Proof that arrogance and stupidity are not limited to romancelandia ...


Texas Suit

Millie Criswell

So yesterday I had a bunch of Harlequin books download on my Fire, five of them chick lit by Millie Criswell. (I vaguely remember pre-ordering them, all for $0.).

God, they're bad.

I like chick-lit and will put up with a lot but oh my gawd, these are bad. I mean, in the first page there's so much info-dump that you think, 'aha, I now know everything'. Except somehow she manages to info-dump on every single page.

Every conversation is an info-dump.

No actions are considered. They just happen with an info dump to explain them.

And the conversations!!  Okay, I'm a conversation snob. Characters need to sound the way people actually talk. Nobody talks the way these characters do. Which by the way, always contains more info-dumping.

Did I mention that everything she writes is an info-dump? Yeah? I didn't think so.

Ha! I'm going to delete them all off my sweet little Fire (named Lucifer) (cause I roll that way). And if I ever see another Millie Criswell book, I'll run the other way. I promise.

Otherwise I might get dumped on.

The Singing Frogs

Today I was driving from my home in Honoka'a to Waimea, about a fifteen minute drive. Waimea has the big grocery stores and I was doing some shopping. Along the way I saw a cowboy, on a horse, rounding cattle into a pen.

I saw goats eating grass along a hillside.

Lots more cows and horses in pastures. And I thought I should write about this. After all I'm a city girl who's now living in the country. But wat would I write about forst? And the answer was immediate: the singing frogs.

We have these small frogs who are apparently new to the island (they try and try to keep control but sometimes you can't plan...  We have them everywhere here. I'll try to get a picture later but they're only about two inches long and just little frogs. But when the sun comes down they sing. And I don't mean they croak, I mean they sing. Their sound is almost birdsong, it's like a trilling whistle. And they're loud.

Our very first night here, we arrived at the house and I immediately asked, "What kind of bird is that?" Never heard of a bird singing in the dark. But it was my first hearing of the frogs.

Despite living in the "country", it's rarely quiet here. We have a lot of dogs always barking (and one that bays constantly). There's someone's radio down the street and occasional traffic. But later in the evening, there are times when everything goes still and I can lie in bed and listen to the frogs.

Sometimes I whistle back and if there's one by the window, my whistle will make it go silent for a moment. I've done it a few times, tried to answer it's song with my own.

It's really something. Singing frogs. I know they annoy a lot of people but I think they're wonderful. And I love the music they share.

Burn For Me by Ilona Andrews, Part Two

Carolyn loved it and I've discovered recently how good Ilona Andrews is... and this book is phenomenal!

Carolyn said she's hero-centric and Mad Rogan is her kind of hero. Well I'm heroine-centric and Nevada is my cup of tea. Easily motivated by her need to protect her family, a woman capable of killing because it needs to be done and feeling remorse later... dang, she's good.

But...

I was won over by the hero of this book. He's obviously damaged and although Nevada calls him a psychopath, I don't think he is. He has a complicated history with his family (the world has magic and powerful magical families 'Houses' create progeny over a need to develop the magical line further) and of course, he's a killer. His magic is huge and completely destructive.

Mad Rogan kills and suffers no remorse. But he isn't without feeling. And his attraction to Nevada is much more than just the desire to slake that Nevada thinks it is.

I did have one problem with the story and that was in the sex-y stuff. The H/h don't have sex and there's only three kisses in the book (I believe). But Mad's power is so strong that he can telekinesis-touch a woman sexually and he does it to Nevada without her permission. I disliked that. It wasn't rape but it was wrong. Bringing a woman to orgasm the second time you kiss her just to prove you the man was sleazy. It made me uncomfortable.

But that was my only issue. I loved the story telling, the world building and I adored the characters.

Is Book Two here yet?

Requires Hate? No, It's Plentiful

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The above link is fascinating reading. Apparently a woman who we knew as Requires Hate left a bloody path on the interwebs in calling people out as racist, privileged and bad writers. She was/is a nasty piece of business. She swung through the romance community briefly and did a bit of damage (not as much as she did elsewhere, thankfully).

I was aware of her because she sent people to this blog at one point after Carolyn had commented on a First Page on Dear Author. Ms. Hate took umbrage at Carolyn's comment and called her out on her blog with a link to our blog. It increased traffic and I saw it in the stats but it made no difference since nobody who came found anything to get enraged about.

It fascinated me to read the blog post because the kind of random hatred Ms. Hate spewed isn't all that unusual anymore.

This Story Is A Lie

This story is making the rounds about a KFC in England banning alcohol wipes for their customers because it offends Islamists. Now, the truth is that one customer asked for wipes and one store employee said they don't carry them (in fact, the store does carry them as all KFC stores do) and it became this viral lie that sweeping the interwebs.

The comments I read basically had so much venomous commentary that I felt sick. So much hate for people of a different culture that most of the commenters would kill all people who are Islamic, no matter what. The absolute rage of the people was terrifying.

I'm not on Twitter but I am on Facebook and my feed is getting smaller and smaller as I block more people. The amount of hate is beginning to wear me down. The hate for anyone who is 'other', whether the president of the United States or someone who dares to not be Christian.

Requires Hate is a perfect example of what the internet is becoming. And for those of us who don't require hate to get through our lives, it's becoming a scarier landscape every day.

Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews

Blurb:

#1 New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews launches a brand-new Hidden Legacy series, in which one woman must place her trust in a seductive, dangerous man who sets off an even more dangerous desire . . .

Nevada Baylor is faced with the most challenging case of her detective career—a suicide mission to bring in a suspect in a volatile situation. Nevada isn't sure she has the chops. Her quarry is a Prime, the highest rank of magic user, who can set anyone and anything on fire.

Then she's kidnapped by Connor "Mad" Rogan—a darkly tempting billionaire with equally devastating powers. Torn between wanting to run and wanting to surrender to their overwhelming attraction, Nevada must join forces with Rogan to stay alive.

Rogan's after the same target, so he needs Nevada. But she's getting under his skin, making him care about someone other than himself for a change. And, as Rogan has learned, love can be as perilous as death, especially in the magic world.


This is a new series for the Andrews and it's going to be a good one, IMO.

The controversial characterization of the hero I would imagine will be slowly sorted throughout the three books, because it certainly isn't resolved in the book. I'm talking, of course, about the emotional journey the two protagonists are forced to take; the misconceptions the heroine has about the hero and how she will change him. There are no other cliffhangers in this book, and there is evidence in the climatic final scene that Nevada is definitely having an effect on Rogan.

The writing, of course, is wonderful; I've yet to read an Andrews novel that is poorly written. I love the the humor and the action. But what they do best is characterization. Their characters have depth and slowly grow and change over the course of the book(s). This is how it is with the Kate Daniels series and I expect it will be no different with this trilogy. I'm looking forward to Rogan becoming the man he was meant to be.

There's a lot of broohaha about the name Mad Rogan, which I don't understand. Nobody made a big broohaha over Meljean Brook's character Mad Machen in Here There Be Monsters. I think of Mad Rogan as a personality compressed into an inner sanctum, which he's fortified with layers of steely indifference . He's never been loved and only his power is wanted by others, never the man. He prefers to be called Mad. It's a protection, a bulwark against the terrible things he's had to do and the feelings he has about his past.

I'm a confessed hero-centric reader and Mad Rogan is my cup of tea. Can't wait for the next book.

It's Nano Time Again

November, the month of leaves falling, turkeys cooking and writers obsessing with word counts. National Novel Writing Month, aka, nanowrimo (nano for short).

Now Lea, our dear friends, nano's every November and wins. She writes more than the allotted word count and is damned brilliant and I hate her.

The first nano I did, I wrote the rough draft of Sugar B's back In Town. that was a good nano. I haven't completed one since. But every year I start with plans and hopes and a heart full of bitter despair. ha!

I've never finished one since the very first.

But I'm doing it again. I'm rewriting a novel I've started a million times called Three Pines. It's magic realism, romance, cooking and gardening. It's all the things I love and I've yet to complete a full draft.

I'm starting anew and it's again a completely different story from any of the other drafts. This year I'm determined to finish.

Send chocolate. I'm going back in.