I always thought they were referred to as ‘unpublished’, but apparently, that’s a derogatory term these days.

No, apparently the more politically correct term is ‘pre-published’.

Yeah, that’s what I thought too.

Those of you who wonder why we can’t all just play nice, may want to look away now.

I was pointed in the general direction of this SB’s post, (I’m assuming most of you have already seen the post and wondered what my thoughts were? Don’t lie, you know you did!) and I have to say, it made me smile somewhat, then I caught this comment from SB Sarah:

I’m glad so many of you liked the feature about our advertisers. But to be clear, both here and on the ad page itself: advertisements do not constitute an endorsement on the part of Smart Bitches. So while Candy or I have reviewed several of the books or authors featured, advertisements are not endorsements.

Of course you guys remember the minor lovefest over the SB’s advertising Chancery Stone’s incest-ridden smut, right?

My question is, why now, and not then?

Some of you may have noticed that there haven’t been too many reviews posted to the blog recently. Yeah, the reading mojo has been on vacation for a while now. (more…)

Here is the setup:

An acquaintance organized an event recently, hosting it at her house. With a few weeks to go, she invited about 40 people, more than half of which accepted the invitation. Then she spent the full week before the event working like a fiend–from cleaning her house from top to bottom, to buying groceries and cooking for at least twenty people.

Only four people showed up.

And I’ve been wondering… is it a cultural thing?

An education thing?

A generational thing?

I mean, to say, “Yeah, of course, I’ll be there” and then not only not showing up, but not even calling to excuse oneself?

I know my mother would have flayed me alive had I done such a thing. Then again, it’s also customary in my family that if someone doesn’t show up after promising to be there, phone calls ensue–it’s a given that if there was no apology/excuse before hand, something dire must have had happened.

What say you?

This week’s dilemma is as follows:

You’re at a romance reader’s convention (yeah, you’ve been there for a while *g*). You meet a lovely woman named Tina, who’s really excited to be there. She tells you that she’s saved all year to make it this year, and she can’t wait to meet the authors. You spend quite a bit of time with her, and she confides in you that her hubby has been seriously ill, and because his medical bills were so astronomical (sic), at one point, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to make it here.

Later, you part ways in order to go and see your respective fave authors.

You’re walking out of the signing suite, when you spot Tina. You’re about to call out to her, when you see her bend over, pick up a wallet, and quickly stuff it in her bag. You assume she’s just dropped her purse, and think nothing of it.

Five minutes later one of the convention organisers gets on the microphone and announces that one of the attendees has lost her wallet. She asks for anybody who has seen the purse to come and see her. She describes the purse in detail and it dawns on you that the wallet that you witnessed Tina picking up earlier, obviously wasn’t hers. You wait for her to approach the organiser, but she doesn’t make a move.

You confront her with your suspicions, and urge her to hand the wallet in. She laughs nervously, and tells you that she has no idea what you’re talking about.

What do you do? Do you leave it alone, taking into consideration what a tough year she’s had, or do you report her to the convention organisers, because at the end of the day, stealing is just plain wrong?

What would you do???

That baby was just too cute.

By the way, just discovered that TTG’s biological mother was a twin

I had to repost this comment from some troll on Emily’s blog in response to her XOXO Publishing post:

You people all sound like a bunch of losers with time on your but to backlash at innocent people!

The website looks good to me, I have not seen any of the above accusiations you’ve all stated. The book trailer is very professional and I like the music its catchy.

I have submitted my work and so far I have received a very positive feedback.

As I could tell the website has not been officially launched, meaning its under construction.

I think all of you are fakes and its only one person responding to the false information. You’re all a bunch of morons, jealous group of people.

Who is this Emily Vien something. What makes her an expert to judge a new business?

And in a further comment:

The spelling mistake was done purposefully! I know of Emily Vienglory I’m a former reader. I will no longer be one of them. Backstabbing people is not my
style. Seems that is it hers and a Karen Scott.

Talk about going with the E-pubTroll Blueprint. The comment itself could be the subject of a drinking game: One sip every time the word jealousy is mentioned, *hiccup*, 2 sips for every spelling mistake, *hiccup* hahahaha!!

What a twat.

You remember the blog post where I asked if there were many virgin men over the age of 30? Well, apparently there are more of them out there than I would have imagined.

Check out the most recent comment from that old thread, this guy is called Mike:

I’m a 53 yr. old virgin. I never thought life would work out this way. Here is my backstory-no I’m not gay, but I was always shy around women.I never had the confidence to ask for a date. I got colitis at 20, and I never owned a car until I was 33. First date was at 35, and the last one was 8 yrs. ago. I dated 5 times in all. I never enjoyed it.

At the time in life when most folks get laid and pair up, I had to fight a tough illness and had no money. Today I’m worth six figures, and it’s nice to have that, but there are NO dating prospects anywhere. I did not know you can and will “age out” of the dating market.

After 40 it’s pretty much over. I kept hoping, but I was fooling myself. In the USA only 5% of men over 40 ever marry, and only 1% of all women over 40 marry. The partners aren’t there. I must learn to be single and enjoy it. I’ve handled many divorces as a paralegal, and I see what married people go through. I’m sorry I missed out on all that great sex. I do feel thankful I didn’t contribute to fatherless America or the welfare rolls.

I never had to deal with the agony of divorce either.

I guess I’m weird. I grew up with a large dysfunctional family, and my parents never encouraged me to date let alone marry. If you don’t get laid by 21, you are moving in the wrong direction. I wouldn’t want anyone to end up in my shoes. Date early, find someone to be with in bed, or you will feel terribly lonely at the end of the trail.

The regrets of what I missed will haunt me forever.

That’s so sad right? What would your advice to Mike be? He seems to think his sexual life is over at the relatively young age of 53.

Was I the only person who read Kassia Krozser’s How I Spent My Summer Vacation post and felt that it was slightly…glib? Casual, even?

Welcome back from whatever you did this summer. Me, I spent my time building a digital publishing company. It went mostly okay, though, in the end, there was no company to show for it. That has nothing to do with the work and talent of the people involved. Talk about amazing, smart, and creative.

You’d never know that all that summer long we’d been bombarded with messages of how QP was going to revolutionize the e-book industry, and change the digital publishing world forever.

You’d never know that people who took a risk and jumped on board ended up losing their jobs, their time, their money.

You’d never know that they made big promises that they broke.

KK’s post seemed far too casual in my opinion. A lot of people commended them on the fact that they held their hands up, and shut up shop before the bodies started piling up, but I wasn’t one of those people. In fact it didn’t impress me much at all.

(more…)

I received an email the other day informing me that AP Miller AKA Patti Rebmann has got a new job. Apparently she’s the acquisitions editor at the soon-to-be-opened (slightly dodgy looking) XoXo Publishing.

You guys remember Patti right? She’s that imbecile who emerged at the height of the Mardi Gras publishing scandal.

Remember this love letter she wrote to me? (more…)