Archive for January 7th, 2008
Dear Ms Lane,
 Fans of historical romance novels have had slim pickings the past few years. And most of the books from which we’ve had to choose have been set in the overused Regency. Not that a good Regency novel can’t work for me but when presented with something different, something out of the ordinary I get excited. I get hopeful. I hold my breath while reading it, cross my fingers and and almost chant, please let this be good in and of itself and not just a tired, standard plot dressed in fancy clothing. “On the Wings of Love” answers my prayer.
Let’s start with the cover. Simple, lovely, conveying the era and the feelings of the hero and heroine yet without bare chests, heaving bosoms and embarrassing postures. Whoever is responsible for this artistic delight needs to be congratulated.
 The period feeling is carried on throughout the story. Too often authors merely dump information at various intervals, throw in a few adjectives and think they’ve conveyed an era. Voila, my work is done. Not so, I say. If I feel that a heroine …
 The UK wouldn’t publish it but St. Martin’s Press is showing no fear with its publication of Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography on January 15. Andrew Morton is the author of a new unauthorized biography of Tom Cruise which alleges, amongst other things, that Suri Cruise was “conceived like Rosemary’s Baby”. In the movie, a young woman is impregnated with the Devil’s child. Morton goes on to state that some fanatical members of the religious organization believe that Suri Cruise is born of the frozen sperm of L. Ron Hubbard. Who knew L. Ron had such cute genes?*
Other allegations include Nicole Kidman’s fear of blackmail over sex tapes made with other Scientologists and Cruise’s mission to recruit David Beckham.
Morton quotes the Playboy interview with Hubbard’s son, Rondal De Wolf, about the use of sex by Scientologists to control their members:
: “You have complete control of someone if you have every detail of his sex life and fantasy life on record. In Scientology the focus is on sex. Sex, sex, sex.
“The first thing we wanted to know about someone we were auditing was his sexual deviations. All you’ve
…
Jose Conseco’s next book tentatively titled, Vindicated, has lost its ghostwriter/editor. Don Yaeger, a former Sports Illustrated writer, has passed on the project believing that there isn’t enough there to form a book.
Conseco’s first book, Juiced published by Judith Regan of the former Regan Books imprint, set off a firestorm within baseball when Conseco tore the curtain away that hid baseball’s dirty secret: years of high profile players taking performance enhancing drugs.
Not one player who was named in Conseco’s original book ever sued him for defamation and almost all of his allegations (if not all) were born out as truth in subsequent proceedings. (Who can forget Rafael Palmeiro standing before Congress and stating, under oath, that he never took steroids?)
Vindicated is supposedly going to expose Alex Rodriguez in some manner but the majority of baseball fans think he’s an ass already so perhaps Yaeger didn’t want to add to the pile on.
Via ESPN.
The Smart Bitches have uncovered a strange and sad set of circumstances involving the writing of romance novelist Cassie Edwards. Apparently passages from
Shadow Bear, her latest Signet release, are exactly the same as text in Land of the Spotted Eagle by Luther Standing Bear and an article about black-footed ferrets from Defenders of Wildlife.
Yes, ferrets. I mean of all the things someone has to go and plagiarize, it is about ferrets?
Text example from the Smart Bitch website:
Shadow Bear by Cassie Edwards (2007, ISBN 978-0-451-22174-2, Signet)
Other Materials
“In my vision, I also saw the fields of sunflowers that are beloved by our Lakota people all scorched, the flowers no longer able to reach their faces toward the sun. I saw buffalo trapped amid flames.”
She paused, swallowed hard, then said, “The sunflower and buffalo are two beloved symbols of our Lakota people. The sun is essential to all health and life. In spring, summer, and winter, rays are welcome. In the spring, its warmth brings forth new grass; in summer its heat cures the skins, dries the meat, and preserves food for storage. The buffalo are all …
The following guest review/letter comes from author Jenyfer Matthews whose latest release, One Crazy Summer, is available in ebook form.
***
 The nicest thing my ex-SIL ever did was introduce me to Nora Roberts books. She gave me a box of her castoffs with the warning that they were formulaic but fun. Included in the box was Holding the Dream, the second of the “Dream” trilogy, published in 1997.
If they are formulaic, it’s a formula that works. The Dream trilogy is the story of Margo, Kate and Laura – three women bound not by blood but by upbringing, friendship, and love. Each of them had achieved the dreams of their youths, only to find their present world rocked by scandals. Now each of them has to find a way to survive, a new path, and in the process a new dream.
From the back cover:
Surrounded by the sweeping cliffs and beauty of Big Sur, Kate Powell treasured her life at Templeton House…and the family who raised her like one of their own. Although Kate lacked Margo’s beauty and Laura’s elegance, she knew she had something they would never possess – a shrewd
…
The following guest review/letter comes from author Jenyfer Matthews whose latest release, One Crazy Summer, is available in ebook form.
***
The nicest thing my ex-SIL ever did was introduce me to Nora Roberts books. She gave me a box of her castoffs with the warning that they were formulaic but fun. Included in the box was Holding the Dream, the second of the Dream trilogy, published in 1997.
If they are formulaic, its a formula that works. The Dream trilogy is the story of Margo, Kate and Laura three women bound not by blood but by upbringing, friendship, and love. Each of them had achieved the dreams of their youths, only to find their present world rocked by scandals. Now each of them has to find a way to survive, a new path, and in the process a new dream.
From the back cover:
Surrounded by the sweeping cliffs and beauty of Big Sur, Kate Powell treasured her life at Templeton Houseand the family who raised her like one of their own. Although Kate lacked Margos beauty and Lauras elegance, she knew she had something they would never possess a shrewd head for business. Driven by ambition,
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