Get it while it's hot...

I’m taking a break from my nonstop writing orgy (32K since Thursday) to pimp the book of a friend. Now, I just bought my copy today, so you will have to wait a bit for me to rant and rave about Evie Byrne’s new novella, Dante’s Inferno, but I’ve read another book of hers that will be coming out soon from Samhain, and I’m currently reading one of her works in progress, and they are both fab-u-lous.

And if you want a professional opinion, just check out Mrs. Giggles’ review of Dante’s Inferno.

Not bad for book number one, eh? So buy yourself a copy. Get hooked.

And now, back to my regularly scheduled lack of blogging.

Now that I’ve read it, I wish I hadn’t liked it quite so much. Perhaps then I wouldn’t have read it so quickly. And if I hadn’t read it so quickly, I would have had more time to enjoy it.

Private Arrangements is a grand book. Really, that’s the only word I can think of to describe it, except, perhaps, “delicious” and Delicious happens to be the title of Sherry Thomas’s next book, which I will be buying the day it comes out in August, 2008, so I really should conserve that word for further use this summer. And speaking of this summer, expect another terse blog post telling you to go away. I apologize, in advance, for my future rudeness, but if today was any indication, I won’t be in my right mind.

I should start by saying, this is not a review. I’m lousy at reviewing, and I’m suspect, besides, since Sherry Thomas wrote a lovely double review of my novellas Ember and Like a Thief in the Night for Dear Author back in January which probably sold more copies of Like a Thief than all of my confused, sorry little attempts to promote the story, combined. But please don’t think I am biased just because I have reason to be, because if you do, you will miss out on one of the best historical romances ever. Ever!

You think I’m exaggerating. I must admit, I’m prone to hyperbole. What I love, I love, and I can’t shut the hell up about it. Which usually leads people to nod and smile as they back away from me. So I try to tone it down. I try to mention any possible flaw in a book when I recommend it so that people won’t think I’m some sort of blindly rabid fan girl. So that people will think I’m reasonable.

This time, I’ll just admit it: I’m not reasonable. Technically speaking, Private Arrangements’ wind-up to the end was a little slow, and the end felt a little fast, but really, that’s just me grasping at straws trying to think of something critical to say about a book I devoured in three hours and forty-two minutes, and plan to start rereading at a more leisurely pace once I finish this post.

You must understand, when I read this book, I got shivers. The experience was akin to the first time I read a book by Judith Ivory, Loretta Chase or other authors from the very short list of names on my Read Everything They Ever Wrote list and Keeper Shelf (actually, it’s more of a cabinet…).

I didn’t think about the writing, or the plot, or wonder where it was going. I just read. Page after page. I was entranced, insatiable, totally p0wned. I could not put it down. To be blunt: Sherry Thomas made me her bitch, and I liked it!

I was swept away by the grand, Gilded-Age setting (note, I love this time period, and I wish there were more novels set in it), and the grand passion between Gigi and Camden. The hero and heroine are intelligent, beautiful, rich, passionate, larger-than-life…and they are idiots. Complete, utter idiots. They are complicated, proud and obsessed — and completely irrational because of it. I adored them.

The plot is this: When Gigi and Camden were young, they were terribly in love. But love made him stubbornly noble, and her passionately deceitful. When his nobility met her deceit, the clash of two such indomitable, unreasonable personalities drove them apart. Camden rejected Gigi and put an ocean between them.

The story begins eleven years later, when Gigi has filed for divorce. Camden returns to England from New York to tell Gigi that he will grant her a divorce–if she will give him an heir. Huh? That seems backwards and dumb and completely illogical. But I totally bought it because these characters are experts at deceiving themselves. They are each their own worst enemy.

Those two, their love is like a blues song; it’s like the tastiest type of tragedy–the kind where it isn’t fate or the actions of villains that keep the lovers apart, but their own human flaws and foolish pride. They push, they pull, they rage, plot and insult — and in every instant, in every action, it is achingly apparent to the reader that these two characters are still madly, passionately in love. Oh, the drama! It’s delicious.

As the story unfolds, they begin to relate to each other as grown-ups instead of hormonal, over-dramatic young people. Camden comes to understand why Gigi did what she did, and Gigi experiences a bit of Camden’s old stubborn nobility. It’s lovely.

Also lovely is the secondary plot involving Gigi’s social climbing mother. I love the nuances to her character. She could easily have been the villain of the piece, a wretched caricature of a modern-day stage mother in historical drag. Instead, she is complicated, intelligent, self-deprecating, and, eventually, self-aware. In fact, all of the secondary characters are wonderfully well-drawn, with flaws and virtues all their own.

This “not a review” is getting pretty long. I suppose I should wrap up the love fest so I can start my rereading, but first, I need to say a few words about the writing: it’s wonderful. Smooth, sophisticated, elegant and intelligent, the narrative carried me along, never talking down, never dumbing down (I’ll post examples later–I was so busy reading, I forgot to mark my favorite passages). And, oh, that vocabulary. :sigh:

Private Arrangements is all the things I’ve always loved about historical romance. It’s a vivid, intense, Technicolor-bright tale of compelling characters and dramatic love painted across the wide, glittering canvas of a fascinating historical era. It’s one of three books I’ve read this year that I’m going to press into the hands of friends who love to read as I say, “You must read this. It’s grand.”

Now, since I was lucky enough to win an early copy of this book in a contest on Dear Author, I’m holding a contest to give away the copy I would have bought at precisely 11 am on March 25 from the Borders on Lake Ave (no Amazon–I hate to wait.) to someone who comments on this post. The deadline is Friday, March 28, 2007. As with the Dear Author contest, the catch here is that the winner will have to mention the novel in a forum, or blog post.

But come back on March 25th when I’ll give away the copy of Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas that I would have bought, if I hadn’t been so lucky as to win a copy in the Dear Author contest.

As for me, I knew I needed a new size, as my bras have been giving me backaches lately. The wonderful wizardesses moved me up from a 32C to a 32D–which is not as impressive as it sounds. Cup size runs in scale with band size, so the cup on a 32 is smaller than the one on a 36. On an almost 6-foot tall woman, a 32D can still look pretty darned flat-chested. Who’da thunk it? Anyway, the new bras are super-comfy, so who cares?

Mom called me again this morning to lament her F-ness. But here’s the thing, with the new, right, bras she actually looks less busty than she did before. Her cups do not runneth over. Plus, a properly fitted bra is the best way to avoid “matron-boob” you know, that mono-bosomed look that results from women wearing the size they’ve always been instead of the one they really are. And, no backaches.

Mom is now a sworn believer for life, and has vowed to tell all her friends about the wizard of bras. If you’d like to make sure you’re wearing the right size bra, follow the fitting instructions on their site.

Hard Boiled. It’s not just the name of one of my favorite movies, it’s one of my favorite subgenres of mystery, too. While Like a Thief in the Night isn’t a mystery or a detective story, I did sprinkle in references titles by two of the subgenre’s most famous authors. Why? Because I could.

Weird, right? But my thematic non sequitur can add up to cold, hard, Amazon gift certificates for one lucky reader.

Email me (bettiesharpe at gmail dot com) identifying Like a Thief in the Night’s references to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet titles by February 28, 2008 and you’ll be entered to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate.

My ARC of Ann Aguirre’s Grimspace arrived in the mail today. If her vast Grimspace Publicity Juggernaut has somehow missed you, Grimspace is an exciting new sci-fi novel which Jane of Dear Author recently reviewed very favorably and of which Sharon Shinn said the following:

An irresistable blend of action and attitude. Sirantha Jax doesn’t just leap off the page–she storms out, kicking, cursing and mouthing off. No wonder her pilot falls in love with her; readers will, too.

This book is one of my top five awaited reads for 2008. I wanted to read this book so much that when Ann asked if she could hire me to do a bookmark for Grimspace, I said, “Love to, but you have to give me an ARC.”

And now my ARC is here, in all of its pristine, white paper covered glory. So, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go read.

I’m not naming names, but if you feel the same way about a particular candidate, maybe you should swallow your cynicism and vote your conscience, too.

Also, last week, Jane at Dear Author wondered whether the ePublishing’s reputation for erotic fare was driving away potential readers. She used Like a Thief in the Night as an example, since neither the interest Ember might have garnered from The Serial, nor Sherry Thomas ’s public french-kiss–er, enthusiastic review of Ember and Like a Thief last week generated enough purchases at MBAM to put Like a Thief on their top ten bestseller list.

An interesting discussion of the perception of ePublishing resulted. Mrs Giggles blogged her thoughts. Nice Mommy/Evil Editor Angie started a weekly series at her blog highlighting Samhain’s non-erotic romances.

Another interesting result? It’s over there on the left.

What do I think of the whole thing? Aside from being thrilled to see Like a Thief in such great company (Hi Shiloh! Hi Bonnie!) I commented briefly on Dear Author, and in more detail at Mrs. Giggles’s blog. In an overlarge and overlong nutshell, my thoughts are these:

The thing I like about ePublishers is that they seem a little more willing to take risks and break genre rules. Like a Thief has plenty of sex and even more violence, but those aren’t the tough selling points. Like a Thief features a heroine who is, by her own admission, heartless, and the story crosses several genre lines–I call it an a sci-fi paranormal action-adventure erotic romance. Bit of a mouthful, eh? And its only 28,000 words long–roughly a third the length of the average single-title romance.

Writers writing for New York know what New York wants. Just as writers writing for ePubs know what sells. I knew going in that M/M and menage were hot categories. I knew Like a Thief’s violence and the heroine might be a turn-off for some readers. But I wrote the story I wanted to write, and Samhain published it, and I’ll always be happy about that.

I didn’t expect to see Like a Thief on that list. It’s my first novella. Ever. And the first thing I ever submitted anywhere. I expected a polite rejection from Samhain. Everything since then has been an awesome surprise. I did rather expect to see The Valentine Effect and Erotics Anonymous on the list on day 1. Both Bonnie Dee and Veronica Wilde have written some excellent and very well-reviewed stories. They have fans (I’m one).

The Strangers in the Night stories came out on the same day as the three stories from Samhain’s Court Appointed M/M anthology. All three stories from the M/M anthology are on the list, along with two menage stories. At the time of this writing, the top 5 books are M/M or menage.

What does that mean for new authors? Or for authors that don’t write erotic, much less M/M or menage? It means we are being subsidized by the more popular categories. The success of those subgenres is what allows ePubs to take chances on the next hot-selling subgenre.

So, while I think it’s a shame some readers are put off by the more exotic and/or sex-centered offerings, I’m won’t complain if my books’ sales numbers get trumped by shapeshifting threesomes or hawt gay lawyers. Popular erotic subgenres fund the risk-taking I admire in ePubs.

I’d like it if more people appreciated the diverse offerings available from ePublishers.
And, like Jane, I’m going to do my best to remind people who think ePubbed books are all erotic romance and/or pr0n that ePublishing offers a diverse array of genres and content.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
If you have a PS3, you need to own this game. You need this game like you need air, food and water, because this is the game your PS3 was made for.

For a long time, video game makers have been touting the cinematic qualities of their games. But in the video game world, “Cinematic Qualities” usually add up to long, talky cut scenes and movies with awkward dialog, and Parappa-style button-pushing sequences that get annoying real fast. But watching someone play Uncharted is like watching an Indiana Jones style adventure where the main character sometimes dies, and restarts the action sequence.

Aside from a tendency to push you into shoot-outs after cut scenes, Uncharted offers a great blend of platforming elements and third-person shooting (which I much prefer to 1st person shooters). The graphics are realistic, yet painterly, the animation is superb, and the dialog and story are better than half the action movies that came through the theaters last year. Nicholas Cage and National Treasure, Eat your heart out.

There are a hundred things I want to say about this game, but time and space are limited today, so I’ll wrap up with the following

• Game Play: It’s a baby bear game–everything is just right.
  
• Character design–superb! The main character, Drake, is easy on the eyes, and the female character, Elena is strong, capable and so realistic looking. Don’t let the tank-top and shorts fool you, she’s like the anti-Lara Croft.
• Voice acting–awesome. Really. Nicholas Cage should watch and take notes.
• Environment–beautiful. The texture artists deserve a raise and a trip to an island as beautiful as the one they created in the game. And the programmers who did the water need some sort of medal proclaiming that they have designed the Best Water Effects in the History of Video Games. Evah! I got shot a couple of times because I was distracted by the ocean, or the pretty, pretty waterfalls.
• Chutzpah: This game is a platform shooter about lost treasure, Spanish gold, Nazi experiments, curses, zombies, modern-day pirates and germ warfare. It really has something for everyone, and it juggles every aspect in a most entertaining manner. I can’t recommend it enough.

I’d like to write more, but I guess it figures that the day I’ve been looking forward to for 6 months would fall in the week the day the day job decides to get insanely busy. Wah.

I think my brain is melting from stress. Contests, regular posts and such will resume when the contents of my cranium have returned to at least a semisolid state.

If you want blogging, go check out my post on Bam’s blog. Because I have to go to work.