Just another damn group blog!
He who laughs last probably doesn’t understand the joke.
28Jul2010 Filed under: Tanya's Posts Author: Tanya
There 11 subjects below. Respond to whatever interests you and ignore the rest.
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1. READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?
I’m once again looking for some great reads. As if my TBR pile isn’t fat enough. Still, I’m always on the lookout for a good book. What did you read this year that had you flipping the pages like a crazy person? What’s in your TBR pile?
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2. FAVORITES
Name some of your favorite scenes from your favorite TV shows or movies. Here’s one of mine. It’s from True Blood, Season 1.
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3. DIRTY IN DUTCH COUNTRY?
Seems there’s a new trend going round these days. Amish romance. Have you read any? Are you interested in writing it? I know nothing about it, but I would think it would probably have the same restrictions as Inspirational, but I’m not sure.
According to a recent Newsweek article:
“The most popular microtrends of the moment are Amish- and Mennonite-themed romances, which covered the best-seller lists last fall like a giant head scarf. What was considered a holiday season fad has persisted—and even narrowed. “I have noticed a new trend within the Mennonite genre toward Amana romances,” says author Cindy Woodsmall, whose books have appeared on The New York Times’ mass-market fiction best-seller list, referring to an ultraconservative strain of Amish. Woodsmall’s The Bridge of Peace, about an Old Order Amish schoolteacher with a peculiar birthmark, is due out in August.”
Read the rest HERE.
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4. WYLIE/AMAZON vs. THE PUBLISHING WORLD
Yeah, I know everybody’s talking about it, and you’re probably tired of hearing about it, but it’s friggen fascinating. At least I think so. Do you have any opinions you’d like to share? I find this comment from the Author’s Guild VERY interesting.
“To a large extent, publishers have brought this on themselves. This storm has long been gathering. Literary agencies have refused to sign e-rights deals for countless backlist books with traditional publishers, even though they and their clients, no doubt, see real benefits in having a single publisher handle the print and electronic rights to a book. Knowledgeable authors and agents, however, are well aware that e-book royalty rates of 25% of net proceeds are exceedingly low and contrary to the long-standing practice of authors and publishers to, effectively, split evenly the net proceeds of book sales.”
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5. SEP’S LATEST
Susan Elizabeth Phillips posted the first chapter of her new book!!! Squee!
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6. DANCE ROUTINE OF THE WEEK
Adechike and Comfort’s Lyrical Hip Hop number, Fallin‘ from So You Think You Can Dance was stellar. Just watching this number reminded me of those destructive relationships where you just keep going back because you’re SO in love, but it always ends the same—in misery.
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7. WALLBANGERS
Readers, put your writer hat down for a second and give us a list of things you can’t ever forgive in fiction you read.
A heroine who_______________ never works for me.
I can’t stand heroes who_________________.
Plots with ______________ never hold my interest.
Authors who ______________ have lost me forever.
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8. WHY BLOG?
Patricia at The Communication Exchange posed the following question:
1. Why are some bloggers (like me) obsessive about posting regularly and others seem to have a very lackadaisical attitude regarding the frequency of their writings?
To which the Mad Editor responded:
I guess posting frequency depends on an individual’s goals, work ethic and how much time
they have in which to write. For myself, I try to post at least three times a week, but sometimes manages multiple postings in a single day. And there have been periods due to illness or other commitments when I’ve posted hardly at all. It depends. As a rule, I think bloggers should blog every day. That’s how you keep people coming back. That being said, I think it’s probably better to write a few solid posts infrequently than to post frequently just for the sake of posting. There have been plenty of times when I’ve done the posting for the sake of posting thing and what I usually end up with is a lot of useless filler. So another rule of thumb should be, if you have nothing to post about, it’s probably not such a bad idea to take the day off.
Good answer! What say you?
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9. SHARING TIME
Share a random paragraph from anywhere in your WIP. Here’s one of mine:
Phillip eased down onto the chair like a coiling snake. His golden eyes were vacant, soulless. Not surprising. Evil had a way of eating at your humanity, until nothing remained but an empty husk. That’s assuming, of course, that Phillip Malveaux had any humanity to begin with.
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10. SLUSHPILE HELL
OMG….. Check THIS out.
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11. MEET THE NEW HULK
Um, NO! This does not work for me. Mark Ruffalo?????????????????? What the hell happened to Ed? I loved him as Hulk!!!!!
- Tags: agents, Amazon, authors, books we love, heroes, movies, novels, publishing, rejection, scandals, Tanya's Posts, TV, WIP, writing
5 Responses to “He who laughs last probably doesn’t understand the joke.”
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About this blog
We write, therefore we angst (and breathe, and daydream a lot and eat tons of chocolate). Its not so bad if you can afford the therapy bills!
Raine
July 28th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
1. Finished “The Smoke Thief” by Shana Abe. Won’t say it had me flipping, and didn’t much care for the hero, but the prose was lush & beautiful.
2. My fav scene from “True Blood” too. They’ll never top it.
6. Rarely get to see the show, but am in awe of how talented those kids are! Always loved watching beautiful dancing. Sigh.
7. I can’t stand:
A heroine who shows no character arc never works for me.
I can’t stand heroes who have taken that step beyond cocky to smarmy.
Plots with secret babies or shieks never hold my interest.
Authors who bait and switch have lost me forever.
9. Tanya, that’s great!
A random paragraph?
Plowing a twisted path through the woods, he ignored the slashing pines that made his cheek sing. Shaken from still, dreamless sleep, the trees drenched the air with perfume, like a lover aroused. And that was fine with him; it might save his ass. He didn’t know whether his pursuers were after him for what he’d done or for what he was, whether they tracked by smell or twilight-sight.
Charlene Teglia
July 29th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Recent good reads: Discord’s Apple, Carrie Vaughn, plus the latest Kitty book. The new Skin book by Ann Aguirre. Downside Ghosts by Stacia Kane (3 books so far, City of Ghosts just came out and I devoured it). PBW’s latest. And now I need something else to read so I’ll be scouring the recs here.
The Amish thing; I think it has to do with a desire to live a simpler life with clearcut rules. That makes good escapist fantasy for today’s complex world. Also, the Amish have a very strong sense of community, and probably too many of us don’t know our neighbors but have friends in all time zones.
Melissa Blue
July 29th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
6. Have been glued to the tv screen every week to watch the magic. Anya and Comfort are the absolute best. Fierce! And I really don’t know who should win, all of them this year are fabulous.
7. Secret baby stories are instant wallbangers. And that includes heroes who are abusive.
BernardL
July 29th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
1. First, a disclaimer. Stacia Kane and Bernita Harris are friends of mine. Although I don’t hype writing unless I really like it, letting you know I’m friends of the authors seems appropriate. I’m too old to be a fanboy anyhow.
I’ve read the first two books of Stacia Kane’s ‘Downside’ series and the third just arrived at the shop. ‘Unholy Ghosts’ and the second in the series ‘Unholy Magic’ were simply exquisitely rich world building paranormals featuring characters and dialogue I never thought I’d enjoy. The best part is you don’t notice the world of ‘Downside’ materializing in your head until it’s just there seamlessly. I bought the first one thinking the review was so interesting I had to take a look. ‘Unholy Ghosts’ hooked me so completely in the first couple chapters I ordered the rest of the series before I read anymore. ‘Unholy Magic’ kept the pace and fire of the first without missing a beat and I’ve had to nearly sit on my hands to keep from tearing through the third, ‘City of Ghosts’. ‘Dark and Disorderly’ by Bernita Harris features her character Lillie St. Claire from the short stories I had read previously in Wild Child Publishing’s series ‘Weirdly’. Lillie exorcises ghosts for a living. From the moment her dead husband shows up as a surreal zombie at the beginning, ‘Dark and Disorderly’ is a thrill ride from there on. I’ve limited myself to a few pages a day of ‘City of Ghosts’ and ‘Dark and Disorderly’ because they will be finished far too soon.
6. That routine had a little too much drama for me but it was done very well.
8. I blog when I feel like it which is nearly every day. Writing about things that happen at the shop or stuff that torques me off in the news keeps me from ever getting too blocked.
9. Good one, Tanya.
Even with the cool outside air rattling through cracks in the sheet metal walls, a pungent mix of sweat, cologne, perfume, rage, anger and fear assaulted my nose. I inhaled deeply. Walking into a dirty cesspool of an arena like this made my blood pound. It reminded me of home, fightin’ off my old man and the bimbos he accumulated. My fingers curled into tight fists at my sides – nothin’ like memories of Pa to get me in the mood.
Dennie
August 3rd, 2010 at 10:40 am
Adachike and Comfort were AMAZING! Just seeing the emotions on their faces when it was over was so cool.