Over at Smart Bitches, they've been discussing the discrimination currently facing erotica author Zane about her anthology Purple Panties. People are reacting vehemently to the erotic content in this book, which at first glance seems odd, since it's published as an erotica written by an author known for her erotic writing. But a large national book chain informed Zane's publisher the book was too racy, a book club decided this new offering didn't fit their demographics (despite carrying all Zane's other books), and an online magazine actually apologized to their readers for promoting the title, vowing to only promote books that would suit a PG-13 rating in the future.

( Annoyed and bewildered? So's the author. )

Every year, the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association puts together the Aurora Awards, with 10 categories available to be won by authors. It's a fairly prestigious award, third in importance after the Hugos and Nebulas. This year, any Canadian can vote online for their favourite book or author, right up until Saturday, May 17th (the awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 18th). Being Canadian myself, and a reader of sci-fi and fantasy, I'm rather keen on the Auroras. They give me new authors and titles to keep an eye on.

This year's nominees are(  found by clicking here! )

You know what bugs me? (Well, today. Lots of things bug me. I like to rant. You may have noticed.) It bugs me when I go into the bookstore, head for the fiction section, and peruse the shelves for a book. When I pick one up, it feels the need to inform me this is "A NOVEL" all in caps, as part of the title. I can't decide if this is presumptuous or just insulting, but either way, it really annoys me. Do the publishers really think I wouldn't realize this was a work of fiction otherwise? I mean, it's sitting amongst all the other novels, in the fiction section. It's not exactly a jump of logic to think I might work out on my own that this is, in fact, a novel.

I can understand the labeling in a case like Dominick Dunne's Another City, Not My Own: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir. Something like that could easily confuse people (although I really don't think they're doing themselves any favours by including both the words "novel" and "memoir" in there). But come on, Laurell K Hamilton's A Lick of Frost does not need to have "A NOVEL" tacked on to the end of the title. Has anyone ever thought her stories were based on truth? ANYONE?

Yeah. That's what I thought.

So why is it authors and publishers seem to feel the need to inform readers from the title alone that this is, in fact, a novel? Do they think it makes them sound cool, like adding "A NOVEL" makes them a legitimate storyteller instead of some hack who prints up lies? Or does it go back to them wanting to make sure I, the pitiful reader, can be made to understand that this volume of faeries and gremlins and alien violence is not a true story? Either way, having those two words stamped on the cover along with the title makes me want to put the book right back on the shelf where I found it.

Best of days to all the mothers, mothers-to-be, and anyone who has a mother. All the burnt toast and weed bouquets going out today might bring smiles, but if you really want to hit mom in the tear duct, try reading a book together you used to read when you were young. Ha!

Actually, my kids picked out a book for me. More specifically, my four-year-old picked out a fantasy novel and my eighteen-month-old gnawed on it a little. I have no idea what it's about, but look for the review sometime in the near future!

Well, I'm sure by now you all know I get a kick out of mocking horrible book covers. In fact, I've been known to occasionally take a book from the library entirely on the basis of its terrible, mockable cover. So it's with great delight I share with you a blog dedicated entirely to book covers gone wrong. Judge a Book by its Cover celebrates the best of the worst: the anatomically impossible, the bizarrely abstract, and anything else completely distasteful. It's a riot, so go check it out!

What's difficult to master, can make or break a story, and often goes completely unremarked by a reader unless the author's completely botched it up?

Pacing.

The pace of a story requires a lot of work on the part of the author, and if it's done well, the reader never even notices it. They're too busy letting the story unwrap before them. It's a difficult balance to achieve: if the story moves too fast, the readers get confused and can't follow what's happening; too slow, and they lose interest. Most stories even need to change the pace up every so often, to give a lull in the action, so to speak. Each story is different, so there isn't even a general rule of thumb for an author to follow.

It's not very often I see a review comment on the pace of a story, unless the reviewer is criticizing, or perhaps describing an adventure story as "fast paced," a term which has been used so often by so many people it's almost lost meaning. I'll admit, I'm guilty of this, too. Pacing is essential to any good story, though, and at its best, can even keep me in a story when I'm annoyed with pretty much every other aspect of the book.

Maybe that's why I'm not keen on large chunks of exposition and description. It interrupts the pace of the story, slowing things down until I lose interest, because I can no longer see the story from behind all the piles of adjectives about trees. Not that I want a story to be all action all the time, but long breaks just make a story feel choppy and my short attention span can't cope.

So am I completely off base here about pacing going largely unremarked when it's done well? Have any of you actually put down a book and thought "man, that was some great pacing the author managed there"? Go ahead, let me know!

For all the time we've spent discussing cover art, so far we've only touched on the American versions. So I did a quick sweep around a couple of British book sites, figuring we could do some comparisons, just for fun. To give myself a place to start, I looked up all the books we've reviewed on this site so far (as well as the one I'm currently in the middle of reading, since it'll join the others pretty soon). Let's have a look, shall we?

( I spend far too much time obsessing over covers, don't I? )

Publisher: Berkley, 2007
Genre: Fantasy
Sub-genre: Paranormal
Rating: 3 1/2 pints of blood



I've mentioned before how much I like this cover. It's not just a random tight butt on the cover, like so many paranormal covers. Actually, my first impression is of the power of this woman, instead of her sexy little tush. The muscles in her back and arm are far more defined than is often considered "feminine," but considering she can take a chunk out of a stone wall without breaking a nail, it seems an appropriate form for her. Finally! An image of a woman who actually looks strong enough to kick some butt!

The rating is the overall average of the stories. Some of them I liked a lot more, some of them I wasn't so crazy about. They're all paranormal, urban fantasy stories featuring female protagonists, and they're actually a fair bit longer than what I normally think of a short story being. The shortest, Mona Lisa Betwining, was 62 pages long.

( Tra la la, on to the dissection! )

Publisher: Avon, 1993
Genre: Romance
Sub-genre: Historical
Rating: 2 pints of blood



This book was awful. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Yes, it was one of those books. By all rights, this should have gotten a much lower rating, but it was so unintentionally hilarious, I could not stop laughing.

As for the cover itself... do I even have to tell you how much this makes me laugh? I mean, who wears leather breeches on a pirate ship? And isn't it kind of dangerous to wear a loose knife tucked into his belt like that? Also, I wasn't aware it was common for pirates in the 1700s to wax their chests like that. I guess you learn something new every day.

( For more mockage, click here! )

It seems that the decline of the American dollar is affecting more than just the value of property in the states these days. Big companies like Harlequin are losing out on the sales they usually make, since the 6.99$ being paid per book isn't worth nearly as much as it used to be. Harlequin's headquarters are in Canada, but make more sales south of the border (which makes sense, considering the US's denser population), and the current exchange rate is not doing them any favours.

Currently, book prices have not been changed to reflect the changes in the economy. Up here, we're still paying 9.99$ or 10.99$ for a mass market paperback, even though our dollar is pretty much on par to the American dollar. All of the local bookstores have big signs, apologizing for this, since angry customers want to know why they're paying so much more for the same book than their American neighbours. Seriously, the border is about a two hour drive from where I live. The bookstores aren't making the difference in funds, either, which is why they can't simply start selling the books for the listed American price.

All this makes me wonder how books as an industry will continue to cope with the current economy. Things are pretty screwed up right now, and don't seem to be leveling out. If a cash cow like Harlequin is seeing such a significant loss this year, can you even imagine how the smaller guys must be feeling right now?

I am currently reading a book that is just awful. So far, though, I have to admit, I'm really enjoying it. I'm enjoying it for all the wrong reasons, but I'm still having a great time with this book. I can't stop laughing, and I keep interrupting my reading to share various quotes with my husband (who shares my love of the ludicrous).

Also? I love the movie Underworld, wholly and unapologetically. I know it's a terrible movie with a poorly-written plot, flat characters, and mockable dialogue. I don't care. I'll still watch it over and over.

So my question to all of you is this: what are the terrible books or movies you love, even though you know you really shouldn't? It doesn't necessarily have to fall in "so bad it's good" territory, it could be something you enjoy in spite of its flaws, something you know admitting your love for would make most people stare at you like you just announced your intentions to marry an iguana. (I'm ok, with that, though. Iguana love is still love.) If I wanted a good bad book, where should I turn? Anyone?

Anyone?

Bueller?

Being Canadian, I often spell my words with more u's than the average American deems necessary. Words like flavour, colour, or neighbour have an extra letter when I spell them. Actually, the American method of dropping letters when it's convenient annoys me. Why does glamour still have the u, but you decide it's acceptable to spell "color" without one? That makes no sense! And don't tell me it's all about making things easier, because let me tell you, the metric system that's pretty much univerally accepted except in the United States is far, far easier to work with than the old Imperial system you guys insist on holding on to.

So tell me... what's with the re-spelling? This is something I can't even blame on the internet age and its many popular shorthands, because the case of the missing letters goes back further than that. It's also the norm in publishing houses to spell things the American way, and emerging writers from other countries trying their luck with American editors and publishers are highly encouraged to use the American spellcheck instead of British or Canadian or what have you.

English is an inefficient and difficult language to learn, partially because of its age and its tendency to borrow words from other languages whenever the whim strikes. And you know what? I love it. I love all the little inconsistencies, all the rules and exceptions to rules. I love the bloat of our vocabulary (come on, defenestration and aglet are specific words) and that you can use german, latin, french, and greek roots in the same sentence. I love all the little quirks, the same way I would for an old friend. So hey, how 'bout you guys quit trying to change my buddy and just accept the English language the way it is? Or at least halt the progression until you can get with the times and measure in grams instead of ounces.

We spend a lot of time here discussing book covers. Good ones, bad ones, and that mysterious element that makes a book enticing enough to pick up. So it seems only natural that I'd hook you guys up with the link for the Cover Contest for 2007. If you've never heard of them before, well basically they take a look at the covers of romance novels published last year and nominate a few for best and worst of the crop. The voting is open to the public, so go ahead! Let the good ones amaze you, and the bad ones amaze you even more. Just be sure to bring the brain bleach if you decide to peruse the Worst category, alright?

Series: Women of the Otherworld
Publisher: Seal, 2006
Genre: Horror
Sub-genre: Paranormal
Rating: 3 1/2 pints of blood



I have a love/hate relationship with this cover. I love the lamps in the mist against the tree, highlighting the shadowed figure lurking in the background. The whole background... well, you could put just that on a cover and I would be a happy camper. It's actually the cover model in the foreground that screws with my head. The main character is a very pregnant blonde woman, so points to the cover artist for getting blonde and pregnant, but seriously, what is up with that belly? Baby bellies are not square. Trust me on this one. But the way her hands are lying there, that stomach has to be jutting out at a right angle like a shelf, and then the pendant hangs straight down instead of following the curve of the belly. The more I stare at it, the more wrong it looks. I'm gonna go back to admiring the background before I hurt my brain.

( Not that it's really that difficult to hurt my brain, of course... )

Well, I don't know how many writers and aspiring writers we have hanging out around here, but I figure I'll stick up the link to Writer Beware anyway. It's a great resource, with information on scams and frauds trying to take advantage of writers trying to get their work out there. Pyramid schemes, fraudulent agents and editors, vanity presses with more vanity than press... it's kind of terrifying how many scams there are out there just waiting to pounce on unsuspecting writers. Cuz, y'know, it's not like writing is hard enough as it is or anything...

Well, if you'll recall, there's a really great geek convention going on here mid-May, and a bunch of awesome authors are going to be there. I am planning to completely geek out and embarrass myself that weekend and fangirl at all the literary going-ons.

Also, did I remember to mention Tanya Huff is going to be there? Yeah. So when I say "geek out and embarrass myself" I really mean "embrace my inner stalker." I promise to be sure and update you the day I get my restraining order. (She's got to sign it, right? So in a sick and twisted way, it means I can add it to the shrine. Woo!)

At any rate, they'll be holding a masquerade during the convention, and I thought it would only be right if I went as a literary character, since I'm admittedly one of the biggest literary geeks you'll find. So my question for you is... who should I go as? I have about three weeks to pull together a costume and relatively limited funding, so get creative on me! Anyone have any brilliant ideas?

"And here we have the genrereviews site, where we have snarky reviews, random ranting, and even the occasional intelligent discussion. If you look to your left, you'll see a short list of links to different booksellers, indicating that Anna and Sarah have already sold out. We hope you enjoyed your tour..."

Seriously, though, we have shiny new links! I'll be adding more on as I hear back from the booksellers. Basically, if you use those links when you go to buy stuff online, we get a small cut, which goes right back into the site. Basically, if you support us by buying books through those links, we can have more contests with better prizes, and do all sorts of fun things for you guys. We're not making money off this site, and we don't intend to, but as things stand we can't really afford to hold regular contests, and that makes us sad. We want to give out free stuff! (Seriously, though, don't feel pressured into buying stuff through our links if you don't want to, or buying anything you wouldn't be getting anyway. We love you guys already.)

I'm working on getting referral links for Amazon, Chapters/Indigo, and Borders as well. Anyone have any requests for other sites you use regularly?

Edit: Amazon links are now up!

There's nothing quite like starting the day with a lolcat.



Ok, I know by now the sexual orientation of the Hogwart's headmaster is old news. The jokes have all been made, the fuss has all died down, and the media has moved on to the next moneymaking story. So why am I bringing it all up again?

Actually, I'm mostly bringing it up now because all the hoopla has quieted on the subject. Because, well, part of what I want to touch on is the big deal people seemed to make out of it. We've talked here before about the portrayal of gay characters in fiction, how there aren't enough well-written characters to represent that part of the population. A lot of gay fictional characters make a big deal out of their sexuality, giving the impression that they only exist because the writer wanted to make a sensation.

So my question to you is... what did you think of Rowling making Dumbledore a gay character, and her decision to reveal that aspect only after the last book had already been published? Do you think it was a conscious decision on her part? With all the headlines announcing "Rowling announced Dumbledore is gay!", I couldn't help thinking how sad it was that people thought this was such a big deal. Writers, take note. More minority characters, please!

Series: Last Herald Mage
Publisher: Daw, 1991
Genre: Fantasy
Sub-genre: Swords and sorcery



Review written by contest winner aurillia.
Recommended by kat_nic.

For someone who hasn't read anything by Lackey before, this is a pretty good place to start. The scarily prolific author has written at least twenty novels (mostly trilogies, but also stand-alone novels and short story anthologies, plus two trilogies co-authored with Larry Dixon), set in and around the land of Valdemar. And as any fantasy fan knows, you can't revisit a world unless it's fully realised, rich in detail, interesting ... and there's something to visit. I think Raymond E. Fiest did the same with his world, though personally I never finished the oh-so-epic and oh-so-Tolkein-rip-off Magician - it was oh-so-slow-and-long-and-boring; why would I want to revisit that world? It's the author's prose I'd really be re-visiting ugh.

( Read the rest of this award winning review! )

As I'm sure you're all aware (considering all the shameless promotion we've been putting forward), we just wrapped up our very first contest. Judging was... an interesting experience. I think we broke our brains trying to make a final decision. For the record, if there's a serious lack of reviewing going on here in the next little while, I blame you people and your writing talents. Actual snippet of conversation between Sarah and I late at night while trying to determine a winner:

Sarah: ok...
Sarah: Why did we decide to have a contest again?
Anna: Because we're IDIOTS.
Sarah: CLEARLY!
Anna: ...we're masochistic?
Sarah: I think so.

In short, every single entry was intelligently and thoughtfully written, and I can't even tell you how long I sat starting at my computer, flipping between reviews. But really, you don't want to be hearing about the decision-making process so much at this point, you just want me to get with it and announce the winner. Well, fine.

For her fantastic review of Mercedes Lackey's Magic's Pawn, aurillia is our contest's official winner. And look! She even gets a shiny banner to show off her status!



So congratulations, aurillia. You had some seriously tough competition. Send us an e-mail at genrereviews@gmail.com to make arrangements for us to get your gift certificate to you.

Huge thanks to everyone who participated. We appreciate the time and effort you put into your entries more than we can tell you.