The weekly links, opinion, and personal updates post. Brace yourselves: the personal update this week is actually kind of interesting.
Links of Interest
My heroes of the week: Grad student whistle blowers. I’ve been avidly — not to say gleefully – following the Marc Hauser story. Unbelievable. And yet … not.
Pop Philosophy is Taking Over Bookshops (via @jafurtado). Yet my idea for a popular volume on Philosophy and Romance has been rejected by three presses.
Is Lady Gaga A Feminist? Five Questions for Philosopher Nancy Bauer
Lately, I have noticed that advertising in blogs has migrated from the sidebar to the body of the posts. And not just the end of posts, like posts from The Millions, but the whole post. The most recent example is a “post” advertising diapers at Books on the Knob. I love the info about free books on BOTK, and I support her by clicking affiliate links when I can. I just hate the migration of ads into content. I know I can click past it, but it feels different to me than the sidebar links.
@sonomalass, whom many of us know from Twitter and her blog hopping, finally has her own WordPress blog, Another Day in Paradise.
Katiebabs is talking about how to stop sites that steal your content. Her post has links to some websites that can help you discover if your content has been scraped. Although I am sorry this happened to Kate, the post is very helpful.
Did you know there were over 70 indie presses for romance? I do now. Check it also for an interesting batch of comments on what indie presses owe to authors by way of promo.
OUT-fail: You all know about this already, but for my own records: The Out magazine article on straight women writing and reading m/m romance. The Gawker follow up. Visit Teddypig for his response, and for links to the Lamda Literary response (with 50+ comments). A response from Gehayi (also from Teddypig). Erastes’ own response. I am sure there’s lots more out there. If you have any links to suggest, feel free to do so in comments. I don’t have any comment, except to say that there has to be something between wholesale dismissal of the entire subgenre on the grounds that all of it is sexist fetishizing of male homosexuality, and wholesale embrace of it on the grounds that anybody can read and write whatever they want, and that fiction is make believe so it doesn’t matter anyway.
Culinary Carnivale has a new feature: ebooks I would have bought, listing the ebooks that were just too damn expensive — even more than their paper counterparts. I pass up several ebooks a month for the same reason. If we all do it, will publishers get the message?
Male and Female Ability Differences Down to Socialisation, Not Genetics, from the Guardian. Except for the title, this article on researcher Cordelia Fine, and her forthcoming book, Delusions of Gender, doesn’t fall into the usual false nature/nurture dichotomy:
“All sorts of ridiculous conclusions about very important issues are then made. Already sexism disguised in neuroscientific finery is changing the way children are taught.”
It will give you a ready response the next time you are at a playground and a mother says of her boy, “He just came out that way!”
Check out this interview with Wicked Gentlemen author Ginn Hale at Fantasy Cafe.
Read But Not Reviewed
I read Ava Gray’s Skin Game after Tumperkin posted about it, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I also recently read and enjoyed Pamela Clare’s latest I-Team book, Naked Edge, so I guess I’m back in the game as far as rom suspense goes, after a long period away.
Another book I read and really enjoyed was Kristan Higgins’ RITA winner, Too Good to Be True. This was an odd reading experience. I was totally into this book, and thrilled with it while reading it. I liked it so much, that I immediately bought several other books by the author. But whenever I try to write a review, it comes out sounding negative. A recent post from Kati of Katidom on The Last Minute HEA helped me nail one reason: Higgins’ characters don’t get together until the very end, kind of like in old school romance where the hero says “I love you” and the book ends. I think I’ll do a post on a group of her books, like I did with Susan Napier.
When the setting hits too close to home
I often notice readers saying they can’t read books that feature a heroine whose career is the same as their own. but how about the setting. Can you read a romance set in — or even near — your hometown?
Speaking of Higgins, I tried to read Catch of the Day, a 2007 Rita Winner, about a woman who owns a a diner and a lobsterman in Washington County, Maine. The problem I had with this one was that I live pretty close to the setting of that book, and, to me, it is not a romantic setting. On the front page of my newspaper this weekend was this headline: Drugs Weigh Heavily on Maine’s Poorest Area, Washington County. Here’s how the article begins:
Nicholas Ames has been a fisherman, a carpenter and a crewman for the Maine Department of Transportation. He is a son, a brother and a father.
Ames is also a drug addict.
Washington County is very hard hit economically, by the exodus of major employers, mainly paper mills, overfishing and tighter restrictions on fishing, and the aging of the population. Illicit drug use is very high, partially as a result of these economic problems. Of course, there are wonderful love stories that happen in Washington County. But the place described in the book bears so little resemblance to the area I know, that I just couldn’t get past it. This is 100% reader bias, I realize, and no fault of the author. I am sure to pick up the book again soon.
I also joined Goodreads. I am not sure I have the energy for another social networking endeavor, but if you blog and have a Goodreads account, I’d be curious to know how you balance or integrate them.
Personal
I went to Boston for the weekend to meet my husband’s family for my father in law’s 80th birthday. At 2:00am on Saturday, the fire alarm went off in our hotel, and we raced down 7 flights of stairs to the smell of smoke and no fewer than 10 emergency vehicles lined up on the street with firefighters, cops, and EMTs running to and fro. Several quick thinking guests grabbed their terry cloth robes from the bathroom. At least two brides grabbed their wedding gowns, trying to keep them off the dirty stairwell floor and later using trees as makeshift hangers. I grabbed only my kids and my purse, leaving me stuck in my ratty gym shorts and braless in an old college t-shirt. If anyone ever asks me what I would take in a fire, I now have a definitive answer.
After about an hour standing half clothed in the chilly night air, we were herded into an adjacent hotel’s ballroom, where we stayed — with tablecloths for coverings — for the next four hours. Here’s a pic of my boys asleep on the floor. It was quite an adventure. The Boston Herald reported that there was an electrical fire, which they took hours to put out. No one was hurt, and we ended up having a wonderful weekend anyway.
Someone tweeted that this sounds like a great premise for a contemporary romance. I agree. But since I am not likely to write one, I thought I would brainstorm a few ideas and let you guys take it from here:
1. Blaze: Heroine, who lives in San Diego, is in Boston for a wedding. She recognizes that she was invited to serve as bridesmaid mostly because the bride — a real bitch – has so few real friends, but is game, and looks forward to returning to Boston, the home of her undergrad alma mater. A fire alarm goes off, and they have to evacuate the hotel. As she holds up the train of the bride’s gown (the bride is clutching the bodice with all her strength) and races out the door, she notices a gorgeous male firefighter. She’s mortified when the bridezilla starts screaming at him for information. Angry, the firefighter answers bridezilla’s questions with a brevity bordering on rudeness. As he turns, he catches sight of heroine in her ridiculous pajamas, gives her a once over, and dismisses her. Suggested title: “Hot for Her”
2. Medical: Elderly woman collapses in the stairwell when trying to exit a burning hotel. Dashing male doctor comes to her aid. Gorgeous female med student comes to his. Together, they save the elderly woman and go their separate ways. Until she is a resident in his hospital 4 years later. (Can turn into a Blaze by having them go out for a drink and a quickie after the rescue. Can turn into an erotic romance by having them do it right in the stairwell).
3. Suspense: Heroine is a journalist who happens to be staying at a Boston hotel when it burns down (luckily no one is hurt) Hero is an undercover FBI agent based in Boston who is on the scene within seconds of the alarm sounding. He’s sure it’s terrorism — he has been following this particular terror cell for years — but won’t reveal anything to the press. She wants to get the story of her career… (Can turn into erotic romance by having her lock him in an elevator and … well, you know)
4. Inspirational: The heroine and hero bond while delivering bottled water, handing out blankets, and leading prayer groups in the ballroom/refugee camp.
5. Paranormal/chick lit mashup: Hero is a werewolf/valet parking guy who set the fire by making mad wolf love to some random person in the hotel’s parking garage. Heroine is a human bride-to-be whose wedding is delayed by the fire, giving her fiance time to rethink and call it off. She drowns her sorrows in the hotel bar (once it reopens), and then in the arms of the werewolf hero (he shows up later). Conflicts abound: the human/nonhuman pairing, the class differences (heroine is an upwardly mobile stock analyst), the big secret of how the fire started, and we can throw in a scene where the human fiance wants her back.
6. Erotic: After spending time in a park, everyone is ushered to a nearby hotel for shelter. A few people sleep through the move, waking hours later to the lawn sprinklers soaking them to the skin. Two people notice how their clothes cling sexily, and decide to make the most of this bizarre moment. They don’t plan on seeing each other again but …
Ok, I’ve used up all my creative energies for at least a month, feeble as they are. If you successfully use any of these, all I ask is that you name one of the characters — it can be a pet gerbil, I’m not picky (but I draw the line at sex toys) — Jessica. 
FYI: Persuasion is the next Romance Roots Read. I aim to post on it end of September.
HAPPY WEEK!
Goodreads is a cataloging tool for me, basically. I also love the status updates to help me take notes on a book and I’ve got the app on my phone to do so as well while traveling. I don’t have a problem with the friend aspect of course, and I do like to read opinions on books there. I just turn off email notices for whatever tools aren’t useful for me on Goodreads, and I don’t accept author friend invites unless they’re known to me somehow already. I unfriended a lot of authors after it was clear I was only being added to a list of folks to spam on their books. I see Goodreads as a useful reader tool more than a social site I suppose.
What an exciting weekend! Glad you still had a good time.
Elisa had a good post about the OUT-fail kerfuffle, too.
I actually use LibraryThing to maintain my library. Some of my books are on GoodReads, but I don’t maintain my library there like I do my LT library. I participate a bit in the M/M Romance group. And I’m cautious about accepting friend invites, so I’ve avoided the author spam so far.
Thank you so much for the shout out, Jessica! I had no idea you visited my blog. LOL!
Glad to hear you and your family were OK after the electrical fire. That can be really, really scary!
Persuasion!!! That’s my favorite Austen.
Persuasion is one of those books that always makes me uncomfortable — I understand why everything happened but it still hurts. So I’m a bit apprenhensive about this upcoming collection of short stories: Austen + paranormal. I’m just not sure that will work. http://www.marybalogh.com/bespell.html
Glad you and your family are OK: what a story for the “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” portion of school!
You forgot to give one of the heroine’s amnesia due to a fall on the stairs and her photo is seen in the news article by her estranged greek billionaire… Thanks for making me laugh
Oh I agree, I think it has to do with disregarding the sexual orientation of the author and worrying about the quality of the writing. But… that would most likely disqualify most of the clique running the show over at Lambda if we held them to the typical qualifications. Plus you would have to do things like read books and what would they do with all that time they set aside to politic?
The article at OUT was bad enough, but the post at Lambda was really dreadful. Talk about misrepresenting the genre and its authors (the genre is mostly historical? the authors are mostly straight?), and then hurling gross insults based on the mischaracterization as an added bonus. I hope Ms. Brownworth’s umpteen Pulitzer nominations were in the criticism or photo categories, because if that post is an example of her empirical skills, I’m a bit worried about the nominations process.
The Medical story could definitely have the drinks/one-night stand episode, but when they met 4 yrs later the heroine would have a 3-year-old child.
ETA: And her Amazon info says Ms. Brownworth writes gay male porn under a pseudonym (according to non-straight m/m author Lee Rowan). Pot, meet kettle.
So glad that you and your family are okay! We almost had a fire in my house a few weeks ago and all I could think of was what if we weren’t home and my poor cat was all alone there.
As always, love your stepbacks. Lots to read and think about.
Gawd. Clicked thru to one of the OUT-related links and saw Cintra Wilson named as author of piece. I remember last kerfuffle was her NYT article sneering at lowbrow shoppers in Manhattan. I guess people might hire her because she gets page views, but hopefully that will be outbalanced in future by deciding her research, judgment and analytical skills are crap.
I think I feel the same way about the Out kerfuffle as I do about the stuff on gender difference: it is easy to make sweeping generalizations (men are Y, women X, fetishizing vs. just fiction), and there may be some truth to them, but they flatten out anything interesting we could see about individual men, women, books, and readers. I’m pretty sure gay men and their relationships differ, just as straight couples’ do, that books often reflect this, and that critics of both m/m and f/m romance ignore it (because they’re basing everything they say on reading a couple, or zero, books).
I really enjoyed Higgins’ latest. I didn’t see the HEA as last minute (though I see the point); what nags at me is that I thought the heroine needed to do a bit more apologizing. I think Higgins too often lets her heroines off the hook.
Glad you and your family are OK!
So bored with the same divisive, unrepresentative individuals from a tiny subset of m/m being held up as speaking for all m/m readers and writers. No sensible discussion can be had while they and their vitriolic supporters personalise and spitefully degrade every aspect of the debate, and I won’t even try.
But hey, as one of the apparently only two completely straight m/m authors – not gender queer, not faking gay, not married but bi, but 100% screamingly heterosexual – I’m available for interviews if anyone’s interested in what all straight women think about the genre. After all, if one historical romance author speaks for all m/m authors, then one straight reader gets to speak for all straight readers, right? (If anyone’s interested, I read it for the secret crossword clues hidden between pages 30-45 in every m/m book, and so does every other straight woman.)
I will totally pinch your storylines and name a pet after you
I thought the Out article was making some of the same points as my Sexuality post. I would never use the term “homo bodice ripper,” of course. But the thrust of it is that women are reading and writing explicit m/m. True? Yes! Appalling? Not for me. But I’m not a gay man.
I think authors have every right to write what they like. And readers have every right to *react* how they like. I’m not comfortable with restrictions on either side. No censorship, no dismissiveness. Saying that accurate potrayals don’t matter sounds (to me) like: “your identity isn’t valid.”
Thanks for the shout out, Jessica. You are my blogging role model, you know.
Also thanks for the link to the Guardian article. My students are always really interested in discussing gender as it affects communication, especially speculating about what’s nature and what’s nurture.
I love your series of “takes” on the hotel fire/exile issue. Now that’s the sign of a fertile mind.
Will keep my fingers crossed that one of these publishers sees the light regarding the brilliance of Philosophy and Romance as a title. Don’t suppose there’s any way that Harlequin itself might be interested?
Thanks for linking to the interview!
I’m glad to hear no one was hurt in the fire. And I’m looking forward to your post on Persuasion - I love that book!
one question… do people really NAME sex toys?
And heh… some of those ideas are pretty damn fun…
one question… do people really NAME sex toys?
Shiloh – I have a girlfriend whose vibe is named “BOB” – Battery Operated Boyfriend.
Re: settings close to home – Interesting you should mention that. I was just noticing that I’ve had 2 review books recently that were set in areas I’ve lived at various points. As long as the author gets the setting basically correct, I’m fine. However, I did years ago read a book where the voters of the city of DC were described as a GOP stronghold and almost fell off my chair laughing.
I tend to notice more when I’m reading books where someone has a job that I have or have had because there are often slipups on little things, and these little things can add up to a big case of unbelievability for me. For instance, warzone relief workers who manage to stay clean, made-up and wearing freshly pressed clothing all the time, lawyers who never research anything, who routinely violate rules of ethics with nary a twinge, etc… My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult made me absolutely stabby over this stuff.
Glad you all are okay! Electrical fires are scary stuff. Love your book plots, though.
Same here. Love your plots. That’s more plots than I can come up with in a year!
@Kati: LMAO… well, BOB is pretty typical, I guess… beyond that, though? That sounds kinda bizarre, IMO.
Glad you’re all ok! But what an exciting portion of your “what I did over summer vacation” essay.
I use Goodreads just to keep track of what I’ve read and what I want to remember to read. Sometimes I read reviews. Sometimes I like to see what other people are reading to get ideas. I don’t take it any further than that and I don’t consider it a social network for me.
Re: settings, your linky to the Maine article (I skimmed it) reminded me of a recent trip to the eastern Highlands, where the landscape was absolutely mystical and breathtaking, and my nearest village sported a 40% unemployment rate and massive issues with hard drugs. It really made me rethink my romantic view of the Highlands – I was thinking like a tourist and an outsider. I still love it, but it was an eye-opener. I think that if I read a book that dealt in romanticizing an area that I knew to be blighted with social ills, it would be difficult to swallow too.
You’ve also given me an excuse to read Persuasion, the only Austen I haven’t tackled (yet my sister’s favorite.)
BTW, I am the kick-assiest map reader in my entire extended family. Gendered spatial abilities indeed.