I was hopeful to end on a high note, but alas: news this week that Simon and Schuster is not only publishing a horrific internet troll, but also giving him a nice advance. There are calls for boycotting S&S and calls for not buying his specific book, but (as you'll notice by my not naming him) I think all that's doing is giving him publicity. And we all know that any publicity is good publicity. Or so it seems. So while I appreciate the outrage and sentiment, I won't be joining in the boycott. It will only hurt S&S authors, some of whom are Own Voices authors or have messages directly countering the crapfest that book is going to be. Rest assured, however, that our community of book people aren't the target audience for that hate filled garbage anyway, so we wouldn't be buying it. My only guess is that S&S are counting on the Trump voters to buy it. The only boycott I would like to see is one by bookstores refusing to carry it so he never earns out his advance and isn't offered another contract.
Oh, and All Romance ebooks is closing with next to no notice, taking many readers' libraries and authors' royalties with it. This is a site that most people really liked and trusted. To see them steal from readers and authors like this is just so disheartening. I'm far too lazy to be anything but an Amazon girl, but this has reminded me that I really do need to figure out how to save my library somewhere. Although, truth be told, I've moved back to print for all but e-exclusives or novellas etc. I refuse to pay full print price for most of the Big 5 books, which, yes, was their strategy by pricing that way, but ... oh well.
The only bright spot for me is that I finally found a firm, confirmed release date for Elizabeth Peters's final book (finished by her friend, Joan Hess, after Peters passed away during revisions). The Painted Queen comes out in hardcover and ebook on July 25th. I've heard rumblings that this takes place between Falcon at the Portal and He Shall Thunder in the Sky, but I haven't been able to confirm that. If so, it's an exciting choice, as those years are some of the most emotionally fraught of the series. If you haven't read the Amelia Peabody series yet, it begins with the Crocodile on the Sandbank. The books are pricey, but it's from the late 70s. There are plenty of used copies floating out there.
On an even more optimistic note *knocks on wood* it appears that I've reclaimed the lost blogging mojo at least temporarily. This post should bring me level with last year's post total, and I still have two more posts to go! Woohoo! I've missed this little blog, even when I just couldn't find anything to say.
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