Vixenwriter

I’m over at Lust Bites today talking about menages. Come on over and share your perspective on the sub-genre!!

Yannow, today is crappy on several levels. And then I got wind of this little gem from “Kat” who, while enjoying the book club menu of foods starting with “I”, decided with her very smart and highbrow friends that they wanted to read something “mindless”. Which, having read through her blog, I think mindless is right up Kat’s alley.

After being treated to a lovely recount of pizza and boxed wine, they’re doing happy hour next month (and let’s be honest, I had a book club for five years, we did a lot more socializing and talking about the next meeting and where it would be instead if the book. I can own it!) Anyway, so Kat says this: We visited the Harlequin website to discover that these people publish like, 10 books a month. The best part is that the site is dubbed, “books for women who love to read.” Seriously? It should be dubbed, “books for women who like to read the trashiest, smuttiest crap ever. Specifically focusing on marriage and pregnancy.”

Oh my. Kat, I’m sorry we can’t all uphold your fine intellectual ideals there in your dorm room and all but you don’t know shit. Not that I’m surprised, it’s your type and all. You know, the type who wears that simpering smile, her ass bunched up tight as she imagines herself better than people who, you know, do stuff other than sit around and tsk like a tightass and try to impress us all with just how darned smart you are.

Gold star, Kat! You’re so smart and fun and pretty! I’d totally love to braid your hair and talk about boys with you while we ate popcorn and tried not to think about how many calories it has. And stuff.

Here’s a clue - if you really looked at the eharlequin site you’d have seen many many books that cover a wide array of subjects from sheiks to NYT best selling thrillers. And also, while I’ve got you here I can clue you in. You’re not smarter than me because you make fun of what I write and read. In fact, it just shows your ass. Don’t read what you don’t like. If you don’t want to read a romance, probably harlequin isn’t the place for you.

But if you’re amazed by a publisher putting out ten books a month, you don’t know much about publishing in general. It’s okay, I can see you know know much about a lot of things. Most people don’t, as it happens. Only they don’t get on their blog and pretend to be super smart and sophisticated by making fun of “mindless” books.

For the record, Kat, while we’re here chatting and all, I write mindless books. Romance is 54% of the book buying market, as it happens. Millions of women buying millions of books. Now, we know it’s not The Kite Runner and not every book is meant to be either. Sometimes, when we don’t live off our parents’ money and stuff, we have jobs and lives that don’t involve sitting around making fun of people who do. And then we like to read popular fiction. I suppose that makes us all big poopy heads in your view. But I’d rather be a big poopy head than a self-righteous, contemptuous person like you.

Oh, and Kat? Have a nice day.

All sorts of flotsam today! Firstly I hit nearly 68K in Relentless last night! Wheeee! And I cried pretty much the whole time as I wrote. Big, emotional stuff, even the sex scene made me cry. I’m really pleased with this transition.

68,000 / 90,000 (75.6%)

Secondly, I know there are some problems with Making Chase and folks trying to order it - apparently there was a problem in the system and they corrected it. It *should* be showing up soon and I’m told by tomorrow, end of day it’ll be available. So thanks to everyone who’s e-mailed me to ask about it. If you get impatient, you can always pop over to My Bookstore and more and order it directly from there.

Thirdly, the fantastic Samantha Hunter is guest blogging at Maverick Authors today! There’s a contest too. Go over and say hey.

A wee snippet from Taking Care of Business, shall we?

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS BY MEGAN HART AND LAUREN DANE
Copyright, Megan Hart and Lauren Dane, 2008
All Rights Reserved, Random House
Releasing: UK October 08; US January 09

Katherine loved the way his voice sounded. The tease layered in innuendo. If any other man had spoken to her the way Charles Dixon did during her business day, she’d have cut him off at the knees. He was that one little bit of dark chocolate she allowed herself in a sea of eating fiber and doing the right thing.

To what extent she gorged on the absolutely sinful man, no one but the two of them knew.

She’d decided to walk from her hotel to Hargrave and Aaron. Normally she would have ignored the call, preferring not to carry on phone conversations on a public sidewalk but she’d seen it was him on her caller ID and picked up. She flipped the phone shut and tucked it into her bag as she approached the glass revolving doors to the building housing the Philadelphia offices of her firm.

The artificially cool air soothed over her skin as she pulled Katherine tight, pushing Kate far away. Here in midst of three thousand dollar office chairs and floor-to-ceiling glass and chrome, there was no room for mistakes.

The shiny reflective walls of the elevator showed a confident, cool woman. Feminine, but not too. Her heels weren’t matronly, nor were they sexy. Understated and expensive, chosen with the same deliberate care she put into everything else to do with her career. The suit, a summer weight, was smoky gray. The wine-colored blouse added just enough color. Not flashy, but it complimented her skin tone and hair. Hair carefully tucked into a sleek chignon at the base of her skull completed the look she wanted to achieve.

Choices. It all came down to choices, and Katherine Edwards made the right ones. The right choices were what it took to get ahead in the savvy and male-dominated world of corporate law. It didn’t mean she was a ball-busting bitch, but she’d made her share of attorneys on the other side of the aisle cry, she was sure. A smile touched her lips at that.

I hate the term cougar for a woman who likes younger men. I mean, hate it with a grand passion that stirs up all my feminine outrage. It’s not a nice term. It’s not sexy. It’s derogatory.

Everyone has preferences. I like dark men with dark or green eyes. I also tend toward men my own age (which to a younger woman would be older men, LOL) So a woman has a preference for a younger man. That automatically makes her a predator? Really? Why and who decided that? You tell me, is Ashton Kucher being taken advantage of by Demi Moore?

It’s not something I’d celebrate if that was my personal preference - to be referred to as a cougar. And seriously, if a book is marketed that way, I’d never buy it. Older woman/younger man book, fine! If it works for the story, I think it’s an interesting dynamic. But if it’s marketed like “oh she’s on the prowl for that young man meat!” I throw up in my mouth a little.

Your preferences may vary.

going to be chatting at Jackie Frank’s messageboard from 11 - 12 pacific/2 - 3 eastern. I’m giving away a faboo Vegas themed basket with loads of cool stuff in it. So come on over and say hello!

Here’s a list of the participating authors (times shown are eastern):

10:00 – 11:00: Patrice Michelle

11:00 - 12:00: Alexandra Ivy

12:00 - 1:00: Gena Showalter

1:00 - 2:00: JJ Massa

2:00 - 3:00 Lauren Dane

3:00-4:00 HelenKay Dimon

4:00-5:00 Lara Adrian

5:00-6:00: Cynthia Eden

6:00-7:00: TBA

7:00-8:00: Meljean Brook

8:00-9:00: Shelly Laurenston

9:00 - 10:00: Yasmine Galenorn

First off - the stuff I’ve read:

When He Was Bad by Cindy Eden and Shelly Laurenston

Oh man was this antho fabulous. Shelly kicks off with Miss Congeniality and I sped though it as I laughed and had to fan myself here and there too. What I loved best about this story was the heroine. Laurenston gives us Irene who is maladjusted, cold, awkward and hostile - but she makes it work so well. I really *liked* Irene and I loved the moments when she was just totally confused by Holt’s attraction to her. She was smart and strong. The story is clever and quick and Holt is mmmm!

And Eden’s Wicked Ways is set in the same world as her After Midnight books so I loved that continuity. Cain and Miranda are a great couple, she’s got just the right amount of incredullity and waryness balanced with her attraction and acceptance of Cain. The story opens with a bang and the action sucks you straight into the story. The chemistry is done quite well as were the scenes with Cain’s beast.

Both stories were well done, the antho isn’t “carried” by one author - both of them really gave readers fabulous reads with totally different voices and perspectives.

And then on to finish the last bit of Resident Evil: Extinction by Keith DeCandido - this is a novelization based on the movie but actually fills in a great deal of things you didn’t see on the screen. I picked this up at the airport coming back from Cincinatti earlier this month and it was an entertaining read. After the movie I was left wondering what happened to Jill and Angie and the book fills in all that backstory nicely.

I also finished up Blood Noir. I don’t have much to say about it just now. It wasn’t horrible. I just wasn’t compelled by it in any sense.

On to my TBR:

I’ve got Recipe For Disaster by Michelle Pillow. This one is in her Matthews Sisters series from Cheek and Zoe is my favorite sister so I’m totally excited to read it.

Aspiring chef, Zoe Matthews has lost her job and all hopes of a satisfying future. If that wasn’t bad enough, she’s just publicly shot down her one and only chance at culinary redemption. Restaurant mogul, Jackson Levy is determined to teach the rude city-slicker a lesson in manners. What she thinks will be a head chef position at one of his fancy restaurants turns out to be a small town diner. Can this city girl and a country boy find common ground? Or is this just a recipe for disaster?

And I was lucky enough to get an ARC of Noelle Mack’s Wanton - the next entry in her St. James Pack books - I can’t wait! I loved the first book.

There’s no blurb at amazon and I can’t seem to find her website via google but through the link above you can see the pretty cover (this series has a great cover progression so far)

And also, Mandy Roth’s Bella Mia is now available and in my E-TBR pile:

On the run from two men who want her, Gwyneth Stevens finds herself at the door of a third-Giovanni Baldassare, master vampire and former henchman of her father, the King of the Dark Realm. When Pallo and Caleb resurface, all
hell breaks loose and old habits die hard. Out of time and places to hide, Gwen must face her destiny head on if she ever hopes to find happiness. Can the triangle of lovers make welcome a newcomer, or will the group succumb
to old enemies resurfacing and centuries-old grudges, allowing history to repeat itself?