HomeReviewsInterviewsStoreABlogsOn Writing

A jumble of thoughts

Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks, random ramblings

Tacky or smart?

A few months ago I developed an interest in a new craft, quilling, and have been happily practicing since. Given where I live and what is available at the nearby craft stores, I’ve done most of my quilling supply shopping online–decent prices, even if the shipping could be cheaper (seriously, people, flat rate priority mail boxes–two days delivery and all you can fit in the box or envelope, what could be better?). Anyway, back to the point.

Like any self respecting online seller, the store keeps sending me emails with sales and promotions and new products, etc. So far, all standard stuff. Until today, that is. (more…)

Please don't hate me

Please don’t hate me

Friday, December 9, 2011
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks, random ramblings
Tags:

For this rambling blog post courtesy of the mess that is my mind, prompted by SLWendy’s innocent statement about Adele (quote: “I don’t get Adele. At all.”) and the comment thread on RRRJessica’s post on zaftig* heroines.

 

Bear with me while I ramble a bit (then do have at me in the comments šŸ˜€ )

(more…)

Fascinating Aida: Effing. Hilarious.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Posted in: random ramblings

So fricking clever, and bloody hilarious. You NEED to watch it!

I know it’s probably easy for me to say, but I find it incredibly hard to understand why women stay with men who treat them like shit, and make them feel bad about themselves on a daily basis.

If you have a man who constantly goes on about you carrying a bit of extra weight, you need to dump his ass, because he’s as good as telling you that if you don’t lose the weight, he will stray. The fact is though, in all honesty, this type of man will probably stray anyway.

That is all.

This blog post was brought to you by the words, ‘it’s too effing hot to sleep’.

Some more interesting stuff from my Google Reader:

Apparently McDonald’s is no longer the largest restaurant chain in the world. Subway is. That’s right, Subway.

McDonald’s is no longer the world’s largest restaurant chain. That honor now goes to Subway.

The sandwich giant just passed the golden arches in terms of number of locations, according to the Wall Street Journal. Subway had 33,749 restaurants open worldwide at the end of 2010.

McDonald’s had just 32,737 locations open by the same point, the corporation disclosed in SEC filings.

Does this mean, we’re all getting healthier? *Shudder*

New game: find the logic

A newly married woman in her late thirties says, “Now he can’t leave me.”

A woman in her fifties about a coworker who’s looking for a second job, “I thought she married him so that he would support her.”

A woman in her twenties complains that she’s not making enough money. She gets a promotion–far more responsibility, $0.25 cents more per hour (that’s about forty more dollars a month, before taxes). Next thing she does? Get a new car–new as in this year‘s model, directly from the German cars dealership.

From a group of women in their mid-thirties, over lunch, “… and I finally realized that all the awful things that were happening to me were the result of my lack of obedience.”

A woman serving herself coffee on a cup from the competitor next door, “You are out of decaf, are you bringing more out soon?”

A group of women has been sitting at a table for about four hours. One of them gets up and asks, “At what time do you close?” “We closed ten minutes ago, ma’am.” “Oh. So we can still order, right?”

Reading the menu while placing an order for lunch, “Oh man, I didn’t know that had so many calories! Well, give me the (lower calorie count alternative) instead. Can I have an extra piece of bread with that?”

A woman in her early forties, “I just don’t understand how is it that he can’t see just how perfect I am for him!”

A woman in her late thirties takes a job serving drinks at a strip bar. She’s been told that she can make up to $300 a night. She explains how she had to go get new underwear because the ‘uniform’ consists of a black corset/cincher and really short black shorts. After the first night on the job she quits, shockedĀ  that some of the customers grabbed her ass.

A woman in her mid-thirties, “Could you look in the trash for me? I can’t find my cell phone.”

(All these have been overheard by yours truly, by the way)

I’m finding blogging to be a chore these days. I really am.

I always swore to myself that I’d quit when blogging started feeling like hard work. It feels like hard work.

Even keeping up with other blogs feels like hard work these days. I’m reading fewer romance books than I ever have before and I have no interest in anything that’s going on in RomLand. In short, I just can’t be arsed.

This blog turned five in April, and somehow I managed to miss such a milestone. Or should that be millstone?

Of course work is crazy at the moment, but I also find that I want to spend more time actually being with TTG, rather than worrying about what to write on my blog. Also, it’s summer, which means that I should make hay while the sun shines.

I’m not going to quit blogging, but I sure feel like doing so. I wonder if I’m just having one of those days…

1. I’m far too hot to blog properly.

2. I haven’t read a book in two weeks.

3. I’m back on my annual holiday health kick and I managed to lose a whopping 9lbs this week, bikini here I come, whoop, whoop!

4. Derek Hough from Dancing With The Stars is a creative genius, and I think I have a slight crush on him.

5. Shemar Moore who plays Derek Morgan in Criminal Minds makes me want to squee like a girl.

6. TTG looks hot without his shirt on.

7. Why hasn’t Julia Spencer Fleming released her next Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne novel yet? I don’t want to wait until next bloody year!

8. My garden looks beautiful in this light.

9. I have some of the best female friends ever. Fact.

10. I have a new niece coming in September, and I’m so damned excited!

11. This weekend has been a feast of fun and it’s s shame it’s nearly over.

12. I have no idea what’s been going on in RomLand.

13. It’s the World Cup soon, yay!!! Come on England!!!

After reading Sharon Cullar’s latest post, I was very tempted to send her an email, urging her to get a new name, and to start writing romances featuring just white characters, because her books are obviously just not selling well.

It seems a bit drastic, but the fact is, money is an issue for her right now, so the question I think she needs to ask herself, is, is she happy writing the books of her heart, and not selling, or is she prepared to go the mercenary route and write where the money is.

I know that there are no guarantees, but the fact is, books featuring black or even inter-racial couples do not sell as well as books featuring all white couples.

Her ability to write is not in question here, I’ve read Sharon Cullar’s books, and she’s a fantastic author, however, with the way that books featuring black protags are constantly ignored by Jane Average Reader in RomLand, I think she’d be better off writing Carol Lynne-type books where the all-white protags shag at every given opportunity.

I think that we here in RomLand like to think that good plot development and good editing are essential to every reader, but if that were true, how do you account for people like Jamaica Layne apparently still selling? There are obviously people out there reading and enjoying what she writes.

I also considered perhaps advising Sharon to start writing mƩnage erotic romance, seeing as they seem to be as popular as ever.

I know that authors should really write what they love, but what if what they love doesn’t sell? It’s ok if money isn’t an issue for said author, but what if, as in Sharon’s case, it is? Should she really be expected to stick to her principles, and keep churning out inter-racial romances, that have a limited audience in the market place?

Charity Begins At Home? Or Does It?

Thursday, April 8, 2010
Posted in: random ramblings, rant

This email has been doing the rounds on the web of late:

Shame on you GREAT BRITAIN..we have children going to bed without eating..elderly going without needed medicines..mentally ill without treatment..troops without proper equipment..yet we donate millions to other countries before helping our own first..99% ppl wont have the guts to copy and repost this.!!!!!! WILL YOU ???

I’ve seen various versions of the same email, some that begin with ā€œShame on you AMERICAā€, etc.

If I’m honest, I don’t get it.

I understand the concept of charity beginning at home, but it seems to me that people comparing poverty in the West, to poverty in third world countries are either off their heads or off their meds. Or both.

The fact is, poverty is relative. A poverty-stricken child in England just cannot be compared to a poverty-stricken child in Sudan.

(more…)

(gotta love Zazzle)

(gotta love Zazzle)

I’m a geek.

Not one of those really well educated geeks, I admit, but a geek nonetheless.

And this geek is always fascinated by how science is catching up to fantasy (no wonder we call it science fiction now šŸ˜€ )

For example, when reading Nalini Singh’s Psy/Changeling series, I had some issues with Hostage to Pleasure because it posits that DNA manipulation would have effect within one generation. I’m all, ā€œno way in hell, dammit!ā€ and feeling pulled out of the story because, well, not possible.

(Yes, I know—I have trouble accepting that but I’m happily overlooking little impossibles such as, say, shapeshifting. So I’m inconsistent, sue me šŸ˜› )

Anyway, the whole DNA manipulation part of the storyline bothered me—it seemed a bit like a cop out, frankly—and then I see this cool little article and wham! ā€œObjection overruled, counselor.ā€

These little critters are a) stealing DNA and passing it on to their offspring, and b) stealing cellular structures into their own cells and using them successfully.

Looking at this, I’m suddenly much happier about Ashaya Aleine’s work šŸ˜€

*Ā Ā Ā  *Ā Ā Ā  *Ā Ā Ā  *Ā Ā Ā  *

Random PS: Who is your favorite geeky chick? Personally, I’m torn between Abby from NCIS and the amazing Kaylee from Firefly.

This and that…

Monday, September 28, 2009
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks, random ramblings

demon cat on energy saving mode- - small

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…)

The ARC dilemma

Monday, August 10, 2009
Posted in: Azteclady Speaks, random ramblings

AztecLady, confusing people since… well, pretty much since birth.

confused crazy

Here’s the thing that’s been going around and around in my head, not letting me sleep. (more…)

42-17852056

So, the other day on Twitter, I mentioned that I don’t see the point in MMF books. Interesting conversation ensued.

In the majority of MMF books that I’ve read, the women seem to be surplus to requirement.

If I’m honest, I don’t really get why a gay couple would decide that they need a female to complete them. I’m meant to believe that they aren’t into any other females, except that one special vagina, who helps make them whole? Really?

I think you can tell when an author has no interest in writing a book that includes female interaction, because all the emotional connection seems to be between the two males, yet the reader is expected to suspend disbelief, and buy that all three parties are in love? I struggle with that. I really do.

Every time I’ve read an MMF book, I’ve felt distinctly let down by the lack of connection with the female. I then go and check the author’s backlist, and lo and behold, they turn out to be predominantly MM writers.

I understand the need to branch out, but I’m a huge believer that authors shouldn’t write books that they don’t enjoy, and in my experience, some of these books have felt like more of an obligation than a labour of love, on the part of the author. Like they were trying to cater to the MF Reader dollar, if you like.

JMC mentioned a Lorelei James book that we’d both read. It was an MMF book, where the two penises had engaged in sexual activity, then one of the penises decided that he was in love with a vagina, and so then married the vagina. When the other penis eventually came back, he basically presented him to the vagina, and confessed to being in love with the penis.

Confused? Yeah, me too.

While the writing was fine, I’m afraid that I just didn’t buy the HEA for one minute. I know that we have to suspend disbelief in a lot in erotic romance, but for me, I couldn’t see anything but years of misery and heartache for all of the genitalia involved in that particular relationship.

Anyway, as it happens, LJ is one of the writers who doesn’t have a backlist full of MMs, but somehow – in my opinion – Rough, Raw and Ready managed to concentrate more on the emotional connection between the two penises, than the emotional connection between both the penises and the vagina. Actually, as I recall, I distinctly remember a lack of connection between Penis No. 2 and The Vagina.

For me, this seems to have been the story of my MMF reading life.

What say you?

Loose-ID-Watch: This week, 1 MMF, 2 MMs, 1 MF & 1 extra MM)

Sitting On The Fence All The Time…

Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Posted in: random ramblings

aaarggh1

Must seriously chap one’s arse.

Sometimes it’s ok to say, yes I agree, or no, I don’t.

Why do some people find that so hard to do?

People who are reasonable all the times, sometimes make my teeth hurt as much as unreasonable people do.

Just sayin’.

No Sex Before Marriage? Ya Think?

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Posted in: random ramblings

Last weekend, on The Big Questions, Nicky Campbell and Co were discussing the subject of sex before marriage.

There were a couple of girls who were advocating waiting, on the show, and they made a lot of sense, but as a grown woman, there’s no way I would have wanted to do the deed on the night I got married. The nervous anticipation, and build-up, and ridiculously high expectations? Oh, no.

Losing my virginity was totally underwhelming anyway, so the thought of experiencing that same feeling on the happiest day of my life? I think not.

What say you? Would you guys have preferred to wait, if you could have a do-over?

If you could choose to be born with one of the following attributes, which one would you pick?

Beauty?
Brains?
Amazing athletic ability?

This is a conversation, that myself and my girlfriends had the other day.

It seems pretty straight cut, that most people would pick brains, and indeed, I picked brains initially, but then Friend No 1 asked what if I could stand being super-intelligent, but ugly as sin (yes, I know, beauty is in th eye of the beholder, but whatever), and this made me pause.

Friend no. 2 tried to quote a stat from somewhere that apparently proved that beautiful people were usually more successful than ugly intelligent people. (She couldn’t name her source, so I’m assuming it was something she read in OK! magazine.)

I think she may have had a point. No, seriously. Political correctness be damned.

Anyway, I changed my mind, and picked beauty. I know, I know, and me a bordeline feminist too.

The thing is, being born beautiful is a much more useful attribute, because instead of working hard for success, I could simply marry a successful man. Or sleep my way to the top. *g*

Shallow much? Unfortunately, not shallow enough, because I suddenly remembered how much dumb people piss me off, and went back to brains.

Which one would you choose? And don’t be afraid to be shallow, I certainly wont be judging you for it. *G*

I can’t tell you how much I disagree with this.

Microsoft officials have confirmed that the company is to introduce a way for users to surf the Web anonymously.

As part of the upcoming Internet Explorer 8 release, Microsoft is incorporating ‘inPrivate’ – a mode that will not record visits to the user’s history and will not allow sites to place cookies on the user’s system. Apple currently offers a similar service with its Safari browser.

Sure it would be great to access sites without leaving a trail, but what about the bigger picture?

What about the fucking paedophiles?

A poster left an interesting comment on one of the many NCP posts on the blog earlier today. It wasn’t the NCP related stuff that caught my interest, but this little gem:

I had a friend who told me once that I should write from my heart and everything else will come along on its own. I disagree. I believe you should write what people are interested in reading. Otherwise, you’re not going to make any money, which is pretty much the point of writing isn’t it?

Well, we know that a lot of authors have jumped on the various bandwagons out there, (Read: paranormals) but does this mean that they are likely to sell more books, just because they chose a popular sub-genre?

Is this poster correct? Does it really make more sense to write what is selling in the market, rather than what you’re passionate about?

As readers, do you prefer your fave authors to write from the heart, or would you be just as happy if they jumped on the bandwagons?