All Hail the Alien Peen

Book Tropes: Why Choose? Both is Good

Have you heard that old joke: Honey, the secret to happiness is to find you a man who’s good around the house. Find a man who takes you out on dates and has a good time. Find a man who’s good in bed. Find a man who shares your values in life. And most importantly of all, don’t let them find out about each other! It’s a joke, of course, but there is a sub-genre of romance that exists on…

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The Great Reading Wrap-Up of 2025

In the grand tradition of the new year, let’s do some tidying, list making, and wrapping up the previous year. Number Of Books I Read in 2025: A respectable 66 new books. My goal for the past few years has been 80, so we’re creeping up little by little to that goal. I don’t want to startle it. We’re sneaking up on it slowly. Number of Re-Reads: at least 80 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and probably more. Surrounded by horrors as we have…

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The Great Reading Wrap-Up of 2024

In the grand tradition of the new year, let’s do some tidying, list making, and wrapping up the previous year. Number Of Books I Read in 2024: A somewhat respectable 55 new books Number of Re-Reads: at least 55 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and probably more. My reading goal is usually 100 new-to-me books, and as many re-reads as my heart desires. Turns out in 2024 my heart desired more predictable books than unfamiliar new ones. It has to do with my neurodivergent…

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The Great Reading Wrap-Up of 2023

In the grand tradition of the new year, let’s do some wrapping-up of last year. Wrap-ups for everyone! Wrap some presents. Wrap-up your post-holiday shopping. Write lots of wrap-up lists. Wrap-up small, misbehaving children Krampus style to mail to . . . haha . . . ooops. Don’t do that. Got carried away there. Number Of Books I Read: A very respectable 123 I lowered my reading goal the last two years to 100, and that’s been much more do-able.…

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Book Tropes: You Should See The Way They Look at You

Otherwise known as: the fresh scent of pine. Ahhh, this is such a fun niche trope. It generally happens in a ‘hero falls first’ situation, and let’s all admit together that we love us a pining hero. But there is the delicious potential for this uncertainty when any character falls first and is now vulnerable, unsure their love is requited. The best part about all of this troubled water our main character has to paddle through? There’s a happy ending…

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SE’s Recommendations Get a Little Hot

AKA my favorite summer reads Also I may have been misleading you a tad with the ‘little’ in the title. Buckle up, bookworms. Tis the season for some hot, hot stuff. Please be advised that every single series on this list would be classified in the erotic romance genre, and carries the accompanying level of spicy scenes. This is the perfect weather to sit sipping a cold drink and reading all about abductions, mail-order brides, cute hybrid babies, forced proximity,…

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Take it Away, Insecure Writer’s Support Group

It’s the first Wednesday of the month, which means we are all insecure! Get down with your bad self and accept the fragility. We’re all here to support you. To sign up for the group, go here. We are, if not legion, then at least myriad. There’s plenty of support to be had. And we are also on Twitter @TheIWSG hashtag #IWSG. A lot of the support today is coming from our volunteer co-hosts J Lenni Dorner, Janet Alcorn, PJ Colando, Jenni Enzor, and Diane…

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The Great Reading Wrap-Up of 2021

In the grand tradition of December, let’s do some wrapping up. Wrap some presents. Wrap-up your post-holiday shopping. Write lots of wrap-up lists. Wrap-up small, misbehaving children Krampus style to mail to . . . haha . . . ooops. Don’t do that. Got carried away there. Number Of Books I Read: A very respectable 174 I kept my goal of 200, despite knowing that was stupidly unrealistic with me going back to work full time. And indeed, my reading…

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