Vixenwriter

It’s Banned Books Week and so I’ll be having that theme all week long. I love books. Books took me places I’d never imagined as a child, they still do today. I’m so lucky to be able to write them and even luckier that people want to read them. My books contain sexual themes and other themes that can be controversial like witchcraft and other paranormal storylines. The freedom to think and feel what you wish is also the freedom to let others do so. Censorship takes that freedom away and makes the censor the person in control of what you or I think, feel and read. That isn’t what this country is about. There are lots of things I don’t like or agree with. I don’t read those books. It’s a simple thing really.

The American Library Association holds Banned Books Week every year in the last week of September. This is their twenty fifth year doing this.

How can you fight censorship and keep books available at your library? The ALA has a great list of things here at their website.

BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.

A worthy celebration, no?

The top 10 most challenged books for 2005 were:

The “10 Most Challenged Books of 2005” reflect a range of themes. The books are:

Yep, here at last. I feel better today although the sore throat remains. Still, my brain is unfogged and I’m almost done with the last touches on my Stripped revisions for my agent. What I love is how just a few sentences here and there can change the feel of an entire book. I love that careful, small manipulation.

I’ve been listening to She Wants Revenge as I’ve been working. One of my favorite songs on the CD is Tear You Apart and the chorus goes:

I love that! I love the entire CD. I love that they sound like Interpol and are so very 80’s but have that very sexy edge and a whole lot of D/s lyrical references too.

I’m off to do some book shopping in a bit. I want this book very much!

To those celebrating new year today

L’shana tova!

The dreaded crud that’s been infecting my immune system is lessening its grip and I’m beginning to feel remotely human again. I could even track when I was catching up on email today so I hope that’s a good sign.

I’m in a mood. I don’t know why. I love this time of year, I’m starting to feel better but I’m having one of those “Oh god, what if I never sell to NY” sort of days. I’m generally a confident person but this is different from all the other things I’ve ever done. Sigh. Luckily, I have so much work to catch up on this weekend I won’t have time to wallow.

I did notice that Giving Chase is already on store shelves at several Borders in my area. This is very cool! I’m anxious to see how it does out there.

Got an early review for Reluctant from Joyfully Reviewed! Talia says in part: Reluctant was naughty to read and I relished every word. I have to say that I simply am head over heels in love with Lauren Dane’s werewolves and I can’t wait for the next book of this series!

And one from Riley’s Reviews for A Touch of Fae! She gives it 4 1/2 books and says in part: The chemistry between Em and Con is explosive and explicit (duh, it’s an Ellora’s Cave book!). No less compelling, though, is their emotional connection—the way they stand with each other against any and all opposition, whether from their own families, the fae court, or the bad guys, is beautiful and seamless. So too is the touching way Em learns to have faith in Con, the one man in the world she can’t read with her skills.
…
this book was just about perfect: great sex, clear emotion, and a coherent plot. Lauren Dane clearly recognizes that erotica can do more than just titillate. I also give her kudos for not lining up her sequel characters like ducks in a carnival game. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m so tired of opening a new book and seeing X number of siblings and realizing that they are all sequel fodder. In the case of the Charvez family, I know there are more books, but it’s not obvious who the leads are, and in my current contrary mood, that suits me just fine.

One final comment: the way Em revived Con? Priceless. *g*

TJ Michaels and I are over at the EC Readerchat Board today doing a List Mom day! Come on over to hang out and get a sneak peek at some of the fabulous Autumn Animalia Releases!

I didn’t start reading romance on a regular basis until I was in my 30s. And even then not so regularly that I would have said it made up more than 10% of my overall reading. It wasn’t until about five years ago that I began to read it more often.

Since then, of course I started writing it and became immersed in a world I never knew existed. Most of the time, it’s a world I love. Romance readers are the best. My readers are the best. Truly loyal, wonderful friends and neighbors who I’ve been so touched and surprised by.

At the same time, there are those in the community who are not good neighbors. While most readers (across genres) can seem to understand the basics of “if you don’t like it, don’t read it” there seems to be a push in romance right now to not only not read it for themselves but to make sure I can’t read it.

I’m not just talking about the Jan Butlers of the world who seek to slam the doors on romance to those people she doesn’t approve of. I’m talking about the people who loudly proclaim that erotic romance is singlehandedly responsible for the denegration of that greatly respected genre - romance (and probably the bird flu and cellulite too).

Let’s get a few things straight: Romance has never been a “greatly respected genre.” I’m sorry but that’s the truth. Doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be respected. But it isn’t. As is true with most things that are run and controlled by women, romance has not been respected. Romance novels have been the butt of jokes forever and a day. Romance novelists have been portrayed as flamboyant women in their seventies wearing feather boas or “frustrated housewives” - (and hello, have you been a housewife? It’s a very frustrating and thankless job dumbass, of course they’re frustrated).

Moreover, the increasing popularity of erotic romance has nothing to do with the “respect” for romance. Seriously people, how could it? To state that would be saying that women who like to read about sex in their romance are bad and wrong and immoral. And well, if you say that, I disagree with you and wish you’d get over your issues already.

Should women be ashamed of their sexuality? Is sexuality something completely separate from love and connection? To those tens of thousands of readers who buy erotic romance AS WELL as sensual romance and sweet romance - making statements about how their reading preference is “the death of the genre” is balderdash and well, stupid. Yes, that’s right, I said it’s stupid.

There are a lot of different people in the world in case folks hadn’t noticed. There are subgenres of romance I don’t like and I don’t read. But I don’t spend my days at messageboards whining about how they’re the death of romance. I just don’t read them. And I wish the authors of said genres lots of sales because I get what those who take the opposite perspective miss - readers of romance have varied tastes. I’m darned thankful they like what I write and I wouldn’t insult them or their intelligence by telling them that they can only like what I write or they’re dirty/bad/wrong.

It seems to come as a big shock to people that others have opinions counter to their own. Why this is, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s because my opinion is almost always in the minority that I understand it so well. And hey, if every time you walk into Borders you clap your hands over your eyes when you see the EC books and cry, “Won’t somebody think of the children!” more power to you. You have every right to think what I write is the downfall of modern civilization. You have every right to talk about it on your blog and weep into your tea. That’s the basis of not only the first amendment but the cornerstone of our culture as Americans. The flip side is that I get to say what I think and to work as hard as I can to be sure your brand of “if I don’t like it you can’t either” doesn’t go so far that it ends up pushing other voices out of the genre.

Romance is in the eye of the beholder. Suck it up already. You can’t control what other people think. Pandora’s box is open, erotic romance is not only out in the marketplace, readers like it. Not all readers, but by a hell of a lot of them. And they happen to think erotic romance is romance. If you don’t, feel free to stroll on by the erotic selections to something else. There’s plenty of choice there on your bookstore shelf. The presence of an erotic romance on the shelf does not malign the entire genre, such a comment is absurdly stupid and defies logic. The fact is - you don’t like it. Again, I say suck it up. I don’t like men who wear sandals with socks but they do for whatever inexplicable reason. I just try to pretend they don’t exist and that’s what you should do too.

Today Giving Chase is available in paper from Borders, Waldenbooks and independent stores like Paperbacks N’ Things in Westland, Michigan. You can also order it online through Amazon and Barnes and Noble!

You can read an excerpt at the Giving Chase page here at my website and also see some of the reviews.

Oh and I want to kill my radio for playing that awful London Bridge song 450 times a day, no matter the channel. This must stop.

Okay folks, if you say, go to buy a copy of Giving Chase at Samhain and say, click the link to find a page with “product not found” on it, don’t panic. I’m doing that enough for you. I’ve sent emails to several people to find out the source of the problem and hopefully to get it fixed.

Edit - they’re on it and working to fix it. I have to say how refreshing it is to get an answer back so fast on a problem.

Donna, Crissy and Angie rock. It’s fixed now, not even two hours since I discovered the problem.

As loath as I am to admit this, I actually watched an entire season of America’s Next Top Model this last weekend.

What a bizarre universe! I feel like I stepped into a totally foreign place where yes means no and no means yes. Who knew models “played” the game and mindfucked each other to sabotage their “challenges?” In the first place I love Janice Dickenson because she’s totally batshit crazy. Like Whitney Houston only with Jack and vicodin instead of crack. Her breasts totally defy age and gravity. I love that. Anyway, so she gave them advice on “the dark side” of modeling like drinking champagne and falling off the runway. And to further the whole “dark side” thing they hired an actress to tell them all they were fat and ugly at a casting call. Becuse mindfucking women with major self image issues is oh so fun for tv! Still, a trainwreck and I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Oh and just waiting for moments when Nigel Barker was on. Holy moley, what a man! Whoo!

Anyway, I felt dirty when it was over. Like I took part in something totally bad for me and others, LOL. I can’t say I’d watch another season, I think I got the gist of it. Human beings are so odd and fascinating.