Holiday Time Off

Hi, all,

We're taking a break for the holidays. Posts will resume in early January.

Have a great winter holiday of your choice, everyone!

Winners - Books of the Year

by Raelene Gorlinsky

Thank you to everyone who commented on our Books of the Year post. I have a list of books and authors I want to try, based on your recommendations!

So, random drawing for winners amongst the participants:
Cathy M
Cara Bristol
Audra

Ladies, please email RedlinesDeadlines@gmail.com and provide your mailing address. We'll send you a prize collection, including the 2011 EC Cavemen Calendar. (Probably will mail after Christmas.)

Books of the Year

Seems like everyone is doing a list of their top books of 2010. We don't want to be left out! But we'd like to be a bit different. So tell us some special stories that you read in 2010 (don't have to be new release in 2010), in the categories below.

And yes, of course, there will be prizes! Since it's the holiday season, we'll mail you a 2011 Ellora's Cave calendar and some other great goodies!

From the stories you read in 2010:
1. Story that resonated the most with me, emotionally.
2. Story I recommend most to others.
3. Story I wish I hadn't wasted my time on.
4. Most unusual story.

Put your responses in Comments by December 20. Oh, and please say why! We're always looking for book recommendations. I asked for an Amazon.com gift certificate for Christmas - help me spend it.

The Eyes Have It

by Raelene Gorlinsky

We've mentioned common romance stereotypes before. And this one was a question on Kelli's Fiction Feud. But this week hit me with a really stunning example of the heroine eye color issue.

Yes, we all expect romance heroines to be beautiful and somewhat unusual. But what, pray, is wrong with eyes of brown or black or hazel? Nice colors. But it seems like a massive percentage of heroines have blue eyes--almost always with some adjective to enhance the blue. Well, this week I read a story where the heroine had sapphire blue eyes and her BFF had eyes of emerald green! WTF, did they rob a jewelry store? If you see people with eyes of those colors, you can bet that over 90% of them are wearing colored contact lenses.

Do authors know how rare green eyes really are? It is the most recessive eye color gene. I read an article in a science magazine that said that within the next two generations, green eyes will be virtually gone. There are so few people with green (not hazel) eyes, and how often do two of them get together for child-creating? The green eye color has been bred out of the gene pool.

So although I love the colors blue and green, and I appreciate stunning-looking heroines, please...let's try for more chocolate brown or jet black. (Oh, and no one but Elizabeth Taylor gets to claim having lavender eyes.)

Best & Worst Book Videos

The Huffington Post has listed their choice of the 19 (why 19?) best and worst book videos of 2010. Take a look. Do you agree with them?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/06/book-videos-best-and-worst_n_791645.html#s198807

2010 Bad Sex Award

Britain’s Literary Review awards the "Bad Sex in Fiction Award” each year. The 2010 winner is Rowan Somerville's The Shape of Her. In accepting the award, Somerville said, “There is nothing more English than bad sex, so on behalf of the entire nation I would like to thank you.”

The novel contains sentences such as "Like a lepidopterist mounting a tough-skinned insect with a too blunt pin he screwed himself into her." A nipple is compared to the “nose of the loveliest nocturnal animal, sniffing in the night.”

http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/badsex.html

Fiction Feud Winner!

Yeah. It was just as hard as we'd thought it would be.  :)  Many thanks to our 15 players for giving it their best shots. And special thanks to Lynne and Barbara for making us laugh our asses off.

The actual game at RomantiCon had the top 4 or 5 answers for each question, and a lot of you got the number 2 or number 3 answers. (For example, wet or moist, which most of you guessed for the most common adjective to describe a vagina, was the number 2 answer.) Had we played the full version of the game, it would have been a super tight race.

Several of you got 4 of the top answers correct, but our winner, with 5 correct answers, was B.! Woohoo! Congrats! B, just email Martha@ellorascave.com and tell her which book (and format) you'd like to receive.

Now the answers:

1. Name the most overused hero name: Lucius, Lucian or Luke

2. Name the most common adjective used to describe an erection: Hard or rock-hard (several of you gave us "cock". Tsk, tsk. That's a noun, people)  :)

3. Name a type of sex play authors throw in their books to get the BDSM icon: Cuffs, ties or scarves (we'd also accept "bondage")

4. Name the most common uncommon eye color for heroes OR heroines: Emerald green (we'd also accept just "green"; several of you listed "brown". Is that uncommon these days?)

5. Not counting those that are sexual or romantic in nature ("passion", "love", "desire", etc.), name the most overused word in erotic titles: Night (the toughest question, based on the fact no one got it. Other overused title words: dark, hunt/hunter/hunted, bound, blood, fire)

6. Name the most common adjective used to describe a vagina: Hot

7. Name the most common thing a hero does to a woman's nipples: Lave or lick ("suck" was a super close second)

8. Other than a bedroom, name the most common place characters have sex: Shower

9. Name the most common last name authors use for their pseudonym: Black (Lee/Leigh, James and Quinn are hot contenders)

10. Name the most common occupation for romance heroes: Police/FBI (some form of law enforcement)

11. Name the most common way that M/M heroes meet: In a bar/club

12. Name the most common euphemism for coming: Explode

Thanks again for playing, folks. Your consolation prize would be our undying gratitude, which is worth a pretty penny on certain author black markets. Oh, and we're currently dreaming up games for next year's RomantiCon...if you have something you'd like to play, by all means, let us know!