Jane Litte's Blog, page 1027

REVIEW: Petit Morts 6-10 by Jordan Castillo Price, Josh Lanyon, and Sean Kennedy

Dear Authors,

I heard with regret that your Petit Morts series is drawing to a close; although I was late to the party, I have enjoyed these stories very much, and I'm sad to see them end.  Short stories are difficult to write and although short fiction is plentiful in the m/m romance genre, I frequently find it unsatisfying and I tend to avoid it. This series was a marked exception to that rule. In anticipation of the final installments of Petit Morts, I thought I'd review the previous set...

REVIEW: Angels of Darkness by Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook, Sharon Shinn, and Nalini Singh

Dear Mss. Andrews, Brook, Shinn, and Singh,

Are angels the new vampires in romance novels? It seems like the number of books starring angels continues to expand exponentially. When choosing to write about angels (or winged beings, in the case of the Guardians), authors invite introspection from readers about the nature of good and evil and the balance of power.

[image error] Vampires are predators and humans their prey. When pairing a vampire and human in a romance the power imbalance that writes must...

Dear Bitches, Smart Authors Podcast: October 18, 2011: Reader Mail

It's podcast time! This week: we peek in the mailbox and answer listener email. Are paranormals and vampire romances on the way out? Have we reached saturation?

What surprises does our email inbox hold for us? And what book will Sarah read aloud this time? All the answers are here for your enjoyment. And, as always, here's a list of the books we talk about:

Sandra Hill's Kiss of Pride

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The music this week was provided by Sassy Outwater, who knows a heaping ton of musicians and finds original...

Authors and Their Websites: Three Must Haves for Website Design

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It seems strange that in 2011, nearly 2012, we have to give advice to authors on how to manage their websites. I think authors get worried about how to tackle the huge ordeal that is their website and become paralyzed by the idea of the time or cost involved. When I am looking at an author's website, I am going there for two reasons.

I just finished a book of yours and want to see what else I can buy.
I heard about you from a friend and want to know more about your books.
In sum, readers s...

REVIEW: Beautiful Days by Anna Godbersen

Dear Ms. Godbersen,

This review took me far longer to produce than it should have. It was no fault of the book. The blame rests entirely upon my shoulders. But once I was able to clear some time to devote to reading, I devoured the first book in this series, Bright Young Things, in an afternoon. The same thing can be said about this book. What can I say? I'm a sucker for great relationships between female characters.

[image error]Beautiful Days picks up where its predecessor, Bright Young Things, left off, ...

Monday Midday Links: Amazon Questioned About Privacy by Congress

Congress is asking Amazon to explain its SILK service. SILK is the service that Amazon will be using to speed up browser access on its tablet. Rather than spend the money on building a faster processor like Apple's A5, Amazon has developed SILK which takes in web content and then optimizes it for the Kindle Fire. It also uses predictive analysis to push pages to your Fire that it believes you will want to see. All of this allows Amazon to track every step the user takes on the Fire. Forbes a

REVIEW: Cowboy Take Me Away by Kathleen Eagle

"When photographer Skyler Quinn first fixed her lens on gorgeous cowboy Trace Wolf Track, she liked what she saw but didn't give it much thought. Until everywhere she went—the rodeo, the Double D Wild Horse Sanctuary—there he was, and the heat between them built to the boiling point.

As a widow struggling with debts and loyalties from a former life, Skyler needed to stay focused, especially if she wanted to achieve her dream of becoming a mother. Was Trace a fatal distraction, a mere summer...

DA/SBTB Bestseller List

Week ending October 11, 2011

Lord and Lady Spy by Shana Galen Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo Something Different by S A Reid Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo Everything I Know about Love I Learned from Romance Novels by Sarah Wendell Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo Unclaimed by Courtney Milan Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo I Love the Earl by Caroline Linden Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo Conors Way by Laura Lee Guhrke Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo Doukakis's Apprentice by Sarah Morgan Amazon | nook | a

Sunday Morning eBook News

This morning we have a melange of information that deserved their own posts because two of them will likely be updated later.  Thus we are having a summary post:

Changes to Amazon's Personal Document Service.  It now comes with cloud and whispersync support.
With iOS5, Stanza has been killed.  This post explores three alternatives to Stanza.
The demise of Aspen Mountain Press.  Any time someone doesn't pay because of "family" excuses, it's time to be worried.

Fictionwise is having a 60% of...

Managing Personal Documents on the Kindle

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Kindle's Personal Documents Service (PDS hereinafter) is Amazon's version of sideloading.  Using their servers, Amazon would accept documents mailed to a kindle.com address and convert them into a format readable by Kindle devices. According to the help page, PDS is not available for Canadian users. I have no idea why. I am sorry Canada!

In the past, these documents would be saved only on the Kindle device itself so that if you traded up or your Kindle needed to be factory reset, you would...