Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
Bringing you the famous and cheeky SBTB blog for romance enthusiasts. If you're into the romance genre, this is where you want to be. If you're not, avoid at all costs to preserve your sanity. Ha ha. We're just kidding. There are some good things happening in the genre. Stay Golden, Horny Girl!
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The transcript for Podcast 560. Reading Conundrums & Habits with Amanda has been posted! This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks. ❤ Click here to subscribe to The Podcast → View the full article
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Small Town, Big Magic Small Town, Big Magic by Hazel Beck is $1.99! I believe Sarah mentioned this one in a previous Hide Your Wallet. Are you on the witchy book trend? For fans of THE EX HEX and PAYBACK’S A WITCH, a fun, witchy rom-com in which a bookstore owner who is fighting to revitalize a small midwestern town clashes with her rival, the mayor, and uncovers not only a clandestine group that wields a dark magic to control the idyllic river hamlet, but hidden powers she never knew she possessed. Witches aren’t real. Right? No one has civic pride quite like Emers…
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Amanda and I are answering listener questions about reading when you’re burnt out, saving the last book of a series, and mood reading. We also talk video games, cozy horror especially, and more. Thank you to Agatha, Malaraa, Clay, Ellen, and Abigail for the questions for this episode! … Coupon! Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @lumedeodorant and get over 40% off your starter pack with promo code SARAH30 at lumedeodorant.com/SARAH30! #lumepod Music: Purple-planet.com Listen to the podcast → Read the transcript → Here are the books we discuss in this podcast: …
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A Lot Like Love A Lot Like Love by Julie James is $1.99! Thanks to everyone who told us about this one! James is always recommended for readers who want a contemporary romance with competence porn. I remember reading this one and I loved that the heroine owns a wine store. However, some readers felt that the characters weren’t as engaging as in other James’ books. The FBI wants her cooperation. As the daughter of a billionaire and the owner of the city’s top wine store, Jordan Rhodes is invited to the most exclusive parties in Chicago. But there’s only one party the F…
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B+ The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older March 7, 2023 · Tor.com LGBTQIAMystery/ThrillerRomanceScience Fiction/Fantasy We have a word among the bitchery: catnip. Catnip in this context is not the plant, it is the trope, or group of tropes that is our personal drug of choice. The Mimicking of Known Successes is a queer science fiction romance/mystery featuring a woman who is of the Sherlock Holmes mode of detective and another woman as the Watson type, although unlike some versions of Watson,…
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It’s Wednesday, y’all! And that means it’s time for Links! Half of these links came from our wonderful Discord community – thank you! “How can I get into the Discord?” you might be wondering. It’s a perk from joining the Patreon! On top of that, you also get bonus podcast episodes, usually with me or including cut material from the Friday episodes. Last week, I celebrated my birthday with my wonderful partner and just felt really loved. Honestly, couldn’t ask for a better outcome. The tasty food and treats I ate all week were a definite plus! … Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness quartet will be getting a 40th anniversary reissue! You can peep the cover designs and fu…
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Sailor’s Delight Sailor’s Delight by Rose Lerner is $2.99! I remember this was mentioned on a Hide Your Wallet post and many of the Bitchery were excited about it. Did you read it? Self-effacing, overworked bookkeeper Elie Benezet doesn’t have time to be in love. Too bad he already is—with his favorite client, Augustus Brine. The Royal Navy sailing master is kind, handsome, and breathtakingly competent. He’s also engaged to his childhood sweetheart. And now that his prize money is coming in after years of delay, he can afford to marry her…once Elie submits the final p…
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Lara had a question for the community that I thought many of you could relate to. Folks! I have a quandary. I’m in the opposite of a reading rut. Every book I’ve picked up over the last few weeks has been magical! It has wrought havoc on my boring admin to do list. Every spare second I have, I want to spend with my nose in a book. How to resist the temptation?? Chores! Errands! Boring life admin! All abandoned. Any advice? Ed. note: We’ll be discussing finding time to read next week, so don’t worry! That sounds like what my brain does when actively in or recovering from some burnout. When that happens and I want to be like F EVERYTHING JUST READ, but I also ha…
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Something Wild and Wonderful Something Wild and Wonderful by Anita Kelly is $2.99! I believe this is a today-only type deal, so get it while you can. This one was mentioned on both recent podcasts and Hide Your Wallet. From the author of Love & Other Disasters comes a sparkling grumpy-meets-sunshine rom-com featuring two men’s sweeping journey across the Northwestern wilderness. When Alexei Lebedev finally comes out to his conservative community, it does not go well. That’s how he ended up on the rugged Pacific Crest Trail, hoping he can figure out a new life pla…
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This HaBO is from Omphale, who wants to find this historical romance: So I was googling about the safety of leaded crystal (basically, I can use my grandfather’s leaded Edinburgh tot glasses so long as I drink quickly!) and it reminded me of this short Regency I read back in the mid-2000s (so it might have been Signet or Zebra) where all I can recall is an extremely suspect mental health “solution.” I have no memory of the hero or heroine or the plot EXCEPT that there was a feckless cousin/brother who f**ked off to the Continent which probably led to plot shenanigans? I just remember that he comes back at the end of the book and is much more settled and it turns out it’…
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B Deep Tide by Laura Griffin April 25, 2023 · Berkley Romantic Suspense Trigger warnings TW: The main character was sexually assaulted in her past, but this is only discussed obliquely in the book. It’s almost laughable at this point that I’m still reviewing Laura Griffin books. I could save everyone time and just write a one-liner: great book, read it. I really like these books. Deep Tide focuses on a character I’ve really enjoyed in this series: Leyla Breda. Her brothers were the heroes in the o…
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The Admiral’s Penniless Bride The Admiral’s Penniless Bride by Carla Kelly is $1.99! Some readers on GR really liked the older hero/younger heroine pairing, and the consideration of the hero in particular. Sarah: Kelly’s books are a unique kind of historical, and they’re wonderfully immersive. SLURP into the book you go. Sally Paul is down to her last penny. As she spends it on a cup of tea—to stave off being at the mercy of the workhouse—the last thing she expects is an offer of marriage…from a complete stranger! Admiral Sir Charles Bright’s seafaring days are over…
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Welcome back to Cover Snark! From Gloriamarie Sarah: Have we snarked this before? I’m getting all the alien/nanny/childcare books confused. Amanda: We have snarked MANY Tasha Black covers. Sarah: I still have many questions about the absence of social support networks and child care in this universe. Claudia: Can they really be an advanced society? I think not. I do think we haven’t done this one yet but many like it. The last one had cosmic poop in the vicinity of the baby’s diaper and this one is clean. Sarah: Yes and this one is horny. Amanda: More of a title snark. Sarah: Wait… I … okay I give up Amanda: What are they looking at? Sarah: I love how they …
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The weekend of April 1, a friend and I made the three-hour trek down to the Windy City for Yarn Con 2023. Yarn Con is an independent fiber festival that features a lot of indie dyers from around the Midwest that was started in 2007. The first two days (Thursday and Friday) feature workshops and classes. The second two days (Saturday and Sunday) are a vendor marketplace that featured some of my favorite dyers. I went down just for the vendor marketplace. There were 55 vendors; some of my favorites like Destination Yarns were present, and I got to find some new, cool dyers like Jems Luxe Fibers. Admission was free and the first 50 in line got a free swag bag. This beaut…
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Our latest bestseller list is brought to you by fresh flowers, a light jacket, and our affiliate sales data. A Duke in Shining Armor by Loretta Chase Amazon | B&N | Kobo | GooglePlay You Were Made to Be Mine by Julie Anne Long Amazon | B&N | Kobo A Duchess by Midnight by Charis Michaels Amazon | B&N | Kobo Slightly Married by Mary Balogh Amazon | B&N | Kobo | GooglePlay Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty Amazon | B&N | Kobo | GooglePlay Madison Square Murders by C.S. Poe Amazon |…
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As we wind down April, we want to know what you’ve been reading! Claudia: My library copy of Artfully Yours by Joanna Lowell ( A | BN | K ) just dropped and I’m looking forward to reading it! Carrie: I’m finishing up Below the Edge of Darkness by Dr. Edith Widder, ( A | BN | K ) a fascinating memoir about studying deep and mid sea life Shana: I’m reading Sorry, Bro by Taleen Voskuni. I don’t usually love adult coming out novels, but the heroine is very relatable. I’m over the closed door sex scenes though. A | BN | K Elyse: I’m reading The Darkness Outside Us. It’s billed as YA, but really I think it’s a sci-fi thriller that just happens to have to two 17 year old c…
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The transcript for Podcast 559. Essentials of Accessibility with Jeff Adams has been posted! This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks. ❤ Click here to subscribe to The Podcast → View the full article
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The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy RECOMMENDED: The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen is still $2.99! Sarah loved this one and gave it an A-: If you like fantasy with characters that might sound like your neighbors sometimes, in a world with big stakes and little stakes and magical talking animals who deliver the mail, and especially if you like epistolary novels that lead to characters becoming more of themselves, you’ll like this undertaking. (Bad dum bum.) Hart Ralston is a demigod and a marshal, tasked with patrolling the wasteland of Tanria. The realm…
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B Jasmine and Jake Rocks the Boat by Sonya Lalli April 18, 2023 · Berkley Romance Jasmine and Jake Rock the Boat is a stand-alone contemporary romance by the author of A Holly Jolly Diwali, which Elyse reviewed. Holly Jolly Diwali introduced Niki Randhawa, a young woman who had spent her life trying to be the perfect daughter. Jasmine and Jake rock the Boat puts the focus on Jasmine, Niki’s wild sister, who sees herself as a constant disappointment to her parents. I read Jasmine and Jake without having read Holly Jo…
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ALGONKIAN SUCCESS STORIES
WTF is Wrong With Stephen King?
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The Usherette (Historical Fiction). Meeting Orson Welles
Scene: Chapter Four. Jo returns to New York from visiting Madeleine in Florida after receiving a telegram from Orson Welles asking to meet. He wants to premiere "Citizen Kane" at the Palace Theater and needs someone to show him around. The scene captures Jo's passions and core decency - and why the movies matter to her. He wanted to meet at midnight.docx -
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Demystifying the Blog Tour: A Powerful Marketing Tool for Your Book Launch and Beyond
A blog tour is a marketing campaign that involves coordinating a series of blog posts and online promotions to create buzz and generate exposure for your book. It typically involves collaborating with bloggers and influencers who have an audience that aligns with your target readership. These bloggers will read your book, write reviews, host author interviews, and feature guest posts or excerpts from your book on their blogs. The goal is to reach a wider audience and generate interest in your book within their established community. The Blog Tour Framework Here's a breakdown of the framework for a typical blog tour: Identify and contact bloggers: Research and compile a list of relevant bloggers who cater to your book's genre or niche. Reach out to them via email or through their website's contact form, expressing interest in collaborating on a blog tour. Provide review copies: Offer a digital or physical copy of your book to the interested bloggers, allowing them time to read and review it before the tour begins. Create tour schedule: Coordinate with the participating bloggers to create a schedule for the tour. Each blogger will have a designated day to feature your book on their blog and share their review, interview, guest post, or any other agreed-upon content. Create content: Prepare author interviews, guest posts, or excerpts that you can provide to the bloggers to publish on their respective blogs. These pieces of content should be engaging and relevant to your book, enticing readers to learn more about it. Promote: As the blog tour progresses, actively promote each blog post across your own social media channels and any other platforms you use. This will help generate more visibility and encourage your existing followers to visit the blogs hosting your content. Engage with readers: Throughout the blog tour, make an effort to engage with readers who leave comments on the blog posts. Responding to their comments and answering their questions will help build a connection and potentially lead to more interest in your book. Blog Tour Benefits The benefits of a blog tour can be significant for your book launch or generating interest long after your book has been released. Some potential advantages include: Increased exposure: By leveraging the established audiences of bloggers and influencers, you can reach a wider audience that may not have been aware of your book otherwise. Social proof: Positive reviews and endorsements from bloggers can lend credibility to your book, encouraging readers to take a chance on it. Networking opportunities: Collaborating with bloggers and influencers can expand your network within the literary community, opening doors to potential future partnerships or opportunities. Enhanced online presence: The blog tour generates online content related to your book, increasing your online presence and searchability, which can have long-term benefits for your author platform. When to Plan a Blog Tour Determining the best time to have a blog tour for your book largely depends on your specific goals, timeline, and the nature of your book. However, there are a few general considerations to keep in mind when planning the timing of your blog tour: Book launch date: Ideally, you'll want to schedule your blog tour around your book's launch date. This ensures that the tour generates maximum buzz and attention during the critical period when your book becomes available to the public; however, a book tour can also help reignite interest in your book long after it’s been published.. Pre-launch promotion: Consider starting your blog tour a few weeks before your book's official launch. This gives bloggers and influencers ample time to read and review your book, and it allows you to generate buzz and anticipation leading up to the release. Pre-launch promotion can help build excitement and generate pre-orders or early sales. Availability of review copies: Ensure that you have review copies of your book available and ready to send out to bloggers well in advance of the blog tour start date. This allows sufficient time for bloggers to read the book and prepare their content for the tour. Consider providing digital copies for ease and quick distribution. Audience availability: Take into account the preferences and availability of your target audience. If your book caters to a specific season, genre, or holiday, it might be beneficial to align your blog tour with that theme or timeframe. For example, a romance novel might benefit from a blog tour around Valentine's Day. Other marketing efforts: Consider coordinating your blog tour with other marketing initiatives you have planned. This could include social media campaigns, advertising, or other promotional activities. A coordinated approach can amplify your book's visibility and impact. Blogger availability: Reach out to bloggers and influencers well in advance to secure their participation and confirm their availability for the tour. Keep in mind that popular bloggers may have busy schedules, so it's beneficial to plan ahead and be flexible with scheduling to accommodate their availability. Ultimately, the best time for a blog tour is when you have everything in place, including review copies, promotional materials, and a solid plan for engaging with bloggers and readers throughout the tour. Take the time to strategically plan and execute your blog tour to maximize its impact on your book launch or relaunch. Did you know WOW! Women on Writing offers blog tours as part of our marketing services? If you're interested in exploring professional assistance for your blog tour and other book marketing endeavors, check out WOW! Women on Writing's book marketing packages. We offer comprehensive and tailored solutions to help authors like you navigate the world of book promotion. Our team of experts can guide you through the process, provide valuable insights, and connect you with influential bloggers and reviewers in your genre. By leveraging the expertise and network of WOW! Women on Writing, you can enhance the effectiveness of your blog tour and ensure your book receives the attention it deserves. Learn more here or contact blogtour@wow-womenonwriting.com with questions. (C) Copyright wow-womenonwriting.com Visit WOW! Women On Writing for lively interviews and how-tos. Check out WOW!'s Classroom and learn something new. Enter the Quarterly Writing Contests. Open Now![url={url}]View the full article[/url] -
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Whatcha Reading? May 2023, Part Two
It’s time to wrap up May with our second Whatcha Reading! It’s also Memorial Day weekend in the States, which seems like a perfect excuse to get even more reading done before the month is over. Sneezy: I’m reading Right Wing Women by Andrea Dworkin. She takes no prisoners. Sarah: What’s that? The library has the next Veronica Speedwell audiobook? Don’t mind if I do! Currently listening to A Murderous Relation ( A | BN | K | AB ) and having a splendid time. The audiobook performance by Angele Masters is terrific. A | BN | KShana: I just finished a YA romcom that gave me the biggest book hangover, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert. So much banter and sweetness! I’m now reading The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older, and liking it so far. Elyse: I just finished The Daydreams. ( A | BN | K ) Some of it was how awful tabloids were to young female stars in the aughts (Lindsay, Britney etc), but each of the main characters does something really shitty to another so it’s hard to really like any of leads. It was meh. Lara: Elyse recommended Loreth Anne White’s The Maid’s Diary ( A | BN ) and I’m hooked. No romance, but the suspense is phenomenal so far. Whatcha reading? Let us know in the comments! View the full article -
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Book Lovers: Know Your Tribe
Another fundamental that makes a whole lot of sense, esp marketing wise. -
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Writing Hot Sex Scenes - Saints Preserve Us!
I've been trained. It works! -
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Crucial Self-Editing Techniques - Don't be Hostage to a Line Editor
If you knew how many writers this has positively impacted, you'd say, it's no wonder. Fundamentals like this are too often neglected. -
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Podcast 564, Your Transcript has Bunny Ears
The transcript for Podcast 564. Bunny Aliens in Space: Cover Design with JL Logosz has been posted! This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks. ❤ Click here to subscribe to The Podcast → View the full article -
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Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener Doesn’t See the Forest for the Trees
Master Gardener is the third in Paul Schrader’s “God’s Lonely Men” trilogy, in each film of which a weary middle-aged man who has previously experienced alienation from mainstream society contends with his haunted past and hazy future, reflecting on these things, and his rote daily existence, via diary-keeping—a technique that suffices until his world is challenged by knowledge of something greater, and tested by a newfound bond with a distressed young person. Via these characters, the films in this trilogy tend to pair and interrogate the relationship between two normally unrelated topics: religion and climate change (First Reformed, 2017), gambling and the War on Terror (The Card Counter, 2021), and horticulture and racism (Master Gardener, 2022). Schrader is an accomplished, highly literary storyteller and his interests (particularly the the masculine-coded concepts of destruction and violence) have produced some of film’s most fascinating inquiries into the ills of modern society, from Taxi Driver to Affliction to American Gigolo, to First Reformed and The Card Counter. First a film critic and then a screenwriter (responsible for classics like Raging Bull and Obsession and famous for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma), Schrader’s later work as a director is epitomized by the triad of films about “God’s Lonely Men,” three anti-social anti-heroes in crisis: a self-loathing pastor, a troubled gambler, and a secretive gardener, all reckoning with the sudden collision of themes, lives, selves once kept at a distance. Many of his protagonists, but especially these three, can be read as homages to Alain Delon’s Jef Costello in Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 film Le Samouraï: cool, reserved, highly-competent professionals whose whose adherence to rituals and observances leaves them unprepared to confront unforeseen cataclysms. It’s almost never useful to compare films in a director’s oeuvre to one another; despite similarities, each is its own discreet contribution. But Schrader’s films are designed to reference each other—or, really, The Card Counter and Master Gardener are designed to reference First Reformed—so please forgive me while I place them all side-by-side for a moment. In First Reformed, Ethan Hawke plays Ernst Toller (no, not that Ernst Toller), a cheerless reverend at a small antique church upstate who keeps a diary of his own stark life the year he happens to encounter a distraught climate activist who opens his eyes to the ravishment of God’s green earth by greedy corporations, as well as the ways God’s own church is influenced by corporatization to the point of disregarding the stewardship of the planet. That film, a simmering hagiography of a soul in turmoil, provides the blueprint for Schrader’s subsequent two films, not only thematically, but also stylistically, in the terms I mentioned in the opening paragraph. The films are dark, lonely meditations into their protagonists’ natures, told via their floridly-written, allusion-rich journal entries, as they finally confront aspects of their lives and their worlds they have kept at bay for so long. The Card Counter inherits the framework of First Reformed, but reworks it enough for it to feel distinct; Oscar Isaac plays William Tell (no, not that William Tell), a former military interrogator and now card-counter, who carpetbags from casino to casino, living out of austere motels, until he meets a young man who informs him that he knows his true identity, as a soldier who served jailtime for his role in the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and asks for his help committing an act of revenge against one of Tell’s military superiors. This film slowly explores the human capacity for both empathy and cruelty, teasing out the relationship between “keeping one’s cool” and “losing it.” I don’t have as conclusive a reading of the forces at work Master Gardener, arguably the film in this trilogy with the toughest conceit. Joel Edgerton plays Narval Roth, a taciturn head gardener of Gracewood Gardens, a privately-owned estate with gardens that are open to the public. Narval manages a team of polo-clad young people, overseeing their work but also instructing them in the history, philosophy, and science of horticulture. He answers to no one, except Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver), the wealthy owner of the estate, who throws his carefully cultivated world out of order when she demands he take on an apprentice, her grand-niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell). Maya is biracial, the daughter of the “wayward” daughter of Norma’s sister, who left the family and “fell in with a bad crowd,” as Norma purrs. Maya seems to be her only relative left, so she is eager to draw her into the family—but not enough that she doesn’t insist that she work on the family’s land, first. Maya is a curious, intelligent twenty-something, surprisingly accepting of the fact that she’s a minimum wage worker on her great aunt’s estate. Norma wants Narval to educate her, teach her about the maintenance and culture and theories of horticulture, so that she might be able to pursue a career in the field in the future. Maya takes kindly to this earthy finishing school, especially because she appreciates the softspoken and passionate manner of Narval, her teacher. The movie appears to take place in the South (it was filmed in Louisiana), and the house looks like a plantation estate, so it seems like there might be some interesting explorations into contemporary white supremacy, the way Norma insists that Maya be fashioned into a more refined version of herself in order to be welcomed into her family tree, and simultaneously wants this self-improvement to take place as a farm-worker beneath her, and literally in the dirt. But the film wobbles from here on out, mostly because we learn about the haunted, Narval’s past as a soldier of a Neo-Nazi army, before turning state’s evidence against them and going into witness protection. Under his clothes, he is covered in White Pride and Hitler-fandom tattoos, which he looks at disparagingly in the mirror. He likes his current life as a peaceful caretaker of the Gracewood Gardens, is glad to have distanced himself from the silo of racism, misogyny, antisemitism, and violence in which (he explains) he was raised. That Maya and Narval form a bond, while he also has flashbacks to things that his proud boy/hillbilly cult leader told him about how his job is to “pull out the weeds,” suggests that Master Gardener will become a thriller about the insidiousness of white supremacy, juxtaposing it with a reading of gardening as a kind of fascism (or at least, a way to disguise it). In other words, perhaps Narval’s solitary salvation in gardening for a racist white lady becomes an outlet for the very impulses that allowed him to thrive in a fascist cult in the first place. Master Gardener doesn’t till this ground, though, which is fine, but it also doesn’t do anything else productive with all of these rich, ripe, and (productively) thorny thematic concerns. What begins as an incredibly fruitful plot soon wilts and shrivels into a wandering love story; and the kind of discipline and restraint that Narvals brings to his gardening becomes, exactly, the element missing from the story itself. Master Gardener quickly forgets its powerful portrayals about white supremacy and racism when it becomes interested in whether or not its protagonist can be redeemed, can be saved, and, in giving him some way to carry this out, represents Maya as needing to be saved by someone, too. If this narrative shoot were to blossom into a meaningful development (unlikely as it is), we would need a clearer understanding of Narval’s life or background, a focused explaining of how he has come to be changed in the first place. But more importantly, this whole angle not only misses out on saying anything thoughtful about race in America, but also robs Maya of the opportunity to be more than a plot device, perhaps (especially in light of Swindell’s elegant performance), the greatest sin of all. What results is a confusing film, overgrown in some areas and under-seeded in others. Instead of becoming as thoughtful and risky an exploration as The Card Counter, Master Gardener becomes like a game of 52-card pickup. It’s as if Schrader has a deck of cards and instead of laying them out strategically, throws them all in the air and lets them come down where they will. Instead of become the focused sermon of First Reformed, Master Gardener becomes one of those themed themed refrigerator poem packs. It has a lot of terms on the table, but shuffles them around until they say almost absolutely nothing. View the full article
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