Ciara Scoops Me

I went to the same RWA event that Ciara debriefs in her post yesterday. I've said before that she and I share much the same taste, and apparently that extends to the kind of things that get us excited about the genre. She zeroed in on almost exactly the same comments from Jayne Ann Krentz a/k/a Jayne Castle a/k/a Amanda Quick that I did. Still, I can't resist editorializing a little bit, so I'm going to cover the same ground here anyway.

Slightly paraphrased, Ms. Castle (her birthname, but probably her least known penname) made a statement that just stunned me: Popular fiction, especially romance, is rooted in the ancient heroic epics -- why did I never see that before? Of course it is. It's all about the hero, baby.

More so, it's about values. Popular fiction, Castle maintains, values ancient heroic virtues of courage, honor, integrity, and love. These kind of tales have been popular throughout history because, among other things, they have enormous survival value -- I have to admit, I never thought of it in these terms before, but yes! Although often dismissed as "escapism," which implies cowardice or an unwillingness to face reality, happily-ever-after books promote optimism.

She boils down contemporary literary fiction as deriving from modern psychology, existential philosophy, political theory [and some other stuff!], in a "masculine style that abhors sentimentality and strong emotion."

Castle says further, we need both kinds of literature in our lives, but which we prefer has more to do with our values and beliefs than our intelligence or education.

*wild applause*

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.

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.
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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. )
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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.
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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.