Holiday gift exchange in Romancelandia #22

Happy Holidays, everybody!

I'm going to be gone for a few days. Thanks for a wonderful year of fun and friendship.

Holiday gift exchange in Romancelandia #21

The holiday spirit shines on in Romancelandia...

Thanks to Sayuri for giving me the idea for this one!!

Holiday gift exchange in Romancelandia #20

Ah, the holiday exchange goes on...in an increasingly questionable and arcane fashion.

Oh, what? You don't get the reference to the tree sex guy? The double dicked alien? (Who reviewed that one? Send me a link.) These tales were permanently etched in my brain this year.

I promise, tomorrow I have a better cartoon.

For more wholesome fun (well, maybe not more wholesome, but certainly more fun)  Lorelie has posted her crazy hilarious finale, chapter 8 of the Baby Food Baron!! A red-hot Holiday must-read.

As usual, if you haven't been following, start here at Chapter ONE.

Holiday gift exchange in Romancelandia #19

Okay, holiday gift exchange becoming somewhat random.
Hey! Kate Rothwell has posted the next exciting installment of the Baby Food Baron saga - the rollicking Chapter 7 !
If you haven't been following, start here.

Demon Bound, more baron and holiday exchange #18!

Baby Food Baron continues!!
Meljean Brook is posting her chapter--chapter SIX--of The Baby Food Baron today! So check it out. If you haven't read the first five chapters yet, you're in for a treat!

To access the first five chapters, please buckle your seat belt, put your tray to the UP position, fasten your oxygen mask securely over your nose and mouth, open your air sickness bag and place it on your lap, strap a floatation device to your body and start here.

Okay, also I finished Demon Bound last week and I have a few thoughts. So I guess this is officially fawn-over-Meljean day at Thrillionth page.

My very favorite random things about Demon Bound

This is another Meljean Brook book that hits the sweet spot between fresh, fun worldbuilding, fantastic writing and a strong romance and action storyline. It is always such a rich thing to get all three.

Demon Bound has a strapping young Guardian novice Jake getting caught up with Alice, also a Guardian but she’s been around far longer. She’s a kind of archivist/archaeologist—think foreboding librarian with hidden—make that very well-hidden—sensuality. She’s not prim so much as creepy, and heavy into spiders. She’s also bound by a deal she made with a demon to kill head Guardian Michael! Gasp!

Onto the random things...

Fun creepy surprises in hell
Ah, yes, another Meljean Brook book that involves a trip to hell. I really enjoyed Brook’s richly imagined hell here, which builds on the hell of previous books in a satisfying way. I’ve always been a fan of the screaming frozen fields, and this comes into play as one of the non-attractive options open to Alice vis a vis her tragic bargain.

Little disappointments and blunders
The relationship between Jake and Alice has a wonderful, naturalistic feel to it, and I think part of the reason is that it’s paved with so many missteps; Jake and Alice are kind to each other, but they also hurt and misjudge each other in little ways, then repair their blunders and this builds a strong bond between them. The interaction is wonderfully human, and that’s a quality I love in this book. There are a couple scenes in particular where I was surprised at how wrong Brook let things go. I really enjoyed that.

The ‘feeling the head’ scene
We’ve all had the buddy or brother who gets the crew cut and everybody has to feel their head. It’s a universal, tactile memory and I love how Meljean uses it here. All the Guardians get into rubbing Jake’s crew-cutted head, but Alice never does. And as the sexual tension builds between these characters, the rubbing of Jake’s head takes on way more significance and charge, and makes a great scene when it finally happens.

Alice’s voice
The point of view switches between Jake, who was killed in the Vietnam war before becoming a Guardian, and Alice, a woman who came of age and died in the Victorian era. I particularly enjoyed Alice's voice itself, which I found to be intelligent and oddly humorous; it gave me a strong sense of her personality, and the feel of a fully developed consciousness. I particularly enjoy the chapter and section starts. Like the first line of the book:

How easy killing a Guardian would be. Even Michael, the most powerful of all the Guardians, would fall if a sword cleaved through his heart or his neck.

There is quiet music in these sentences, but if you follow the series, it is a totally shocking thing to say. Or this, after a sexual escapade

How depraved they were.

Alice lay on her stomach beneath her worktable, the marble floor cool beneath her cheek. It was odd to be thankful for a slit in her drawers, but she supposed that if the opening had not been there, her bottom would now be exposed, and she simply did not have the strength to cover it.

The nuances of the Guardian ranks
The Guardians felt more nuanced in this installment. I wonder if it was because half this tale is told from the perspective of Alice, a more unpopular member of the group. Alice feels rejected and slightly demoralized as a Guardian, and purposely creeps out the younger Guardians. This perpetuates her experience of rejection and isolation; it also discounts and disrespects the younger Guardians, and of course, Jake himself is a younger Guardian, and the others are his pals. So that was an issue with them.

What's more, the fact that the Guardians seem to have factions and members who dislike or resent each other—and the sense that that may grow—made the Guardians feel grittier and more real in a new way this time around.

So overall, another exciting installment! It’s such a fun thing in life to be able to count on favorite writers for this level of entertainment. One caveat: I do not think this is a good book to start the series with because it’s heavy on the world building and wonky details of Guardian realms and history— fascinating if you’re into the series, but overwhelming to a newbie. Heck, start with Demon Angel. Some people didn’t get into it, but honestly, I thought it was fabulous. And you get the infamous clawed door scene.

More on Demon Bound:
Racy Romance Reviews
Alpha Heroes
Dear Author
Book Binge

Oh, what do we have here? A holiday gift exchange…#18!!

Exchange #17 and awards!

Holiday in Romancelandia, the exchange of gifts between fave characters, continues!Another one that came out of my conversation with KatiBabs...will she approve??

Check it out! I got the Kreativ Blogger award from a new blog friend, Anna Vivian over at Anna's Book Blog as well as from Book Smugglers! Thanks so much, guys!

Here are the rules:
~Mention the blog that gave it to you.
~Comment on their blog to let them know you've posted the award.
~Share 6 values that are important to you.
~Share 6 things you do not support.
~Share the love with 6 other blogging friends.

Like Anna and the Book Smugglers, I'm changing the rules. I'm doing just a list of six things, with commentary (instead of the two lists.)

Six things that are important to me with commentary:
Kindness to animals, even though just tonight, I painted all of our power cords with habenero Tabasco because our kitten, Oblio, was chewing on them. I suppose that's a sort of kindness, though Oblio would not see it that way. I was especially alarmed to note that he actually nearly chewed through the cord that plugs in the scanner I use for the cartoons. Will there be a cartoon with this post? We'll see.

Fires in the fireplace during the winter, even though I know it's not great for the air quality. But we live in Minnesota! Sitting by the fire is like a main activity for my husband and me. OMG, that makes us sound really boring.

Music. I guess, who doesn't like it? I'm sort of secret Santa to my 10-year old niece, and my sister suggested that as one of her gifts I make a CD of fun poppy dance music for her from stuff I own. I have been excitedly strategizing all week! It also made me realize how much inappropriate music I have for a 10-year old. Do you think a 10-year old would dance to Devo? I sort of think she would like Blackalicious and Spoon, too.

DIY. I am SO into it! But it is more of a self image than reality. I have this file of stuff I dream of making someday when I have the time. I dream of making my own clothes, but I don't. However, I did make my own website, but can't any 16 year old make one at this point?

Reading in the bathtub. Sometimes I can't believe how wonderful that is. Like when I first sink in. Ahh. Sometimes I also work in the bathtub when I have to create slogans and things. I have taken three hour baths.

My Critique/Writing Partners. It is SUCH a risk to start a CP relationship, because if it goes bad, it's really a bad situation and feelings get hurt and more. But I started working with two women I met in this very community and wow, I am amazed and grateful for how great they are. And actually just shocked. I feel so lucky.

Awards to others!
NOTE to winners: Pass it on if you feel like it, or just bask in the glory. PS: I sort of changed the categories, too.

Best Pimpin' Blog: Tracy's Place I can't believe how many books she reads! She has such wide-ranging interests.
Best Historical Reviews: Musings of a Bibliophile Great reviews, great mix! I always find out about new books from Brie.
Best new to me blog: Renee's Book Addiction Beautiful blog, information rich, excellent insights and fun!
Most fun: Book Pron Sayuri has many highly entertaining posts.
Best Urban Fantasy Reviews: Scooper Speaks She always has something thoughtful and interesting to say.
Best Crazy Action: Nose in a book! You never know what fun and madness LB will come up with. AND Desert Island Keepers Oooh, Samantha Kane is there telling about her favorite books, and she had contest news yesterday.

Bookworm award
Also, I got a bookworm award from Little Alys, a great friend of this blog, who got it from Nalini Singh! Wow. Two degrees of separation, people. Thanks Little Alys!!

Okay, wait!! This award has a duty? Hey LA, what's the big idea? No, just kidding. You're supposed to open your nearest book to page 56 and say what the 5th sentence is, more if appropriate. Okay, okay, let's see.

Ah! Lara Adrian, from Midnight Rising: "She made a last-ditch, frantic scrabble on her belly, trying to drag herself over the carpeted floor to get away from him."

Passing it on: Whoever wants to!

Holiday exchange #16 and news

Ah, the gift exchange continues...
Thanks again to Katibabs, who has a special *ahem* fondness for Rhev and Roarke, for helping me think of this one!

NEWS ITEM #1 The Baby Food Baron continues! Are you keeping up? Because it just gets crazier and crazier. It started here below, and here's the rest of the schedule:

Monday - I posted chapter 1, below
Tuesday - Ann Aguirre posted chapter 2
YESTERDAY - Tumperkin posted chapter 3
TODAY - Chapter 4 at Bettie Sharpe's

TOMORROW - Carrie Lofty posts chapter 5:
December 20th - Meljean Brook posts chapter 6
December 21st - Kate Rothwell posts chapter 7
December 22nd - Lorelie Brown posts chapter 8
December 23rd - Dionne Galace posts all 8 chapters

Tumperkin, who created the project, developed the outline and a few "guidelines." Fun things to be on the lookout for through these 8 chapters:

• Non-English exclamations
• The 'betraying bulge' in Cesar's pants!
• 'What could Chastity do? She had no choice but to...'
• Hyperbolic, earth-shattering, spiritual orgasms
• Weird baby foods and baby food comparisions
• Being treacly about children
  

News Item #2: There is a really interesting discussion/brewhaha on Urban Fantasy and paranormal romance touched off by this article by Lilith Saintcrow on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist and continued elsewhere, such as Book Smugglers and Babbling about Books.

News Item #3: Okay, I had three news items and I can't remember the third! But a girl has to get to work. Maybe I'll think of it as soon as I post this. For now, news item #3 can be that I have lost my mind. Sad.

The Unfeasibly Tall Greek Billionaire: Check out our previous masterpiece: The Unfeasibly Tall Greek Billionaire's Blackmailed Martyr-Complex Secretary Mistress Bride in full downloadable book form Here

A new twist in my personal wo1f secks mystery & holiday exchange #15

Note: Some terms are intentionally misspelled so as to not further torment the wo1f secks image seekers of the world!

Another note: This is in honor of Kerry Allen's Witchblade boobs post, which is the weird seach term she always gets.

You will probably be surprised to learn that this blog used to be one of the top stops for people all over the world googling in search of an image of "wo1f secks" (but spelled correctly). This used to totally mystify me on a number of levels.

For one thing, the searchers were almost always from far-off (to me) lands like Bangalore, Brunei or Madagascar, and sometimes countries I've never heard of with names like Kipor, with the occasional obscure Idaho town thrown in.

And then, of course, there was the whole question of, what is the deal? Are these searchers interested in it from a wildlife perspective, or is it some sort of human sexual activity? This spurred me on my own search for knowledge, and it became clear that wo1f secks is sometimes a furree fetish, sometimes a term used in the gay community, like you have bears, and wolves, and when a wo1f has secks with somebody, that's wo1f secks, and then you have the Mutual of Omaha version, where actual wolves have secks.

Anyway, here is the image the searchers always landed on. I am sure they were bitterly disappointed. It's from this post about Kelley Armstrong's book Bitten, entitled "Wo1f secks vs. Human secks" (but not spelled like that) and it's about how this one reviewer on Amazon really REALLY wanted the wolves to have secks while in their wolf bodies.

I love a good shape shifter tale as much as the next gal, but I've never been a shifted sex person. But hey! Who knows what 2009 will bring.

As I pondered, I further realized that the reason my searchers only came from distant foreign capitals is that they don't read English well, and thus don't recognize from the snippet of Thrillionth Page text provided by Google that the image they are about to click on will NOT seem sexy to them at all.

The mystery deepens
So today I realized I hadn't had any wo1f secks visitors for a long time and I was sort of bummed. I was like, is somebody else out there offering a seemingly surer route to a wo1f secks image?

So I googled wo1f secks only to discovered this madness at

uncyclopedia.wikia.com. I followed their wo1f and wo1f secks links and discovered these two caption jpgs.

WTF?

I love that coyote picture. The Internet is just so crazy!

Anyway, oh, I just realized, I actually sort of have a Holiday gift exchange cartoon that has some shape shifting characters in it. Though not any wo1f secks.

Holiday gift exchange in Romancelandia #15

Today: The fun of Bingeduckia rages on--there's another big scavenger hunt contest, plus a wee post from yours truly.

Tomorrow: The Italian Baby Food Baron continues at Tumperkin's. Also, this week I got a Bookworm award, AND a Kreativ Blogger award! So cool! So I will be awarding them onward, PLUS if I finish Demon Bound tonight I will have tons to say about it. And, of course, another gift exchange.

Holiday gift exchange in Romancelandia #13

The heroes, heroines and villains of Romancelandia continue their gift exchange!


Thanks, Sula, for lending me the Nick Gentry book, Worth Any Price, by Lisa Kleypas. Do you want it back? Gosh, I am so bad about returning books. Also, I should thank Katibabs for helping me think of this one!!

Chapter ONE of The Italian Gourmet Baby Food Baron's Ironically Pregnant Virgin Mistress appears here tomorrow! Details and blurb a few posts down at exchange #7 or if you're just way too lazy to scroll, click here.

Holiday gift exchange #12

Oh, boy, the holiday gift exchange continues!! 

Background...

*Okay, another sort of obscure one, unless you have read the gay outer space regency romance, My Fair Captain by J. L. Langely, discussed by me here and here,  and are familiar with DIK island.  Go visit! Katie Reus is there today!

Holiday gift exchange #11 and newsy items

More holiday gift giving between characters!Newsy items:

Bingeduckia has begun!!
It's reading madness all this week (Dec 10-17) at the Book Binge. They have teamed up with The Good, The Bad and The Unread on Bingeaduckia, a celebration of books, the romance community, anthologies and just a whole lot of book reading goodness--with giveaways, contests and fun--scroll down to find a really fun scavenger hunt! There are also contributions from fellow bloggers on what they're thankful for in the romance community.

Smugglivus continues!
The Book Smugglers...wow. Contests, interviews. Today they have NYT best-selling author Angie Fox (The Accidental Demon Slayer). You can win her book by commenting. There is also a chance to win Mike Stone's Fourtold (which gets my vote for FREAKIEST cover ever) and The Magical Christmas Cat.

The birds are back!
Thank goodness! I felt really bad for letting the food run out. There are three kinds of birds that come to my birdfeeder now, helpfully pictured here. The black capped chickadee, the sparrow, and the nut hatch, who often feeds upside down. The cats and I are so pleased!

My site (carolynjeanjackson.com) is finally up! & marginally interesting anecdotes about making it
Okay, it looks so simple, you wouldn't think it took me THREE MONTHS to make!  I have to get a REAL picture of myself, too. That one on the site doesn't look that much like me. Anyway, that site is where I will talk about book-related stuff. Oh, who am I kidding. Super exciting things will be talked about here, too. (I hope I don't get any bats in my bouquet! JK. See Jessica's funny post here.)

So at this point I know just enough about HTML that when I change something in the source code, there is a moderate chance that it will not wreck the page, and when it works, it seems like magic.

Last night, there was this one link from the home page to the books page that just WOULDN'T work, and I spent all this time trying different things to make it go. It made me re-evaluate everything I know about how the pages find each other. Finally, I called my hosting service, and it was like, a permissions box wasn't checked on their own FTP thing.

So I have this HTML book for dummies, and when I bought it I discovered Chapter 14, "working with forms," was cut out by some jerk. Like, somebody went into B&N and cut it out with a knife. I was thinking of returning it but then I thought, when am I EVER going to actually make my own form? It was my little thing I did for the book publishing industry to not return it.

Anyway, if you do go out there and it looks at all weird, let me know. I have only tested it on mac browsers.

Holiday gift exchange in Romancelandia #10

Oh, boy, the holiday gift exchange between heroes heroines and villains continues...

Holiday exchange #7, 8 & 9 as a series

Okay, I'm putting these up as a trio because they aren't making sense on their own. Tomorrow we will get back to more non-creepy single-shot ones, I promise!!!

Ahem. Look! The characters are continuing to exchange gifts this holiday. How lovely.

Holiday gift exchange in Romancelandia #8

Oh, look, another interesting gift idea as the holiday gift exchange continues!

* Okay, this one only makes sense if you read #7 first.

Holiday gift exchange #7 & the book little CJ is SO excited about!

The holiday gift exchange continues! Here every day. Look who's getting into the holiday spirit.

**The Windflower, by Tom and Sharon Curtis, is a beloved out-of-print old school romance making the rounds (sort of reviewed here) and Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop is book 1 of the famous dark fantasy/horror/love story (discussed here).


Little CJ sez:

Yeah. Nice cartoon, big CJ. We're all mighty impressed with your drawing skills.

Anyways, I know I'll probably get a lot of coal in my stocking this year, and some lame educational stuff and lectures on being a better girl, but who cares?

This is going to be the best Christmas anyways, because The Italian Gourmet Baby Food Baron's Ironically Pregnant Virgin Mistress is finally being released! It will be torrid, I just know it. Torrid torrid torrid!!

And Santa is doling it out early...starting on the 15th in FREE CHAPTERS. Why is Santa waiting until the 15th? I don't know. Step on it, old man. Maybe you need to whip Rudolf a little harder.

Here's the back cover blurb from The Italian Gourmet Baby Food Baron's Ironically Pregnant Virgin Mistress

He needed children for an advertising campaign. . .
All Cesar Machismo wants is to ensure the bambinos of the world experience the flavor explosion of his company’s newest baby-food, Thai Shrimp in Peanut Dressing. But when he goes to an orphanage looking for a new spokes-baby, he finds twins with eyes the color of pureed Cornish game hens. Mama Mia! He must take them home!

What he got was a ready-made family!
Content with her lot in life, Chastity Bliss slaves for her stepmother at the orphanage. This way she stays with her babies, though she can never acknowledge them. When Cesar adopts her twins, she follows as their nanny. What can she do? She has no choice, because though he doesn’t know it . . .

Cesar is their father!

* * *
Yessssss.  I can't wait! The blurb above is by the wonderful Lorelie Brown, and the cover was created by the ever-talented Bettie Sharpe!

Okay, the book is by eight authors instead of just one measly author, so you KNOW it HAS to be great. (Authors: Tumperkin, who masterminded the whole thing, plus big CJ, Ann Aguirre, Carrie Lofty, Bettie Sharpe, Meljean Brook, Kate Rothwell and Lorelie Brown). It'll be posted on each author's blog and in full at Bam's.

Holiday gift exchange #6 and minor Sunday tragedies

The gift exchange in Romancelandia continues...


A bit of cartoon explanation: Colin is a very dashing and stylish vampire from Meljean Brook's wonderful Demon Moon. The Ancient is a monstery vampire progenitor from Lara Adrian's fabulous Midnight Breed series.

Are you guys reading the Midnight Breed series? The new one, Veil of Midnight is coming out on December 30 and I can't wait!

Robin Hood debacle
Okay, I SO wanted to like the Robin Hood series! I mean, Richard Armitage is in it! But my husband and I rented the first disc from Netflix, and watched two episodes and OMG, what is up with that guy who plays Robin Hood? He is smirking and smiling the whole time...uh! He ruins the whole show.

By the end of the second episode, I wanted him to hang more than the sheriff did. Does anybody else feel that way? I mean, the guy who plays the sheriff is just wonderful, and of course Richard. But honestly, that Robin makes the show unwatchable for us. We spent a lot of time fantasizing about other actors  playing Robin. Our preference would be the guy who plays Spike on Buffy. Even though he's probably too old now.

www.myembarrassingwebsite.com
Well, I have been working on making an author website for me and my series, the Disillusionists, for like three months. I bought a guide to HTML, I've been lovingly fashioning images, writing and rewriting text, teaching myself these shareware website-making and uploading programs, soliciting advice from my husband's former high school students.

Finally, last night I had it all set and I was like, I'm going live! And when I put it up, oh, it was so insane looking. I won't even give you the url even for a laugh, though I considered it. But I do have some pride. I wanted to start crying. Thanks to the economy, my professional life is in a shambles and I'm severely broke, so I'm not really in a position to hire somebody who actually knows what they are doing, but I may do that now. I got the idea to hire somebody off elance to fix my code and stuff...but oh, I feel so close to having it right! That's the tragedy.

I woke up at 5 am this morning thinking the problem was in a way I arranged the files, and I thought about it for like a half hour, and then I realized it wasn't and went back to sleep. Why am I posting this sad story?

I let down my neighborhood birds.
I'm sorry birds! Please come back! I didn't mean to let the feeder go empty for a week. But now it is full of yummy seeds. Please come back! The cats and I miss you so much.

UPDATE: Wow, I am making progress on my site!  I just have to fix some links and images. It seems like magic that it is actually partly up.   

Holiday gift exchange in Romancelandia #5

Wow! The holiday gift exchange between heroes, heroines and villains of our favorite books (or actually, my favorite books) continues.


*Full disclosure: Actually, I never finished the Tairen Soul one, because I was so annoyed the Rain couldn't control his emotions - it seemed like he was flipping out ALL the time! *ducks* But I know it is a great favorite of many readers I respect. Please Kati, don't make me read that one! Or you either, KB. Did he get over his temper problem?

Holiday gift exchange in Romancelandia #4

Wow, More characters exchanging gifts this holiday. How thoughtful...


Also, I wanted to show this beautiful book thong that Jace of Jace Scribbles made. I love it so much!! That sort of magenta/pink is one of my favorite colors.

You can see this sort of thing, plus origami, on Jace's craft blog.

It was also very exciting to just have something come in the mail fr0m Malaysia! Thanks Jace.

Jace's creation is pictured on a giant fuzzy fake fur winter coat that the cats have unfortunately commandeered. You can't tell, but the cat pictured is a bit angry at being displaced.

I sort of like winter, but the worst part of winter for me is getting in cold cars and waiting for them to warm up (probably not a problem for you, Jace!) and this outrageously giant coat is perfect for that because it is like a snugly blanket. I sort of don't know what to do about the coat, because the kitties love it!

Anyway, cold cars, cat fur-covered coats. But now I have a sparkly bookmark. Maybe I will stay in and read all winter.

Oh and I just finished Dirty! I should write about it soon.

Holiday gift exchange in Romancelandia #3

Wow! the characters are really giving each other some great presents this year.

Holiday gift exchange in Romancelandia #2, news & a question

What are our favorite characters giving each other for Christmas this year? As usual, Thrillionth page has the scoop, every day until Christmas.

News & question:
The Cynthia Eden Contest runs until midnight TONIGHT! Click to go to her site. The prizes are fabulous. I'm totally going to get her first two books, because I'm sucker for detective paranormals like this.

Smugglivus countdown is here! The Book Smugglers are hosting an incredible blow-out month of interviews, guest posts and giveaways. Today is Meredith Duran talking about her favorite books of 2008, books she's looking forward to, and what we can expect from her this year. Yesterday was Maria V. Snyder, and tomorrow is Loretta Chase! Did these girls make a deal with Teqon?

Antholopalooza is here & QUESTION: Nicola is hosting a month-long focus on anthologies. Like me, she is not much of an anthology reader. Anyway, she has invited me be a guest review. (There are also slots to sign up as a guest. Go for it!) Anyway, I need suggestions! What anthology should I check out? Oh, and I now have an ereader, so I'm not limited to print.

Samhain contest: Take a look at my sidebar - Angie at Samhain is having a major contest. Visit every day to win.

BIG NEWS: in what is shaping up as the publishing event of the year, The Italian Gourmet-Baby-Food Baron’s Ironically Pregnant Virgin Mistress is set to be released in serial form starting December 15th, with the first chapter right here! Check back for details.