Today’s topic is a follow up on last week’s wherein I wished for two things a) for grittier romance books and b) for those romance books that include gritty elements, to treat those elements seriously.
One of the responses that I heard was that readers like to be entertained and not issued to death. I don’t [...]

moar funny pictures
After weeks of thinking, whining, ranting, and being generally disoriented in the aftermath of Savage Gate (phrase courtesy of Seressia Glass), it finally dawned on me that all of the brouhaha, both with the plagiarism thing and the mean girl thing, is all about boundaries (yes, I know I’m slow). Where does [...]

Over the past few days, some have lamented the fact that it was the Smart Bitches who broke the Cassie Edwards story, because they are not “neutral” enough where Edwards is concerned.
I don’t think anyone could argue seriously that the Smart Bitches are neutral about Cassie Edwards (although if you take a look at Candy’s [...]

SB Sarah has a very interesting post and linkage on the issue of sexism, male patriarchy and
media objectification of females. The money is quote is from Joss Whedon who says:
“Women’s inferiority - in fact, their malevolence - is as ingrained in American popular culture as it is anywhere they’re sporting burkas,” wrote Buffy the [...]

moar funny pictures
Romance is an easy target for dismissal by critics, both insiders and outsiders alike. Respect that the genre deserves isn’t being earned despite the tremendous buying power that the genre readers command. Science fiction and mysteries are more honored and more respectable by mainstream press and critics.
This past summers brou ha [...]

Louise Allen’s book, Virgin Slave, Barbarian King, was one cited by Julie Bindel as part of the patriarchal propaganda designed to “feed directly into some women’s sense of themselves as lesser beings, as creatures desperate to be dominated.” Ms. Allen’s response was on the Guardian today.
I wish Allen had talked more about the historical aspect [...]

The dueling essays featured at The Guardian about Mills & Boons books sparked some significant debate here and here and some name calling. Julie Bindel took to calling the genre trash and argued that it was anti-female propoganda perpetrated by Mills & Boons.
Some readers suggested that she needed to get laid more often [...]

Source: Karen Scott’s blog
Mrs. Giggles emailed me a snark of the Ellora’s Cave writing guidelines (scroll to the end of the document). We both agreed that the guidelines fall into the ridiculous realm at various points, particularly when Tina Engler proclaims: “Don't worry excessively about grammar usage to the point where you [...]

This weekend a Salon article caught my eye. “Summer Reads,” it was called, and I clicked on the link, expectations charged, thinking, there’s got to be some Romance in this bunch. After all, everyone knows that summer reading is beach reading, and if fall sweeps in the more “serious” reading, summer is always [...]

A special Monday edition of Jane’s Rants Opinion Letters
Tara Gelsomino, former managing editor of RT and alleged face behind the blind Flavia authored items, writes at Access Romance Reader’s Gab that men do it better. Oh, not sex, you guys, writing. Ms. Gelsomino posits that men are doing better jobs of creating smart [...]