Dear Keri Arthur:

A Fan Letter
I seriously cannot wait for Moon Sworn tomorrow. You are officially my current favorite author-- I've torn through all the Riley Jenson books up until this point, haunting the bookstores for back issues, losing sleep, dreaming of strange beings and super powers, missing bus stops*, and accidentally buying duplicate copies of titles.

You've got me all shook up, Ms. Arthur, and it's rare that an author steps outside the bounds of my reading time to occupy my thoughts during random "real life" moments. Riley has the perfect character balance between "special, outrageous, extraordinary" and the everywoman, relate-able quality. Yes, I know that's contradictory. That's why it's so hard to do, and so rare to find.

I'm also a sucker for well-done folklore and mythology. Of course, by "well-done" I mean, "done in a way that I particularly-- and completely subjectively-- really like." I like the way you combine legends that I know a bit about with the more obscure ones-- you've got everything from ghosts and vampires, to judeo-christian-esque demons and that cat thing, whattaya call it, bakeneko . Not to mention a lovely, series-wide sub-theme about power and how it plays out in different times, different populations, and with different paranormal twists. It's done with both familiarity and respect to tradition as well as ingenious originality. I know, contradictory again.

And the thing is, I'm first and foremost a romance fan. And these aren't really romances. But the series-long romantic arc is so enjoyable. I love the way you separate sex and love for your characters -- they are related of course, but they're NOT the same, and I love that your characters don't fall prey to the Magic Hoo-Hoo/Curse of the Bad Wang** syndrome. I haven't read Moon Sworn yet (not on the lucky review copy list) but I can say that I was STUNNED by the series romance plot turn in Bound by Shadows and cannot wait to see how you resolve Riley's conundrum. Treated as a whole-- assuming that Moon Sworn delivers (and word is, it does) -- the series is a wonderful romance.

Thanks much to Kassa for the idea of the awesome Author Fan Letter Crawl. I chose Keri Arthur for two reasons -- one, Moon Sworn is my MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK in more than a year; and two, I can't really write a review, because I really do try for at least a little objectivity in my reviews... and I can't be objective when I'm MADLY IN LOVE with an author.

So in conclusion,

Keri Arthur, I am MADLY IN LOVE with you and-- thank you so much for providing so many hours of superior entertainment. Your work is fabulous and amazing and sets a bar to which other UF writers should aspire.

Love,

Nicola O.


___
*not literally true -- but close; very close.
**The Smart Bitches develop this concept more in their book, but essentially it's the idea that the heroine is physiologically incapable of having really good sex unless it's with the Hero of the story, ergo, any sex that the heroine may have had prior to meeting said Hero must suffer from Bad Wang.


Please visit Althea tomorrow for the next letter in the crawl. If you missed Stacy's yesterday, head on over to her tribute to Shiloh Walker. And please stop by Kassa's place to get the complete list of participants and to thank her for having such a great idea.

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 15

Wow, really? I haven't done a T-13 since JULY?? Jeez, what a slacker.

Anyway, I have up for your T-13 pleasure today my favorite kind of T-13: a list of blogs you should check out. These are all book blogs; most of them have a romance aspect though not all are strictly focused on romance books.

1. Book Junkie
2. Penelope’s Romance Reviews
3. Bodice Ripper Reviews
4. Romance Reviews By Alice -Insightful, honest, articulate – a new fave blogger.
5. Galaxy Express - The scoop on the hot Science Fiction Romance subgenre
6. Renee’s Book Addiction
7. Rosario reads a wider variety of fiction and non-fiction than I do, but it’s still pretty heavy on romance and she agrees with me a lot of the time so she must be smart. ;-)
8. Bibliophile Musings - A mix of all kinds of fiction, but plenty of romance included.
9. Love Romance Passion - lots going on here, with tons of guest bloggers.
10. Marg is a regular here (hi Marg!) and has a fun blog with a variety of fiction – plenty of romance with a lot of straight historical fiction mixed in.
11. Night Time Romance Reviews - Erotica and PNR. I confess I find this one a little bit hard to read with the scrolling background, but it’s good content.
12. Fantasy Girl Reviews - All kinds of romance reviews, heavy on the UF/PNR.
13. Caffey’s Reads

Visit the Thursday Thirteen site here.
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Ketchup Post

Just a Little Catching Up

First off, a reminder to comment and link for entries into my Naamah's Kiss giveaway. I have 5 books and 7 commenters at the moment, so your odds are darned good. Deadline is midnight Pacific time June 23rd. The SciFiGuy also reviewed NK and will be interviewing Carey tomorrow. He's giving away books too.

I didn't find very many blog reviews up on NK right now - I suspect the length is daunting for a lot of readers. Here are a couple:

A Reading Odyssey
Blog, Jvstin Style



Do You Like Carnivals?

You may have notice that I am inconsistent at best when it comes to meme participation. I manage the Thursday Thirteen every now and then, and the occasionally Weekly Geek challenge, but to be honest, this blog is something I do for fun, and I refuse to feel obligated to post something on a weekly basis, whether I have something to say or not. Partly because that's totally not fun, and partly in defense of you, gentle reader. Why would you have fun reading something that I didn't have fun writing? So I meme when the spirit moves me and when the topic is relevant to Alpha Heroes' focus. However, what's really nice for me is that other people do a lot of work to keep the carnival going so that it IS there when I decide to jump in with my two cents.

So I'd sure appreciate it if you'd check out the Bookworm Carnival, which runs twice a month and features themed book reviews. The current episode features paranomal fiction of all kinds, which is a good fit for Alpha Heroes, but there are themes around all kinds of topics, from parenting books, to historical novels, to banned books to rebellious women. Check it out, and if you can't find something you love, sign up to host one yourself! You can always check the main page or upcoming attractions to find out what's going on, or try the latest thing and sign up for the Bookworm Carnival Facebook Fan Page.


More on Lucy Burns

If my review of The Sinful Life of LB last week piqued your interest, be sure to stop by Literary Escapism on July 7, where Jackie will have an interview with the author, Elizabeth Leiknes. Around the blogosphere, more reviews are turning up:

Bookwormom
Wendy's Minding Spot
The Good, The Bad, and The Unread
Chick Lit Reviews and News
And finally, wow, I'd sure like to be Janet when I grow up: Dear Author
Late-breaking review today at Book Smugglers

Gettin' Around

Jessica is such a doll. She's writing about me over at Read React Review.

If you haven't been reading her blog, you really ought to.

And don't worry, she usually picks more interesting stuff to write about.

Weekly Geeks 2009-12

To be honest, I'm not sure I qualify as a Weekly Geek. I pick and choose which of the challenges I want to do, and sometimes I bend them a bit to fit Alpha Heroes' niche. This is one of those weeks.

At some point last year, I noticed that Jackie was including a list of links to other reviews on some of her posts. I thought that was a really good idea. I followed her links, found other blogs, enjoyed multiple points of view on the same book. When I'm doing a single-title review, and when I remember, I do a blog-google on the title I'm reviewing and post links to reviews that I think are relevant. I've found some good blogs this way, and I think it adds value for my readers.

It turns out that the bright idea came from a 2008 Weekly Geek challenge, and it's been brought back for this week. WGs are challenged to sift through each others' blogs, looking for reviews that we have in common, and adding cross-links.

Which is a pretty good idea, in theory. But there are a lot of Weekly Geeks and not that many of them are romance-oriented. So what I've done is to check my last couple of reviews and update them with links found via google (see Lady Anne, Dogs and Goddesses, and White Witch, Black Curse), and also add a note to my sidebar inviting fellow-bloggers to leave their links. I've done this in specific posts but I haven't gotten much in the way of results so far. I'll work on checking out the WG archives.

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 7

13 BOOK BLOGS TO CHECK OUT

Oh, and don't forget to throw in for the Kresley Cole Giveaway -- deadline is noon tomorrow PST.

These are blogs that are either new to me, or I’ve been meaning to add to my blogroll for awhile. Check them out, I think there’s something here for everyone: 1. A Blog of Books Book Maniac writes very organized reviews for every kind of book you can think of. 2. Stumbling Over Chaos - Cats, LOLCats, knitting… and books. This is a woman who reads WHILE she knits—that’s dedication! Click on the “Reading” tag to find short, pithy reviews by the batch. 3. Lurv A La Mode Oh, everybody knows KMont, right? I’ve been to Lurv more than once but somehow never added it into my regular routine. Why? Apparently I haz teh dum, that’s why. 4. The Good, The Bad, and the Unread I kind of don't get the duck thing, but the reviews are good. Confession: I have had this blog confused with Good Books, Bad Books, and Every Book In Between. I, um, didn’t realize there were two. To continue with the dum theme. 5. The Book Girl: Lots of contemp reviews and a lovely, serene template. 6. Hey Lady, Whatcha Reading? I met Trish at BookBlogs.ning-- she’s AWESOME, and incredibly generous with tips and advice about blogging. 7. Lizzie, By The Book. From Proust to Plum. Makes me dizzy in a good way. 8. She Reads and Reads: Avisannschild does a ton of memes, interviews, and challenges – fun stuff. And I love the blog name, don’t you? 9. Moonlight to Twilight: Ms. Moonlight writes very thorough and spoilerrific reviews (she has a prominently placed warning) so go here when you want to dish about a book you’ve both read. 10. The Ginger Kid I have a confession. JenB’s blog is not new to me, but I have kept her out of my blogroll because she’s just so delightfully dirty. I know you are all shocked to hear this, but I daily on very rare occasion cruise my blogroll from work, and I could never remember to save The Ginger Kid until I got home. Click with caution (but do click). 11. For The Love of Books MariDarling is passionate about books, and finds time to read and blog on a student’s busy schedule. And her template is gorgeous. 12. Book Binge: A really popular review blog that I want to check out more often. 13. The Book Smugglers: Ditto.

The New Thursday Thirteen Site


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Bad Memer

From Jackie	From Book Maniac	From Jackie and Medical Librarian	From Jackie

And the latest, from Ciara didn't have a button, but if I were good with p-shop, I'd whip one up that combines images of books, Starbucks, chocolate, and a computer. Heh.

As Ann Landers used to say, forty lashes with a wet noodle for me.

I’m very lucky to have several friends out in the blogosphere who have “adopted” me and helped get the word out about Alpha Heroes. A year ago, I had no idea what a blog meme was. Now, I sort of have a backlog to deal with. I’m going to use the holiday bustle as an excuse. (Is it working?)

I mean, some of these involve effort. For the Six Values one. I started to write my post for it, but it turned into “Six Things People Should Do/Be AND WHY THIS CERTAIN PERSON IN MY LIFE WHO DOESN’T/ISN’T IS DRIVING ME BATSHIT CRAZY RIGHT NOW” …

<deep breath>… and let’s face it, no one wants to read that. The process of letting that post cool off ended up in more than a month of procrastination.

Then other awards/memes came along but I didn’t want to respond until I had that first one taken care of, and, well, now here we are.

I see these awards as less about how great Alpha Heroes is and more about how loyal these friends are. So, Ciara, and Jackie, and Book Maniac, you have my sincerest appreciation and admiration. And I’m going to knock out all these memes in one go.

Being me, I’m going to put a little bit different spin on it. Most of the blogs I love and read regularly are linked in my sidebar, and thanks to my procrastination, most of them have already received and passed along these awards. Every day I get more and more enjoyment out of the strengthening bonds and friendships in this little blog circle, but now and then I feel the need to expand my boundaries. So my pledge, as the recipient of these lovely awards, is to do a new Thursday Thirteen tomorrow with a list of new(ish)-to-me book blogs. Some of them are fairly new and I know their authors will appreciate you stopping by and leaving a word or two of encouragement. I’ll also be updating my blog roll over the next few days.

In this way, I hope I’m “paying forward” a little bit of the support I’ve received, especially from Ciara and Jackie.

Lazy Post: Other People's Reviews

Some recent anthology reviews around the blogosphere:

Holiday Seduction

Homespun Regency Christmas

The Magical Christmas Cat

The Vampire Who Stole Christmas” in Holiday with a Vampire II (interview with author Lori Devoti, not a review)

Mysteria Lane

To All a Good Night

Snowy Night With a Stranger

Snowy Night With a Stranger

Gotta Whole Lotta Love

Mostly we blog for ourselves, right? The satisfaction of expressing ourselves, whether it's about politics, art, the cute thing your kid did this morning, a personal struggle or journey... there are a million different reasons to blog... but it feels awfully lonesome without some feedback. Finding out that other people appreciate what you have to say, whether you've touched them, or informed them or made them laugh-- well, it's heady stuff. So getting an "I Love Your Blog" tag is the kind of thing that can make a blogger's day.

I'm a little late getting in on this meme-- it's already made the rounds to a lot of my favorites. So I'm going with a few here that are kind of new, because it means so much to me as a blogger to know people are reading, and it was an even bigger deal when I first started.


Here are the rules:

Add the logo of the award to your blog
Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
Nominate at least 7 other blogs
Add links to those blogs on your blog
Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs!

My nominees are:

1. The Hairrorist: A brand new blog by a smart, witty friend of mine.
2. Sayuri at Book Pron: New location and focus for an experienced blogger
3. J. Kaye's Book Blog: The hardest-working book blogger in the business. There's always something new going up on her site! She doesn't need any traffic help from me, but I do love that blog.
4. Daz at 99daz.com : The metaphysics of art. Or the art of metaphysics. Or something like that.
5. Laura at Edgy June Cleaver: Mmmmm, that new-blog smell.

That's all I've got this time.

I've Been Tagged! Banned Book Week Meme

How many have YOU read?

Celebrating Banned Book Week 2008, here is the ALA's list of the 100 most frequently challenged books from 1990 through 2000.

How to Play:

1: Copy this list.
2: Highlight the ones you have read (or at least remember reading) in RED.
3: Tag five people to play.

The List:

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling (well, part of it anyway)
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna
20. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (just bought this one for my daughter!)
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (does it count if I saw the movie?)
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Total: 21

I'll go one step further: I will commit to reading at least 10 more books off this list before Banned Books Week of 2009. Anyone care to join me?

TAG YOU’RE IT:

Jackie, at Literary Escapism
Shannon, at What Women Read
Betsy, at The Dog's Pajamas
Susan, at Seaside Book Worm Blogger
Ms. Bitchpants, at Bitchpants: Activate!

Come back and leave a comment with a link if you choose to participate!

Book Blogger Appreciation Week, Sept. 15-19

Found this via CiaraLira. If you're looking for new blogs to read, it looks like Amy is going to be putting together an extensive index. She already has a huge list in her sidebar; at a glance, it looks like there is something for everyone.

Check it out.

.

Long Overdue

It doesn't take long to get addicted to blogging -- reading, writing, and perhaps the most fun, following link to link from one interesting place to another to another to another, in the classic Give A Mouse a Cookie style. You can find yourself in some pretty amazing places in this manner if you have some time to kill.

Several people have been kind enough to place links to Alpha Heroes on their blogs, and it's past time that I returned the favor, and maybe pay a couple of them forward. I've already posted the links in the sidebar, and here's a little more info on each one:

Ciaralira: possibly the best alignment with mine. Ciara & I both read a lot of everything. Bonus: you get to check out her photos from her recent Ireland trip. <drool>

Literary Escapism: dive deep into the world of paranormal and urban fantasy romance. Jackie knows her stuff.

Paperback Writer: Lynn Viehl's blog. I'm not going to list the blogs of all the authors I follow -- I can't read them all anyway, but this one is different. Viehl blogs about writing, about books she loves, about blogging, and about e-publishing. It's fun and fresh and if you like her books, she offers some nice freebies on a regular basis.

Reader, I Married Him: brand new and promising, an academic take on the social themes and attitudes reflected in genre romance. I absolutely loved her first substantive post on masculinity and chivalry (and any fan of the Flight of the Conchords is alright by me).

Teach Me Tonight: I have to admit, this one is sort of on probation with me. I discovered it in late February and loved what I saw, but lately it's been less interesting to me. The recent post (April 27) promising to discuss genre & sexuality devolved so deeply into academic babble that eventually it didn't even seem like English to me. I'm also a little disappointed to discover the dialog in comments to be pretty cliquish. Still, there've been some great posts in the past so I'm hoping it's just a down phase that they'll come back out of. This is kind of a stressed out time of year for academic types, I guess.
___________________________________________________

The Biggies: I'm not linking these in the sidebar because I think everyone knows about them, but just in case you don't, check out:

Dear Author
Beyond Her Book - Barbara Vey at Publisher's Weekly
Romancing the Blog
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
All About Romance (And yes, I kind of stole the idea for my header graphic from here. My photo is one that *I* actually took though, and I'm pretty proud of it. )
___________________________________________________

When I'm not reading, working or wrangling my kids, a lot of the time I'm crafting. I'm big into scrapbooks, quilting, and cross-stitch. Between that and my artist husband, there are a number of art-craft blogs that I follow:

Mechronomicon Creepy, scary digital art. Yeah, I married the guy.

Daz Cox's Art Blog Darren is a re-connected high school friend, the crush that never was. He's got some amazing stuff up here.

Hoola Tallulah Hoola is living a life I fantasize about -- she moved her family to rural France and spends her time raising veggies & small livestock and making adorable crafty things. I'm sure I wouldn't last a week in her place, but it looks and sounds completely idyllic.

Doodleblog: an amazing, amazing quilter.
___________________________________________________

Then there are folks that are just plain interesting to read, whatever they choose to write about:

The Dog's Pajamas O'Donovan reeled me in with this blog last year when she promised a post per day. That pledge ended at New Years', so now all us poor addicts limp along, waiting for her pearls. She is also a co-blogger here at Alpha Heroes upon occasion. (My Lynn Viehl addiction is totally her fault).

Half an Acre A friend's musings about life as a grad student.

Poor Richard's Daughter Sometimes funny, sometimes poignant. Hard to describe but well worth the read.

Last but not least, if you are in the Chicago or central Illinois area and love jazz vocals, check out Stephanie.

The Academics of Romance

One of these days, I will get around to constructing a "blogroll," or a list of other blogs that I read. In the meantime, if you like the idea of an academic or literary approach to the romance genre, check out Teach Me Tonight.

I'm fascinated.

Apologies in Advance

So, I’m kind of new to blogging. And I’m finding myself completely obsessed with my site statistics. In a shameless bid for more site hits, I recently joined a “swap” strictly for the purpose of finding fun blogs and getting more hits.

Believe it or not, I do have a few other interests outside of romance novels. Swap-bot is kind of a fun way to break out of comfortable habits, check out other crafters and artists, and a good excuse to spend a lot of time in craft stores (and hey, my favorite shopping center has a huge JoAnn’s, a Half-Price Books, a Barnes & Noble and a Starbucks. It feeds all of my addictions.)

Anyway, here are a few blogs you might enjoy checking out. They aren’t about romance, but they are about some seriously talented people:

Arm in Snow, Legs in Sea
Paper Kitty
Faccia Bella
Hoola Tallulah
Rogue Knits
The Adventures of Gladys Quimby
The In's and Out's of Missslady
A Fancy Glass
An Inch At A Time
WeBeesBuzz

Now, back to romance.