In Bed With... (Anthology)

Isn’t that just the most luscious cover? Designer Allison Colpoys (Penguin) was named young designer of the year at the Australian Publishers Association Book Design Awards last week. I picked up this book the last time I was in a bookstore, and the only reason I didn’t buy it was that I’m very picky with erotica. Here’s the blurb:

Hot sex, anywhere, anytime, anyone?

Here is the hottest, raunchiest collection of romance, love, fantasy and – let’s be honest – sex.

Designed to tantalise and tease, these quirky adult-only tales are sensual and surprising, always imaginative and unashamedly risqué. Featuring a sex addict, a Spanish percussionist, a topless gardener, a Kiwi farm-hand, virgins, prostitutes, ballerinas, college research assistants, new ladettes and a spanking dominatrix; (more)

This is a round-up of ARRC09 and is not in chronological order. If you want to read more anecdotes, check out the liveblog. Click here for a list of ARRC09 posts and liveblogs .

Ebooks

I missed the speeches on Sunday morning because we had an informal Cellie breakfast at the cafe next door. It was a lovely way to start off the day, and I was told of a ubiquitous photo on the Lora Leigh forums that I must go and check out, but NOT while I’m at work. The search term is “King Neptune”, in case you’re curious.

The morning panels all sounded really good, so I had a difficult choice to make. In the end, I opted for the ebook panel since I had friends going to the others. The session was sponsored by Torquere Press, and the panelists were Helen Woodall, Jordana Ryan and Jess Dee. Most of the discussion was around the benefits of ebooks and the publishing process. It kind of felt more author-focused than reader-focused, but it would’ve been useful for readers who were thinking about writing for an epublisher. (more)

Sherrilyn Kenyon with Wandergurl at Galaxy Bookshop (24/2/09)

Tuesday was the Kenyon booksigning at Galaxy books, which I live tweeted. I was quite lucky that my shift ended at 4.30pm that day, so I didn’t end up there too late. When I got there, Sofia who organised it all for Galaxy and was at ARRC, hugged me and said, “Where have you been!?!” There was a line that reached the back of the store and sort of curled a little. I went to register at the front and found out that if we had actually gone by number, I would have been number 5. Kat would have been something like number 8 because I registered five of us together.

I didn’t go straight to the back of the line, but ended up chatting with Decadence and Lami, who had been there since 4pm and had already gotten stuff signed. I had a nice chat with Dianna Love, and I got her to sign Phantom In The Night, which I later forgot to get Sherrilyn to sign. (more)

Sherrilyn Kenyon book signing at Galaxy Bookshop (24/2/09)

On the train into the city, I picked up where I left off weeks ago in Midnight Kiss Goodbye, Dianna Love’s contribution to the Dead After Dark anthology (which I stopped because I wasn’t in the right headspace at the time—it’s not a reflection on Dianna because I actually liked the story this time around). Then I got to the end of the story and the thwarted villain says to Ekkbar, the weaselly double-crossing magician blamed for the failure, “Give me one reason I should not spend the rest of eternity in this dung pit slicing a strip off your skinny hide daily and making you fry it for my meal.”

I was disturbed to think this came out of the bubbly, energetic, upbeat blonde I met in Melbourne. Scary, scary Dianna.

The signing was moved forward from 5.30 to 4.30, (more)

This is a round-up of ARRC09 and is not in chronological order. If you want to read more anecdotes, check out the liveblog. Click here for a list of ARRC09 posts and liveblogs .

I’d love to say that ARRC09 started off with a bang, but true to form, I had barely brushed my teeth when Maggie Nash made her welcome address. I had hoped that Wandergurl would be there–particularly since we were supposed to be liveblogging the event–but she sent me an SMS to say that she registered then went back to bed. We are not morning people. Wandergurl did catch the tail end of MaryJanice Davidson’s keynote speech and said that she was funny.

What do academics really think about romance fiction?

I was eager to hear the panel discussion on what academics think about romance, but I only caught the tail end of the Q&A. The panel included Karen Simpson Nikakis, author of the Kira Chronicles and Head of Program of NMIT’s new Bachelor of Writing and Publishing degree. (more)