kate rothwell

The ads on the side of my pages are getting more and more specific. I do a search on back pain (ow. yes, it's getting better, but ow.) and suddenly I see all these back stores advertised for days and days afterwards. I'm doing an experiment to see if the same thing will happen with buzz words in this blog. Dog training wine tasting pillow bedding black skirt tools, screwdriver junk removal jello desserts accidental death nylon rope Corpse removal, coffins, casket

1. There's an article in New York Magazine about Joe Scarborough. and the sub-head is "Where else could a red-meat, right-wing congressman like Joe Scarborough reinvent himself as the liberal’s favorite talk-show host?" whu? Joe? Liberal? Liberal favorite ? Huh? I wonder which liberal they found who said "Morning Joe is my favorite!" so they could write that. I hope he or she actually watches the show. I don't. Hey but don't get me started on Mika. No, no. Really. Do not. 2. Doug has a good old-fashioned web time waster at his blog: the lol cat translation of the bible. I thought my discovery of an un-truthy wiki send up page was good. 2a. These are Pinnacles of Civilization. They Are The Best Examples of Art for art's sake. I mean they serve no particular function and required vast amounts of time and effort. Isn't that the basis? 3. Show me more, for I am impressed by this variety of silliness. I will add links to a link repository and maybe...

I'm trying to be like PBW, but when I read really GOOD free reads, all I can think is 1. damn, damn, damn, I should be paying for this. 2. if something this good is free, then what chance do I have with the stuff I'm writing and I want people to pay for. 3. what's wrong with this that it's free. 4. there's nothing wrong with this and it shouldn't be free. 5. at least charge me a dollar or two. Let me assuage the guilt that you put so much work into something I'm getting for FREE. ....and all of this takes away from my pleasure at finding a great read that I didn't pay for. Right now I'm reading Exiles Burn and I was only a few pages in when I started doing my list from 1-5. I saw the poser cover and had great hopes the book would suck and I could avoid the guilt and fretting, but no. So far, it's excellent. Damn.

is over at Samhain. It's all about authors stealing teh wacky. These random pictures don't make sense unless you go read that. Yikes, I look bad in that picture of me hugging Esther ( I was snorfling, the sniffling/laughing one does on these occasions ). I didn't even put in the part where my husband-to-be went jogging with his sister hours before our wedding and got lost in Rock Creek Park. Surely someone's written that one into a rom-com? And, yes, if I were to do it again, I wouldn't wear that frou-frou dress. The hair was bad enough. Gah.

My Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom is: Lord Voldemort discovers Jesus and becomes a Bishop by clever use of the Goblet of Fire Get your Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom

I made a special award for myself. See? If you made the list, feel free to steal the award for yourself. Heck, steal it if you feel like you deserve it or if you just want it. It's not like the award says which Karen I'm talking about. If you have a friend named Karen you might want to get her to make a list of " Authors Not.... " and put you on it.

Angie has a post up about authors who are considering taking one of their already-published books, changing a few things and then trying to get the book published again by Samhain. Granted, the poor authors have lost their publisher and the books are gone. But these are still books that have been out and about--stories people might recognise. I don't get it. Really, truly I don't understand what they're thinking. Someone's bound to notice and what have the writers gained? Certainly not the future business of their past readers (and probably not new readers, once the news gets out). The whole horrible incident when someone plagiarised Nora--the story I heard was that the plagiarism rose out of a sense of desperation. The plagiarist was on a tight deadline and panicked.** But it doesn't sound like these people were particularly panicky, just eager to find a place for their stories. Silly goobers. For your own sake, tell the truth. Maybe you'll get a "reprint...

My friend Sally got a couple of revoltingly bad reviews and a fair number of good reviews. She didn't get many meh as far as I can tell. Sally and a bunch of other writers I know have the luck to attract passionate hatred and love. They sell a lot of books. Do they sell even more than the pure love reviewed books? Maybe. My first book got a lot of pure lovin' Anyway, when I read miladyinsanity' s meh reviews of my books, I thanked her and then asked if maybe next time, if she wasn't going to adore my stuff maybe she could be a little meaner. Then I decided, heck, if she doesn't want to rip me a new one, maybe we could get into one of those really putrid blog wars that make people curious enough to show up in droves to read the fight. Hey! Yes! Let's get into it and drive traffic to our sites! She didn't actually agree, but by then I'd had a glass or two of wine. I rolled up my sleeves and went looking for her. I was gonna call her names and make sure we ...

Boy Two says Make another post about me because I'm awesome. He is, but I can't find a photo on this computer. I'll put one in later. IN THE MEANTIME! Here's his post. AWESOME BOY! And how come you all didn't comment on his AWESOME POEM? And guess who picked the labels for this post.

Of all the blow-ups exploding on the blogs, I find Carol Stacy's response to Lauren B to be a blow-up in itself . . . as in the most disheartening--and my vision of RT is blown up. Heck, I love the magazine and the gloriously silly, fun event (that I've never been to). But UGH. 1. We'll take your money but we won't treat you well and we think you're wasting your time because our readers don't like your stuff-- comes across as bigotted. Not to mention dumb--she doesn't seem to know many of her own readers. It's clear that most of the m/m readers are hetero romance-reading women, in other words, the people who buy Romantic Times . I say the other two batfuck [copyright jmc] crazy moments are just entertaining. 2. Kathryn Falk at Karen's. As far as I'm concerned, KF can be whatever she wants. She's too colorful and eccentric and just out there to keep down. I'd hate it if she stopped being Kathryn Falk. (Same with Karen being Karen, bt...

Every now and then a romance writer snaps. She has her fill of bad reviews (sometimes it just takes one good snark) and, with a mighty cry of pain, she uses her blog or someone else's, to assault critics or the reading public in general. Someone like Karen is always there to jump into the argument and inform the writer she's a moron. Today we have apparently have a cover model going over to the dark side. Is there a single word that describes trying to kill your professional image by flaming the very people you want to attract or buy your books? Come on, guys, there must be. Idiot doesn't count. There has to at least be a good acronym. And another thing . (updated because jmc is absolutely right. I got the phrase that pays wrong. Sorry Jen) For most of my life, I've restrained myself because I didn't want to be A Mean Nasty Bad Person and because I didn't want the police knocking on my door asking a lot of nuisance questions about threats I've made. I her...

The blogosphere has been the power behind the rise and fall of politicians. Some blogs' writing and images can leave a reader as wrung out and/or mezmerized as the best award-winning books out there. And now . . . . . . it can get Kris Starr (erotic romance writer and all-around cutie-pie) near-nekkid in below-zero weather. KS, in a pink bikini. You ask: Why should I pay for that ? The question should be: Why not? The answer to question two, of course, is that it's hopelessly silly, probably demeaning and there are far worthier causes out there for your hard-earned money. question three: But when has that ever stopped the power of us bloggers? Feel the mighty blog force! See Kris's body covered with goosebumps! Eventually, maybe.