First off... I am heartily sick of winter. It's almost the end of February, so here in Quebec we have another month of wintery weather to get through, all things being equal, but I seriously could cry when I see the lower than -10c temperatures or the snow swirling outside. I want spring. Not summer, but spring.
I've been having a lot of thoughts about books and book-related things, I realise, things that might not gain me friends. *LOL*
Like... I wonder if I'm the only one who feels that so many of the Dreamspinner book covers look childish and well... cheap. So many of them look like bad anime fan drawings - as bad as the horrid photomanips that adorn so many unprofessional offerings. And unfortunately, my knee-jerk reaction to those covers is that the books are going to be lousy and amateur. I honestly don't buy those books from Dreamspinner any more unless I get specific recs from folks I trust or they are authors I already have tried and enjoyed. It's not all of the DSP covers - some of them are professional-looking and I hate to admit, but those I'll try before one of the others. Dreamspinner is probably the biggest publisher of m/m romance and erotica and as such... well, I expect better.
And then there's what I call proprietary fanning. There's this one (among many) authors that I follow on Facebook among other social media platforms, and I think she has a gal who sort of moderates her FB page for her? All well and good, I mean, if you have a busy FB author/group page, then it's a good idea to have someone to manage the day-to-day nitty gritty. But what bugs me about this one is the air of 'ownership' this chick has. To the point where it seems like the author's characters also belong to her. And she posts about them all the freakin' time in a way which I would expect only the author to post. ALL THE TIME. It puts me off and it stops me from interacting with other fans in the group, sadly.
One of the authors that I enjoy and admire a lot has announced that she's taking on a pen name under which she's going to publish books that - to paraphrase - are different from what she's published up until now, one of the reasons being that she doesn't want readers to be upset when they buy this new book and find out that it's not the same as what she's become known for. It's also a branding thing, but that's not what made me ponder things - what made me ponder things is, what kind of fan is against an author expanding their horizons, so to speak. I guess it's the same as fans of musicians and bands who get pissed off when the newest album by their favourites doesn't sound exactly like that last five. Well, that's not me. I love when artists I enjoy - print, film, music etc... push their boundaries and grow and experiment. Sometimes it might not work, but most times, I think, it does work - at the very least, it continues to encourage and nurture their creativity. So kudos, Marie! I can't wait to read the new book this summer!
Speaking about singers... I was listening with half an ear to a Britney Spears interview on Extra or one of those infotainment type shows and then a little while later, Miley Cyrus was talking about something and I noticed that these girls have speaking voices SO much different from their singing voices. Both of them kind of deep and hoarse and not in that good, sexy, smokey way either. It made me wonder if these girls are going to develop throat problems when they hit their 40s.
I think I've probably gone on long enough here. *LOL* So that's it for now!
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