Tag: books

Stitch Reads Smolder (Anita Blake #29) – Chapters 25-28

StitchLeave a comment

How do I convince Laurell K Hamilton that it’s okay to use “naughty” language that’s also direct?

I know I keep complaining about this for ages, but how can I refrain when the first part of Chapter 25 has Anita noting that in heels, she’s tall enough that she and Richard’s hips are pressed against each other and “the soft mound of his body lay warm and solid against [her].”

Again, that’s his dick, he’s got the beginnings of an erection, and everyone – writer and characters alike – is too old to resort to blurry vagueness around genitals that should be colliding momentarily.

Read More »

Stitch’s Stuff: December 5th and 6th – Books 

Stitch1 Comment

IMG_20171129_173324-COLLAGE

I’m smushing the 5th and 6th together so I don’t mess up my blogging goals for December too badly.

 

2017 was a really good year for me book wise.

As in I bought a lot of books.

I’m really good at sales.  I mean, if there’s a book I want on sale, chances are that I’ll find it. Couple that with our on-campus Barnes and Noble and the fact that I’ve made bargain bin diving a hobby and well… I’ve bought a bunch of books.

2017 was also the year that I started seriously preordering books in order to support my favorite writers.  I have minor memory issues so if you don’t remind me repeatedly to do something, I straight up won’t do it. I’ll think about it every once in a while, very fondly even, but my brain needs active reminders or… in the case of book pre-orders, it needs choice taken out of my hands.Read More »

“Period Typical Racism” – One kind of historical accuracy in fiction that I wish would go away

Stitch3 Comments

Want to throw me out of a story in no time flat?

Include “Period Typical Racism” in a book written after 1989.

(Seriously, I read one Miss Fisher book because it was recommended as a “feminist James Bond” and honestly, I’d’ve preferred to read Fleming’s James Bond books because at least I can go into them knowing that the guy was a racist misogynist.)

The thing about looking at and reinventing older genres like Noir and Gothic fiction, is that you have a duty to reinvent, not rely, on harmful tropes. It’s your job as a writer writing in the twenty-first century to take our century into context. It’s your job to look at what was written years ago and go “no, I won’t do that”.

It’s your job to be better than the writers who were working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Read More »

When Amazon gift cards attack

Stitch

book splurgeA few weeks ago I won a $25 gift card through a program I’m running on my computer. It’s a little thing and not a big deal. I completely forgot about it though until yesterday afternoon when I got mail and there was my gift card.

$25 can buy a lot of books so it’s no wonder that I have spent the past 24 hours trying to figure out what books I was going to buy. Finally, I settled on four books that came up to $27 (including like tax and stuff). I’m a little over my gift card’s limit but essentially I’m getting four awesome books on someone else’s dime (and supporting authors I LOVE in the process!)

Here’s what I got with my hard earned gift card because these are all amazing books that everyone should read:

Read More »