Colleen Anderson's Blog, page 60

Starbucks and the Censored Mermaid

Anyone who lives on the West Coast knows of Starbucks, whether they drink coffee or not. Actually anyone may know of Starbucks because there are over 16,000 stores world wide. When the Seattle-based company first began the logo consisted of a twin-tailed siren or a melusine.

One medieval version of the melusine at her bath.

 The siren is another name for mermaids who lure sailors to their deaths upon the rocks of the tumultuous ocean. The melusine specifically refers to a mermaid with a...

Buy at Sears, But Only If You Want Attitude

The first time I had problems with Sears, I eventually let it go even though I didn't shop in the store for a year. In this day when there are so many stores, really it's quality and service that make the difference. And so it is that I am not waiting for the three strikes you're out. Two is enough.

The first time, I was shopping in Sears (in Vancouver) and picking up a few skirts to try on. This woman comes up to me and snatches the skirts from my hand, saying "You're dragging them on the...

A Fairy Tale About Umberto

Here is a fairy tale about a man, let's say an Italian man from Tuscany because Italians are known for cooking. Let's say this man, we'll call him Umberto because that's a good, meaty Italian name, had learned to cook at his mama's side (or at least eaten the savory tidbits) and had pulled himself up by his bootstraps. He had once been a busboy. Busboys are little better than slaves; they get paid but no one really respects them and so, like the grime of morsels left on the plates, Umberto...

Book Review: The Sweetest Kiss II

Continuing from yesterday's review of The Sweetest Kiss, published by Cleis Press.

Ciara Finn's "Advantage"  is set in a club where people go to be morsels for vampires and is not that different a story from aspects of Buffy and Angel. It also has a few awkward descriptions, such as being bound with handcuffs but the character strains against ropes. The play of masochism on the human's part and the cold, alieness of vampires comes across very well although this is not as erotic as the other...

Book Review: The Sweetest Kiss

Cleis Press sent me a couple of books to review recently. I was hoping to get The Sweetest Kiss: Ravishing Vampire Erotica read and reviewed by Hallowe'en but I received the book too close to the date.  This review will be posted over two days as it is far too long for one posting.

The two things you can expect from a title like this is that the stories will be erotic and vampires will be involved. Other than that, who knows, but because it's erotica instead of horror I would expect few...

Writing: The Process of Rejection

Anyone who wants to be a writer should not even bother if they can't handle rejection. Rejection is a big part of the picture and it's your work, the very words you may have sweat blood and tears to create that gets rejected. Some people, especially first-time novelists treat their creation and more endearing that Dr. Frankenstein regarded his monster. It is their baby and any time you want to remove a piece or say it is flawed (in a critique) or reject it outright, then you are rejecting...

The Berlin Wall and India

Twenty years ago today a wall that separated not only a city into east and west but an ideology came down. At that time I was in India, and had been there for about three weeks. I was in the tribal state of Meghalaya, far from the western world in many respects. Luckily the Khasis are fairly affluent and my girlfriend's mother had a TV. It wasn't state of the art but they did get several channels. Only a very few houses had fridges or showers/tubs. Most still heated water with an electric...

India and the Berlin Wall

Twenty years ago today a wall that separated not only a city into east and west but an ideology came down. At that time I was in India, and had been there for about three weeks. I was in the tribal state of Meghalaya, far from the western world in many respects. Luckily the Khasis are fairly affluent and my girlfriend's mother had a TV. It wasn't state of the art but they did get several channels. Only a very few houses had fridges or showers/tubs. Most still heated water with an electric...

Vancouver Goes Puritan Over Booze

Port cities are often more cosmopolitan that interior cities. This has been an age-old pattern, common where sailors and merchants from many lands came to sell exotic and unusual wares. People of various races as well as different customs would mingle in such a city and tolerance for difference was greater. It was true in the 8th century, the 15th century and is true today.

Vancouver, being a port city is more liberal in many things and culturally mixed for various reasons. You might almost...

Welfare: For Freeloaders or Desperados

The history of social welfare has been long and varied, being part of the Roman, Islamic and Jewish empires. It has covered different groups with different criteria but overall it was for the poor and needy, for the elderly, widows and people with disabilities.

Canada has had a welfare system since the Great Depression. Part of a social welfare system, in Canada's case includes health care, education and supporting the underprivileged. It can vary from province to province as to what specific...