Bodice Rippers, Trashy Novels, Smut Books- All in the Name of Romance

I Just finished reading Kiss of the Wolf by Morgan Hawke. She is apparently writing for the Aphrodisia line at Brava Publishing...or Kensington Publishing I suppose, depending on who you talk to. I originally read a short story of hers in the anthology Hard Candy which I had originally bought because of Angela Knight's Hero Sandwich story, but ended up liking Hawke's story the best. Since then I have been actively seeking her books out, finding them here and there...but she does seem to be finally getting into mainstream publishing. I did read her Interstellar Service & Discipline:Victorious Star but while the story line was good, the S/M was just way too out there for me. Reminded me a little of Jayne Anne Krentz. Her heroines take crap and somehow turn it around in their head that this just means the guy really cares for her. And I love Jayne Anne Krentz, but I do read her knowing I am going to slightly dislike both the heroine AND the hero. But Morgan's was more Kushiel's Dart than anything else I have read. I still grimace thinking about those scenes. No, I am not judging, just saying that's not the scene for me.

But the point I was trying to make before I digressed (so easy to do when writing about books) is that my manager said as he handed it to me "Oh, a bodice ripper." Frankly the people on the cover were totally without clothes, so there was no bodice to rip, but I got his point. Reading romance is shameful. I hold up as evidence, the euphemisms in the title. Those names are not something you brag about. I read someone else blog recently where she named all the books she had read throughout the year...around 41 "worth noting" but left out the "trashy romance books". And why are fantastical books so shameful? I also put into that category Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Comics or Manga because other people put them all in the same category when talking about them. People look down on you if you read these books or such is the impression I get. And I ask why, why, why? Unless its labeled straight Fiction or Non-Fiction you are reading trash. People view it as useless.

But, how can it be useless, when I essentially nailed a job interview because I read? Yep, I was asked what was my favorite book during the interview and rather than answer a particular book (honestly I would have named Romance, but I skirted the question) I answered "What Genre?"and then answered based on the genre. Apparently all the other candidates had not read a book in as long as they could remember. Well, if people weren't so judgy about what books are okay to read, maybe there would be more choices and more people reading. Okay, that's coming across as a rant, but I am so bewildered that something that is so pleasurable as reading can also bring so much shame. Elitism should have no place in the book world. If someone should pick up a book to read especially in a world of TV, movies, and gaming, no matter what the book, all of us should rejoice, especially those of us that work around books.

Management's Revolving doors- part 2

Yep, its happened again. We have lost our new manager. And I can call her our "new manager" as we got her in the middle of December and now its in the middle of January and she is gone. Gone where? Have no idea. All the assistant manager would say was the district manager and the old/new manager parted ways amicably. Whatever that means. Sounds like divorce-speak to me.

In case anyone is counting we will be on our 4th manager since I have started working at this store (around 6 months). Okay, can no one else see how insane this is?

Definitely don't want the assistant manager taking over. He's still a baby, even at 21 or however old he is. No, I don't have problems taking orders from someone younger than me, just someone who still has a lot of learning to do. One of our keyholders is better at managing the store. Already since she has come back from vacation, the store looks a hundred percent better with all her cleaning and organizing efforts. And, no, I don't think she can throw her hat in the ring for the position of store manager. She has been at the store as long as I have and is not even an assistant manager. The assistant manager did say that he threw his hat in the ring. I do hope they realize he still has a bit more to learn.

But on to fabulous news. Robin Schone's new book is on the book shelves!!! Finally...finally...FINALLY!!! Why am I making such a big deal about this? This book was supposed to come out when I was working at the ginormous bookstore. That was over, my god, 5 years ago. March of 2001, I believe, was the original publishing date of the book, then it got moved to September and then 2002...then it dropped from the rolls altogether.

I checked Robin's website, trying to figure out what happened. News on the sight said she was in negotiation with the publishers. Delay, after delay, after delay and finally its here. When I saw it back on the publisher's list, I have been trying not to hope to hard, thinking I was going to be disappointed yet again, but its here. I have it right next to me.





In that time the title has changed and the cover has changed. I liked the original title AND the original over. I am plagued with curiosity. I always want to know the story. What happened?

But, so far have read 3 chapters (and I intend to read some more when I finish this post) but its good. I can't wait to get to the meat of the novel.

And speaking of writer's disappearing off the face of the earth, I am still wondering what happened to Josie Litton (aka Maura Seger). Kiss of Death was supposed to come

out last year and its like Josie dropped off the face of the earth. I have always loved Maura Seger and her habit of flitting from pseudonym to pseydonym makes it hard to keep track of her. I hope she pops back up...just don't know if I will be able to find her again.

That still doesn't detract from my joy that Robin is back. I sincerely hope its not another 5 years before her next book. I know, its sad, I haven't even read this one and I am grousing about the one to come. Very sad.

The PC's Are At It Again

You might think that being a downtown story we would have more than our share of problems, especially since, for one reason or another, the homeless population definitely hangs around the downtown. I don't know why they hang around downtown, they just do. Yet, at the other store that I worked at, the ginormy bookstore, we still had issues with them. They would come in and hang out literally all day. Sleeping, eating, reading...all in the big bookstore. And the big bookstore was not near a downtown. It was in the middle of suburbia so they had to be traveling to this store right? Yet we had a set of regulars, so maybe they were in the neighborhood...but I have to ask, where were they staying?

Apparently last week, both managers were at the store when one homeless man came in and started swearing and yelling and, I suppose, just being scary because the customers were moving to the back of the store. The assistant manager had to call security to get the swearing/scary guy out of the store. As he was being escorted out of the store, he "decided" to take some books as he was leaving so the police had to be called.

Meanwhile the customers were now migrating back to the front of the store because there was ANOTHER guy in the back of the store urinating all over the African American and Spanish books section. The assistant manager needed a break after that.

I came in the next day to see that the africanamerican/spanish section was roped off. "What the???" and promptly asked the manager and she gave me the story. One could argue that this was not an attack of the PC's (psycho customers for those who may not have read my previous blogs)as they were never really customers, but I still have plenty of PC stories.

How about the one guy who came in time and time again to return a book that he NEVER had a receipt for, but had over $300 worth of store credit? Or what about the one where a mother came to me asking me to help find her 14 year old daughter as she had lost her in the store? I asked where she had last seen her? She replied "Well, I left her here in the children's department around 11 so she could study." It was now 4 in the afternoon! I couldn't think of how to reply to that. At the time and I am sure it hasn't changed, we had predators roaming the store. I knew it, the staff knew it and the management knew it, but we couldn't do anything about it until the predators did something illegal. Let's be honest here folks. When those predators do decide to do something illegal they are going to go for the gold and by then it will be too late "to do something about them." And you want to leave your child alone for 5 hours in this place? Naive.

And I know these people exist. My first month at the big bookstore, I was in the children's department putting books away when I saw this guy put his hands down a little girl's pants. The mom was only 6 feet away, but too far away to put a stop to it. I happened to be closer and reached over and pushed the guy away, grabbing his hands and forcing them away from the girl. By this point the little girl was freaking out and the mom, who had be gabbing with another customer, was confused. "What's wrong? What happened?" Six feet away and her child still gets assaulted, so don't even begin to think I am overreacting in calling the previous mother naive.

Yes, the police did come...actually 8 of them came. I had a heck of a time getting the manager to come to children's. I had only been there a month and didn't know that there was a code to get a manager to the department immediately.

The man who assaulted the little girl was mentally disabled. He had 5 people with him, but NONE of them had been keeping an eye on him. I had to make them stay until the police came. And though the police did come, I don't think the man was ever prosecuted. Why? I never heard from the police or anyone else ever again regarding the matter. Its like it never happened.

So the PC's are everywhere, even tiny, tiny little stores and big, big stores in the middle of suburbia. And I haven't even begun to exhaust my supply of PC stories. And I am sure there will be more from where the other's came from.