’s death, Cindy Ellis is stuck living with a stepmother who treats her like a servant and two stepsisters who make her life miserable. Determined to create a better life for herself courtesy of an Ivy League education, Cindy gets a scholarship to Manderley Prep. It has a good reputation but it’s also home to the type of student body you’d expect to find in a Gossip Girl novel.
It’s not an easy transition. Her sisters also attend Manderley and start ruining her life from day 1. Cindy doesn’t fit in with the snobby student body at all, and she misses her best friends from her old school. Things start looking up when she meets hot Italian transfer student and soccer star Marco, but she has a …
Science Fiction Writers Association came under scrutiny when its e-piracy committee chair, Andrew Burt, undertook to issue thousands of copyright violation notices. When others stepped forward to take Burt to task, the e-piracy committee was disbanded and a new interim committee was formed to determine what would take its place. The new committee, chaired by author John Scalzi, served its recommendations to the SFWA including a strongly worded proclamation that Burt should not be allowed to be part of the new committee.
The SFWA responded by forming a new committee regarding copyright and placing Andrew Burt as the head of it.
Not sure how the “new” committee isn’t the old committee with just a new name. After all, if the charge is the same (dealing with issues of piracy and copyright) and the committee head is the same (Andrew Burt), then isn’t it really just the old committee? i.e., if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, then it is still Andrew Burt’s DMCA takedown happy email box in charge?
Via Boing Boing.
A lawsuit was originally brought and decided in 2001 over the digital reproduction of work by freelance writers. The Supreme Court found in favor of the writers and the publishers began to remove the work from the archives. There remained, however, the issue of damages. A settlement had been agreed to but was voided by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday on the grounds, according to the Times, that the federal copyright law only allows damages to be awarded to those writers who have registered their works with the US Copyright Office. Because the majority of freelancers did not register their works, the court could not adjudicate the claim.
The writers have vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.
This has far reaching implications. If the right of damages, which is the teeth of the Copyright Act, is dependent on registration, then all writers, including bloggers, might need to start registering their works. What a hassle.
Via NYT.
 Kresley Cole is one of my favorite authors because her emphasis is on strong heroines. In both her historical series, the McCarrick Brothers Trilogy, and her paranormals, The Immortal After Dark series, the stories revolve around strong, independent heroines matching wits and sometimes, swords, with the heroes.
I had the opportunity to meet Ms. Cole and it is easy to see her as a modern day Valkyrie. Surely only a warrior woman would engage in a writing plan that she did. Her latest book, Wicked Deeds on a Winters’ Night is out in bookstores now.
* * *
As soon as I’d completed my first manuscript, I enlisted my husband to help me devise a plan to get it published. Since both of us have backgrounds in competitive sports, and that was what we knew best, we decided to attack the process of selling the book as if it were an aggressive training goal. We called our plan the “Rule of 25.”
At any given time, I would have in play 25 ventures toward publication, which I called juggling 25 “balls in the air” (it sounded …
Dear Ms Sinclair,
You really love Star Trek, don’t you? Not that I hold that against you. I love it too, including the original series (TOS) with Kirk where men were men and women were, well, sometimes they were clouds of energy that sucked the very life from you, but at some point they could always kiss back.
Your book really reminds me of TOS. No nice Klingons here. The villains are evil bastards without a hint of redeemable material. The monsters? Screw IDIC, kill them all. (IDIC, for the reader, is a Vulcan ideal, Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, actually mentioned in the book).
And the hero and heroine don’t spend all that much time on introspection. Sure, they’ve both had major problems, especially the heroine, but other than the occasional nightmare she seems to buzz right past them. But then that could be alien psychology, or military psychology, which is at times even more mysterious.
It’s fairly clear from the hint you dropped at the end of the book that the similarities were intentional. …
Dear Ms. Gabriel:
 In the 90s there was a small collection of historical romances that mixed in characters having some magic to them. they were sweet romances and the heroines were almost always of that fey, faerie nature. This book evoked some of that same sweet romance with an otherwordly touch. It’s nicely done but it moved a bit too slow in the beginning. When the story focused on the Scottish folklore relating to the fae and the way in controlled Elspeth’s live, it was at its most compelling. When it relied on romance contrivances such as Elspeth refusing to be married but wanting to be compromised, it was at its weakest point.
Elspeth MacArthur is a highland woman whose grandfather is a famed weaver of tartans. She cannot, for mysterious reasons, fall in love or leave the Highlands. James MacCarran is a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He has a viscountcy and not much else. When his wealthy grandmother passes away, he is hopeful the inheritance will serve to help his family, particularly his sisters, secure their futures. …
I’ve been critical of the Amazon’s intention to spy on its Kindle customers, but it is nice to hear that whatever information it is gathering, it will try to keep it private. An investigation was undertaken by the federal government of Robert B. D’Angelo, culminating in a grand jury indictment against him for not accurately reporting the revenue from the sales of books and other merchandise on Amazon.
The Department of Justice wanted to obtain the customer records originally from 24,000 customers but then narrowed it to 120 individuals who purchased used books via Amazon in the past four years. According to the Order (pdf link), “[t]he government does not suspect Amazon or D'Angelo's customers of any wrongdoing, nor does it consider them victims of D'Angelo.” In June, Judge Stephen Crocker refused to allow the requested access to the customer records. The ruling was unsealed yesterday.
Crocker wrote, in his order, “The subpoena is troubling because it permits the government to peek into the reading habits of specific individuals without their prior knowledge or permission. . . . it is an unsettling and un-American scenario to envision federal agents nosing through the reading …
The representation of romance on the list is sparse this week. The top fifteen is full of non fiction books and male penned mysteries. There are a few Harlequin books that have appeared on the list, a week before their official release date, although those books are readily found in advance at drugstores and other retailers.
Tuesday was a big release date so the list should look differently next week.
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Stars: Hidden Star\Captive Star, Nora Roberts (Silhouette Special Releases), $7.99, No. 15 (debut).
Dakota Home (Dakota Series #2), Debbie Macomber (Mira), $7.99, No. 19 (debut).
The Widow, Carla Neggers (Mira), $7.99, No. 45 (debut). This is the paperback release of the hardcover. I liked the book.
Wife for Hire, Janet Evanovich (Harper), $7.99, No. 51 (Peak 7).
Creation in Death J.D. Robb (Putnam), $25.95, No. 52 (Peak 5).
Christmas Wishes, Debbie Macomber (Mira), $7.99, No. 63 (Peak 11).
An Affair Before Christmas, Eloisa James (Avon), $7.99, No. 65 (Peak 44). I’m surprised she didn’t place higher. I’m pretty sure that Avon move James to a mid month release to …
Dear Ms. Sinclair,
Janine loved a book of yours she read a few months ago and that plus the posts asking us to try and review more RSF books is what got me to try “Down Home Zombie Blues.” Like Jane, I’m still not too sure of the title but as a relative newcomer to the genre, the book itself worked well for me.
Yes, you use lots of Star Trek references but it does give a good, quick visual reference for readers and with a book of this length, there’s not much extra room for long drawn out descriptions. Even though it does come off at times as cheating.
You tell us that Jorrie is a 8 year veteran Guardian who’s also got real life experience as an Interplanetary Marine fighting the major enemies of the state. I love that throughout the story, she remains a focused, battle tested warrior though I did get tired of Theo referring to her as his one woman army. She’s faced the worst that her world can throw at her and remains dedicated to her job. Though she’s willing to jettison some of the gen pro regulations …
Dear Ms. Forrest,
 I don’t think it’s inaccurate to say that there are a lot of vampire series to be found in the paranormal subgenre. While there seems to be growing weariness about their prevalence, vampires have many loyal readers and as long as that continues, vampire books will continue getting published. But I also think that makes it more difficult for a new writer to stand out.
Fia Kahill is an FBI agent who happens to be a vampire. Fia comes from a vampire clan that fled Ireland a few centuries ago and founded the small American coastal town of Clare Point. When one of her relatives is killed, she’s called back to her hometown to find the murderer and learn if it’s a random act of violence or if vampire slayers have found them again. Fia’s task is further complicated by the arrival of another FBI agent, Glen Duncan, who’s also been assigned to the case. Because not only does Fia have to keep the existence of the Kahill vampires a secret from Glen, he’s the spitting image of her long-dead lover, Ian–the man who betrayed her, led a group of vampire slayers to …
Harlequin Presents is moving up its production schedule to 12 books a month. Mind boggling, no? In order to meet the apparently increased demand, HP is looking for new authors. Presents is inviting unpublished authors to submit a first chapter. The submissions must be made on-line from January 1st to February 14 2008. The grand prize is the services of an editor for one year.
Entries should comprise of the first chapter and a synopsis of a previously unpublished/unsubmitted novel aimed at Harlequin Presents.
Address for entries: instantseduction@hmb.co.uk
 Yesterday, Normal Mailer was the winner of the 14th annual Bad Sex writing award, announced by Literary Review magazine. His winning entry was:
So Klara turned head to foot, and put her most unmentionable part down on his hard-breathing nose and mouth, and took his old battering ram into her lips. Uncle was now as soft as a coil of excrement. She sucked on him nonetheless with an avidity that could come only from the Evil One – that she knew. From there, the impulse had come. So now they both had their heads at the wrong end, and the Evil One was there. He had never been so close before.
The Hound began to come to life. Right in her mouth. It surprised her. Alois had been so limp. But now he was a man again! His mouth lathered with her sap, he turned around and embraced her face with all the passion of his own lips and face, ready at last to grind into her with the Hound, drive it into her piety.
SB Sarah loved his use of the word “piety”.
Personally, I loved this entry by Ali Smith …
Dear Ms. Adrian:
 I finished your book at 12:28 a.m. on November 11. I know the exact time because when I was done reading the book, I ran to my computer to type out my thoughts – to try to capture the emotional high I was on when I finished reading the book. I am sure that I won’t do justice to the book. All I can say is that I recommend this book and that I will buy 5 ebook copies of it to giveaway to commenters today. I believe in it that much.
I first have to apologize for comparing your Breed series to Ward’s Brotherhood series. I hadn’t examined the worlds close enough but having read this book (and having gone back to read the second which I passed over), I realize that while there are similarities there are many, many differences.
The heroine.
Elise is a breedmate, a special human born to be the mates of vampires. The vampires of this world are born of an alien race thousands of years ago. The breedmate is a special bond wherein the women choose to whom they …
Dear Mrs Gabaldon,
 I put pen to paper to tell you how much I have enjoyed the latest batch of short stories about Lord John Gray. I think he is, by far, my favorite character you’ve invented and I dare to hope that you have several more stories in mind for him beyond the one you’ve already promised us. As always your writing is filled with great period feel and historical details which are so nicely fitted into the storytelling that there’s no awkward “take note of this class” feel to them. The information flows and the story flows with it. I feel that I am in the house of a celebrated London hostess as dark undercurrents of the Hellfire Club ebb and swirl. Or in a dank German graveyard with a tipsy band of soldiers trying to discover in which grave a succubus is lying. And finally waiting in the Arsenal, trying to stifle my startled jumps as cannon are fired mere yards away.
Each story starts with Lord John being presented with a mystery to be solved, none of which he can ignore. Who killed a young man John met once …
What might be one of the most important copyright decisions since Sony v. Universal Studios is the case against Google for scanning books. I’m guessing that Google is operating under the belief that the scanning of the books and then offering portions of it in digital format for searchers is transformative enough to escape copyright infringement.
Google’s position has been enhanced recently by the public statements of the University of Michigan’s head librarian, Paul Courant. Mr. Courant recently posted a response to a query by Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor at the University of Virginia, regarding the legalities of Michigan’s participation with Google.
Vaidhyanathan calls it “audacious infringement of copyright.”
Courant responds:
“I must say that I am troubled that the author of a very sensible book about copyright is so enthusiastic about trashing Google that he is willing to give up on the uses, notably scholarly uses, that are permitted in the higher-numbered sections of the Copyright Act,” writes Courant. “As my institution’s copyright lawyer says: ‘FAIR USE, it’s the law.’ And my institution believes that when we have Google digitize our holdings we do so under the law and in order to make uses that are not only lawful, but
…
Dear Ms. Ashworth:
Thank you for the prank you pulled on AAR this past holiday weekend which just last year was a place you vowed never to read again or post at again. At first, I was all worried that you were serious when you went after a reader complaining about your books being wallpaper historicals. But when I got to the end of the first page of posts and you were all “I don’t belong here anymore” and “I won’t post on these boards again“, I knew you were just pulling our legs and that your posts were one big joke.
Good one.
I admit to falling for your serious tone initially. I was foolishly worried that you were once again trying to belittle a reader who had a few, seeming innocuous comments about your writing. I felt sure that you remembered how poorly the past attempts went at trying to make the small things seem . . . well, small until a big old author spotlight shone on them.
Remember when readers were outraged about you changing your widow into a virgin widow and how you …
Amazon’s pricing for mass market books has suddenly gone full retail, no discount since the release of the Kindle. When questioned in Newsweek about the low pricing, Bezos said “low-margin and high-volume saleâ€â€Âyou just have to make sure the mix [between discounted and higher-priced items] works." It looks like Bezos is hoping to make more money off the high volume of sales from those mass market purchasers. Like romance readers who account for 21% of the retail book industry.
A sharp eyed reader emailed me the blog post of author Natalie Damschroder.
You know how I said, below, that my book Brianna’s Navy SEAL is selling at Amazon for $15.00 in trade paperback? Last month I paid $10.20.
Doing a random selection of mass markets to be released on Tuesday, it shows that the discount for paperbacks has disappeared.
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Dear Ms. James:
 An Affair Before Christmas is the first book of yours I read, and I did so without knowing where it is in your canon or how it relates to any other books (now I know that is it second in your Desperate Duchesses series). The title of the series reflects a heroine-centric focus I appreciate, and the obvious overlap of characters from book to book creates a community sense that appeals to me. Both of these elements make me glad I tried An Affair Before Christmas, and even though the book didn’t wow me, I will likely read the next in the series to find out what happens to the secondary characters.
Before I go any further, I will warn anyone who dislikes spoilers that this review depends on a few of them.
When we first meet Poppy and Fletch, they are a young couple, engaged and hopeful and celebrating Christmas in Paris where they met and fell in love. We're not yet privy to Poppy's marital aspirations, but we discover that Fletch is anxiously awaiting his wedding night and the chance "to worship Poppy’s body, taste …
Before I give the names of the winners of our 2nd Annual Thanksgiving giveaway, I just want to say how grateful we all are here at Dear Author for the wonderful community of readers, commenters, and bloggers that make up this small slice of the romance reading community. We all were gratified by the super nice things everyone had to write this past week.
We had a little more than 300 comments from the time of the Thanksgiving post through Sunday and I wish we could give more books away. We will do so next year.
Please email …
New York Times posted its Notable 100 books for 2007. The print version is released on Sunday. I have nothing to say since I’ve not read a one of them, not even JK Rowling’s 7th Harry Potter book.
David Pogue, the technology reviewer for the New York Times, thinks that the Kindle might catch on once the design is sleeker and the price is lower. The negatives are the
- Design
- Huge previous/next buttons are so big that they are easy to hit by mistake
The positives:
- The web browser
- The easy downloading of books
- Automatic back up on amazon.com
- Titles are half off
- E ink technology
I am always amazed at how these big time print media can get things wrong. Pogue identifies the Sony Reader at a price point of $350 when it is $300. The prices of hardcover books are half off or more than half off, but not the prices of trades or paperbacks. Some of the positives such as the large digital library and the eink technology are not exclusive to the Kindle.
What Pogue does get right is that the Kindle delivers on the concept behind digital entertainment: immediate gratification.
Dear Jane,
 You (or maybe Jayne or Janine) asked awhile back for category recommendations. Et voila, I have one for you.
Sometimes you fall in love with a book that you ought to despise. Big Mis, Big Secret, Secret Baby, Marriage of Convenience. Normally, I can deal with one or two of these romance staples in a novel. But all four? I should gag on any book that includes them all. But Kate Hathaway made all of them work in Bad For Each Other.
Charlie “Kick” Cochrane is enjoying life as a country music star when Molly, his ex-girlfriend, knocks on his door She needs his bone marrow – her son Tobie has cancer and as his father – surprise!-Kick may be a match. Since Kick and Molly haven’t seen each other in eight years, when she threw him out for cheating with a groupie, Kick is skeptical at first, but quickly sees that Molly’s telling the truth: Tobie’s his son. Being a stand up, family-oriented guy, the Marriage of Convenience rolls into play.
Molly and Charlie weren’t just lovers eight years ago, they’d been friends since …
Amazon advertised itself as having a large digital catalogue of books available at 88,000 plus. This was one point that really worried me. I wrote in one email to a digital director of a major publisher earlier this week, “Are you going to be publishing Kindle only ebooks because that would really suck for all non Kindle owners, like me.” Alas, all the publishers who responded, other than Wiley, said no exclusivity for Amazon, meaning that the publishers want to sell as many books as possible. So what accounts for the huge catalog? Non fiction books. 54,052 books in the Amazon digital library are Nonfiction. Less than 1/3 of the “Kindle” books are fiction. I decided to look at three existing e-bookstores for comparison: Kindle (Amazon), Fictionwise, BooksonBoard.
Kindle
Fictionwise
BooksonBoard
Romance
4,639
5757
8589
Fantasy
1,560
2058+433*
3990
…
Dear Ms. Pharaoh Francis:
 There’s a lot of discontent in the romance community over the use of shortcuts. Essentially, an author relies on certain words or phrases to depict an entire emotional or psychological backstory for a character. Long time romance readers understand intuitively what the author is trying to convey, but newcomers to the genre often wonder at the appeal due to lack of familiarity.
When I was reading Cipher, a straight fantasy with romance undertones, I felt similar complaints. I wondered time and again if I had more experience in reading the fantasy genre that maybe I would understand this book better. However, if I can borrow a metaphor from your seafaring world, I felt moorless and adrift.
Lucy Trenton is a member of the Rampling family, the royal class of whatever world Lucy inhabits. The information from your site says that the setting is the “island world of Crosspointe.” (I admit to not really getting that Crosspointe was an island instead of a sea bordering land). The waters surrounding Crosspointe are inhabited by sylveth, magickal creatures who change everything they touches, animate or …
Dear Mrs. Landon,
 After my great experience with “The Warlord’s Mistress” I was in a quandary. I wanted to go out and read every thing of yours I could get my hands on and at the same time, I was worried that nothing would match up to that first book. I’ve been burned by the backlist glom before. Fortunately, “Dishonor and Desire” was already in bookstores and on ebook sites. I chose the mass market route this time courtesy of a store coupon and sat down to try a very different setting from the last book.
I think most romance readers have read our fair share of Regency books by this time. The ton, the Season, Almacks, waltzing, war heroes, period cant…we’ve seen it all and it takes something a little different to engage our attention. While you do include some of these standard elements, they are mixed with enough variety to keep me from muttering, “yeah, yeah, yeah” and skimming pages like mad. Sure the story starts with gambling debts, phaetons, a country party and a wager but it quickly moves to center on two very strong characters …
Happy Thanksgiving Dear Author Readers. I came across a special tribute by one Patricia Cornwell to all her fans and had to share it.
 I saw on David J. Montgomery’s website a message from Patricia Cornwell making a call to her fans to contact everyone they know and strong arm them into leaving her positive feedback on etailers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble because apparently she cannot believe that the people who have left negative reviews actually dislike her work.
Montgomery is a crime fiction reviewer/critiquer/commentator who has written for Chicago Sun-Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer and Boston Globe. He says that Cornwell’s latest effort, Book of the Dead, is “just dull, silly and pointless, with unappealing characters and run-of-the-mill lousy prose. Giving it a one-star review is generous.”
Apparently he is one of the cabal that is coordinated by “someone or a group of someones” to attack her through reviews.
We have reason to suspect that someone (or a group of someones) might be mobilizing people to attack me through Amazon and Barnes and Noble, etc., to hurt my sales and reputation.
Patricia Cornwell graciously provides instructions …
Dear Ms. Kessler:
 I think The Road to Hell suffers from a mistaken identity. It is a book that would be better as a straight urban fantasy rather than trying to shoehorn into the romance genre. The ostensible conflict in this story is the female protagonist trying to maintain her relationship with her boyfriend and supposed true love, Paul Hamilton, a New York City vice cop. Problem is that Jesse’s body can’t stop responding to other men’s touches. Her stripping joint is shut down. She’s being tortured in different ways to come down to hell and save her former best friend who betrayed her. Everyone wants a piece of Jesse, particularly Hell where she escaped.
Writing a succubus turned human within the romance genre has it perils because if the construct is a couple (or a committed threesome), then one who plies her sex trade with glee has an inherent conflict with the genre construct. To that end, if the book wasn’t meant to be a romance and if it didn’t try so hard to sell the reader on the idea that Jesse, former demon and now …
Definitely a buy for me.
Joyce Lebra’s THE SCENT OF SAKE, about a 19th century Japanese woman who overcomes tremendous obstacles to build a sake empire and a family dynasty at a time when women were forbidden to do business, to Carrie Feron at William Morrow, at auction, by Natasha Kern at Natasha Kern Literary Agency (World).
Never read Anne Hearn.
Anne Hearn’s latest historical romance, again to May Chen at Avon, in a multi-book deal, by Paige Wheeler of Folio Literary Management.
Billed as a Women’s Fiction/Romance, sounds more WF
ON STRIKE FOR CHRISTMAS author Sheila Robert’s GARDEN SEASON, about three women’s journeys to make their lives and their gardens bloom, to Rose Hilliard at St. Martin’s, in a multi-book deal, by Paige Wheeler of Folio Literary Management.
Tried to read MacLean’s latest but couldn’t make it past the first couple chapters. I do like that it is a Victorian period piece and will give it another try.
USA Today bestselling author Julianne MacLean’s MISTRESS DIARIES, sequel to IN MY WILDEST FANTASIES and the second book in her Victorian-period historical PEMBROKE PALACE series, to Erika Tsang at Avon, in a multi-book deal, by Paige Wheeler of Folio Literary Management.
I think I read a book …
Borders Group had an increase of 5.3% in revenues at same store sales for the third quarter. Barnes and Noble had comparable revenue increase of 5.7%.
Book sales were up 3.1% but music sales had a 13.1% decline at Borders. The gains were said to be as a result of increase in store traffic as there was a 2.8% increase in the number of transactions. The number of discounts to Borders Rewards members may be increasing traffic but the individual transaction was not increasing. Therefore CEO George Jones anticipates that Borders will reduce the discounts in the future.
Barnes and Noble believes that the increased revenue comes from sales of new releases and bestsellers and better than forecasted margins.
Via PublishersWeekly.
Dear Ms. Apodaca,
 I’m not sure where to begin with this letter. Just moments ago I finished your newest release from the Brava line, Extremely Hot. I should mention that I’m a fan of Brava books. I find that I’ll forgive those that are a little light on plot if they make up for it with teh sex. While, I can’t say that Extremely Hot was light on plot, the problems I had with the book weren’t made up for with sex either.
It’s hard for me to explain exactly what was going on in Extremely Hot, mainly because I’d only be able to read a couple a pages before wanting to alternate between throwing my copy against a wall and pluck my eyelashes out one by one. I gather that this gist of things is that there’s a radio talk show host neé accountant named Ivy Somethingorother. Years ago she was an accountant and when some money came up missing all fingers were pointed at her. She wasn’t the thief, but the man she had been sleeping with was. Ruined as an accountant, Ivy used her experience to become the host of …
Dear Ms. Nelson Douglas,
 The thing I like about the Juno imprint is that it offers a wide variety of fantasy novels featuring strong female protagonists. The titles have run the gamut from sword and sorcery to fantasy romance. So when Dancing with Werewolves arrived on my doorstep, I looked forward to reading this urban fantasy. Ultimately, however, the experience left me feeling confused and disappointed.
Like many other urban fantasies, Dancing with Werewolves is set on an alternate earth where vampires, werewolves, and other things that go bump in the night are known to the general public. I liked how you tied this revelation to 2YK, known as the Millennium Revelation in the book. It’s obvious that a lot of thought went into how their existence would affect the world and how their going public changed society. As a reader who loves fully fleshed out worlds, I really appreciate that although I wish it hadn’t been presented in a way that made the first several chapters drag.
I also loved the characters and how they weren’t ones commonly seen in urban fantasies. The heroine, Delilah Street, works as an investigative reporter in a …
 Over at Gizmodo, I saw that the Palm TX is on sale from Palm for $199 with free wireless keyboard. The Palm TX has a screen size of 3.8″ and can read eReader, Mobipocket, Adobe and HTML files. It also has wi fi capabilities.
It was one of Dear Author’s recommended multi-function devices and at $199, it’s a sweet deal.
Dear Mrs. Harris,
 When I got my hands on the hardcover edition of the third book in this mystery series, it was another moment when I wished I’d already read the other books in the series. But since, and especially with a mystery series, I try to read sequels in order I knew I’d better haul out — so to speak — the ebook copy I had had — for ages — of this book. So I did. I had read and enjoyed several of your historical romances written as Candice Proctor I was pretty sure there would be some kind of romance and I knew you’d get the historic details correct. The mystery to me would be how you’d handle the mystery in the book. Okay, that’s bad but I just can’t help myself.
Sebastian St. Cyr — I liked him. He’s got a certain style and flair but he’s nobody’s fool. He cooly lets the opening scene duel play out, knowing his opponent will cheat and beating him anyway. Then when suddenly faced with the charge of the brutal rape and murder of a young woman he doesn’t even …
Thanksgiving is just two days away and during this time at DearAuthor, we take time to contemplate the things we are thankful for. One of the benefits of reviewing is that we receive free books. Because we receive so many free books, my book buying has dwindled. Of course, I don’t think I would be entitled to receive the free books if we didn’t have such a great community here. I’m thankful for the free books but I am also thankful for the readers, authors, industry professionals, and others who come and contribute to the community. I am also thankful for authors who put out books that make me stay up late into the night reading or that burn a whole in my bag while I am supposed to be working and concentrating.
To that end, I want to give back to the community and the authors who have entertained me this past year. Instead of ARCs, as I gave away last year, I am giving away two book bundles from a few favorite authors. I tried to gather a diverse mix …
I was worried this morning that Kindle would be getting exclusive ebook rights from some publishers so I began emailing around. It didn’t make sense that publishers would refuse consumers the right to purchase a book. Harlequin emailed back right away to say that all frontlist and backlist ebooks would be available in every format, NOT JUST KINDLE’s proprietary format which is available only to Kindle purchasers. I’ll update as I receive more information.
Simon & Schuster and Random House also are selling all its ebooks in all formats.
Simon & Schuster is “agnostic and ubiquitous" in its eBook format. The goal is to provide the content in whichever way the consumer will want to read it. Simon & Schuster sells all its ebooks at 35%.
“Random House is continuing its current and longstanding policy of making all of our eBooks available in all of the main commercially available formats.”
HarperCollins also has no exclusivity:
As a general rule of thumb our e-books are available in all formats and through various retail partners. Exceptions to this rule exist for highly designed books (with lots of images and photographs), for example,
…
Dear Ms. Sala:
 You are another “new to me” author. I may have read you in your category iteration, but not in a long, long time. Cut Throat is apparently the second of in a series of books featuring Cat Dupree, a bounty hunter. The story was at its strongest during the action scenes and the most melodramatic during the emotional/relationship scenes. Still, Cat Dupree is a good female lead and I am interested in reading more of her adventures.
Cat Dupree is not from the school of Stephane Plum bounty hunting. Dupree knows how to use her gun and isn’t afraid to do so, particularly when she is hunting down a man who killed her father. Cut Throat begins where the first Cat Dupree novel, Nine Lives, left off, but I didn’t feel lost and neither was I overwhelmed with the details of what went on before.
Cat is on a vengeance hunt. During her last mission she found the tatooed man who had killed her father. She engaged in a gun battle that ended in a conflagration and she left the scene believing that the man …
The Wall Street Journal reported on the blogosphere reaction to the Kindle. Apparently my quotable words were “same fugly hot mess we’ve been seeing for months”.
One of the blogosphere’s question is why Amazon is charging for blog content. I suspect it is because Amazon is not charging for the EVDO access and this is one way to recoup that money. If you look at the fine print, however, Amazon will charge for online access for anything that is not browsing the bookstore and purchasing books.
The Kindle has already received 103 reviews and counting (average 2.5 stars) with standard review nonsense since hardly anyone has the device. Most of the reviews are too pricey versus the five star “I’m writing this review to counteract all the negative reviews” review.
 With the sniggering title “Textually Promiscuous”, Publishers Weekly takes an inside look at romances and the romance community. While the title is rude, the contents are mostly positive with a focus on the diversity (not ethnic but theme) of the genre. While paranormal or otherworldly romances are popular, it appears that the historical is not down and out but never even suffered a lapse.
I was surprised to see that PW made a couple of big errors. First, it referred to JR Ward’s Lover Enshrined as being released in January 2008 when the publication date has actually been moved back to June of 2008. (As an aside, this is my least favorite Ward cover). Second, in referring to online communities, it points to Romancing the Blog, but gets the web address wrong identifying it as romancingthe-blog.com instead of romancingtheblog.com. That sucks for RTB.
In any event, it is definitely worth a read.
Kindletalk.com is a new website for Kindle users. It’s an Amazon owned site per the whois data. The first question posted by an “admin” is “The Sony readers are everywhere but have not had much success. The Kindle is more expensive but has many more feautures[sic], the most important one being wireless access to the books. Has anyone spent much time with the Sony reader? If so why do you think that it is not successful?”
Surely Amazon has more confidence in its success that badmouthing Sony right out of the gate?
The Amazon Kindle is available for order. The price is $399 with free shipping. There are some author testimonials from people like James Patterson, Michael Lewis and Neil Gaiman who all extol the marvelous screen which you would think that Amazon invented. It did not. It’s eink technology and the Sony Reader and Bookeen Cybook both have the same screen.
Specs:
- 6″ screen
- Size (in inches): 7.5″ x 5.3″ x 0.7″
- 10.3 oz
- says that there is no need for a computer so no system requirements
- Formats supported: Microsoft Word, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PRC and MOBI files
Because there are no system requirements, I am not sure how you get your existing ebooks to the Kindle unless you email them. There is a USB connection so perhaps it is recognized by Mac and PC computers as a USB storage device.
Pluses:
- Search feature
- Email compatibility but only with other Kindle users at a cost of 10 cents per email. (This really isn’t a plus.)
- Keyboard which allows bookmarks and annotations.
- $9.99 pricing for all NYT Bestsellers and all new hardcover releases.
You can get newspapers and magazines such as the …
Dear Jane:
 There's certain comfort in the familiar read. My husband can't understand why, with a stack of new books piling up on my night stand, I can often be found with a book I've read hundreds of times before in my hands. I love new books, but sometimes you just want something safe that you know you love, with characters that are trusted friends. One such favorite is the Nero Wolfe mystery series by Rex Stout, staring the private detective Nero Wolfe and his confidential assistant and man about town, Archie Goodwin. These are narrated in the first person by Archie who employs a conversational, slightly sarcastic tone complete with period slang (Rex Stout wrote about one a year from 1934 until 1975). What I love so much about this series is the very sameness of it. Nero is always Nero and Archie is always Archie, no need to read the books in any order because they never change. Nero's New York City brownstone which doubles as office and home for the duo is as familiar to me as my own home. I know Nero's exacting schedule better than my own. (Nero, although …
Despite the fact that the PR gathering tomorrow was supposedly a secret, everyone on the internet knows that Amazon invited a number of publishing representatives and technology folks to New York for a PR event to take place on November 19. No details were given, but based on the people that were contacted and other sources, it seems pretty clear that the Kindle is making its debut. The details:
- Price: $399
- Internet Access: Sprint EVDO access (I assume that this is a monthly fee that you have to pay in order to avail yourself of this feature) and Wi Fi
- Design: same fugly hot mess we’ve been seeing for months. There is some debate on this. CNET says this is the design, but others have suggested that there was a redesign. Maybe the latter group is just engaging in some wishful thinking.
- Light Source: Package might include a swing arm booklight that attaches to the side of the Kindle
- Download times: 2 minutes for a book. This is unacceptable in my mind. A book should not take 2 minutes to download.
- Library: A bigger book collection than
…
Ladies,
 This is the second book I’ve read in your series set in the minuscule west Texas town of Salt Lick featuring the dynamic duo of hair stylists Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin. And while I still love all the titles of the books, this one fell far short of book one in the series, “Since You’re Leaving Anyway, Take Out the Trash.” I wish more time had been spent with Debbie Sue and Edwina, that their husbands had had more than cameo appearances and that the humor didn’t seem quite so forced.
There isn’t much to do in Salt Lick, Texas so everyone minds everybody else’s business. And since the setting is Texas, the hair dressing shop of Debbie Sue and Edwina is central to a lot of the town action. These two are still the good ol’ gals I remember but as their love lives are in good shape, you’ve moved the romantic action to a newcomer to town, Allison Barker.
She’s sweet and kind and a good mother and dutiful daughter but she doesn’t have the “kick” that either Debbie Sue or Edwina have. The humor in her scenes mainly …
Dear Mr. Cook,
 I’ve always thought the Juno covers were lovely and eye-catching, and the cover for this book is no exception. Timothy Lantz did an excellent job capturing the dark and moody tone of a story that is one-half sword and sorcery tale and one-half grim horror. From what I understand, Blood Magic was Juno’s first mass market paperback offering as well as the imprint’s first novel by a male author and after I finished reading, I saw why.
Shy and studious, Kirin grew up in the shadow of her vivacious twin sister and followed her lead in nearly everything. When her sister weds the town’s handsomest bachelor, Kirin weds his best friend. But while married life turns out not to be everything her twin dreamed it would be, Kirin makes the best of a bad situation and befriends a wisewoman who teaches her the art of healing, as well as the forbidden art of necromancy. I’m sure Kirin never expected to make practical use of the latter in such a violent fashion, but one night she finds her sister murdered and the act of vengeance she commits in retaliation changes her …
 Jennifer Apodaca writes murder mysteries with a romantic twist. Her current offering, Extremely Hot, is in bookstores now. Apodaca claims that the traffic in Southern California “affords her plenty of time to plot murder and hot romance.”
***
My brother and sister sometimes call me a bulldog. Flattering, huh? I’m hoping they don’t mean that I look like a bulldog, but that I can be tenacious like one. When I want something badly enough, I don’t give up.I wanted very much to write and publish, so much so that I was willing to endure the pain of endless rejections. Failure taught me to write, while hope kept me writing.
And finally, murder got me published. I tried writing historical romances, but the agents and editors weren’t thrilled with the dead bodies that tended to show up in the stories. They claimed it wasn’t romantic, but I couldn’t seem to write a straight romance no matter how hard I tried.
I’m stubborn, but even I eventually figure things out. Since I wasn’t succeeding with romance, why not try mystery? So I wrote DATING CAN BE MURDER. My husband read that manuscript and told …
Summer Brooks, one of the doyennes of Dragon Page, let me know that they are featuring some romance authors on its site this week. DragonPage is running a contest to giveaway Jennifer Estep’s books. It’s nice to see the fantasy world take notice of the romance world. It can really be one big happy playground. Honestly.
A week ago I pounded out an article that I was going to offer up as my guest blog post for the Love of Reading Book Fair. It was all about how tension between print reviewers and bloggers is unnecessary because blogging fills the niches that print reviewers don’t have the space or inclination to service.
Yesterday I pulled it up to polish a bit and realized it that it was dullness personified. I figured that if there were new readers from the Book Fair, I didn’t want them to get the idea that romance was full of sex and boring. What kind of representative would I be? I put away the article to bore you with another day because I’m all about treating the regulars right.
To those who might not be familiar with Dear Author, we love romance books. We love the stories that end happily. We love the stories with the pink covers. We love the stories that have, wait for it, sex.
I decided to write about my affection for reading love, sex, vampires and the escapist factor of …
Dear Ladies:
 At the urging of Dionne Galace, a blogger whom I consider a friend, I purchased this book from LiquidSilver. It languished in my to be read pile because, like other readers, anthologies are often not my cup of tea. Because Dionne is a friend, though, I read it a few days ago and am reviewing it now. It’s hard to do reviews of books written by people you like or that you consider a friend, but the promise of the blog is that our reviews are as honest and as impartial as possible. With that caveat stated, we’re onto the reviews.
First up is Annie Dean’s Seven Days. Teresa has been training her whole adult life to become a bride of God. One week before she would take her holy vows, a handsome stranger appears to tempt her into sin. In a not very discreet manner, the stranger admits that she has done nothing wrong but Heaven and Hell engage in these battles for entertainment from time to time. Remember Job, is essentially his message. Teresa is determined to …
 Brava Short Story Contest Finalists were announced today. Ann Bruce and Annette McCleave were the winners and the entries can be read at the Brava Authors forum. The finalists are read by editor Kate Duffy of Kensington and has led to publication in the past.
I’ve only read the Ann Bruce one but it’s pretty good and makes me interested in other Bruce offerings. Congrats authors.
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by Nora Roberts: $7.99
by Linnea Sinclair: $6.99
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