My Recent Comments

On the vocabulary, we just had a little discussion over in the HR thread that I started b/c on Sunday I read a book (a Duets) written by a Canadian and set in Canada and one of the characters said that they were "pleading the fifth". Which of course made me sit up ands say, "Wha? Non-Americans say that?" (From the discussion over there it sounds more like Canadians do and the Aussies, NZers, UKers recognize the phrase from TV but don't use it themselves.) But I thought it was a neat lesson in culture and vocabulary. I like learning new things when I read, even when it's just a pure "let me escape and have fun for 2 hours" read.

As for older people in romances (as secondary characters and while I also like them as a focal point in their own romance, I don't think that's what Merri was bringing up), I like romances where I feel a complete sense of community. Don't mean to imply that I dislike romances where we focus quite strongly on the h and H and hardly see anyone else but I like it when I feel the community that the h and H are part of. Of course, for some romance stories, part of the story is that they DON'T have a community to belong to . . . but where/when an author can write it in, it gives me that many more warm fuzzy feelings.

Re my PSA from a couple of days ago -- I've gotten at least one new person reviewing books toward the challenge. How are the rest of y'all doing? Get any teachers, friends or family participating yet? We still need lots more. The more the merrier. The more the less we each have to read. :)

Penn

Cuz the Canadians don't live under our constitution, either. If it had been an American author, I would have thought that she had made a mistake. But as I said, it was a Canadian author. It sounds like, from what Donna said, the expression has leaked over the border. That's one of the great things about books -- even ones you read for fluff or pleasure can teach you something! So we've all now had a cultural/language use lesson.

Penn

it really is up to you. I thought that you guys might have wanted to keep your team tags purely for the reading bit and not the promotional stuff. But if the team is okay with using it for any blog or review post, then that's nice, too. I could very well be the only one who's bookmarked your team's blog page (which combines book reviews and blog entries). That method is working better for me right now than RSS feeds or tracking my friends' activities.

Penn 

Does that fit the context?

P

Oh, and the Caribbean, too, if any of you are around.

Yesterday I read a book (a Duet from '02) written by a Canadian and set in Canada. And one of the characters "pleaded the fifth." And I thought, "Whoa! I didn't know that expression crossed boarders." So, which boarders has it crossed? Is it used all over the English-speaking world? Or just with our friendly neighbors to the north? It was used just like we use it and as we (USofA-ers) use it b/c it's part of our Bill of Rights, well, I'd just always assumed it was uniquely American.

Curious,

Penn

When you say that you do all your blog entries with the tag, you mean blog entries and not book reviews, right? B/c I meant blog entries -- I wish your team would do both blog entries and book reviews with the tag. That way all your news (like finalling in contests and getting new cover art) is right there on the same page . . . 

Penn 

but I think you're the only one doing it. Or maybe you guys just don't blog too often (which is fine, I'd rather have you writing!). I check the recent blogs area, too, so one way or another, I get them. I just like the ease of going to one place to see what all my friends are up to . . . that's actually why I prefer the teams this year (last year, I didn't care one way or the other but this year, I can see more people at a glance if they're on a team).

P 

And for what it's worth, I have the "Harlequin Romance Author Team" bookmarked and check in on y'all about once a week. I wish you guys would do your blog entries with that tag, too. :) And yea, you, for recruiting people!

Penn 

May is "Member Round-Up Month" for the reading challenge. I know that most of us who are chatty here are already participating but for those of you who are not, how about "reviewing" your books so that they count toward the "100,000 books read" goal? You can sign up formally with hosty Lorie but you don't HAVE to -- you can simply click on "Book Review" over to the right (under "Create Content"). Don't let the thought of doing a review intimidate you. It can be as short as, "A really good, funny read." Or "An okay read."

For those of you going, "What the heck is she talking about?" Well, Harlequin Enterprises will donate 100,000 books to the National Center for Family Literacy if we read 100,000 books in 2008 (so you can even "review" books you've read since 01/01!). You can get more information in the "Book Challenge" forums.

The rules are pretty simple and you can read all of them over in the "Book Challenge" forums (under the "Intro and Rules" thread). The big rule is to try and make at least 50% of your reads a Harlequin Imprint, which includes pretty much anything that you could buy or could have bought here at eHQ. One thing that has increased my numbers this year is

CHILDREN'S BOOKS! Yes, every book you read counts but the shorter ones do need to be combined til they equal about 55,000 words. So depending on how long the books that I read with my kids, I'll combine anywhere from 2 to 5 books and just make a note in the review that I'm combining x number of children's books to equal 1 full-length book. (Remember that audio books count -- my kids' books are both the ones that we read to them at home and audio books that we've listened to in the car).

Okay, that's it for my PSA! Sorry that it was so long. I meant to be brief.

Please come play with us and MAKE EVERY BOOK COUNT!

Penn

PS to the authors -- I know you're all quite busy and I'd rather have you writing than reading and blogging but if you read even one book this year, let's make it count!! Maybe you can recruit your family, friends and members of your local writers' group!

May is "Member Round-Up Month" for the reading challenge. I know that most of us who are chatty here are already participating but for those of you who are not, how about "reviewing" your books so that they count toward the "100,000 books read" goal? You can sign up formally with hosty Lorie but you don't HAVE to -- you can simply click on "Book Review" over to the right (under "Create Content"). Don't let the thought of doing a review intimidate you. It can be as short as, "A really good, funny read." Or "An okay read."

For those of you going, "What the heck is she talking about?" Well, Harlequin Enterprises will donate 100,000 books to the National Center for Family Literacy if we read 100,000 books in 2008 (so you can even "review" books you've read since 01/01!). You can get more information in the "Book Challenge" forums.

The rules are pretty simple and you can read all of them over in the "Book Challenge" forums (under the "Intro and Rules" thread). The big rule is to try and make at least 50% of your reads a Harlequin Imprint, which includes pretty much anything that you could buy or could have bought here at eHQ. One thing that has increased my numbers this year is

CHILDREN'S BOOKS! Yes, every book you read counts but the shorter ones do need to be combined til they equal about 55,000 words. So depending on how long the books that I read with my kids, I'll combine anywhere from 2 to 5 books and just make a note in the review that I'm combining x number of children's books to equal 1 full-length book. (Remember that audio books count -- my kids' books are both the ones that we read to them at home and audio books that we've listened to in the car).

Okay, that's it for my PSA! Sorry that it was so long. I meant to be brief.

Please come play with us and MAKE EVERY BOOK COUNT!

Penn

PS to the authors -- I know that you're all quite busy (and quite frankly, I'd rather have you writing than reading) BUT if you read even one book this year (and btw, your research books count as long as you read the whole book LOL) let's make it count!! Maybe you can get your friends and family to come play with us? Members of your local writers' group, too? P