Ramblings for January: eBooks, Reviews, and the Question of Romance

Just a quick note here to let you all know I’m still alive. Unlike this time last winter, when I was fat and pregnant, I’m not getting many opportunities to be online.

A couple updates.

One, I finally have an eReader. A Kindle Fire, to be specific. Which means that soon I’ll be able to accept eBook copies for review. Right now on the Kindle, I’m reading Rutger Klamor’s Z Strain and Dalya Moon’s Practice Cake. I’m liking it. It’s different from print copy, of course, but still good (in my head, I sound like Stitch from Lilo & Stitch: broken, but still good. Yeah, still good.) I don’t know if I’ll ever prefer it to print copy, though- but I’m pretty happy about the doors it has opened so far.

Two, I’m changing my format for my book review blog to simply publish my Goodreads reviews. They’ll be less formal, and probably even shorter, and they won’t include synopses or summaries (because everyone who reads them on Goodreads already knows the synopsis of each book listed.) I figure we live in a hurried age: brevity has value. It’s also more fun to write about the books I read when I’m not worried about sticking to a formula or doing the plot justice in my descriptions. After all, I’m not writing these to convince you to read the books (well, often I am, but…), I’m writing them to generate conversations about the books after you’ve read them.

That said, I’ve scheduled posts for Blackbird for everyday this week. Check them out.

I’m also wondering if I should abandon Blackbird and post my reviews here instead, since it’s not exactly like I’m overwhelming you with content- but that could change. What do you think?

Another thing I want to touch on because it’s on my mind: as readers and writers, how important is romance in your stories? I’m curious because I’ve never been a Romance Reader, exactly, but lately I’ve appreciated romance when it appears in other genres. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness might have been the first time I recognized this, and more recently, Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky. Neither book is solely romantic by design, but the relationships within aid the story in ways that might not have been possible otherwise. Two of the stories I’ve edited for our April catalog are romantic, too, and they’re both completely awesome (I can’t wait until they’re illustrated and out there for all of you.) Now I’m finding myself looking for romance in non-Romance books. Sometimes I’m disappointed when this element isn’t there, even though there’s no reason for me to expect it. And I’m not talking sappy love stories, I’m talking complicated, multifaceted, often doomed tentative relationships. Or a hint of them.

What do you think about romance in non-Romance genres? There’s next to none in my own writing. I’m wondering if I should add some, which actually isn’t half as simple as it sounds, and would require almost a total rewrite of most of my stuff. Which I’m fine with, because I’m a perpetual re-writer.