Smugglers’ Stash and News (The One Where Thea Is MIA)

So, while Thea is on a Thanksgiving break and I am left on my own, I decided to take over (Muwahaha) and do this stash, Ana style.

What was on my mind last week?

First and foremost: I was immersed in Smugglivus’ (upcoming event to celebrate reading and books!) preparations.

Drooling over the pretty poster, organising our crazy schedule, contacting our guests, etc. If you missed our Smugglivus’ announcement last Thursday, you can read it here.

I also spent some time trying to decide which books to read next month. Because of Smugglivus and the end of the year , I will be able to read those books I wasn’t able to read so far. One of those was The Magicians by Lev Grossamn and that did not work out as expected.  Alas, I do hope my next reads will be better. I have high expectations for those in particular:

I also spent some time musing and fawning over this one here:

I think the cover is fabulous; I like the blurb; I read one story by Sam Sykes in the Dragon Book and I liked it; The twitter buzz around this novel is growing; The book is not out till April though and it is KILLING me that I have other books I need to read before I can read this one.

Speaking of new authors: not a new author per se, but new author to me, I think I have a new author-crush for Jim C. Hines. I loved his Princess books, which I reviewed this week

….and I have been reading his livejournal. On top of interesting posts about writing, there is one about Rape in Fiction which I thought was fabulous.

Speaking of  rape in fiction. Kate, from What Kate’s Reading posted her thoughts on The Windflower and ended up writing a great post about rape and

why Rape is not romance. Rape is not a laughing matter. Rape is not a cheap literary device.

Her post is part of The Windflower World Tour, which by the way, is getting back on track!

For those who do not know, The Windflower World Tour is an across-blogs event in which a copy of the out of print The Windlower by Laura London is going around the world from blogger to blogger. The book is an old school romance and the reactions to it are all over the place. You can read more about it here and here. Next stop on the tour is at Literary Escapism.

Also on my mind last week, were the series of great posts that author Jackie Kessler wrote about the whole Harlequin Horizon debacle (in which publisher Harlequin opens a Vanity Publishing on the side). You can read more about it here and here. Also, here.

Great is also the word I would use to describe a post by Sarah Rees Brennan where she reviews some books she loved (including a couple of wonderful romance novels by the ever magnificent Meredith Duran) and mentions the Blank Page Heroine. Justine Larbalestier picked up the term and talked about it on her own blog . Make sure to read the comments – they are great too.

Speaking of heroines – and heroes and “great” , I jump right into Super-heroes ( am I trying too hard? LOL) : I saw this at Harry’s blog and loved it! The Super Emo Friends:

Seriously, how cute is that? And so, so true.

Anyways, this is what I have been up to. On Tuesday, we kick-off Smugglivus and we will post a special Week One Schedule tomorrow right after my review of Deep Kiss of Winter (Kresley Cole’s story) goes live.

What else? I think I need to do something important. Ah! Giveaway winners! I saved the best for last!

Tainted Giveaway:

Carolyn H (comment # 3)

Flash Giveaway:

Batch 1 – Jenny N (comment #63)
Batch 2 – Sarah (comment #80)

Congratulations! You know the drill – send an email to contact AT the book smugglers DOT com with your snail mail address, and we’ll get your winnings out to you as soon as possible! Thanks to all that entered, and if you didn’t win this time, don’t worry. There’s plenty more where that came from.

And that is it from me today! Have a great Sunday and until tomorrow!

~ Your friendly neighborhood Book Smugglers