Harlequin + Super Librarian = Awesome!

Massive Bat Cave news. Huge, colossal Bat Cave news.

Several months back, the digital team over at Harlequin contacted several bloggers about the possibility of putting together some ebook bundles. One of the bloggers they contacted was none other than lil' ol' me. Naturally, I practically fell all over myself saying yes. Which means I now had to come up with some ideas. I started out with two goals:

1) Create bundles featuring books I personally enjoyed.

2) Try to concentrate on books that currently are unavailable electronically.

I came up with three different bundle ideas - sending them all off to Harlequin hoping there would be one set they didn't think sucked. Well, I recently heard back from them. They selected my Cheryl St. John bundle!

Wahoooooooey!

As you are all well-aware, here at the Bat Cave we lurve us some Cheryl St. John. She is not only our very favorite Harlequin Historical author, but now that Maggie Osborne is retired, she also may be our favorite western romance author. The Doctor's Wife, The Lawman's Bride and The Preacher's Wife are all connected books in the author's Harvey Girls trilogy. The first two titles have never been available electronically, and all three have been out of print for some time.

Wahooooooooey!

The first round of Blogger Bundles are set to launch in January 2010. They'll be available to purchase over at eHarlequin, and one would assume at other ebook retail outlets. I have no idea on cost yet, but going by other historical bundles they offer, my guess is somewhere in the ballpark of $20.

My Spin On Carina Press

Monday mornings can sometimes bring really interesting e-mails to the Bat Cave in-box. Today it was an e-mail from Malle Vallik (one of the awesome folks over at Harlequin) announcing the arrival of Carina Press. Carina Press is a brand spankin' new digital-only press under the Harlequin umbrella. The plan for the official launch is set for sometime Spring/Summer 2010. Angela James has been hired as Executive Editor (welcome back to the Land Of The Gainfully Employed Ange!), and they're already accepting submissions.

So what does this all mean? Well, first off I'm going to direct you to Jane's post over at Dear Author (which includes a guest post from Angie) and Sarah's post over at Smart Bitches for some of the more "technical" talk like no DRM, submission guidelines, business model etc. I'm not an author, nor an aspiring one, so a lot of this stuff goes right on over my head. I'd also encourage you to check out Carina Press's web site, which has even more information (including a blog!).

But since you are all here visiting the Bat Cave, I'm going to give you my spin on this.

It's huge. Big, huge colossal news. If only for the fact that Carina Press is under the Harlequin Enterprises umbrella. Certainly Harlequin has already readily embraced digital, but with the formation of this new press, they've effectively kicked open the door. It's huge. It's unprecedented. And it puts every other "major" traditional print publisher on notice.

All this being said, I have never been the reader (or librarian) who is a zealot for e-publishing. I don't think Dead Tree books are going anywhere in my lifetime (sorry, just don't), and until the electronic format is more affordable, easy to understand, stream-lined, and idiot-proof, I just don't see the world takeover that so many others are predicting.

However, I think I speak for all librarians everywhere (well, at least the awesome ones) when I say we're all a big ol' bunch of Format Hos. While it's highly unlikely I'll ever give up Dead Tree books 100%, I love the ability to be entertained in a variety of formats. I love my Dead Tree books. I love audio books on CD. I love downloadable audio books (OMG! Heaven!). And I love ebooks. I love them all. I love having options. Gimme, gimme, gimme lots of options and I'm a happy, happy girl.

Ultimately what the formation of Carina Press does do is put the naysayers on notice. While I certainly don't feel that digital publishing is going take over the world, I do think it's short-sighted of traditional print publishers to ignore it. Now we have a major player in the publishing industry (Harlequin) further embracing the digital model and medium. It's huge (have I said that already?), and I'm fully expecting I'll be bombarded by news, editorials etc. in all the Industry-Type Stuff I read for my job. It's certainly intriguing, and I for one am very curious to see what's going to be offered up in the way of their launch titles.

It Came To This

Yes, it came to this. After almost 7 years of having the Bat Cave at my original blog, the issues with Hughesnet prompted me to start from scratch. Sort of.

I know it's a colossal pain in the ass to change links and RSS Feeds, but honestly? It's one minor inconvenience compared to an entire ISP not being able to access the awesomeness that is the Bat Cave. When you look at it like that, it really wasn't much of a choice.

The good news is that I have migrated my entire archive, so all the glorious wonderful content is now here. Also, I have plans to keep up the "old" blog indefinitely because I know a ton of you have linked to individual posts I've done over the years, and broken links give us all a sad.

On the bright side, my URL makes more sense now. No more pesky underscore to try and remember. And really, doesn't "Wendy the Super Librarian" just have more of a ring to it?

So sit back, relax, and enjoy. Oh, and welcome Hughesnet people!

Feisty Bad First Impressions

First, my apologies to Ms. Killion, who sent this book to me ages ago for a review. My Slump From Hell is a really terrible excuse, but it's the only one I have.

Highland Dragon is the author's second published book, and unfortunately was a bit of a slog for me to get through. It would be easy to blame my slump, but in reality it was the ol' Bad First Impression problem. After a bang-up prologue, the book started to sink thanks to the heroine. But more on her in a bit....

As a young lad Calin MacLeod witnessed his father's murder. His father made the mistake of falling for the beautiful Lena Kinnon, when she showed up at their home, already pregnant, begging for protection from her vile husband, Laird Baen Kinnon. Naturally Laird Kinnon (AKA The Beast) is none to pleased with his wife running out on him. Shortly after giving birth to their daughter, Akira, she is murdered, along with Calin, and several of his warriors. The only reason Akira escapes the same fate is because Calin sneaks out from his hiding place, spirits the child away, and vows that one day he shall marry her and unite their clans.

Fast forward, and Calin has decided the time has come. He shows up at the Neish household to claim Akira, only to learn she's been spirited away to a slave auction because she's "a witch." So off he goes to rescue her, so he can take her back home and wed her. Besides the small issue of her being kidnapped, the girl also has no idea The Beast is her father. When she learns that bit of truth, it's going to get very sticky indeed.

As I've already mentioned, the prologue of this story is fantastic. The problem comes when the reader meets Akira as a grown woman. Yes, gentle readers, we have one of those heroines. Sigh. Feisty. And not Good Feisty. No, Akira is Stupid Feisty. Instead of lying through her teeth at the slave auction to save her own neck, she "fights" back by opening her stupid mouth. Hell, even the child who was up for auction before her had the sense to LIE! Frankly, heroines with no sense of self-preservation deserve whatever happens to them, says me. Then of course, there's that added hoydenish touch that all feisty heroines have in historical romances - yep, the girl likes to climb trees.

Sigh.

I liked Calin a bit better, although he's one of those romance heroes who just won't come out and tell the heroine what the heck is going on until naturally she hears the truth from a third party. What is it with romantic couples that won't talk to each other?

My bad first impression of the heroine soured this story pretty early on for me, and it made the first half of this book a real slog. I never really felt like the author got a good handle on the conflict until after the couple finally has their wedding. By that point, the two villains (one the dreaded "other woman") start playing a more prominent role, and the conflict picks up a bit. By this point Akira morphs from feisty, to a bit of a Mary Sue - the kind of heroine who lacks self-confidence, and yet has everyone from the hero to small children eating out of the palm of her hand. But at least she stops climbing trees.

It's the villains and the derring-do-style action that picked up the second half of the story for me. One of the characters has a change of heart, and I'm not sure how believable it was, but it did make for compelling reading. The author also writes "hot" very well, so if you're a sucker for sexy medievals, Killion is an author to keep an eye out for on that front.

Also, of note, the author does employ the use of the brogue here. Readers tend to be very passionate on this issue. I generally can't stand it, but I will say that Killion at least employs it consistently, and it's easy to follow. I never had to stop and "think" about the dialogue, trying to decipher what the hell the characters were saying to each other. Also the epilogue is straight up Sunshine Care Bear Rainbows. I'm such a little hypocrite, that I actually sort of expect these in historicals (I tend to despise them in contemporaries though - go figure) and am OK with them. But certainly, this is another issue that readers tend to be quite passionate about.

All and all? This was a totally mixed bag read for me. The hero was OK, the heroine largely didn't work for me, but some of the conflict was interesting. If you're a squeeing fangirl for medievals, this one may be worth a look.

Final Grade = C-

Barely Housebroken Monkeys On Typewriters

It's days like this that I wish I married a geek.

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, it has come to my attention that Hughesnet hates librarians. Well, that's not fair. They just hate me. Turns out some of you using Hughesnet for an ISP cannot "see" the Bat Cave. You can "see" me using your Google Reader. You can "see" me when you pull up a cached page of my blog. What you apparently cannot do is come directly to my site, read all the scintillating ramblings and leave comments.

You get a 505 DNS error, or some variation of that.

To add to the frustration? One Hughesnet user has reported to me that they can see other blogs hosted by Blogger/Blogspot. They just can't "see" me.

It's very frustrating. And like all free services, I'd have better luck finding the Holy Grail than uncovering an e-mail or phone contact for Google/Blogger.

Bugger.

But I'm working on it. And also throwing myself on the mercy of the Blogosphere. Any bright ideas? Hughesnet has been contacted and they say they're communicating with Blogger just dandy. Plus, these people can "see" other Blogger blogs....just not me.

I can't decide if this gives me a sad, or makes me Hulk-like angry. Probably a little bit of both. Wendy mad! Wendy smash!

Teeny Hard Covers And Fan Favorites

Part of my job as a collection development librarian is ordering books in advance. Yeah, pre-ordering. I'm usually working anywhere from one to three months ahead of time, and keeping upcoming bestsellers "on file" for as far ahead as six months. Sometimes I forget this. Like recently, when I wondered why I hadn't seen more bitching concern voiced online about the new Linda Howard book, Ice. Turns out it doesn't land in bookstores until next week, so most of you may not know it. So, I'm here to rain on your parade.

Ice clocks in at a whopping 208 pages. And it's a hard cover retailing at $22.00. That said, Amazon currently has this one on sale for $9 - which I guess is a bargain.

Then today I got in a shipment of advanced copies here at work. Yeah, my library gets some advanced copies. Part of the joy of being part of a very large system that orders a ton of books. Anyway, today's box yielded A Matter Of Class by Mary Balogh (due December 29). My first thought was "How much money could I extort out of Balogh fangirls for this one?"* and my second thought was "Holy mother, how tiny is this book?!"

Amazon has it listed at 208 pages. The ARC currently sitting on my desk is 190 pages. Yes, it's a hard cover. Although at least it's retailing for $15.95. Which I guess is better than the Linda Howard - maybe.

So there's your not so wonderful news for the day. Just in case you didn't know.

How many of you were thinking of buying one or both of these right out of the gate, but are now reconsidering? How many of you will not buy them, now that you know they're teeny hard covers? How many of you are squeeing fangirls and don't care? And how many of you were going to get them from the library anyway, so this isn't exactly shocking news Wendy? Duh.

*I was joking. The Balogh is not for sale. I know. I'm mean.

But What I Really Want To Do Is Write

Today is November 1, which means it's once again time for NaNoWriMo. For those of you who think I'm talking more nonsense than usual, that stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to crank out a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.

During my general blog surfing, I'm always surprised by how many reader bloggers turn out to be aspiring authors. Naturally, several of them are going to be participating in NaNoWriMo.

I'll admit it, I'm a little touchy on this subject of reader/reviewer/aspiring author. You have to look at my history. Back when I landed in the online romance community (back when dinosaurs walked the Earth) - you had three major sources for romance novel reviews. The Romance Reader, All About Romance, and Mrs. Giggles. Certainly other sites joined in later - but those were really The Big Three. What separated TRR, AAR and Mrs. G from the print publications that reviewed romance (and really, there weren't that many of those either) were that all three would occasionally ::gasp:: not care for a book. Unfavorable reviews happened.

This was a foreign concept for a lot of authors, and naturally some of them weren't happy. Mud-slinging commenced. These sites were accused of enjoying "slash-and-burn" style reviews. All we did was nit-pick stories to death. Which was a bunch of horse-hooey. As a former TRR reviewer I can tell you I wrote way more favorable reviews (A, B, C grades or 5, 4 and 3 Hearts) than I ever did unfavorable (D and F or 2 and 1 Hearts). But the perception was that we had it "out" for romance writers. This naturally brought up that old charge that all of us were a bunch of jealous, nasty biddies who ripped apart "good" books because we were "frustrated would-be wannabe writers." Since our crap manuscripts had no doubt been soundly rejected all over New York, we decided to build up our little egos by shredding the work of more talented and published writers.

Sigh.

Sadly, this bit of nonsense still gets tossed around to this day - only this time the targets include not only "old guard" reviewers, but fairly new on the scene bloggers as well.

Now certainly I'm not saying there is anything wrong with reader bloggers being aspiring writers. What I am saying is that not all reader bloggers have that desire or aspiration. Some of us, truly, have no desire to write. Of which I am one.

I've long said that if I ever were crazy enough to try my hand at writing a book, romance would be the very last genre I would pick. Why? Because hot damn, all that emotional "stuff" is damn hard to write! And then you have to make it believable! Holy mother - no way in heck could I do that. Nope. If I were going to write, I'd pick a crime novel (because I'm blood-thirsty) or straight-up erotica (because I'm a deviant). But not a romance. I don't have it in me.

This all being said, I don't really want to write. Besides the fact it's hard, I lack a little thing called desire. When you write, you have to want it. You have to work for it. You have to sit your ass in the chair, and write. You have to write when you don't feel like it. Write when the words won't come easy. Write when you'd rather have bamboo shoots shoved underneath your fingernails. It's hard work. Hell, if it wasn't hard every John and Janie Yokel would fancy themselves being able to do it.

And actually, some of them do. Take it from the librarian who routinely receives unsolicited, self-published "manifestos." ::shudder::

So for those of you out there with aspirations to one day be published - I salute you. It's hard work. I appreciate that it's hard work. Which is why I don't do it. That, and the fact that I lack a little thing called talent. And drive. And anything remotely resembling ambition.

How many of you blog and are aspiring writers? How many of you blogged as aspiring writers and have since been published? And how many of you are like me and have no aspirations whatsoever?