Just another reason to ban all organised religion.

The woman named a teddy bear Mohammed, and people think she should be put to death for that? I’m still reeling from the fact that they jailed her in the first place.

Hundreds of Sudanese Muslims, waving green Islamic flags, took to the streets of Khartoum on Friday demanding death for the British teacher convicted of insulting Islam after her class named a teddy bear Mohammad.

“No one lives who insults the Prophet,” the protesters chanted, a day after school teacher Gillian Gibbons, 54, was sentenced to 15 days in jail and deportation from Sudan.

Never mind the problems with Darfur, drought, poverty, and sexual crimes against women that currently plague the country. Why worry about all that crap when it’s far easier to kill a woman in the name of God, just because she named a stuffed toy Mohammed.

I’d love to know how they manage to distinguish between God and The Devil.

I have the biggest urge to go buy a vibrator and call it Mohammed.

I was going to post this over at Erecsite, when I saw Emily Veinglory’s survey, but why waste a perfectly good potential post on somebody else’s blog? *g*

I think here in Romanceland, we tend to label any blog posts that attract a lot of commenters as blog rows, or flames. I don’t necessarily agree with those labels. I think It’s fantastic to have blogs where people feel passionate enough to air their opinions, I really do.

Sometimes there’s no telling what’s gonna get people talking, for instance when I’m feeling that way inclined, (doesn’t happen very often) I’ll post what I think to be quite an indepth informational piece and get ten or twelve comments, and other days I can post one paragraph and get shitloads of people wanting to air their views. I think that’s kinda cool.

Also, I’m always pleasantly surprised by the response I get, when I do a football (soccer to you Americans) related post, for example the one I wrote when I was feeling lower than a snake’s belly due to England being dumped out of next year’s European Cup.

What I tend to find more and more these days, is that comments within a mostly innocuous post will as likely start a heated debate, as an inflammatory blog post. There’s always one person, who will say something that will piss a whole bunch of people off, and those people will then rush to air their own views, until you get to a point where everybody wants to have their tuppence worth.

I think that’s fab, and I’m pretty sure that a lot of people out there feel the same, otherwise why bother having blogs with open comments on them? Or even, why bother having blogs at all?

What tends to annoy is when people try to attribute motivations as to why I post about certain subjects. The thing is, nobody but me will ever really know, so speculation is often fruitless, and the verdict, mostly wrong.

When I read how fed up people are with blog dramas, I am often amused, because I then see those same people taking part in the so-called flame fests, or posting about how fed up they are with the blogs that constantly attract drama.

Another reason that I’m amused is because these so-called blog dramas tend to happen on fewer than four blogs, on any kind of consistent basis. (Admittedly in Romanceland, mine tends to be one of them, but I should think that by now that people know what to expect) This is a minute percentage, considering the actual number of Romancentric blogs out there. It really is.

I have over 100 blogs listed on my Google Reader, and I purposely tend not to include the ones that are likely to give me high blood pressure, so I just assume that other people do the same thing. Apparently not.

I guess what I’m saying is that there are probably thousands of book blogs out there that are nice, and balanced, and fair, and sweet and funny, and rarely use the ‘f’ word. These blogs are also relatively easy to find. So for those people who are fed up of the drama, there are plenty of other choices out there. Ya feel me?

By the way a big thanks to all of the people who took the time to comment on the Incest, Twincest, Daddy/daughter Play posts. I love that you guys feel free enough to air your thoughts on here, regardless of whether or not your opinions gel with mine, and long may it continue.

Without great debate, and difference of opinion, the world and Romanceland would be a much more boring place methinks.

And Jane, rock the fuck on, mate.

Jesus. Effing. Christ.

I was at Erecsite earlier today, when I came across the following comment by an author called Cheryl Anne Gardner:

“Good Luck to you in this. We need more publishers open to all kinds of sexuality and romance. My new one coming out in January has consentual rape, BDSM, and cutting and blood play … and the darn thing is a romance as well.”

Cutting and blood play?

Pardon me while I pass out.

Blurb:

Who said “sexy” isn’t a science?

When wealthy scientist Vetta St. Claire begins a news experiment polling the male libido, she unexpectedly locks horns with long-time scientific rival Travis Carmichael. She never meant to test Travis’s libido…but sometimes a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

Down on his luck and on the verge of giving up his dream to make a real contribution to cancer research, the last thing Travis wants—or needs—is a fling with the prickly Vetta. Travis doesn’t like her. In fact, he hates her. But when the sex is this good…

“Hard science” doesn’t begin to cover it.

I have to say, the blurb doesn’t really do the book justice. So far so good.

You can read an excerpt here, and buy the book here.

By the way, there’s no twincest, incest or Daddy/Daughter fantasies in this book, so whoever found the blog by googling “brother sister cum on face” will prolly be very disappointed.

Just in case I haven’t been clear enough on my stance on incestuous relationships within romance books…

Brothers fucking brothers/fathers shagging sons/daughters shagging brothers/ fathers shagging daughters/mothers fucking their sons, and other familial combinations is just plain wrong in my opinion. These storylines may be popular, but they aren’t romance. They are fetish. Of the worst kind at that, as far as I’m concerned.

And another thing; a guy who has little girl fantasies doesn’t belong on the pages of a romance book. He belongs in jail. Pure and simple. In real life, a guy who has such fantasies will inevitably find a child (or many children) to sexually abuse. I can’t ever see beyond that fact, let alone view it as romantic.

The day that these kind of storylines go mainstream under the banner of romance, will be the day that I start reading inspirationals.

Noble Publishing just opened its doors.

This is what it says on the submissions page:

“We are throwing down the gauntlet. We dare you to push the limits, stretch the boundaries, and send us your hottest, boldest stories.

A Noble erotic romance novel is…

*A passionate, gripping love story set within any sub-genre. Feel free to mix them up. If it’s a good story, we’ll want it.
*A graphic, honest portrayal of human sexuality.
*Daring, risky, push-the-envelope hot. Our authors are free to explore any sexual fantasy, even those considered too risque for some of our competitors.

Noble authors are the creme de la creme. They write the hottest, most explicit sex scenes, while still maintaining the integrity of a thoroughly engrossing romantic plot.”

I wonder if this means they’ll be offering up Twincest stories too?

Normally I wouldn’t bother reporting the opening of a new e-pub, but I want some record of it, for when they eventually close, maybe two years from now.

Yeah, yeah, a little cynical I know, but we all know the score here don’t we?

Anyway, I do wish them luck in their endeavours, and hopefully they don’t implode like Trixy Lion Publishing et al. *g*

And remember potential authors out there, “Happy Writing! And remember…Think Kink!”

Nice.

Via Emily Veinglory’s Erotic Romance Blog.

Do you know what annoys me? What really annoys me?

Reading a book, and feeling that the author wrote it just to get paid. Sheesh.

Photo courtesy of David Beckham Zone

In deep mourning.

Blogging will resume as soon as I get over my abject misery.

Lora Leigh, Chey McCray, and Sarah McCarty?

Let’s see shall we?

They are all former EC authors
They have all been signed by NY houses
They are all best-selling, and/or hugely popular authors

Hmmm… there’s a fourth connection, can you guess what it is? You’re allowed one guess, now try not to waste it… *g*

To my beautiful lil’ sister who we watched graduate from university with honours today!! Wooo hooo!!!

We travelled down to her university yesterday evening, and had a real girly night in the hotel. I’ve got some fab photos of the cathedral where the ceremony was held, which I’ll post shortly.

It was very reminiscent of my own graduation, except I think the colours on my grad gown were waaay prettier. *g*

We’re all so proud of her, it really doesn’t seem like two minutes ago, since she was born. Where does the time go eh?