Author name: Booksquare

We are going to say it loud: we hate 85% of romance novel covers. While we’re at it (and we hope this doesn’t come off as politically incorrect), female breasts do nothing for us. We’re woman enough to admit we can admire a good pair, but they don’t make us stupid. If you require a bra, you know what we mean when we say they’re more trouble than not. If you’re seeing a romance novel cover with a, ahem, heaving bosom, we can assure you the target audience is not female. If you see a hot guy, well, why in […]

Did you know that when you buy blank media like CDs or videocassettes in some countries, you pay a small surcharge that is then remitted back to copyright holders (and, then, hopefully to artists). This fee was imposed because it was presumed that some of these items were being used to tape programs off the television or copy other artistic works. We think there’s something like this in the book world, but cannot be certain (in other words, we’ve heard rumblings, but haven’t encountered specifics). Perhaps the time has come to institute a small charge on used book sales —

Isn’t this whole thing blatant? In theory, yes. In practice, well, we could do better. Like, oh, hmmm, perhaps the fact that we can’t think of anything should tell us that we can’t do better. But that won’t stop us from mentioning that we’ve officially entered the world of unpaid but very happy online columnists (what, you want our thoughts on the world? With pleasure…). Our first article is up at Romancing the Blog, though posted under the alias given at birth. We work hard to protect our secret identity. Now we’re off to sit in traffic and contemplate potholes.

For the three or four of you who haven’t already read Jennifer Weiner’s posting about her attempts to write an article for the New Yorker (much less get anyone on the phone), now is your chance. If the publication is not on your dream list, well, you can substitute just about any publication or publisher. I heard back from the New Yorker