KindleVixen.com » Book Chat

Turn Me On Tuesday

Tiffany — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 23:10:01 +0000

I’ve been quiet around these parts lately… I am sure you are wondering why. The truth is, picking up a book has been painful… nothing seems to grab my attention. I don’t know if the craptastic Bullet is to blame or if I am just in a slump, but I think it is time for me to take a break from paranormal romance.

So… I am introducing Turn Me On Tuesday… a day where I try to find new books and authors I haven’t heard of before but want to start reading. I am hoping I can turn you on to something new… get it? hah. If you have someone you think I would like, please contact me and let me know! I am especially interested in male UF writers or male UF points of view.

Anyway, today’s Turn Me On Tuesday book is….

Title: Sandman Slim
Author Richard Kadrey
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Publication Date: 1st Aug. 2009

Summary:
Supernatural fantasy has a new antihero

Life sucks, and then you die. Or, if you’re James Stark, you spend eleven years in Hell as a hitman before finally escaping, only to land back in the hell-on-earth that is Los Angeles.

Now Stark’s back, and ready for revenge. And absolution, and maybe even love. But when his first stop saddles him with an abusive talking head, Stark discovers that the road to absolution and revenge is much longer than you’d expect, and both Heaven and Hell have their own ideas for his future.

Resurrection sucks. Saving the world is worse.

Darkly twisted, irreverent, and completely hilarious, Sandman Slim is the breakthrough novel by an acclaimed author

Next In Series:
Kill the Dead – October 5, 2010

I just started this one this morning and already love it. Great opening paragraph/quote and it has already used the phrase “asshole of creation”. Fingers crossed it continues to rock.

Oh and as a side note… I am over at MamaKitty’s book blog talking about why I love to read today, stop by and say something!

Thriller & Suspense Challenge Wrap Up

Tiffany — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 08:45:50 +0000

Hey look at me, I finished a challenge! Woot! Now where are my cookies? I was promised cookies.

Timeline: 01 Jan 2010 – 31 Dec 2010
Rules: To read TWELVE (12) thrillers in 2010

Lay it on me – completed book series you love?

Tiffany — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:29:33 +0000

I was talking with a friend through email a while ago about Urban Fantasy books and we were discussing how they are almost always a series and never a finished one! Sometimes an Urban Fantasy series goes on well past its’ prime (I’m looking at you Laurell K Hamilton) but mostly we celebrate not having to let go of our favorite characters and move on to something new. We UF lovers are all so dysfunctional that we love the torture of a good cliffhanger or a long drawn out plot line.

Yet, I can’t be alone in that sometimes I wish I had a series I could read start to finish and be done with it, completed. Right now to get that closure I have to jump genres to paranormal romance or contemporary romance, but why can’t we have that in Urban Fantasy? Surely there are some well written series that aren’t never ending? Looking through my Goodreads lists I did find three Urban Fantasy series that are finishing up this year.

Rachel Caine’s Weather Wardens

Book 9 is releasing on August 3rd and will be the last one. While I will miss Jo and David, it feels like the right time to say goodbye. Jo has been put through hell and back over and over again, she deserves a little quiet time

Keri Arthur’s Riley Jenson

Book 9, Moon Sworn, released May 25th and marked the end of Riley Jenson’s story. These are technically Urban Fantasy but they lean pretty heavily toward Paranormal Romance in my opinion, lots of explicit sex in many of them.

Jenna Black’s Morgan Kingsley

The last book, The Devil’s Playground, released March 23rd but I believe it was ended by the publisher, not because the author was finished with the series. Because of that I don’t know how much closure there is… I haven’t gotten around to reading the last book yet.

So, can you help me out? Do you know of any completed urban fantasy series we must read??

Guest Post: The Mighty Buzzard talks Ebooks and Pirates

Tiffany — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:44:33 +0000

And before you even say it, no…. we are not talking about the sexy pirates. Tho I do love a good sexy pirate… especially if he is all scruffy and can talk with an accent of some kind….. hmm pirates… *dreamy look*

Anyway, before I get distracted by the idea of sexy pirates, let me say I am very happy to have a special guest posting here at KindleVixen today. The Mighty Buzzard graciously agreed to stop by and talk about ebooks with me. I am sure you are all tired of hearing me rant and rave on twitter about them and the new Agency Pricing Model that is looming over our heads today. The Buzzard brings up some great points, if only the publishers would listen. So thanks to him for being here…. take it away sexy techy dude… (I love a man who can make use of a good formula).

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There’s been a lot of chatter lately about REP. It’s gotten me to thinking about ebooks in general and piracy. Now I could go off on a rant but I’ve been coding a lot lately, so I’m going to go for logic this time even though there’s been no evidence that publishers are swayed by things like that.

Publishers, you are competing with piracy. It makes no difference that you have legal right to distribute the material and they don’t, they’re still competition. Further, they’re not going away. If the RIAA and MPAA combined can’t do a damned thing to even slow piracy, you’re certainly not going to with much shallower pockets. You have to offer more value than pirates if you want to make a sale.

Let’s have a go at the math behind this nebulous term “value”. Start off with the value of the content of an ebook to the customer (Its value to you doesn’t matter. At all.), call it $C for content. We also need to value the convenience of the distribution method for the customer, call it $E, because their time and effort is valuable to them. We’ll need to valuate any moral repulsion they have to violating copyright and not contributing anything to the author (Yes, only the author. Customers don’t give two shits about publishers.), call it $M. Of course we need the price of the book, $P. Because you seem to want to use the hell out of it lately, set $F equal to the fear of jail/lawsuits. Conversely, there is the defiance of heavy-handed methods that the user feels, or $D. One last bit, cross-title (hopefully) targeted advertising on the site of purchase, $A. Believe it or not, this last one does have value to the customer as well as to you; they want to be able to find other books they’d like.

So we have for publishers legit distribution chanels:
$C + $E + $A – $P – $D = total value to customer

and from piratical channels:
$C + $E + $A – $M – $F = total value to customer

Recognize that since we have factored in morals and fear, the customer will be going with the choice with higher value every single time. Now $C is the same value in both channels, so we can effectively discount it for this discussion but you should keep in mind that it exists when considering the math of release windows because you set $C to zero if you don’t release what the customer wants before the pirates.

In $A, you should have an incredible advantage over piracy but you seem to not want to invest much into it. So you have only a very small advantage that you could lose at any time.

Using $F as a method of devaluing piratical distribution channels hasn’t worked very well for movies or music. Do you assume that you have some innate attribute that will cause it to work for you? Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. But let’s assume a very small positive value here just for argument’s sake even if it will increase $D for a good chunk of potential customers.

Experience has shown that you can increase $M by getting authors to connect positively with their fans. Negative comments from authors or publishers have no effect on $M and serve only to increase $D. Always. Every. Single. Time.

Increasing $E is the most important place you really should be able kick the hell out of the pirates but you’ve instead chosen to let them have an overwhelmingly commanding lead because of the need to control the material through DRM and exclusive hardware. People want to be able to get a book in a click or two and they’d like to be able to shift format for use on their device of choice. Forget control. It’s an illusion. You never had it and you never will. Worry about your total value to customer. If it’s higher than the pirates’, you will win.

Lastly, there’s $P. Pirates will always have the advantage over you here, what with $P being zero in their case. So, tell me, how does increasing $P, thereby decreasing your total value to customer, help you compete?

I’m not going to bother summarizing. I don’t feel like going back through all that and shortening it to fit in one paragraph. Make yourself some bullet points or an outline or something. Office guys like that kind of crap.

~The Mighty Buzzard

Building A Book Boyfriend (Meme)

Tiffany — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:07:02 +0000

Nat (WickedLilPixie) and I both got tagged at the same time for this meme, so we figured we’d mix our answers since we have very different opinions on men! On we go:

“We all have our favourite book boyfriends and now you have the chance to create one just for yourself and your fantasies! How do you play? Fill out the quiz below, post a picture of a sexy man and tag five (5) other book addicts to do the same. Don’t forget to pop to their blogs as let them know they have been tagged! Once tagged… you have to do the same, grab the button, answer the questions, and keep it rolling! But don’t forget the picture of the sexy man! It doesn’t have to match your fantasy man, just a little eye candy for the rest of us… heheheee!”- The Gutter Girls-

I’ve been tagged by: by KC at SmokinHotBooks and WickedLilPixie was tagged by Peace Love & Pat.

Hair Color & Style

WLP: I just can’t date a man with longer hair than me, nor do I like men with shaved bald heads. Anything other than that goes, but I like my men dark haired or dirty blondes (bleach was hot in the 90’s, not now)

KV: ha – I love the long haired hippie boys. But I also love the short or almost buzzed dark haired look. If there is a skull tattoo I am all up in it. No light blondes for me tho.

Eye Color & Facial Features
WLP: I’m all about the eyes, Blue or Green please. But a nice grey or hazel never hurt me either. I love dimples too, but not “bum chins”

KV: I am not an eyes girl I guess. I don’t have a preference *shrug*. As long as they are looking at me in that “I want to eat you up” kind of way, I don’t care what color they are. I don’t mind some sexy subtle facial hair…. the thought of beard burn gives me the shivers in a good way.

Height & Body Type
WLP: I’m 5′4 so everyone’s taller than I am but I like my men 6′ and taller, since I don’t want to be even height when I wear my stacked heels.

KV: I’m shorter at only 5′ so I tend to gravitate towards guys 5′9″ to 6″ — any taller than that and they are eating beans off my head.

WLP: Bodywise, no beer guts but he doesn’t have to be made of stone chisel either. I find the more chiseled the more they lack in brains but I do love me some George St. Pierre from UFC.

KV: I am with you on body. I don’t go for the super muscled guys… I like the lean but tough look tho… He just needs to be able to tackle me and hold me down if necessary *wink* OH and I have to have the hip cleavage…. nothing makes me drool like a glimpse of the lower hips. Prime example…. Ryan Reynolds. I need a cold shower after googling for this picture.

Visible Age
WLP: Visible age? Huh? I’m hitting 30 this year, so 28 – 40 works for me.

KV: It would be dirty for me to say 20-40 huh? hmmm I guess I will go with 25-40 so I look like less of a pervert than I probably am.

Bangability (kinky/bi/size)
WLP: Bangability? What are we 12 year olds? He can be as kinky as he wants, but there will be no 1 Nat, 1 Cup action EVER. But I do have a thing for goth guys, take Klayton from Celldweller as my favorite example.

KV: ewww…. you had to go there huh? What about 1 Nat, 1 Girl, 1 Cup? *gag* I am not sure I can get the image out of my mind enough to answer this question now. *shudder* Anyway, for me, he can be kinky – I am down. Tho I probably draw the lines at pain and ball gags. I like to talk (and be talked to) way too much for that. I am however not adverse to imprisoning someone to get my way, I am looking at you again Ryan (notice the scruff *drool*).

Human or Other
WLP: Human please, I don’t ever want to date a man that’s prettier than I am! Shifter are too hairy for me, I loath the hair. *shudders*

KV: *rawr* bring on the shifters for me! I like em all primal in that sexy protective way! Oh, but you are right, body waxing could be a requirement.

Paranormal Skills
WLP: Inhuman strength so he can lift the couch with me on it. And healing, so I can get over a cold quick fast. But again, I am all over Alexander (grr).

KV: Hmmm… healing good idea! I think I am going with strength and teleportation.

Interests
WLP: Me. Duh.

KV: Like there could be any doubt about that Me? I like a man who can talk geek with me. Oh and he must love all things Joss Whedon.

Special Skills
WLP: Okay, fine. He can have a tongue like a snake. I wouldn’t kick him outta bed.

KV: oooh. Good one. Skills – I like a guy who is “handy” heh. Geeky brilliant is a definite requirement as well.

Thank you all for taking part in this Meme with us…. we hope you enjoyed the fact that we take any reason we can to post gratuitous half naked pictures of men. We are supposed to tag 5 more book bloggers, but we are taking the lazy way out…. tag YOU are it!

Characters we love to hate….

Tiffany — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:53:52 +0000

I am over at WickedLilPixie’s blog today talking about the characters we love to hate. Come on over and join us.