Jules Jones's Blog, page 21
June 20, 2015
one day summer sale at ARe
All Romance eBooks have a one day sale today to celebrate the start of summer. 25% off a wide range of books, including Loose Id's catalogue, and specifically including my books (and a Dreamspinner anthology which includes one of my shorts).
If you are sitting in one of the gloomy patches of Britain looking at Midsummer's Eve grey skies, there is plenty of heat available to warm you up. :-) (Not just joking, either - our central heating came on this morning...)
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If you are sitting in one of the gloomy patches of Britain looking at Midsummer's Eve grey skies, there is plenty of heat available to warm you up. :-) (Not just joking, either - our central heating came on this morning...)
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June 7, 2015
Courtney Milan's "The Duchess War" is currently free
Courtney Milan has "The Duchess War" on offer as a freebie - this is the first novel in a series of Victorian romances. *Feminist* Victorian romances that are alphole-free zones, and have scientists, engineers and sundry other geeks as heroines and heroes. (One of them is dedicated to Rosalind Franklin. This has a direct connection to the theme of the book.) I think they are awesome, even if I have failed to review them properly yet. I think a lot of you would also find them awesome.
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Amazon Canada
Amazon Australia
Kobo
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/294406.html, where it has received
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Amazon UK
Amazon US
Amazon Canada
Amazon Australia
Kobo
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/294406.html, where it has received
comments.
June 1, 2015
TRR summer party
A reminder that The Romance Reviews is hosting a month-long summer party starting today, with the opportunity to win different books every day, and a month long competition with a grand prize of a $100 gift certificate. You'll need to be a member of the forum and logged in to enter, but it's not difficult to set up an account. More info here: http://www.theromancereviews.com/event.php
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Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/294287.html, where it has received
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May 31, 2015
The wonders of ancient technology
I spent a chunk of the afternoon rummaging through my hard drive looking for my copies of some of Predatrix's stories that she wants to put on AO3 and/or submit to a New Zine. (I never thought I'd be typing that last phrase again.) Stuff that was only ever in my email spool courtesy of beta-reading may be beyond practical reach now that I've finally abandoned Turnpike, but I should have had copies of everything that was published in one of my zines. You will note the word "should".
I have all the Tales zines on my hard drive, with the emails, in-progress files and final proofs neatly arrayed in their individual folders. I have Endless Farce 2. I do not have Endless Farce 1, which is the thing she most particularly wanted, on account of having completely lost any trace of it on her own machine.
What I do have is a box full of CDs, with assorted backups from over the years. I grabbed a handful and started working my way through. And on the CD I burned on 25 April 2000 I found the missing sub-directory. A fifteen year old CD, and the data is still perfectly readable. I wasn't really expecting that.
I should probably think about putting some of my own stuff on AO3, or at least more of other people's stuff from the zines, but the thought of fighting with AO3's horrible interface wearies me, even though I am assured that it has improved since the last time I did battle with it. I'm not that desperate for opportunities to cat-vacuum on the profic WIP.
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/293982.html, where it has received
comments.
I have all the Tales zines on my hard drive, with the emails, in-progress files and final proofs neatly arrayed in their individual folders. I have Endless Farce 2. I do not have Endless Farce 1, which is the thing she most particularly wanted, on account of having completely lost any trace of it on her own machine.
What I do have is a box full of CDs, with assorted backups from over the years. I grabbed a handful and started working my way through. And on the CD I burned on 25 April 2000 I found the missing sub-directory. A fifteen year old CD, and the data is still perfectly readable. I wasn't really expecting that.
I should probably think about putting some of my own stuff on AO3, or at least more of other people's stuff from the zines, but the thought of fighting with AO3's horrible interface wearies me, even though I am assured that it has improved since the last time I did battle with it. I'm not that desperate for opportunities to cat-vacuum on the profic WIP.
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/293982.html, where it has received
comments.
May 24, 2015
book log 2015: 7) Cecilia Tan -- The Siren and the Sword
Hey, look - book log! Less than four months after reading the book! Posted only two months after writing the notes!
(Disclosure: I don't know the author particularly well, but I've long admired her work as an editor, and have submitted material to her publishing house in the past. This hasn't had any impact on my reaction to the book, other than I wouldn't have known about a promo deal on the new edition and run off to buy it if I didn't have her blog on my LiveJournal feed.)
Erotic fantasy novel which is quite openly inspired by Harry Potter. "Inspired by" means "loving homage", not "rip-off"; this is a worthy novel in its own right, and could be enjoyed as such by someone who's never read any of Rowling's books (or indeed any of the other speculative fiction Tan pays homage to). But it's most easily described as what would happen if Harry Potter was an American taking up a scholarship at Harvard University, and on arrival walking into the admin office of a faculty housed in buildings which aren't findable by most people on the campus, to the confusion of himself and the faculty administrators. Since we're dealing with undergraduates here, there's sex. Lots of sex. Sex for actual plot purposes, no less, and all the better for it. For there is indeed a plot, concerning the covert presence on campus of a siren, what that is, and the dangers it poses to the students. It's intertwined with various other plot threads, most of which are resolved satisfactorily while leaving openings for further stories about next year's adventures. While I think there's some room for improvement, it's well written, by someone who understands her material. I liked it a lot, enough to want to read the next one in the series (a quartet of novels plus a collection of short stories). If that brief description sounds like something you'd be interested in reading, I'd recommend you try it out -- the prologue and first chapter are available as free samples on Amazon and other online retailers.
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Amazon Canada
Amazon Australia
Kobo
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/293818.html, where it has received
comments.
(Disclosure: I don't know the author particularly well, but I've long admired her work as an editor, and have submitted material to her publishing house in the past. This hasn't had any impact on my reaction to the book, other than I wouldn't have known about a promo deal on the new edition and run off to buy it if I didn't have her blog on my LiveJournal feed.)
Erotic fantasy novel which is quite openly inspired by Harry Potter. "Inspired by" means "loving homage", not "rip-off"; this is a worthy novel in its own right, and could be enjoyed as such by someone who's never read any of Rowling's books (or indeed any of the other speculative fiction Tan pays homage to). But it's most easily described as what would happen if Harry Potter was an American taking up a scholarship at Harvard University, and on arrival walking into the admin office of a faculty housed in buildings which aren't findable by most people on the campus, to the confusion of himself and the faculty administrators. Since we're dealing with undergraduates here, there's sex. Lots of sex. Sex for actual plot purposes, no less, and all the better for it. For there is indeed a plot, concerning the covert presence on campus of a siren, what that is, and the dangers it poses to the students. It's intertwined with various other plot threads, most of which are resolved satisfactorily while leaving openings for further stories about next year's adventures. While I think there's some room for improvement, it's well written, by someone who understands her material. I liked it a lot, enough to want to read the next one in the series (a quartet of novels plus a collection of short stories). If that brief description sounds like something you'd be interested in reading, I'd recommend you try it out -- the prologue and first chapter are available as free samples on Amazon and other online retailers.
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Amazon Canada
Amazon Australia
Kobo
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/293818.html, where it has received
comments.
The Romance Reviews summer party
Big book giveaway throughout June at The Romance Reviews, including a giveaway from me on June 23. The summer party is fun from both sides of the writing desk, and I usually find one or two books I want. More details at the events page, but at the moment over 350 authors signed up for giveaways.
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Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/293521.html, where it has received
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May 6, 2015
Use it or lose it
I've lived in a place where much of the adult population was disenfranchised by law. I've lived in a place where suffrage is not just universal, but mandatory. I much prefer the latter. Get out there and vote. I don't care who you vote for, as long as you're voting for a party that believes in universal suffrage.
Yes, they're all a pack of weasels. But they're not all the same, most of them do genuinely believe in democracy, and they're a lot better than the alternative. Even writing "none of the above" across your ballot is a slap in the face to those who'd prefer the serfs didn't pay any attention to what their lords and masters are doing.
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Yes, they're all a pack of weasels. But they're not all the same, most of them do genuinely believe in democracy, and they're a lot better than the alternative. Even writing "none of the above" across your ballot is a slap in the face to those who'd prefer the serfs didn't pay any attention to what their lords and masters are doing.
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/293229.html, where it has received
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April 25, 2015
Anzac Day centenary
One hundred years since the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps stormed the cliffs of Gallipoli. They weren't the only, or even the largest, group to land. They weren't even all Australians and New Zealanders. But so very many of them were from two small and new nations. And so very many of them didn't come home.
I'm old enough to have watched as some of those who did come home marched on Anzac Days past. Old enough to have seen the days when the Vietnam War veterans didn't march alongside the Great War and the Second World War returned services, because it was still too raw and bitter a memory for them. Old enough to have seen Peter Weir's film on a school outing as part of our history lessons that year, and been in tears on the way out along with my classmates, girls and boys both.
Not old enough to have seen the last of fresh generations to march. But there is also this -- Anzac Day is a symbol of both remembrance and reconciliation. The ones who didn't come home have been looked after all down the years by their former enemies, who lost so many of their own young men. And there are memorials to Ataturk in both Australia and New Zealand. Would that all conflicts could end with such determination to set aside our differences in recognition of our common humanity.
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/293080.html, where it has received
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I'm old enough to have watched as some of those who did come home marched on Anzac Days past. Old enough to have seen the days when the Vietnam War veterans didn't march alongside the Great War and the Second World War returned services, because it was still too raw and bitter a memory for them. Old enough to have seen Peter Weir's film on a school outing as part of our history lessons that year, and been in tears on the way out along with my classmates, girls and boys both.
Not old enough to have seen the last of fresh generations to march. But there is also this -- Anzac Day is a symbol of both remembrance and reconciliation. The ones who didn't come home have been looked after all down the years by their former enemies, who lost so many of their own young men. And there are memorials to Ataturk in both Australia and New Zealand. Would that all conflicts could end with such determination to set aside our differences in recognition of our common humanity.
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/293080.html, where it has received
comments.
April 14, 2015
Worldcon supporting membership bought
Having achieved updating my accounts at the weekend, in pursuit of a completed tax return, I discovered that I had Worldcon supporting membership for 2016 but not for this year. There were so many opportunities to buy supporting, voting, pre-supporting etc etc at LonCon that I lost track of which bids and cons had actually got my money. :-)
I have now remedied that lack. I'd been intending to vote on the Hugos anyway, having discovered the joy of the Voting Packet a few years ago as a way to make sure I'd actually read anything recent enough to be eligible, but there's an added incentive to make sure I've got my voting PIN this year.
For anyone else who had the same problem as me at Worldcon of spending more time volunteering than going around the tents, the link is
https://sasquan.swoc.us/sasquan/reg.php
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/292628.html, where it has received
comments.
I have now remedied that lack. I'd been intending to vote on the Hugos anyway, having discovered the joy of the Voting Packet a few years ago as a way to make sure I'd actually read anything recent enough to be eligible, but there's an added incentive to make sure I've got my voting PIN this year.
For anyone else who had the same problem as me at Worldcon of spending more time volunteering than going around the tents, the link is
https://sasquan.swoc.us/sasquan/reg.php
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/292628.html, where it has received
comments.
April 11, 2015
I want this for my cover art
I followed a link from Absolute Write to "pretties". They are indeed pretty - a stunning gallery by Feimo on Deviant Art. And one of the pretty men really caught my attention, because put dragonfly wings on him and I could use this as the cover of my urban fantasy WIP. Yes, complete with rosary. My fairy lad is nowhere near as beaten and helpless as that, but the villain thinks he is...
Tagging this post as story idea, because some of those pieces are making me want to write about them.
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/292382.html, where it has received
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Tagging this post as story idea, because some of those pieces are making me want to write about them.
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/292382.html, where it has received
comments.
