If not, then isn’t it just as ridiculous for people who have already tried to launch a digital publishing company and failed, to talk about how to Build A Digital Publishing House? In this case I’m pointing the finger at Kassia Krozser, seeing as Angela James at least already has a proven track record.

Rumour has it that a couple of the other Quartet Press peeps are involved in similar panels. That just seems wrong-headed somehow.

Thanks to you-know-who for the heads up.

The following comment was left on a blog post (by somebody calling himself Barack Hussein Obama Sadaam) that I wrote a while ago, questioning whether or not racism in America had increased since Obama became president:

“I think that racism is increasing.

Minorities act like they want us to be racist to them.

Obama supports the NBA, which has some of the worst (dangerous) black people in the world.

Black leaders, such as NBA superstars, need to lead by example if blacks want racism to go away. I do not think blacks want racism to go away though.

Solution: Have all newborn black babies be adopted by intelligent white people. This will get rid of their terrible language of ebonics along with helping them succeed in life.”

This was my response:

Hey Klan member, Step. Away. From. The. Computer. At least until you learn how to mix with the general public.

People like you are proof that abortion is absolutely neccessary.

If I was to profile you, I would say that you were between 35-45, white, receding hairline, pot belly, you like red meat, can’t get enough of the stuff. You have a dog called Rush that walks with a limp leg because of all the times you’ve bent it over and tried to stick your dick in its arse.
You believe that Hitler was mostly misunderstood, and that the world would be better off without people with brown skin in it.

If you’re married, your wife is having an affair with a real man behind your back. He’s probably black. When you fuck your wife, you like to pretend that it’s your sister’s arse that you’re riding. You didn’t finish school, because you couldn’t work out what those funny emblems were on the exam papers. You’ve since learned that the funny wiggles were letters, and that letters make up words. It took a while, but you got there in the end, way to go you! The black girl who taught you how to finally read and write wouldn’t fuck you though, so that was a bit of a downer. You later stalked her and tried to kill her, so she moved further away from the trailer park where you and your sister and parents lived.

You wanted to be a football player when you were younger, but the black kids were better than you, a fact that you’ve resented all your life. You constantly bemoan the fact that you have a dick the size of a pencil. You know that your wife fakes her orgasms, so you ritually beat her after sex. This gets you off even more than the thought of fucking your mother.

You can’t wait to get your wife pregnant in the hopes that she bears you a girl, oh what fun you can have with her when she gets to her fourth birthday. Oh and not forgetting, you’re probably a Republican, like your parents, and grandparents.

Did I miss anything out? If any of the above is anyway inaccurate, please feel free to post a picture of yourself, your high school certificate, and a copy of your birth certificate. *Smooches*

The great thing about obvious racists like KlanDick Bitch up there, is that you at least know where you stand with him. That’s a good thing, right?

1. Enough of the John Terry story already. Who. Gives. A. Shit? He cheated on his wife, so fucking what? Half the country are cheating on their spouses as we speak.

2. I’m looking forward to the Chelsea v Arsenal game on Sunday. I hope the Arses spank Chelsea.

3. I have two Christmas presents still in the boot of my car that I haven’t posted off. I must do it today. Really.

4. I’m still dying to see Avatar. I blame TTG for us not having seen it yet.

5. I love Paul Hawksbee and Andy Jacobs on Talksport. I especially love Andy’s bitterness with regards to all things Chelsea.

6. Blogging is slowly but surely becoming a drag, I wonder if I can keep it up for the next year.

7. It’s my birthday soon, I think I need another bag, maybe some shoes, and some boots.

8. How dare ABC fucking cancel Ugly Betty. HOW VERY DARE THEY!!!??!

9. I wonder when Rush Limbaugh last had sex with his wife?

10. What does it say about me that I love watching shows such as One Tree Hill and Glee?

Wow, that was better than a therapist’s couch. You guys should try it.

I do love Margaret and Helen’s blog. Those two old ladies talk so much sense.

Whether they are for real or not, who cares, but whoever they are, they have to be the most amusing, startlingly perceptive, forthright political bloggers out there. I love how they get right to the heart of the matter.

Their latest log is entitled “The Elephant In The Room Is A Kangaroo” and starts:

I really do like this President. He is young and smart… and I think he is trying his best under bad circumstances to do the right thing and create change for good. Not easy these days… Sort of like your convincing Howard that seeing a doctor annually at his age is still preventative medicine. You’ve both got a tough sales job ahead of you.

Lol, I think Howard is Margaret’s long-suffereing husband, for those of you not familiar with the blog.

I really do appreciate his trying to reach across the aisle – as they say – and get Republicans to work towards bipartisanship. But honey, that dog just don’t hunt. Trying to reach bipartisanship with this particular Republican Party will probably achieve bipolarism instead of bipartisanship.

Harsh? Well yes maybe I am being a bit harsh. Part of the problem? Well maybe that too. After all bipartisanship requires a little give and take from both sides. So who am I to suggest that the problem is mainly with the Republicans?

Good questions all of them – particularly because I was the one who asked them. You know me, Margaret. I’m always trying to play both sides of the same issue. Well what do you expect from a woman who invented the all pie diet?

To all my Republican readers out there – I have had quite enough of your nonsense.

If any of my regulars are Republicans, this would probably be a good time to surf away, because these ladies are really not fond of what the US Republican party seems to stand for these days.

Your party gave us Sarah Palin and George W. Bush – dumb and dumber. He’s the guy whose mission still isn’t accomplished and she’s the gal who couldn’t handle being governor of one of our least populous states. Even the “professional” wrestler was able to finish the job in Minnesota.

Your party had an issue with President Obama telling school children to stay in school and study hard. I guess a black man can’t be trusted with your children regardless of his credentials. And your party decided the tradition of separating church and state had an expiration date. You love the constitution but you seem to pick through that document the same way you pick through the Bible – with all the effectiveness of eating corn on the cob through a picket fence.

We are actively involved in two wars, but you just can’t understand why the deficit is so big? Regardless of what you have been told, every time a bomb is dropped, an angel does not get her wings. Hint: Defense spending represents almost one quarter of all federal spending.

I find it ironic that Republicans are screaming deficit, deficit, deficit!, when the war that they wanted is a huge part of the problem, and no matter how much the Repubs want to shift the blame onto Obama, the war is still George Bush’s war, and most of the jack-asses on Fox News were all for it.

Today’s Republican Party has an issue with abortion, but then fights against healthcare reform knowing full well that more than 9 million children lack health insurance. A stretch argument to be sure, but then again 18 19 Children and Counting is a big hit.

My party at least recognizes the need for increased access to birth control. Your party is pro-life right up until they cut the cord and then you turn your attention to electing judges who promote shortening the waiting time on death row

I’ve never understood why being a Republican means that you have to be against abortion. The arguments that are made against the right to have an abortion seem to be founded on certain religious beliefs, which makes it hard for somebody like me to take them seriously. I also find it ironic that a country that is founded on ideals such as freedom of speech, have certain sections who actively believe that a woman’s body is not her own to do as she wishes. That’s what the whole anti-abortion issue is really about. Suppressing women’s rights.

You actually have Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck as your spokesmen. Rush Limbaugh? Are you serious? Even the NFL didn’t want Limbaugh. And Beck… Glenn Beck? When people use the expression ”nuttier than a fruitcake” Glenn Beck is the main ingredient.

Republicans like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Anne Coulter are proof enough that some abortions are absolutely neccessary for the good of the world.

The Republican Party of yesteryear was respectable. You were all about a small government that carried a big stick. Now you are just despicable. You used to be the Party of Lincoln and now – honest to God – you make Archie Bunker look progressive.

It seems to me that most of the politicians who represent the Republican party aren’t interested in the welfare of the people they serve. For them, a lot of their decisions seem to be entrenched in opposing the Democrats at all costs, regardless of whether it makes sense or not. As long as they’re disagreeing with the Democrats, their work is done. I find that utterly selfish and despicable.

If it wasn’t for Fox News you would be irrelevent. That’s right. You have become a party that owes its entire existence to a cable news channel owned by an Aussie. Your mascot should be a kangaroo instead of an elephant. After all, the last guy you sent to the White House arrived there thanks to a kangaroo court ruling rather than an election. He then spent the next 8 years bringing our nation to its knees. How about sitting down and shutting your damn pie holes long enough to see if the guy in office now can actually clean up your mess. Honestly, you are embarrassing yourself.

Fox News. Big fucking sigh. I’m so glad the UK don’t have to put up with such unprofessional and unbalanced news coverage from our news programmes. The news readers over here at least attempt to report the news as it is, rather than lacing the reports with their own deliberate agenda.

Margaret concludes with this:

Look. My party has problems too. It’s biggest problem might be in attempting to please everyone, the Democratic Party seems to please no one. But diversity of opinions is something I am willing to work through. Bigotry and ignorance is not. I mean it. Really.

A-fucking-men.

Is there something in the water? in the air?

A 26 year old Connecticut woman is found dead after giving birth to what appear to be full term triplets–and her mother doesn’t think the woman knew she was pregnant. WTF? Really?

An Oregon couple is found guilty in the negligence death of their son. The couple believes in faith healing, and even though they were present when their granddaughter died a few years ago through failed faith healing, they wouldn’t seek medical help for their son. They plan to appeal, by the way.

Honestly now, what the hell?

I guess the majority of you have already heard about the Macmillan v Amazon hatefest, huh?

Well, for those who haven’t, this is the short version:

1. Macmillan Publishing want to solely dictate and fix ebook prices up to $15, and they don’t want retailers involved other than to sell them.

2. Amazon weren’t happy with that so told them to fuck off, by removing the ‘Buy It Now’ buttons from all Macmillan titles.

3. Some authors became angry and blamed Amazon.

4. Some bird over at DA called Rebecca, took it quite personally because she hates, HATES, I tell you, e-books, and wont be shopping at Amazon again because they are depriving her of print books, just to win an argument about ebooks, which she HATES by the way.

5. Amazon gives in, because they want to be able to offer their customers Macmillan titles, what with them being one of the six big publishing houses out there.

That’s about it, right? Some of the details may be sketchy, but for more details, pop over to Dear Author, who have the skinny on the lovefest.

I’m slowly but surely learning to despise traditional publishers who can’t seem to see the wood for the trees. There is absolutely no way in hell I would pay $14.99 for an ebook. That’s practically daylight robbery. Any author who thinks that Macmillan are doing the right thing, needs a good slap. The economy is in the shitter, people are losing jobs left, right and centre, and those twats want to sell ebooks for $15? Crazy bastards. I bet it was a man who came up with that idea.

Amazon are hardly whiter than white though, I’m still fucked off with them over the whole #Amazonfail scandal. Money-grabbing bastards. I hate that they can delete books you paid for, if the fancy takes them. That’s just not effing cricket.

After all of this hoo ha, I’m so grateful that I never got a Kindle, I mean who the hell wants to buy books that aren’t really yours? Surely that’s what libraries are for?

I’ll stick to getting my books from The Book Depository, Amazon suck and they always will I fear.

Well, look at what we have here, apparently RWA have found a way to still stay friends with HQN, after taking away their eligible publisher status in a stand-off akin to the one that took place at the Alamo back in eighteen something or other. I can’t believe it took them so damned long:

Taking into account emerging trends in publishing that may offer opportunities to writers, the task force recommended that RWA adopt methods used by other trade shows and conventions and to shift its method of evaluating publishers as a whole to evaluating publishers by divisions, imprints, or lines.

Under this revised method, RWA will extend invitations to a wide pool of publishers. Invitees may only represent their non-subsidy/non-vanity publishing programs (imprints, divisions, or lines) at RWA’s conference. Space for spotlights, workshops, and booksignings will be allocated to lines, imprints, or divisions that best meet the requirements for “Qualifying Markets.” This new process of evaluation will likely increase opportunities for small presses and e-presses that previously have been excluded.

Of course I’m not surprised, I knew RWA wouldn’t be able to stick to their principles, they need HQN more than HQN needs them. In the words of Mrs G:

RWA 0 – Harlequin 1

I hate to say I told ya so, so I’m just gonna post what my cynical self wrote back in November:

I’m with Mrs Giggles, I wonder how long it will be before the RWA change the terms of publisher eligibility in order to welcome Harlequin back into the fold?

Now let’s wait and see how long it takes before they ‘invite’ HQN back to the fold.

Via Dear Author

1. Apparently Avatar has made it to the top spot for the sixth week, and has now grossed $552m in the US, which means that it will probably now eclipse Titanic ($600m ) to become the biggest box office hit ever.
On the other hand, The Lovely Bones isn’t faring so well. It’s possible that people don’t want to watch a film where the main protag is a little girl who was raped and murdered. Shocker.

2. RRRJessica is back from South Africa, and she has pictures.

3. Dear Author has news of more ‘white-washing’ going on at Bloomsbury. Remember the uproar over the cover of Justine Larbalestier’s Liar, and how the black protag somehow took on a white face on the cover? Well it seems that this is becoming a trend. Bloomsbury seems to hate black people on covers. The book that has been white-washed this time is Jaclyn Dolamore’s Magic Under Glass.

Apparently the main protagonist is described as a ‘dark-skinned’ woman, but if you look on the cover, that woman definitely seems white to me. Of course you have the usual Pollyannas burying their head in the sand and pretending that Bloomsbury is simply being misunderstood. There’s one person, (A, who seems to be a Michelle Malkin wannabe) who is apparently bi-racial and looks white, well isn’t she the lucky one. Talk about totally missing the fucking point. But then again, anybody who argues that race doesn’t exist, then goes on to write the following needs shooting:

I admit I am somewhat cautious when selecting “non-traditional” romance — by that I refer to ANY type of romance not featuring a white, monogamous, non-handicapped m/f pairing — because I really don’t want to read a book where “white” people, “straight” people, Christian people, etc. are villified, represented as being insensitive or lacking awareness and respect for minorities.

God I hate twats like her. It’s not like we don’t know that publishers believe that book covers featuring black folks don’t sell as well.

Salon also weighed in on the whitewashing scandal.

Anyway, as with Liar, Bloomsbury have announced that they will be changing the US cover. It makes one wonder whether or not they keep doing these things to get some free publicity.

4. Jane at DA has a “summary” of The Gingerbread Tryst over at DA. Yeah, she loved it as much as I did.

5. Angela has a great post up on her blog. She’s questioning who the audience for African American romance is.

Angela writes:

According to the RWA (their previous stats were more detailed, so I’m including them), the average age for a romance reader is around 45, tends to live in the South or the Mid-West, is married, has children, has at least an undergraduate degree, and is a white-collar worker. The stats aren’t broken down by ethnicity, but I’m certain that the majority, perhaps even all, of the readers surveyed were white. Despite my desire for their inclusion into the general romance audience, African-American romance readers have different expectations for their romance fiction..

I daresay that I probably don’t fit RWAs stats, but then again I live in England where a lot of black women wouldn’t be seen dead reading romance.

Angela continues:

However, as I tuned into the new (unfortunately) BET web series, Buppies, I was suddenly struck by how unlike AA romance it was. Oh, sure, it did perpetuate some of the stereotypes and bogeymen that have been floating around the professional black community for the past ten years, and there’s drama, drama, drama galore, but it’s…well, smart. Couple this with shows like Girlfriends, The Game, or Half & Half (I miss that show!), and it leaves me confused about the typical audience for AA romance. For one thing, if you hang around online a bit, you’ll notice that there is a large, and growing segment of black men and women forming communities online (and these are hilarious, smart, pithy folks) AND watching the same TV shows. Yet, somehow, in its current incarnation, I cannot see these people rushing into the store to pick up the latest Kimani or Dafina. They might read some Zane, or some Eric Jerome Dickey, they’ll probably cop the upcoming Helena Andrews memoir/chick-lit Bitch Is the New Black, maybe some nonfiction written by a black sociologist or historian, but the romance genre is invisible to these people, who admit to being voracious readers.

Raven over at Raven’s Reviews counters with her own thoughts on the subject.

She writes:

Perhaps part of the problem is that “hilarious, smart, pithy folks” think AA romance is written for their opposite number–boring, dull-witted, unfunny folk. Maybe the AA romance reading community hasn’t made itself visible enough to people outside it for those people to recognize the diversity (in age, education, geography, income, interests, marital status, etc) of the community. On the one hand, I see no problem with that. If AA romance fans want to get together to talk to each other about something they love and remain unconcerned about the world outside, more power to them. On the other hand, though, there is something to be said for announcing our presence. So here goes:
I am a 36 year old, happily married mother of two daughters. I am very well educated and work full time. I love superhero comic books, the television show Supernatural (in the ongoing IR in my head, the lovely Jensen Ackles is the star), and besides reading about the Eatons from Pennsylvania

Shall we? I’m a thirty four year-old sometimes happily married, sometimes less so, university-educated British black woman, who has a Bachelor of Science degree, as well as a BA degree. I have a more than passing interest in domestic and international politics. I love watching trashy reality TV, as well as hard-hitting expose documentaries. I think that writers like Eric Jerome Dickey do nothing but help cement some of the black stereotypes out there, so no thanks. I think that Zane is a tad over-rated, however I think that Beverly Jenkins and Dorothy Koomson are the fucking bees’ knees.

Any romance readers out there who want to add their stats too? It doesn’t matter if you aren’t black. *g*

6. Katiebabs has a post over at her blog entitled When Failure Is The Only Option Left. It’s an intensely raw and honest post, that I admit made me feel a tad uncomfortable whilst reading it. I think it shocked me to witness such black despair in someone that I consider to be a Sunshine Yellow, but if Katie can be so honest, then I can be too.

Katie, you’re not alone. My life isn’t exactly how I planned it either. Not exactly. I always wanted four kids – three girls and one boy to protect the girls. I come from a good-sized, close-knit family, so I always envisaged that I would emulate my parents and have a houseful of kids. Isn’t it funny how you take such things for granted? Well TTG and I tried for years to get pregnant, and last year our dream finally came true. Only to be dashed a couple of months later. Yeah, I lost the baby, and it was hard, but for a few weeks, I was the happiest person this side of the equator, and that’s a feeling that I hang onto when the rain falls heavily and the sky gets dark. Shit happens, but the sun will always rise, even without the rainbows. You’ve just got to keep on keeping on.

Last week over here in England, two young brothers were jailed for subjecting two other boys, aged nine and eleven to a prolonged brutal attack. The boys themselves were aged ten and eleven at the time.

This is an excerpt of a news report about the attack from September 2009

Two young brothers are facing life in custody for beating, burning and sexually assaulting two boys aged nine and 11.

The pair led their victims down a ravine in Edlington, near Doncaster, where they used bricks, broken sticks, a sink, a noose and lit cigarettes to brutally torture them.
The attackers, aged 9 and 11, then tried to force the boys into performing sexual acts on each other.
The younger boy was struck in the arm with a sharp stick and had cigarettes pushed into the gaping wound.
He was then forced to ram a stick down his own throat, being told to “go away and kill himself”.
The 11-year-old victim, who is the younger boy’s uncle, pleaded with his attackers to be left to die after enduring a sickening series of brutal assaults.
He was later found face-down and half-naked at the bottom of the ravine, unconscious, with a large gash to the back of his head.
Both the injured boys have since been released from hospital

The case went to court last week, and there were more revelations about what the brothers had done to their two victims. Apparently the boys were strangled, made to eat nettles, and one of them had a kitchen sink thrown onto his head.

One of the victims, who was found later covered in blood and on the brink of death, had a kitchen sink dropped on to his head, while the other was stabbed so badly that the knife penetrated to the bone.
It has emerged that the brothers had attempted to carry out a similar attack the week before, when they enticed a 12-year-old to the same spot on the pretext of showing him a toad, only to be interrupted by a passing fisherman.

I think I’ve asked the question before about whether or not we think people are born evil, or if it is something that is learned. I’ve always been of the opinion that some people are just born plain evil, however in the case of these two boys, their parents never gave them a chance.

It was revealed in court that at least one of the boys was drinking alcohol and smoking cannabis from nine years old. Also, they were exposed to pornographic films and slasher movies, from a young age. It was also alleged that the father of the two boys threatened to take a knife to the mother and “slice her face to bits”. This threat was made in front of the boys, and according to their drug-addicted mother, domestic violence was a common occurrence in the household where these kids lived.

After learning about some of the things that the boys had been subjected to, and the way they had been brought up, I think the parents themselves should also be jailed. In my opinion, the two of them are 99% responsible for their two children committing these heinous crimes.

This is very similar to the James Bulger case, where two young boys ended up murdering a toddler, and in that case, the parents were also totally neglectful. People will argue that social and economic deprivation was probably a big reason why these two boys went on to commit this crime, and I wouldn’t necessarily argue against those reasons, however I think that being brought up to recognise and respect the difference between right and wrong would have gone a long way towards preventing Jamie’s murder and more recently, the brutal attack on the two young victims.

Now I realise that not all children who turn out bad, have bad parents, but don’t we all know parents who should have been sterilised at birth, in order to keep them from having kids? I know I do. And the most horrifying thing is, these particular parents had five fucking children.

I tell you, it’s cases like this that makes me appreciate China’s one-child policy.

What say you? Is it time bad parents were punished for the actions of their children?