Jane Litte's Blog, page 967

Tuesday Midday Links:Least Helpful Amazon Reviews; Pub Exec Admits to Stripping DRM

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Jim C. Hines – Posing Like a Man – Jim Hines recreates a series of mantitty covers and comes to some interesting conclusions about the objectification of men on covers (it’s almost always positive).

Karen Knows Best – “It hasn’t passed my attention that within romance, enhanced breasts are usually hung on the ‘bitchy other woman’, as if somehow having silicone implants automatically makes her a bad person. This has started to annoy me a little bit. I don’t know, it just seems a tad judgmental....

REVIEW: Twisted by Laura Griffin (A Different Perspective)

Dear Ms. Griffin,

I’ve mentioned before that the reason I don’t read much romantic suspense is that usually one aspect or the other gets shortchanged and I end up disappointed. Your books, however, have usually been the exception. A few little things in them might niggle but I’ve come to expect that in order to include both romance and suspense, everybody cuts a few corners here and there. It comes with the territory. Unfortunately, here I find that both the romance and suspense departments su...

Guest Opinion: The Changing Face of Erotic Romance

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The following is a guest post from Leah Braemel. I saw her write about this topic on her blog and asked if she would be willing to post something similar on Dear Author. She agreed. You can find out more about Leah Braemel’s books at her website:http://leahbraemel.com/.

When I started reading erotic romance back in the early to mid-2000s, erotic romance meant “bedroom door wide open”, the author would use graphic terminology that most mainstream romances wouldn’t. The act of love making bet...

REVIEW: Twisted by Laura Griffin

Dear Ms. Griffin:

I picked up one book of yours after reading a slew of reviews by Jayne. Jayne’s not a romantic suspense reader and the fact that she liked several of your books was enough to push me to buy one of your books. One book was all it took to get me hooked. Now when the ARCs arrive at my house, I sneak off to read them before sending them on to Jayne. She mentioned that Twisted looked well read. We thumb wrestled over who would review this book and Jayne graciously allowed me the p...

Explanation of the Settlement between DOJ Hachette, Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster and What Happens Next

The DOJ filed suit against five publishers (Penguin, Macmillan, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster) on April 11, 2012.  The DOJ then immediately filed a notice of settlement and a request for approval of the settlement.  A judge assigned to this case will then either approve the settlement and order the parties back to the negotiating table.  Any interested party has the right to write a statement to the court within 60 days to encourage or discourage acceptance of the proposed...

REVIEW: Under the Same Sky by Genevieve Graham

 

Dear Ms. Graham,

I've been trying to read more historical romance lately, so when I was offered your book and I saw that it was a departure from the usual England as Regencylandia fare, I was happy to accept. The unusual premise (Outlander meets Last of the Mohicans) sounded promising and it looked like a modern incarnation of the epic romances that some of us really miss from the olden days. Unfortunately, there were a number of issues that made this a less than satisfying read. It...

REVIEW: A Tryst with Trouble by Alyssa Everett

Dear Ms. Everett,

I requested this book from Netgalley because I was intrigued by the blurb, which begins, "Dogged for years by painful gossip about his father's homosexuality, the Marquess of Beningbrough—Ben, to his friends—has protected himself by becoming the ultimate man's man." I don't know that I've ever seen a romance hero with that particular baggage, and I was interested in how it would be dealt with in a historical context. As it turns out, that aspect of the story ended up being...

Wednesday Links: DOJ Sues Apple, Macmillan, and Possibly Others

CISPA is SOPA 2.0: petition to stop it – Boing Boing – CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (H.R. 3523), is considered by some to be SOPA 2.0 although Facebook and Microsoft both support the new CISPA act. Says the EFF, though:

"The broad language around what constitutes a cybersecurity threat leaves the door wide open for abuse. For example, the bill defines "cyber threat intelligence" and "cybersecurity purpose" to include "theft or misappropriation of private...

Debut Print Book: Under the Same Sky by Genevieve Graham

I've had some concerns by readers who are primarily print readers that the coverage at Dear Author has been too focused on ebooks. When I asked the readers what they were interested in seeing, they responded that they would like to know more about print debut authors. We developed a little questionnaire and every Wednesday at 10:00 AM CST (as long as we have content) we'll post the questionnaire answers along with links to the author's site and a buy link to her book. I hope this helps...

REVIEW: The Only Gold by Tamara Allen

 

Dear Ms. Allen,

This review is long overdue. I loved this book when I read it last year, so much that I put it on my Best of 2011 list. But I didn't get the review written in proper time, and then the Dreamspinner Press debacle happened and Sarah and I stopped reviewing DSP's books. Your review became collateral damage of that decision. Then you retrieved your rights from DSP, and I swore to myself that I would review it as soon as it was available. You've self-published it (at an attractive ...