Picture Day Friday

Medieval Town image copyrighted by NYPD Gaelic Football Club.

Date a Reader

In a departure from my usual posts, comes this fiery post by Rosemarie Urquico titled Date A Girl Who Reads in response to Charles Warnke's You Should Date An Illiterate Girl. I'm posting Rosemarie's response here in its entirety, because it deserves a full read.

"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2am clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes."

Video Day Friday

Today's usually Picture Day Friday. But since I already did a slew of Oscar pictures on Monday, I'm doing a Video Day Friday.

Here's Georgian music not from England of the eighteenth century but from Georgia, Shenma Survilma Damlia, along with soaring views of Georgian countryside.

Midwest Book Review

From time to time I shall be commenting on books for the Midwest Book Review. The first two of my pieces have been published HERE and include comments on Hattie, Get a Haircut! by Jenna Glatzer and What Not To Wear by Tinny Woodall & Susannah Constantine.

Manly Men in Red High Heels

My post for the Heroes & Heartbreakers blog on Jo Beverley's Rothgar and Georgette Heyer's Avon has been published. Do go and read.

Romance Trading Cards for Authors

A chat on Twitter has turned into a fun promotion idea for RT 2011 and RWA 2011, says author Jeannie Lin. "Authors can create and print their own cards featuring a character from their books: hero, heroine, villain, or the couple. Bring the cards to signings and conferences for readers to collect and trade."

Jeannie Lin is spearheading this idea. Here are some more details on the cards:

—Actual print size is 2.5 x 3.5
—There is a back and front template. You are free to do whatever you wish with either side, but this is the intention:
—a. Front: Full image of your cover. Border is optional
—b. Back: Romance trading card border with your character info in the middle. The character profile may include an image (original art, stock images, icons, or part of cover), stats, biography or book info, favorite lines, your website. The back design is COMPLETELY open.
—Create the images in your imaging program and save them as .jpg files. Notice how they need to be flipped on their side horizontally before sending to the printer
—Go to GotPrint.com and select Collector Cards (2.5 x 3.5). Put in your order. The standard is 14-point, gloss cover, color on both sides, no rounded edges
—Upload your images and complete your order

Here are two samples by Jeannie Lin and Moira Rogers:

For more information, read the FAQ.

Jeannie has created a basic TEMPLATE to create your own cards.

Join the Web Tutorial on Romance Trading Card Templates and GIMP on March 5, 7-9pm EST. E-mail Jeannie for the link and the password. For now, follow the conversation via the Twitter hashtag #romancetradingcards.