The Mists of Avalon:
Squeeeeee! This book was great. The view of King Arthur and his knights from the view of the women around them was an inspired idea. The prose was lush, and I didn’t feel like a word on any of the 876 pages was wasted. Everyone had flaws so that neither Mograine or Gwenhwyfar seemed like perfect people. In fact, Gwenhwyfar got on my nerves a little bit. Mograine’s plans sort of had me wanting to smack her upside the head. It seemed very well researched, and that is always a good sign. If you haven’t read it, do so.

Nylon Magazine (March issue):
Scrunchies are back… I’m just going to be too hipster for that trend. Also, Pete Wentz, not that cool. Sorry.

Party Monster:
This book was so much darker than the movie. There was so much interesting stuff in the book that didn’t make it too the movie. James St. James had one hell of a voice. I got this book in one day and finished it in four hours because I was sucked into the story so much. Too bad I had a midterm the next day and didn’t study as much as I should have. Well, I had dancing crackheads in chicken costumes running through my head. That makes it a little hard to focus on Latin American trade politics.

Complicated Women - Women in Pre-Code Hollywood:
This book was a love letter to Norma Shearer and, while I could see how some would find that annoying, I thought that was the best anchor to the whole tale. Norma Shearer was an little known innovator who brought the darker, raunchier, and more realistic and sympathetic stories for women into mainstream Hollywood movies… And the public loved it. Its just a great read with a gossip yet historical voice that really makes the early 30s seem like yesterday.

Heidi Klum’s Body of Knowledge: 8 Rules of Model Behavior (to Help You Take Off on the Runway of Life) :
I read this in like an hour and a half in the university bookstore. It was pretty uninteresting. It had the same old-same old self help shit, but Heidi and her ghost writer have a pretty preppy voice that makes the celebrity self help guide seem a little fresher. The pictures of Heidi were nice. If your in the bookstore, I wouldn’t say buy it, but it wouldn’t hurt to look at it.

I read all this and I still haven’t finished Pulse from Cobblestone Press or Nature Rising or Love Me Tender. *le sigh*

Locked and Loaded: An Erotic Lesbian Romance Anthology (Review)

Locked and Loaded edited by SA Clements is a pretty damn good anthology. All in all, I would give it a B. The theme of this anthology is the women who sleep with a gun under their pillow and never go out of the house without a knife strapped to their thighs. The stories are organized in chronological order starting with a sexy pirate captain and ending with a engineer making love in space. I think a round of applause is in order for Clements in finding such a diverse group of stories that have some thing for everyone.

I will start with the fabulous! “No Business” by Parhelion is my favorite story. In a dark, gilded 1930s Hollywood, Vera is a kick-ass ‘gal Friday’ getting the scoop for her wealthy boss’s (Margot Blake) gossip column. While you’re reading the story you can totally tell the amount of research that went into it. The only complaint is that the love scenes seemed tacked on, but I haven’t read such a well-written tacked on scene in a while. Two stories are tied for second place in my heart - “Free” by Tracey Shellito and “Kiss of Steel” by Crystal Barela. “Free” is set in the Netherlands, and the setting is used so well. The story couldn’t be told in another setting. The writing is taut, and I love that there is an interracial couple. Warning, the ending does sort of dance the line of being too sentimental. “Kiss of Steel” is a darker tale. The girls in this story are harder than steel with an edge that could cut diamonds. Jane and McClane are ruthless killers and there is no sugar coating of the fact. The sex is rougher, and the fighting more brutal. I felt like the ending was a little too pat.

Some highlights from the middle of the pack are “Guarding Kate” by Samantha Boswell. I ended that story with one sappy smile. “Bustles and Doeskin” by BA Tortuga has one fantastic character in Eleanor. She cracked me up.

“Inexorable” by Jodi Payne and “Coming Home” by Jennifer Joyce are at the bottom of the pack. “Coming Home” was sort of boring for me and I felt in term of writing that it might have been the weakest. Though I think that might be one of those things were I am alone on. “Inexorable” by Jodi Payne was one that I just didn’t like at all. She seemed like a Mary Sue with the attitude of bratty teenager not the highly trained, empath that the author kept telling the reader she was. Jo was similarly grating. From the beginning the characters just kept me from enjoying the story.

I really did like this anthology. I hope that SA Clements edits another anthology. She picked a good bunch of stories. Everyone can buy this anthology at Torquere Press.

…which is only news because Korean fangirls may have cornered the market on the ultimate cuteness. Isn’t that sign just adorable?

THE BEST SIGN EVER! CLICK BECAUSE YOU WILL MISS OUT.

Anyone else just love looking at pictures to give them a little inspiration? I do. Its not how the picture them selves look or what is in them. Its the feeling that I get from them. Its the way that the colors contrast. Its the names written in the tiny credit font in the corner. I can think of stories about the pictures at a drop of the hat.

In my search for pictures on the web, I have found Deviant Art and Iqons. The first website is a artist community where members post drawings, writing, photos, and other forms of artwork. This isn’t a professional site, but even the crudest paintings can inspire. Just look at cave drawings! The second site is the fashion version of myspace. It has the usual mix of designers, models, magazines, and the fashion forward. There are some truly talented and beautiful people on that site.

Foreign magazines are also quite fun to look at. My best friend brought me back a fashion magazine from Tokyo, and it is just really interesting to see the different aesthetics between my American culture and the culture shown in the magazine. Small home-grown magazines (not just fashion ones) can jump start an idea or two. Searching around for some local music rags in your area might show your muse where exactly the perfect heroine for your hero(ine) is. A punk rock chick for a stuffy banker? Anything is possible with romance!

Any style mags from the New Yorker, W, and Home and Garden are game for perusal. Heck, I’ve been known to get an idea or solution to a plot problem from flipping through the Weekly World News in line at the grocery store!

Her Black Little Heart by Selah March [het ebook review]

Misfits are the underlying theme of story which isn’t covered enough in romance. The hero and heroine of Her Black Little Heart are misfits. Outcasts. Outsiders. Adam Brewster, a doctor, is a stranger to the little village of Chop Gate. Leda Cavendish is a rich widow living alone with her son in her estate while the village below swirls with gossip about her wicked ways. Leda has summoned Adam to her estate to care for her ill son. I would give this novel a B.

Its refreshing to see a romance where people are truly outsiders. Usually its because a virgin widow is too much of a bluestocking to go outside or a rough, but lovable sea captain can’t face society after the losses he saw at a sea. With the xenophobia and intolerance of the townspeople Adam and Leda can’t actually fully become true citizens of the village. This influences both of their personalities, and is a way that they both can connect.

This is a historical romance, and it is written like one. It has all the earmarks of a historical: old time-y syntax, rustic servants like Mrs. Maggs, and a moor. I swear to God, that I would find a moor in a historical set in Egypt. Though, this romance turns some conventions on its head. Leda was a widow with a child, but she doesn’t hate her first husband. She’s a worldly woman with no qualms about what she wants. Adam is a good doctor. He’s nice to Leda from the start, and even with their verbal sparring, one can tell that they enjoy each other’s company. Another refreshing point, an author who uses banter to up the chemistry, and not replace it.

On the technical/craft note, this was well-written and there is actual effort to make this sound like it is in the 1820s. Its nice to read an ebook where the character’s name doesn’t change midway through and the sentences aren’t awkward jumbles of prose.

There were things that didn’t work. There were times when Leda seemed a little bi-polar. Crying over her son one minute and then pawing at Adam the next. A little more explanation, not an info dump mind you, about the ways and ideas of the 1820s might have shed a little light on Leda’s mindset and her behavior. I think that some people who prefer a traditional historical with a virgin and a rake might be disappointed, but those who want a little variety in their historicals will be pleased with this offering from Selah March.

Her Black Little Heart is a historical tale that takes the reader out of the respectable parlors of London and onto an estate where a strong woman and a good man may just have found love and the will to leave their critics behind in the dust. You can buy the book at Amber Heat.

Huzzah!

Q. Do you accept lesbian erotica?
A. In the past we had only considered F/F scenes in works that also featured het or M/M erotica; however, we are lifting that rule and will now consider exclusively F/F works so long as they adhere to our guidelines.

Yay! Prepare for the sexing of the lesbian kind, Phaze! (as soon as I write it, of course)

Thank you, December Quinn and Selah March for giving me the heads up about Phaze. Kisses, chicas!

—

Okay, today, I was writing a pretty emotional scene in the novel I’m working on, 23 Kisses, and I start tearing up. Having to write Claudia watch Zoe walk away from her in disgust after finding out she is a gatekeeper almost killed me. Anyone else get emotional with their characters as they write certain scenes?

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I wish the house didn’t smell like cabbage, but thats just what my mother makes for family St. Paddy’s day dinner. Nothing brings back memories like the entire Rhys family sitting around the table trying not to let Mom know that we have always hated cabbage.

Trust me, nothing turns a person back into a six year old as when they try to figure out how to cover their plate with the least amount of food and still make it look like they love Mom’s boiled cabbage.

Welcome to my blog.

As it says on the top, I write a different kind of romance. Now, I hope everyone is sitting when I say this. It just may shock you. I write… lesbian (and frequently erotic) romance in the fantasy genre. Dear Lord, I believe that old Aunt Pearl just fainted. Now, I know that all the people still standing have already shrugged and are waiting for me to be interesting.

I, as of this writing, am unpublished. Though, as it says on my myspace, I’m UNpublished and Undaunted. Like, Mary Tyler Moore, I’m going to make it after all. Writing has been a passion of mine for years, and I have been scribbling and submitting for awhile. I’ve been published in a few free forum magazines and student rags, but never really PUBLISHED. I write other genres such as horror and straight out fantasy (though really what is a good story without some sort of romance whither its between a two [or mercy me, three] people or between a person and adventure).

Who is this Arin Rhys? This mysterious author of the lesbian orientation? Well, I am a student at the University of Arizona for what seems like forever. I enjoy a good hot chocolate, history (of the Tudor era persuasion especially), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, pop culture insanity, fashion, and reading. I read voraciously. I used to read while walking and ended up banging into things. My music genre of the moment is electronic music (of the happy hardcore variety) and my artist of the moment is P!nk. I may or may not be addicted to Romance Divas.

What have I written, you ask? You’ve heard more than necessary about me, and now you want to look at the goods. Well, I’ve written a short fantasy story called, “The Cherub’s Ditch,” (around 12,000 words) that I have submitted to Torquere Press. I have a few stories that I am working on. Most specifically one called, “23 Kisses,” that is turning out to be quite the beast. You can read the descriptions of these two tales at my website, Arin Rhys Online.

Thanks for stopping by, darlings!