Little Miss Crabby Pants Pours One Out: RIP Harlequin Historical

Y'all it's a dire timeline we currently find ourselves in and it's spilling over into Romancelandia. Word got out this week that Harlequin is killing the Harlequin Historical line. I follow longtime HH writers Terri Brisbin and Amanda McCabe on Facebook and they both posted the news - so that's good enough for me when it comes verify your sources.   Terri's post has the most thorough information so I'll embed that below: 

There have been rumors that Harlequin was going to kill the Historical for over a decade now, with things ramping up to a fever pitch when Harlequin was acquired by Harpercollins in 2014. Surely with the juggernaut that was Avon, Harpercollins would jettison Harlequin Historical. I mean why put up with red-headed stepchild HH when you got Julia Quinn, Lisa Kleypas and Eloisa James?  Fast forward to 2026 and Avon has thrown all their weight behind contemporary romance with cartoon covers and the only historical on my radar is the upcoming Julie Anne Long, coming in June 2026 (with an illustrated cover, natch). Harlequin Historical hung on a lot longer than I think anyone gave them credit for, even as Harlequin bungled their way through the marketing of that line (legit, there was a stretch where they stopped distributing HH to physical retail spaces - like, you could not find an HH in a bookstore!)

I've been out in these Harlequin streets a long time but it's getting hard to love them. Look, I understand the economics of the situation. Inflation and rising costs - not to mention the economics of big box stores and our Evil Overlords at Amazon - have killed the mass market paperback format. Then you look at the fact that romance readers were the first to truly embrace digital reading, in droves, which I think also helped hasten the demise of mass market but also caught the industry by "surprise" and, having learned nothing from the music industry, they bungled their way through the transition to digital - which, honestly, they're still bungling. Digital gave rise to self-publishing, which gave rise to "cheaper books," which larger conglomerate publishers just cannot compete with because of overhead costs. A romance reader buying retail (and reading 100+ books every year) was going to take a flier on a 99 cent book, even if that traditional publisher priced their digital formats at a reasonable price point (and many of them didn't - how many times have we seen ebook editions that are more expensive than the print?).  Compounding this? Publishers dug in their heels with libraries when it came to digital lending. Early on this wasn't an issue with Harlequin, who were REALLY friendly with library digital buying and borrowing until they were sold to Harpercollins (hello, metered access), but it's another reason why we're in the boat we're in folks. 

All of these economic factors, plus shifting reader tastes, has led to Harlequin jettisoning several lines. I'm still pissed about SuperRomance y'all. However, it was when they killed the Desire and Love Inspired Historical lines that I knew things were about to get real - and here we are. In a genre chasing TikTok popularity, the days of going into a bookstore and walking to the register to buy a category romance, a historical, an erotic romance, a contemporary romcom, and a gritty paranormal romance are fading fast. If it's not a romantasy or a women's fiction novel masquerading as a contemporary romance publishers just have no frickin' clue what to do with it. The days of being able to read a back cover blurb and look at the cover art to determine what you were actually buying or reading are long gone. All the packaging looks the same now to the point you could stack the books face out against a wall and basically get something resembling a wallpaper pattern. 

Am I old and cranky? Yes. But it's my blog and I can crank all I want.

It's hard to stress what Harlequin Historical brought to Romancelandia but I've been single-handedly trying to remind y'all for years now. When Regency England wallpaper took over, you could still find some variety and history with Harlequin. They were the last historical publisher to abandon westerns (albeit they too eventually did), you could routinely find medievals there along with Vikings.  Oh sure, they had Regencies, but they also had Victorians that read like actual Victorian era settings and not Regency 2.0: The Revenge. And then they'd slip in some off-the-beaten path gems, like Jeannie Lin's Tang Dynasty books or Michelle Styles' stories set in Ancient Rome. 

I realize we have many more books to come until the line shuts down in 2027, and the backlist will live on for a long time (although backlist also has a shelf life...) but I'm vacillating between sadness and pure rage that this moment has come. I'm mad publishers keep fumbling their business so poorly. I'm mad at the state of the world we live in where nobody can or even wants to read a book anymore. I'm mad at the state of my chosen profession for continuing to stress that Libraries Are More Than Books while the world burns down all around us because NOBODY IS READING BOOKS ANYMORE AND WHY AREN'T WE ADDRESSING THAT AS A PROFESSION?! I'm mad at everyone who felt abandoned by historical romance and stopped reading it even though I understand why you feel that way.  In general I'm just cranky and mad about all of it right now, even as my TBR can be seen from space.

So, what to do in the meantime? I need to spend more time focusing on my own Harlequin Historical pile and sharing that love. I also hope that you all go out and pick up an HH title that tickles your fancy - then talk it up to where ever it is you may talk books. 

When I was a wee baby romance reader I remember how frustrated I would get with Old Lady Romance Readers lamenting the demise of the genre because of erotic romance, and now, as they say, the shoe just may be on the other foot.  For I am lamenting the demise of the genre thanks to TikTok, publishers not knowing what the hell they're doing, and a world that has rendered most of us incapable of doing much outside of trudging through our daily existence hoping to keep our heads above water even as we all feel like slipping under.  Books can be a life preserver in a lot of ways, but the market is narrowing and shrinking, at least in traditional publishing spaces, and it doesn't instill much hope. Can self-publishing save us? With so much of it grossly dependent on Amazon? Doubts, I have them. 

Edited to add: Many thanks to Eurohackie for providing the link to the official Harlequin announcement. Also, they're reducing the number of Presents they publish every month which HOLY SH*T YOU GUYS!

Frustrations, Silver Linings, and Small Joys

This blog is a dead zone because I haven't been reading. I'm in a slump and it's a slump born out of work stress and a general feeling of malaise that seems to hover over me like a marine layer that just won't burn off. 

This past Tuesday was really not a good day for me, born entirely out of work-related frustrations. I didn't hit a wall so much as hit a series of them one after another like Wile E. Coyote. I was emotionally bankrupt once I returned to the Bat Cave and something, who knows what, made me get online instead of just crawling into bed. That's where I found it, the silver lining. After a 14 hiatus, I'm finally getting Book 3 in Christa Faust's Angel Dare series for Hard Case Crime.  14 years people! I've been waiting for as long as my niece Lemon Drop has been alive!

The Get Off by Christa Faust 

Coming (heh heh) March 2025 and added emphasis in blurb is all mine.

WILL THE CHANCE FOR A NEW LIFE BE ANGEL’S LAST SHOT?

Tagged as a cop killer when a mission of vengeance goes wrong, Angel Dare finds herself on the run, with an unexpected burden: she’s pregnant. Her desperate flight takes Angel across the American west, where cattle barons lock horns with rodeo bullfighters and life can end suddenly and brutally. A renegade couple living off the grid near the border might offer a chance of escape – but can Angel reach them in time…?

Now, let's refresh our memories on Wendy's reaction to the second book in this series (published all the way back in the more halcyon days of 2011), Choke Hold.  

However the author makes some choices in this novel that drove my inner romance reader batty.  First, there's an unprotected sex scene.  This sex scene happens after a break in the action where our fair heroine literally escapes with her life.  Adrenaline is surging towards the OMG, We're Still Alive!  Let's Celebrate With Hot Sweaty Sexy Times! spectrum.  I get that.  But the romance reader in me?  She sees "unprotected sex" and immediately thinks, "That bitch is going to end up pregnant, I just know it."

Granted the chances of Angel ending up with a bun in the oven strain considerably - but stranger things have happened.  All I'm saying is if there's another book in this series down the road, and she's either 1) knocked up or 2) has a baby in tow.....

Wendy Mad, Wendy Smash!

Gentle Reader, after the day I had on Tuesday, and reading this old review that evening, I laughed near borderline cackled.  

Look, am I still annoyed Angel does end up pregnant? Yeah, mainly because it's not what I want in my noir vigilante heroines. But 14 years is a lot of water under the bridge and I'm just so happy Faust finally decided to come back to this series. Plus news of this what-is-surely-going-to-be-a-Dark-AF book lightened my epically dreadful mood on a day when I just wasn't feeling very good about much of anything. I'll take it - bun in the oven and all.

Sometimes it's the little things....

Little Miss Crabby Pants Looks Ahead

As mentioned in December Unusual Historicals post, I've been doing some introspection about blogging. Which is just about as much fun as it sounds. I'll be honest, I've been hanging on by my fingernails to blogging for at least the past four years, and 2020 was an all-time low. But first, some history....

2021 will mark the 18th year of this blog's existence. Prior to that, starting in 1999 (that's over 20 years for those of you who suck at math) I started doing what I call "heavy lifting" reviewing - back in the days when finding critical reviews of romance reviews was about as easy as flapping your arms and flying to the moon.  Anyway, I started the blog in 2003, gave up the "heavy lifting" in 2007, scored RWA's Librarian of the Year in 2011, and killed my fair share of group blogs along the way (Romancing the Blog, Reader's Gab, Heroes & Heartbreakers....).  Yet still, this humble little blog kept chugging along.

So what happened?  Well, I wish I could say it was all 2020 - but no. To be honest I am not the same Super Librarian I was in 2003. I don't talk about my job much online, but I oversee a division now. I'm in management. And y'all this is my first pandemic and it's frickin' exhausting. The fact that I have an assistant and a really great boss are the only reasons I haven't had a complete mental and emotional breakdown.

On top of being all around generally exhausted, and navigating through 2020, I'm at that stage in my tenure of Romancelandia where I feel like I've overstayed my welcome.  This happens to everybody I suspect. You start feeling old. New residents emerge. They like different books and authors. You feel like you're an out of touch old fuddy duddy and pretty soon you're the crazy granny on the front porch cradling a mangy cat and stroking a shotgun. Yeah, I'm there.

Booktube, podcasts, Instagram is where it's at now - and all of 3 people bother with blogs anymore. If I had the energy maybe I'd start channeling my desire to talk about what I'm reading into those venues but here's the thing - I don't.  For one thing nobody wants to see my ugly mug, and for another I've always had a stronger writing voice than speaking voice. Yes, I'm aware this blog is a hot mess on the best of days - but trust me.  Reading me is better than the alternatives.

As for Twitter - I've seriously begun to curtail my time over there because it's too exhausting to wade through the piles of garbage and I'm already exhausted. I've come to accept the fact that nothing good comes of Twitter. Stitch that on a sampler, make a million, thank me later.

So what's the point of all this whining?  Well, I'm nothing if not stubborn. This blog has existed for nearly 18 years and will continue to do so - but, I need to accept the fact that this blog and my writing just aren't what they used to be, for all the reasons stated above. I also know that if I want this blog to survive (and I do - because hello, stubborn) I need to once again make blogging my "happy place."  

What can you (all three of you...) expect moving forward in 2021?  I'm going to request fewer ARCs, stop feeling guilty about having zero interest in whatever hot book du jour is the talk of the moment and read through some of my immense, obscene backlog. Oh the ancient ARCs that I have on my Kindle - the stories of neglect they could tell.  I'm going to spend more time reading where my mood takes me - and if that's nothing but Harlequin Presents or female private investigators then so be it.  I've never been much of a tastemaker or trend-setter anyway - now is the time for me to accept that's not where my strengths lie.  I'm going to work on writing fun reviews that amuse me and try to use this blog as a way to recenter my generally bad attitude of late.  And I'm going to figure out a way to be on Twitter without my blood pressure spiking.  That last one is going to take some time....

Happy Birthday Blog, Be Home By Curfew

17 years ago, when dinosaurs were still roaming the Internet, social media didn't exist, Amazon/Google/Facebook weren't vying for The Literal Worst Award, and I knew a lot less about the dirty laundry lurking in corners of book publishing, I started this blog. I was still a young, optimistic, entry-level-ish librarian working in a one-horse Midwestern town and shopping at Waldenbooks.  For those of you now asking the question "Walden What Now?!?!" you have no idea what you missed out on. Seriously, those were the days.

And here I am - all these years later.  Older, crankier, but still loving romance, still believing in the job that gets me out of bed everyday and pays the bills but now working in an area where eleventy billion live with not enough affordable housing to go around. The world's on fire, I know WAY more than I ever wanted to about publishing and authors in general, and yes...I still love romance.

I've been around so long, have written for so many defunct online publications (The Romance Reader, Reader's Gab, Romancing the Blog, Heroes & Heartbreakers...) but the one constant has been this mighty blog. There were years I wrote great blog posts and years I've written terrible ones and years I've barely hung on by my fingernails (pretty much where I've been in the last 3-4 years).  I have all the authority and gravitas in Romancelandia as a slightly wilted plant you forgot that you stuffed in a corner, but 17 years here and 21 years in Romancelandia (in general) affords me...well something.  Probably a secret decoder ring in the bottom of a cereal box.  So in honor of this auspicious occasion I thought it was time to offer some advice to Romancelandia that nobody asked for but I'm going to give anyway.  Because, again, old and cranky.

1) Read. What. You. Want. Yes, even if the cool kids aren't reading it.

2) That being said, don't be afraid to try a new author, revisit a trope you may not be wild about, expand your horizons. There's A LOT in the genre these days. Sample the buffet.

3) So much I want to say here along the lines of "don't be a racist bigoted jackhole" and "stop denying anyone their right to basic humanity" but I think I'll just settle for the more succinct Don't Be A Jerk.  Love is an amazing, beautiful universal human emotion. People who read and write romance (for cripes sake!) should have no issue with embracing that and yet here we are. 

4) Unplug for your mental health. Or as I like to call it - get the hell off Twitter every once in a while. However long that needs to be to maintain some shred of sanity.

5) It's OK to like problematic sh*t.  No, really - it is.  But recognize it. Own it. Don't get your hackles up about it. You know what's sexy? Self-awareness. Maybe unpack some of that personal baggage. Nobody is saying you have to flaunt it all over the Interwebs but my kingdom for a little reader and writer introspection.

6) And for the record - ALL Y'ALL LIKE PROBLEMATIC SH*T.  You're not special.  It smells like fertilizer left out in the sun just like everybody else's problematic faves.

7) There are no cool kids.  Oh sure, everybody THINKS there are cool kids which just leads to massive inferiority complexes.  I feel like I need a button that says Radically Uncool Blogger Since 2003.

8) It's totally OK to not like something. Even if it's a book that all the mythical cool kids are raving about.  Oh the books I've disliked over the years.  The books I'm like, "Really, what now?!"  You're not alone.  It's just that thanks to social media vacuums and sucky people sucking it's super hard to find any hint of "discourse" when talking books anymore.  It's all a Cacophony of Squee.  Which leads me too...

9) Not everything is a squee. For the love of all the deities.  Reminder: I'm old and cranky and yell at clouds a lot.

10) Find your voice, raise it up, support folks in Romancelandia you want to support.

11) Never, ever be ashamed of reading something that makes you happy.  Don't let anyone dim your sunshine. Even cranky old librarians who yell at clouds.

It's been a wild 17 years on this blog. A lot has happened. Some for good, some for ill. But I still love ya Romancelandia. Shine on.

Latest News From Wendy-Land

Remember when I used to blog regularly and my posts were insightful and informative and just generally pretty good (what do you mean no?!).  One thing I've learned over the years is that blogging is a marathon, not a sprint - and where I was 15 years ago (yes this blog is 15 years old...) is not where I am today.  For one thing, I've done the whole "moving up the ladder" thing at The Day Job which let me tell you, really reflects in my blogging mojo these days.  Plus, you know, I'm mired in a reading slump right now - which is no bueno.  But I do have some random bits of news, so here I am (and here you are).

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First up is that the Encyclopedia of Romance Fiction edited by Kristin Ramsdell (another former RWA Librarian of the Year) is going to be published in August 2018 - and ::drumroll please:: yours truly is one of the contributors! 

As a reference book (read: expensive) and being one of several contributors, I figure my total royalties will be somewhere around $2.57, but you know what?

MY WORDS ARE GOING TO BE IN A PUBLISHED BOOK YO!

Plan on me being just as annoying about this as I have been since I was named RWA Librarian of the Year....way back in 2011.  No, I'm never going to let that die.  I'm getting it engraved on my tombstone.  You've all been warned.

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In other happy news, I have an update on the health kick weight loss journey.  As of the typing of this post I've lost 34 pounds.  I'm 11 pounds away from my "goal weight," which is what I was when I finished graduate school.  That equated (at the time) to a size 10 (nearly 20 years ago...) and I figure a size 10 on this side of 40 is totally realistic.  I started this journey in mid-August 2017 so yeah, it's been one of those "slow and steady" kind of things, which I hope bodes well for me keeping it off.

Exercise is still...well, the pits (I just don't like it folks) and I still miss bread - but being smarter about my carbohydrate and sugar intake has really been the key for me.

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Book #1 (1977)

I'm mired in a reading slump right now - mostly out of laziness and general tiredness.  But I have fallen into an audiobook hole by revisiting the Sharon McCone mystery series by Marcia Muller.  I originally read some of these when I was a teenager and then, fresh out of college, revisited the first 19 on audio (#33 is due out this summer).  But it's been nearly 20 years since I've "read" any of these and it's been a fun nostalgia trip.

Sharon is a single woman, living and working in San Francisco for a low-cost law cooperative as their in-house investigator.  The early books (I'm on #6 at the moment) largely serve as time capsules now, but in some ways they hold up remarkably well.  Although some of the character depictions are dated (Ask the Cards a Question (1982) being the best/worst example of this so far), in many ways Muller was ahead of her time and some of the conflicts are still (amazingly) relevant.  For example, gay characters aren't portrayed as deviants.  Yes, they're set in San Francisco, but it's still pretty radical when you figure these early books were published in the early 1980s.  However, there is some racial stereotyping.  Although, to be fair, not as egregious as I've read in other 35 year old novels. 

What I've found most remarkable as I've torn through these is how "current" some of the conflict has read - which I guess goes to show that the more things change the more they stay the same.  In The Cheshire Cat's Eye (1983) neighborhood gentrification figures into the plot (upwardly mobile white people buying up cheap property in minority neighborhoods...) and in Leave a Message for Willie (1984) there's a bunch of alienated white guys running around playing soldier and spouting off racist garbage (a precursor to the militia movement that came to the forefront during the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995).  I've found it fascinating, especially since I've only been able to remember small snippets of these books given it's been nearly 20 years since I've had exposure to them.

Would I recommend them to today's reader?  I don't know - possibly.  Like all things, it depends on the reader.  I think they're an interesting time capsule, and Muller's Sharon McCone predates Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone - which puts another interesting spin on these because while both characters are "independent women" - Sharon is less prickly and actually has a love life (Kinsey did too - but Grafton tended to keep it off page when she mentioned it at all).  There's actually been a couple of closed door sex scenes, which it also pretty remarkable since, in my experience, mystery readers get downright irritated when "love cooties" creep in to break up the discovery of dead bodies. The fact that Muller didn't have her hand smacked for including romantic entanglements for her private eye heroine (and the character hasn't been punished for them thus far) is interesting.

We'll see how long this audio glom lasts - but unless I hit an epic wallbanger, it's probably going to last for while.  Good thing too, since right now this series and resulting nostalgia trip is the only reading I seem to be getting done.

The One Where Wendy Kills Another Blog

First, yes - I know this blog has been a dead zone of late.  I've been neck deep in relocating the Bat Cave for the past month and moving day was last weekend.  I love the new place but everything is still in too much disarray for my liking (in a nutshell, less storage space means finding "creative" solutions) and it's making me squirrely.  I'm hoping that it will all be settled by this weekend though because I have big plans to lie in a prone position and drink adult beverages to celebrate.

I'm out of sorts anyway.  Not reading.  Buried neck deep in moving.  Busy, busy, busy at the The Day Job.   So I wasn't really prepared for the e-mail that landed in my in-box like a wee mini bomb going off.  There's still no official statement, but staff has shared the news on Twitter so at this point I think it's fair game to blog about.

Heroes & Heartbreakers is closing.  Well...pivoting (and let me tell you how much I LOATHE that term).  None of this is gospel, but my impression is that Macmillan will be kicking things over to St. Martin's marketing team and the focus will move towards the newsletter and social media accounts.  What this means for those of us who've provided content for H&H over the years, I'm not sure.  Most likely that 1) I'm out of a "job" 2) Will need to back-up my published posts and 3) That I've managed to kill yet another group blog (by my count, this is #4).

And yes of course I'm making this All. About. Me. 

I'm sad.  One, because I feel a bit blindsided (totally didn't see this coming) and two, because I have been with H&H from the beginning.  It was such early days that the blog didn't even have a name or a host.  Megan Frampton (former H&H editorial director) asked me to write some posts on spec for something she was calling "Project X."  Eventually the idea found a home at Macmillan and H&H was born.  That was 2011.

Now it's 2017, the world is on fire, blogs continue to go the way of the Dodo, and Wendy is sad.  I loved writing for H&H and I loved them as a group blog - mostly because you could literally find everything there.  Books, movies, TV, self-published, traditionally published, romance sub genres and related commentary of all stripes.  There have been other well-done group blogs in Romancelandia, but H&H was the one that got it the most right (in my opinion) with the variety of voices and depth of content.  And now it's closing.

What does this mean for Wendy?  Well, besides trying to finish settling the Bat Cave this weekend and eating my feelings?  I'm not sure yet.  Most of my H&H work were one-off posts that can find a home here, leaving the only lingering question of my Unusual Historicals column.  I will likely continue it, probably on this blog (which is actually where it originated to begin with) - although losing the wider H&H audience getting their eyeballs on those books pains me more than you know.  "Unique" historicals is a hill I will die on folks!

My best wishes to the excellent staff at H&H who I have adored working with over the years, and my fellow bloggers who churned out such amazing content these past six years.  Change happens, and yes I'll roll with it, but that doesn't mean I can't whine about it for a little while first.

Still Fabulous After All These Years

Top Ten Signs I Know I'm Now 40 

Happy frickin' Birthday*

1) The "oldies" station is playing Top 40 hits from the 1980s.

2) My wardrobe consists of professional work attire,  yoga pants, and ratty T-shirts.  Bar-hopping, going-out clothes?  Why would I possibly need those?

3) I drink a vodka/cranberry and wince.  How did I drink these when I was 21?  HOW?!?!?!?!

4) Sleeping in until 9AM is totally self-indulgent and I'm a complete slug who has wasted the entire day.

5) Can someone explain to me what MTV and VH1 are supposed to be now?  No, really.  I don't understand.

6) A gaze longingly at my current Detroit Tigers boyfriend, Jose Iglesias and I realize I am now officially a dirty old woman.  Or a desperate cougar. 

7) Mammograms. I now need to worry about mammograms.  Note to self: Call doctor.

8) I don't immediately grasp all new technology like a duck to water.  I figure in another couple of years I'll have totally morphed into my mom.

9) People I went to high school with are now grandparents. Shoot. Me. Now.

10) I go shopping and see horrible fashion trends making a comeback.  Kids, listen to your Auntie Wendy.  Jelly shoes and neon colors were a bad idea back in my day, and guess what?  They're still a bad idea now.  Run!  Save yourselves!

* No, really.  I'm OK with the fact that today is my birthday and I've hit the big 4-0.  I wouldn't say I'm "upset" about it.  More like confused.  I mean, how did this happen?  How could I possibly be 40?  Wasn't I in college, like, last week? 

Round-Up: RITAs, H&H and My Final Word (Uh, Maybe)

In a moment of genuine happy-happy-joy-joy in Romancelandia yesterday, RWA announced RITA and Golden Heart finalists for 2015.  The list is now complete and you can head on over to the RWA site to check it out.

I was one of the folks who voiced displeasure at last year's process which saw 300 nominees in some categories and, like, two in others.  Look, I'm not widely read in Inspirational romance, but I had a hard time believing only two books were worthy of finalling last year.  So it was nice to see RWA right the ship and color me impressed with this year's list of nominees.  I personally feel there is a nice mix here, with authors of color representing, m/m nominations, and a strong showing by self-publishing.  Is it all perfect and rosy?  No.  But I think this is a step in the right direction.

I have roughly five of the nominees in the TBR Pile of Doom.  I hope to reprioritize my reading and get some of these read before I head to conference in July.

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My latest list of Unusual Historicals has gone live over at Heroes & Heartbreakers.  And on a similar note, in light of recent events, I've updated the disclosure page here at the Bat Cave.

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I know we've hit saturation point on the latest Bombshell Du Jour here in Romancelandia, where Dear Author Jane has come out as New Adult Author Jen Frederick.  My original blog post on the matter came fairly quickly on the heels of the announcement and was my way to start wrapping my own mind around how I really felt - and as can be shown in the comments I eventually fell on the side of having very strong feelings on the subject.

Other discussions have naturally cropped up and I'm starting to see comments along the lines of "Dear People Not Thrilled By This, what do you expect Jane to do?  Shut down Dear Author?  Step away from it?  What do you think b*tching is going to do?  Get over yourself."

OK, paraphrasing wildly - but that's the gist.  Here's my answer.

Nothing.  I expect Jane to do nothing.  She's going to make the decision she feels is best for her, her writing career and blog.  And believe you me, I don't think she's going to be swayed by the fact that I feel the way I feel or someone else feels the way they feel.  Here's what I think should happen and will.

We'll all make our own choices.  If you loved DA before and still do - then nothing will change.  If you hated DA before and still do - then nothing will change.  If you were a casual DA visitor and depending on how you feel now - then you'll act accordingly.  I know how I will interact with DA from this moment forward and like how all things should be in life, that's my choice and bully for me.  You have choices and free will and bully for you.

What I am sorry for and continue to be sorry for are several things: 1) that people are hurt. Whether you think they have a "right" to be hurt or not is incidental.  They're hurt and that sucks.  2) Gah,  the tin-foil-hat-wearing DA-haters are in full froth and they make me so very tired.  Hence why I haven't waded too deeply into certain comment threads and 3) that some people were put in an impossible situation of knowing but couldn't truly say anything because Jane is their friend and it wasn't their secret to tell.  I get that.  And honestly?  It adds another layer to this for me - a layer that tastes rather bitter if I'm totally honest.

So yes, we'll all move on - but I'm sad.  I'm not sorry that I feel this way.  But after 12 years of blogging and over 15 years of being part of the online romance community, the past year has been the most trying time for me, personally.  I used to never think about packing up my cookies and going home, but beginning with the Katherine Hale stalking incident, coupled with the Ellora's Cave suit, and now this?  It's hard to not have those feelings now, on occasion.

But then I think about how much I like talking about books, and the friends I've made, and things like the TBR Challenge and I buck up a bit.  Yes, the wind has been getting knocked out of my sails with more frequency of late, but there's one thing you learn after 12 years of endless blathering: this too shall pass even as things begin to change.  I feel strongly about this blog, my "brand" (such as it is), and how I've carried myself with readers, industry folks and authors over the years.  I think the content of this blog stands on it's own merit (again, such as that is) and that my reviews and commentary speak for themselves.

No, I'm not leaving.  I'm here.  My wee lone voice in the wilderness, ironing my cape and polishing my tiara.  Nothing stays the same.  Things change.  And as we learned this week: change is hard.

I Haz A Blog

It has been over a week since I've blogged.  It's hard to say without wading through 11 years worth of archives, but this might be a new record of inactivity.  So what have I been up to since I obviously have not been blogging?

Or reading for that matter.

Well, I'm mired in a slump.  Blogging.  Reading.  A Why The Heck Am I Still Doing This When Nobody Obviously Really Cares That I'm Here And No I'm Not Self-Absorbed Why Do You Ask? slump.  

It's been a lot of little and not-so-little events that have led to my current simmering case of ennui. Take your pick of any of the Hale fallout (the misinformation regarding the #bloggerblackout, RT nominating Hale for Book of the Year, being personally compared to the Taliban by an author who I had in my keeper stash yada, yada, yada). I've known for some time that my blog is a wee tiny lil' cog in a giant publishing machine, and at the end of the day if I vanished from the Earth tomorrow, that things would carry on as they've always carried on.

But it's one thing to know that and another to have people back-hand you across the face with it.

So yes.  I was feeling sorry for myself.  So sue me.  It happens.

Then I had two aunts pass away (Dad's sister from cancer, Mom's sister from dementia and other health issues) within 24 hours of each other.  To say I've been worried and upset for my parents is an understatement.  Coupled with that, both of these aunts were the nicest, most giving women you would ever have met. I hope heaven does exist, because if ever two women deserved heaven it was my two aunts.

And work.  Which is actually going great - it's just been really busy.  Long hours, lots to do, and after I hit the yoga studio (yes, I'm back on the yoga train) two nights during the week I'm a mentally exhausted heap that needs to be scraped off the Bat Cave carpet.

Please pass the cheese, I think that might be all of the whine.

I know I need to make changes around here.  Mostly for my own sanity.  I'm just not sure how to do that.  I think for the time being I'm going to stop beating myself over the Giant ARC Pile That Can Be Seen From Space and just get to stuff when I get to it.  Then I think I'm going to try to find a way to love books again.  Now I did order several ebooks during Harlequin's Black Friday sale - and that helped.  But I also need to read something really great - which hello, I know I have great books waiting for me in the Giant ARC Pile That Can Be Seen From Space, so that's not a problem.  I'm also going to try to make a more concerted effort to comment on other blogs more.  I love it when people comment on my blog, I need to return the favor.

I need to find My People again.  I know you're all out there.  I think we just lost each other for a tiny bit.  Hey, it's understandable.  There's been a lot of unpleasantness flying around of late.  In our tiny space of the Interwebs, not to mention outside current events, add a dash of holiday madness, and is it any wonder we're all tempted to fill some sand bags and hunker down in our personal bunkers?

I'm going to try to pull my head out of the sand.  I'm going to try to find my space again.  Because frankly?  It kind of stinks feeling like this.  

I'm kinda over it.

Status Update: Lemon Drop And The Case Of Too Many Books

So I haven't blogged in over a week and I'm several months behind now in my "monthly recap" posts.

Oh look!  Here's a recent photo of Lemon Drop!

Suitably distracted by the cuteness?  OK, good.  Mission accomplished.

This photo was taken post-RWA when I made a quick weekend jaunt to Casa de Lemon Drop (oh, and Lil' Sis) to help them out with some projects.  Lemon Drop decided she wanted to see how the world looked through Auntie Wendy's glasses.

The answer is: blurry.  Very, very blurry.  Auntie Wendy is darn near blind without prescription help.

So what's been going on to keep me away from blogging?  Mostly Real Life stuff.  Nothing "bad" - just been really busy.  And on top of the Real Life busy-ness, I'm in the throes of Contest Reading.

Yep, I'm doing contest judging again.  Which means getting nine books read before the end of September.  The good news is that I'm making progress.  I started book #6 today.  The bad news?  Well, anyone who has judged writing contests will surely know.  So far the books have ranged from Unreadable (In My Opinion) to This Is OK to OMGWTFBBQ Plot Is This?! But Hey, The Author Can Write So This Is Readable Even If It Is OMGWTFBBQ Plot.

It's reminding me a lot of how I judged this same contest last year.  There were several books that made me Wendy Mad Wendy Smash angry - but down the stretch I found some Very Good Reads.  And the books I still have to go through do look very promising.  So there is hope.

I'm also painfully, dreadfully behind on review books.  And I'm checking out books via work that I've stumbled across that sound really good.  Because, you know, I need more to read.  Blessedly it's a holiday weekend here in the States and my Tigers are slowly falling off the cliff.  So maybe I won't spend the whole weekend watching baseball after all and actually get some reading done.

There's hope anyway.

So, what's everybody up to this weekend?  And are you reading anything good?  Because, you know, I need more to read.....

Moving On And Getting Drunk With Power

After weeks of waiting, I finally get to write the blog post I've been dying to write.  After ten years with my current employer in various roles (branch manager, materials evaluator, now public services-slash-materials evaluator), I have accepted a new position with a new employer.

Now my policy on the blog is never to name my employer "outright."  I don't hide it, but I also don't shout it from the rooftops.  So that will continue with this "new job."  What I can tell you is that I'll be staying in the same geographic area, working for a large library system, and I will be the new head of their collection development department.  What does this mean?  Right now I put together order lists of adult fiction for my current employer and select materials specifically for the library branch I work at.  Starting on May 19, I will give that up - with some sadness because holy cow I love me adult fiction.  What I will be doing instead is overseeing the entire collection management department for a very large library system.  No more buying for Wendy.  Instead Wendy will be overseeing the whole shebang.
 

Wendy is now officially drunk with power.

This has been a bit of a roller coaster since February.  I had applied for the job late last year and when I didn't hear anything back I figured, "Oh well, they're not interested."  Then around President's Day here in the States I got a call for a screening interview.  I went to said interview and no lie, left there feeling like I bombed it.  I didn't have a good feeling coming out of that interview, at all.  So I was pretty shocked when just a few days later I got a call about a second interview.

By this point My Man and I had to have a "come to Jesus" moment.  When I started working as a librarian 15 years ago (where has the time gone?), I was pretty adamant about not getting into administration.  Honestly, I thought I'd be pretty terrible at it and it's also not why I got into the profession in the first place.  Well now here I was interviewing for a job that would very much be "administration."  My Man wanted to make sure I was doing this for the "right reasons."  Jumping the gun maybe since I hadn't had the second interview yet?  Probably.  But he wanted me prepared and he wanted me to really think about it.  Which I did, after talking around in circles for a while because, this is me we're talking about.  Talking around in circles is just what I do.

As sure as I was that I bombed that first interview, I left the second interview feeling pretty fan-freaking-tastic.  I've never nailed an interview more in my life.  I went straight into work and met privately with my boss.  At that point I hadn't told him about the first interview because why upset the apple cart if it turns out to be nothing?  Well, probably a good thing I met with him right away because as we were wrapping up he got a phone call that was a reference check.

Bingo-bango, everything was set in motion.  It just turned out to be slow-moving and going uphill.  Hoops.  Lots of hoops.  I've been dying to spill this news for weeks now, but alas, offer not official until it's in writing and the salary package took some time.  

I'm super excited, mostly because it means getting to work full-time, all-the-time in collection management again.  It also means I'll be in charge of overseeing what I'm most passionate about in this profession for a very large library system.  At the end of the day, collection is everything.  It's the backbone of everything libraries do.  I can't wait to jump into the thick of it again.

Growing The Romance Reader

News broke today that after eighteen years The Romance Reader was shuttering it's cyberspace doors forever.  For you young whipper-snappers out there, TRR was the first online website to turn an unflinching eye towards reviewing romance novels.  This seems like not-so-much a big deal now, but in 1996?  Gather round ye young whipper-snappers and let Auntie Wendy tell you a story.....

In 1996 romance readers essentially relied on word of mouth and RT Book Reviews (then still going by the name Romantic Times).  Romantic Times was, and has always been, great with giving you the rundown of what is published every month.  But in 1996?  It was very rare to find reviews that were, shall we say, critical.  Every book was good, very good or super-great-squee!  As for other review outlets?  No Amazon, no GoodReads, Publisher's Weekly gave you four mass market reviews a week (for all mass market originals, not just romance!  Yes, four!), Kirkus = you must be joking right, and while Booklist and Library Journal were starting to cover romance, these were not household names that your Average Jane Romance Reader was going to have access too.  So yeah, word of mouth assuming you were lucky enough to have another romance reader in your life or Romantic Times, which loved damn near everything. 

TRR coming on the scene can be likened to a bomb going off.  It's why I tend to roll my eyes when authors start crying "Bully!  Those Mean Girl Bullies!" when they get a 3-star rating over at GoodReads.  TRR heard it all, most of it revolving around being staffed by "unqualified reviewers" who were "frustrated writers who couldn't get their crappy stories published so they spent their free time tearing down published authors."

All this sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it?  Yeah, some things never change.

Anyway, TRR was the first and a few years after, Laurie Gold (originally a TRR reviewer) broke away to start All About Romance, which featured a more interactive vibe that TRR never adopted.  And from there we got Mrs. Giggles, blogs, Twitter, GoodReads and so on.

As some of you may know, I was a TRR reviewer for many years, from 1999 through 2007.  So you'll forgive this old codger fuddy-duddy if I wax poetic for a few moments on the site closing down.  My discovery of the romance genre is forever linked with TRR.  You see, in 1999 I was a wee baby Super Librarian.  Sort of like Spider-Man before he was bit by the radioactive spider (or whatever).  I had landed my first real professional job and they expected me to purchase adult fiction.  No problem, accept my adult fiction knowledge was a wee bit rusty after 5+ years of academia (my entire course-load consisted of reading things that weren't fun).  I also, naturally, had developed a healthy disdain for the romance genre.  As one does when they earn two college degrees in 5.5 years.  I learned quickly though.  Romance circulated well at the new job.  Hey, some of these books don't even have Fabio on the cover!  Of course I had no clue who Nora Roberts was (true story), but I was willing to learn.  Which is where TRR comes in.

I was on a listserv (remember those?) that was for "new librarians."  One day someone sent out a message about two helpful web sites, one of which was TRR.  I, naturally, went looking.  And reading.  Wow, some of these books sound good!  I read a few romances in high school and these reviews don't make the books sound anything like those few heaving, lusty historicals I read at 16.  So I decided I would pick up a few of the highest rated (five-hearts in TRR speak) books that sounded appealing to me and start reading.  You know, just to broaden my horizons.  The first book?  Watermelon by Marian Keyes.  OK, technically chick lit - but I loved it.  I inhaled it.  I then went on to read My Dearest Enemy by Connie Brockway, the Born In trilogy by Nora, Patterns of Love by Robin Lee Hatcher (the original heathen mass-market version, she later rewrote it for the inspy market) and some others that I now can't recall specifically.

I was hooked.  And even though my knowledge wasn't extensive, I wanted more.  So I e-mailed TRR, I sent in some sample reviews, and Dede Anderson "hired" me.  When I probably should have been reading through popular authors (you would be shocked the "big" authors Wendy still hasn't read.....) I was learning the genre in a trial-by-fire way.  Which is to say, Dede sent me random books and Wendy read them.  The great, the good, the bad, the OMG I Think My Eyes Are Bleeding books.  Every last word.

The romance reader that blogs before you today was raised up by TRR.  It's where I discovered category romance, my love of western historicals, and my insatiable need for erotic-just-about-anything.  Oh the authors I read!  The books I read!  The reviews I wrote!  I used to write great reviews.  Sometimes I go back to TRR, read my great reviews and wonder what the heck happened.  Actually the answer is pretty simple: I burned out.

After eight years of reading whatever random books TRR sent my way, I just couldn't do it anymore.  I had started my blog in 2003, in part because I wanted some place where I could talk, not necessarily about books, and I was starting to get the itch to do more reviews here.  TRR reviewing took up a lot of my reading time, and I wanted to focus my reviewing efforts more on stuff I was interested in.  Was I going to miss out on those gems I might not discover on my own?  Yes.  And that gave me pause.  But I was ready.  I got to the point where my attitude was starting to go a little sour, and that's not a good thing when you do that sort of reviewing.  So TRR and I parted ways, on good terms.  They soldiered on, and so did I.

In 2011 RWA came calling, having lost their collective mind and deciding I should get their annual Librarian Of The Year award.  More than a little part of me was slightly floored.  I used to review for TRR!  Wait, I'm not blacklisted?  People, like me?!?!  Hell, I remember attending those first few RWA conferences that I went to and not telling a soul that I reviewed for TRR.  So I did what Wendy knew she had to do - I literally thanked Dede Anderson and The Romance Reader in my acceptance speech.  Part of me expected someone to yank me off stage, but oh how times have changed.  The simple truth is, there is no Romance Reading SuperWendy without TRR.  I may have discovered the genre some other way.  But it was a listserv and a message from some random librarian that had me clicking on that link way back in 1999.  It got me hooked.  It got me writing book reviews, or in the immortal words of My Man "so you're going to do book reports for free?"  I often say this blog is responsible for a lot of the good that has happened in my life, but really - it all started with TRR.

Thank you ladies for the past glorious eighteen years and thank you for helping to raise up countless romance readers.

Note: TRR will eventually cease to exist and there will be no collective archive - which means Wendy needs to think about all the reviews she has over there.  Jury still out, but I'm considering trolling through and "reprinting" some of my personal favorites (good and bad) here at the blog or possibly GoodReads.  But I'm still undecided.....

Yeah, One Of Those Posts

Don't you just hate those bloggers who write posts whining about how busy they are and how they have had no time to update their blog?

Ahem.

I had a glorious time visiting family and friends in Michigan, gorged myself on reading, and wasn't anywhere near my office for about 10 days.  Which means that when I got back to said office?

Um, yeah.  It's been kind of like that.

Hence, no blog posting from Wendy.

Not that I don't have ideas.  I've got scads of ideas! 

Just no time to actually, you know, write up said ideas.

But the good news?  We've got a long weekend here in the States and yours truly is almost done with her contest judging! 

Groove thang isn't found, but currently visible on the horizon, and hopefully things will be back to normal around here soon.

Tap, tap, tap - Is This Thing On?

So it's been a little quiet around the Bat Cave this week, and the three of you who read this blog will likely notice this trend continuing over the next few weeks.  Why?  Well, here it goes....

+++++

One of the things that Jennifer Lohmann and I brought up during our Librarians Day presentation at RWA last month was working with your local RWA chapters.  And by working with - this means developing a two-way street.  Nobody likes someone who just takes, takes, takes.  So in the Practicing What I Preach department, I am the "Top Pick" judge for OCCRWA's annual "published authors" contest called Book Buyer's Best.  I've actually judged in this contest before, as a first rounder - and contest judging is a good way of seeing what else is "out there" - essentially forcing me to escape my narrow little realm of category, historical and erotic romance.  Also in Professional Librarian Speak - it's good for reader's advisory.

My job is to read the nine finalists (the top scores in all nine of the categories) and pick the "Top Pick" or the "best one" as it were.  It's been a lot of fun - but this also means that I really am not comfortable talking about these books until after the contest is over and after OCCRWA makes the final announcement (I believe at their October meeting - which is also their anniversary celebration).  I'm pretty easy to track down via the Internet, and certainly I don't want to spoil it for anybody - but especially the authors whose books I'm currently wading through.  Right now I'm toying with the idea of doing a "round-up" style post after the contest is well and truly over.  Because, you know, I got things to say.  And asking me to not talk about books is keeeeeeling me!

+++++

My Detroit Tigers have now won 12 games in a row.  It's all baseball all the time around here.  Well except now that.....

+++++

Pre-season football has started.  My Man, it should be noted, is a major NFL fan despite the fact that we're both Buffalo Bills fans.  Being a Bills fan tends to require a fair amount of alcohol, a healthy dose of Buffalo wings, and usually ends with a lot of rocking back and forth in the corner while wailing, "Why, why, why?!?!?!?!"  over and over again.

Which means Wendy is, once again, on the hunt for A Bandwagon Team.  Which might cause some of you to think I'm not a "true fan" if I'm already looking for a bandwagon.  No, I'm a fan.  I'm just not, you know, a masochist.  And there's going to be more talent out tailgating in the Bills parking lot this season than on the actual field - so yeah.  Wendy needs a bandwagon.

It can't be the Lions.  Yes, yes, I'm from Michigan.  Which is why it can't be the Lions.  Never has a team had more talent and sucked so badly.  It's like they're a self-fulfilling prophecy of suckitude.  And it can't be the Saints.  Even though the Saints had been my bandwagon du jour since Hurricane Katrina.  I love you Drew Brees but that whole Bounty Gate thing?  So vile and deplorable that I can't condone it by planting my butt on your bandwagon.  (Sean Peyton should thank his lucky stars he wasn't "suspended indefinitely" like Gregg Williams.  Dude, that happened on YOUR watch.  They should have thrown away the key.)

So where does this leave me?  Right now, possibly Seattle - even though I have this irrational dislike for Pete Carroll.  They have a Mighty-Mite for a quarterback (the listed-at 5'11" Russell Wilson) and they have Beast-Mode running back Marshawn Lynch.  So yeah, maybe Seattle.  So long as Pete Carroll stays off-camera a lot.

+++++

And finally, I'm taking my annual sojourn to Michigan later next week.  Which, now that I'm wading through contest books, couldn't have come at a better time.  It's amazing how much I get read when I'm either 1) stuck at an airport or 2) stuck on an airplane.  The plan, such as it is, is to enjoy the fact that I'm off work, on vacation, have a chance to watch baseball with my Dad, and hopefully secure a mess of uninterrupted reading time.

It's the simple things.  Really, it is.

Another Year Older, Another Year More Awesome

My Man: So, what do you think I got you for your birthday?

Me: Honey, I have no clue.  The last thing I really wanted and desired was a book case, and you got me that a few years ago.  Now it's all gravy.

Some time later......

Text Message From My Man: What's behind Door #1?

Yes, he put wrapping paper (Christmas wrapping paper, but hey - it's what we had in the Bat Cave....) over my book case.  With my birthday gifts, naturally - behind the paper.

I was all set to wait until today.  Really, I was.  I'm really good about (nice) surprises.  I can wait.  I won't peak.  I wasn't one of those kids who went snooping around the house looking for where "Santa" hid our Christmas gifts.

I'm an honest soul by nature.

But My Man?  Was practically bouncing up and down.  So I made the supreme sacrifice (ahem) and pulled back the paper behind Door #1 on Saturday.

OMG a Kindle Paperwhite!  And a new cell phone!  I loved my ancient Sony PRS-505 like crazy-cakes (a Christmas gift from My Man way back in 2007.....) and old (and my first) smartphone - but I feel like I've entered the 21st century in screen quality.  It's breathtaking!  It's wonderful!  Hell, I played with my toys all weekend long.  And I've got them just in time to take them on my upcoming road trip to RWA.

Wahooey!

A Decade Of Sheer Librarian Awesomeness

February 28, 2003.  A day that shall live in infamy!

Or maybe just a day that shall live in narcissistic mediocrity.

Either way, it was ten years ago today that I took leave of my senses, put together a few strings of copied HTML code with some chewing gum and chicken wire, and started this blog - which even back then had the glorious name of The Misadventures Of Super Librarian.  I rambled a lot in the early days, flitting from topic to topic, not really having a strong focus with my blogging.  These days I think there's too much "pressure" to have a focus - which always makes me feel sorry for newer bloggers.  It was kind of fun to muck around on my own, fumble around in the dark like a teenage boy with his first girlfriend in the back seat of his father's car, basically throwing up things on my own Internet wall to see what would stick (and for how long).  I have ten years of "content" on this blog now.  Ten years of posts that are not very good, are sort of OK, and others that are so frackin' amazing I wonder what good drugs I was on so I could repeat the cocktail.

I started this blog in Michigan, moved to California, and it's seen me through ups and downs in both my professional and personal life.  This blog has kept me relatively sane and it gave me something that was wholly mine.  It gave me an outlet.  It gave me a "place" before social media really took off (I'm not counting MySpace because holy mother of God, MySpace was a dumpster fire).  And to this day it's a little shocking to me that this blog, this thing I started on a lark because hey, Rosario and Laurie are doing it, so why can't I do it too?, has turned into something that has given me way more than I ever really put into it.

I came home from work last week, feeling a little - out of sorts I guess.  My Man was already home from his day job, and I sat next to him, put my head on his shoulder and said something along the lines of "I'm still a good librarian....."  He said to me, "Hell Wendy, you were Librarian Of The Year - that's all anybody should ever need to know to realize you're a 'good librarian'."  

This blog got me Librarian Of The Year.  It really did.  I may have gotten it on my own eventually.  I reviewed over at The Romance Reader from 1999-2007.  Over the years I've worked with several authors on library-related to-dos.  But really, it was this blog.  It's how anybody within the romance spectrum who knows me?  Yeah, knows me.  It's also how and why I've had some great opportunities come my way over the years.  I'm always a little tickled when anybody asks me to be a part of something - another blog, a project, a speaking opportunity.  Usually my first reaction after dumbfounded flattery is, "Seriously, have they read the mess that is my blog?"  

The kicker?  They have.  And they still ask me.

Honestly, it's a kick in the pants is what it is.  But you know what?  As great as a lot of that stuff has been, the best part about blogging has been the people I've met - either online or in person - over the last ten years.  I have met so many awesome women.  Friendships that I never would have made otherwise if it weren't for this bizarre hobby of mine of blathering online about romance novels.  I've met awesome people from all over the country and even some readers from all over the world.  We shared our mutual love of westerns and category romance and smart erotica.  We went on rants about too-stupid-to-live heroines and whatever bizarre plot conflict pet peeves we have.  This blog opened up a whole other world for me.  This blog showed me other women, out there, who were, on one hand, like me but on the other?  Maybe very, very different.  I've met people who I suspect are my long lost twin and other people where we have zero in common - outside of romance novels.  And I love every single one of you. 

I started this blog on a lark and I'd still probably blog even if people stopped reading it tomorrow.  But you know what?  This blog is a helluva lot more fun because you're all here, with me, and we're all sharing in something that we truly love - romance novels.  Yes critics, "silly," "fluffy," "trite," romance novels.  And you know what?  We didn't ask you anyway, and I'm still a "good librarian."

I toyed with the idea of doing something "special" to "honor" (however dubious it may be....) the occasion of my blog's tenth birthday.  In the end, I got nothing.  So instead I thought it would be fun to open up the floor for comments.  Regulars, lurkers, newbies, swing on by - leave a comment.  Share something with us all.  When you started reading this blog, where you like to hang out online, hell - maybe you've read a great book lately?  Ladies, you have the floor.....

Wendy's Birthday Wish List

Yes indeedy, it's Happy Birthday day here at the Bat Cave.  Now you're probably asking yourself, what does the Queen Librarian of the Universe do on her birthday?

This year I'm working the late shift.

Yes folks, my life really is this glamorous.

So what does the librarian who has everything want on her birthday?  I will forever be Librarian of the Year 2011.  I've got a man who gives me sparkly gifts and takes me out for killer birthday dinners.  I've got books.  I've got chocolate.  I've got enough caffeine to run a nuclear power plant in a third world country.  What else could there possibly be?

1) A firm, yet soft cushion to protect my forehead as I spend the next 11 months slowly banging my head against my desk at work.  Yep, I've heard final budget rumors - and....somebody hold me.

2) A Greek tycoon to keep me in the style to which I could quickly become accustomed.  Granted, the Greek economy isn't so great right now.  So.....

3) Said Greek tycoon to gather up the last of his millions and spirit me away to a tax shelter - say, the Cayman Islands.

4) I'm not greedy though.  I'd happily settle for the Greek tycoon to pay me my current salary so I can stay home and read books for a living.

5) Gerard Butler and Ewan McGregor.  In kilts.  'Nuff said.

6) For the new Batman movie to not suck.  Confession time: I'm not a Catwoman fan (I know, I know), so I'm worried.

7)  To be Judi Dench when I grow up.  Or barring that....

8) Maggie Smith.

9) For Jim Leyland to stop playing Ryan Raburn.  Seriously?  Why?!?!?!?!!?  Why?!?!?!?!?!?! 

10) To read nothing but really awesome books for the next year. Not that I spend a lot of time reading crap, but nothing but awesome would be, well....awesome. Or maybe it would just warp me.

11) Minions.  It's exhausting being this awesome (and humble!) without them.

12)  Oh, and world peace.  Just so I don't come off as completely self-absorbed (too late).

Happy, happy!

99 Librarian Problems

OK, only seven.

1. RWA Logistics.  I'm presenting at Librarians Day again this year.  Since it's local, I'm commuting.  Oh, and I'm taking the leftover books from the Literacy Signing and have to get them out of the convention center and back to my library.

2.  Weddings.  Seriously, it's the year of the wedding.  College friend getting married in northern Cali in August.  Another college friend getting married in October - in New York.  Which means we're rolling that into a visit with the in-laws.  A week, in the woods.  With no cable TV and only my smartphone binky to keep me warm.  Maybe I'll get lots of reading done though.....

3.  Oh, and I need to visit my family in Michigan.  Sometime.

4.  Work is crazy-sauce busy right now.  Summer reading, planning an author program in July, ordering books again now that the new fiscal year has started, signing on to help plan our Big Literary Event again, planning a meeting for the adult services librarians in August, and general paperwork drudgery that never seems to end.

5.  Review books.  Seriously, buried.  And because of #4?  My reading mojo has left the building.

6.  I need a haircut.  I need to make an appointment with my eye doctor.  I have no idea when I'm going to do either of these.

7.  I've been asked to contribute some writing to a Supah Sekrit Project (OK, it's not super secret - I just don't want to talk about it yet in detail).  Deadline is middle of August.  Someone hold me.

 Whine, whine, whine.  Poor, poor Wendy.  So many "problems."  /end sarcasm.

Suck it up cupcake, and just listen to Dori.

San Francisco, And The State Of The Bat Cave

Oh, hello there.  Long time no see blog.  What can I say, I've been distracted.

I spent last weekend up in the Bay Area, talking with the local San Francisco Area Romance Writers of America chapter.  They partnered me with a local independent bookseller, and it was billed as a way for members to learn the "other side" of the publishing industry.  I think it went well.  At least I hope it went well.  I covered everything from why libraries are important (and why people should care), the state of our staffing (thin), the state of our budgets (sad), how we do business (from a purchasing standpoint), how we make ordering decisions (read promo and reviews until our eyes bleed), who authors should find at libraries (the person in charge of ordering), how we feel about self-publishing (we're coming around but there are years of dealing with crack-pots writing manifestos that we need to overcome) and digital (a clusterf*ck).

Basically I reassured authors that any librarian with a brain in their head doesn't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater.  What I've found rather annoying with the cluster that is digital lending is seeing librarians online making sweeping statements like: "Harpercollins is screwing us with digital so I'm going to stop buying all things Harpercollins in all formats!!!!!"  Um, yeah - no.  We're librarians.  I'm, at least, a public librarian.  Yeah, I'm just going to stop buying Julia Quinn, Eloisa James and Stephanie Laurens.  That'll go over real well.

What are librarians doing?  Well, we're having to make harder choices in regards to what formats to buy.  If the publishers digital policy towards libraries sucks, or it's simply We Don't Sell Digital To Libraries - guess what?  We don't buy those books in digital.  But we'll still buy them in print.  Or in audiobooks.  Or in Large Print.  I'm going to look for the best deal, the best bang for my buck, and spend accordingly.  If one digital copy costs the same as buying upwards of four or five print copies?  Guess which one is going to win?  Also, given the state of budgets - at least for me, I'm not buying nearly as many copies of anything as I used to. 

I call this Killing The Browser.

Yeah, I'm still ordering lots of titles and you can find them all in the catalog, but if you're the type of person who just wanders into the library, goes straight to the stacks, and picks up books that look kinda cool?  Yeah, I'm killing you.  I don't want to kill you, since that's the type of library user I've always been: The Browser.

Oh Lord, I'm killing myself!

So basically the lesson is, librarians are cranky right now and we're crankin' it up all over the Internet.

Wait a minute, that doesn't sound so good......

Anyway, I think it went well, and hopefully those in attendance took away at least one helpful nugget of information from the discussion.

After the meeting, I got to spend the rest of my time in the city with the lovely @SonomaLass, @JanetNorCal, @JocelynZombie and world famous author, Carolyn Jewel.  There was window shopping in Berkley and a lovely dinner at Janet's house where we knocked back a couple bottles of wine and talked books, of course!  The titles were flying fast and furious!  Pamela Morsi's older historicals got a lot of love (notably, Simple Jess, Courting Miss Hattie and Wild Oats).  Plus I named-dropped Montana Wife by Jillian Hart since it featured a widowed heroine whose first marriage was a love match (a romance novel rarity!).  It was also nice to talk to Janet about The Book That Shall Not Be Named (::coughFiftyShadescough::) and get a sane perspective on the whole phenomenon.  In short?  It's hitting a nerve and striking a chord for readers who had no idea such books existed.  More power to them I say.

It was a great evening, and more than worth the fact that I only got five hours of sleep that night (damn you Daylight Savings Time ::shakes fist::).  Special thanks to SonomaLass and Carolyn for giving up their whole Saturday on me.  It was a fabulous time!

In other news?  Work is sucking out my soul (not nearly as much fun as it sounds), I'm not reading, and I still need to file my tax returns.  So yeah, my brain is melting.  Blogging inspiration, let alone time to blog is just not happening.  But on the bright side, the first televised Tigers Spring Training game is waiting for me at home, and Justified has been awesome sauce this season.  Plus, there's still plenty of chocolate and tea in the world for me to consume.

Now if I could just find more hours in the day, life would be golden.