Some additional thoughts on Kristin Maschka’s book about motherhood.

I don’t normally read self-help type books, or advice books, or indeed generally any sort of non-fiction other than in very narrow fields such as Egyptology and Classical Studies. So, when my mother gave me a book on motherhood that she’d found in a bargain-bin, I sort of shrugged and smiled internally, and figured I would never finish reading it. But in order to not appear ungrateful, I sat down and began to read the first few pages of Mashka’s book This Is Not How I Thought it Would Be: Remodeling Motherhood to get the Lives we Want Today. The tone of Mashka’s prose is conversational, rather like a chat with a friend over coffee, but at the same time she raises important questions about motherhood, fatherhood and social pressures.
continue reading "“This Is Not How I Thought it Would Be”"

Erotic Romance novel by Scarlett Parrish

Upon looking back over my blog a while ago, I realized that while I have a character interview with the love interest from Scarlett Parrish‘s erotic romance novel, By the Book, somehow I managed to not yet post my thoughts on the book itself. First, of course, the usual disclaimer that Scarlett is a dear friend and I beta’ed this particular book extensively (I’m even mentioned in the acknowledgements as Lia Booke). That being said, I can sum up my review for the book thusly:

Buy it, read it, love it. That is all.

…No? Not enough? Alright, well perhaps I ought to write a little more about the actual plot of the story and character development and such. I’ll put it all below the cut of course, for those of you who don’t want spoilers.
continue reading "“By the Book”"

What the Goodreads statistics say I like to read.

Back at the beginning of the year (wow, six months ago already) I mentioned that I was making a Goodreads account to keep track of what I read and/or wanted to read this year. I’ve been keeping up with it fairly well, except for a brief period in the last couple of months when I abandoned the internet almost entirely. I’ve unfortunately missed some of the books I read during that period (couldn’t remember everything I’d read) but it is still a pretty good indicator of what I’ve been reading this year.
continue reading "Goodreads Statistics"

Too bad he didn’t have one.

If you pay any attention to my “Currently Reading” status at the bottom of each post, you may have noticed a succession of Shakespearean plays lately. I recently acquired (read: shamelessly stole from my cousin) my late grandmother’s Complete Works (edited by G. B. Harrison) and have been reading through several of the plays that I haven’t read yet. However, I’ve also been reading about the plays themselves, when they were published and what their first printing looked like etc, which is even more interesting than the plays themselves sometimes.
continue reading "Even Shakespeare Needed an Editor"

If you don’t know what Girl Genius is yet, shame on you.

Yes that’s right. Today is officially Girl Genius Day. I’ve mentioned before how much I love the webcomic Girl Genius, and how it started my interest in steampunk. It is an amazing comic about a girl, her adventures, and the crazy things she does with bits of clockwork, especially in her castle. It originally came out in comic-book format. The emergence of webcomics as a dominant form of comic apparently then influenced them to create a web-version as well. Naturally this means the archives are huge, but entirely worth reading through from the beginning.

Now, the reason today is Girl Genius Day is they recently wrote a novelized version of the comic called Agatha H and the Airship City. It is now available on Amazon.com and other retailers. I firmly believe in supporting my favorite artists in any way possible, so go buy the book (or the comic if you prefer) and help celebrate Girl Genius Day!

As for me, I’m going to spend this afternoon upping my daily word-count again. I rather think working on TBG is in order.

Currently Reading: By the Book by Scarlett Parrish

Daniel Cross, from By the Book.

Sunday I hinted at a surprise for today’s post. I am very pleased to announce that Crossbones, the Daniel Cross Official Fanclub scored an exclusive release-day interview with the aforesaid Daniel. He stars prominently in Scarlett Parrish’s excellent new release, By The Book. An erotic romance with plenty of snark and wit, I highly recommend it as a fast enjoyable read. But mostly you should read it for the Daniel. Hot, intelligent, and brash, he steals the story.

Excitingly, he is here to talk with us today! So without further ado, a transcript of my interview with him. Be warned, Daniel is a thoroughly spicy character, so if you are easily offended, please do not click through.
continue reading "Character Interview"