Incredible Variation on the Pride & Prejudice Spinoff

Oh my. I MUST buy this book just because of the title:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance -- Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!

As a dedicated Jane Austen fan, with Pride and Prejudice being my all-time favorite book, I must find out how much violence the book does to the original story...

Will this be Elizabeth Bennet's worst nightmare? Will Miss Bingley, Wickham and Lydia be eaten by zombies? Will Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy still get together at the end?

Could this book make my my horror-loving friend Charles Gramlich learn to like Austen?

Thanks go to Jan B. for alerting me to it.

Epilogue to Potter Saga?

Over at Walk on the Weird Side, Kate S has posted a hilarious possibility for an epilogue to the Potter story. Kudos to Kate and to her brother, who sent it to her. And the accompanying photo--naughty, naughty! (Of course, I have wondered whether Hermione would eventually get it on with either Harry or Ron....Apparently I didn't give my imagination enough scope.)

Romance Cover Contest 2006

What used to be the All About Romance website's annual bookcover contest now has its own website, called Cover Cafe, Home of the Annual Cover Contest. The most fun, of course, is seeing the nominees for worst cover of the year.

Note, alas, that my friend Rexanne Becnel's 2006 Harlequin NEXT release, Leaving L.A., is among the nominees for Worst Cover. I've inserted it with this entry. Rexanne hated the cover, which she found appalling, and so far I haven't heard anyone disagree with her. What was the NEXT editorial board thinking???

Don't judge the book by its cover, however. Rexanne's an excellent writer; her book did not deserve that awful cover.

Kitty Litter Cake???

This cake may taste wonderful, but I don't think I could bring myself to try it--it looks too realistic! But if you'd like to know how to make Kitty Litter Cake, WikiHow will tell you.

The 100 Unsexiest Men in 2007

Okay, here's something to while away [waste?] some time and give you a few chuckles. The Phoenix website lists its choices for The 100 Unsexiest Men in 2007. The only one I disagree with is No. 42, Jeff Foxworthy--I think he's cute, which equates to mildly sexy to me, and I think he's funny (yeah, corny, etc., etc., but still funny). There are others on the list who are physically appealing to me, but whose behavior has put them beyond the pale. (Don't wanna do a guy who's a nut-job or a bigot or a control freak, regardless of how hot he looks.)

As for the choice for No. 1--I totally agree. Hint: Last year he tried to copyright the phrase "you're fired."

SO WHAT'S IN A NAME? IN THIS CASE, CHUCKLES

Since my own real name has been known to cause a few chuckles -- even, sometimes, to induce the rudeness of a query such as, "Oh, you're kidding, that's not really your name, is it?" -- I sympathize with all those who suffer the misfortune of an inadvertently humorous name. But that didn't keep me from chuckling, too, at this Dear Abby column.

Post-Holiday Catch-Up

I have returned to the blogworld! After ten days of holiday freedom--sleeping, reading, moviewatching, surfing the Net, and blogging at will--I returned to my office to find my in-box piled high, and my free time correspondingly limited. Muddy from slogging through the trenches of legalistic bovine effluvium for the past week, I have finally emerged to flap my wings and cruise the cyber airwaves. I'm developing some ideas for in-depth posts, but for now will give you a few interesting links I've collected lately:

'Butt print' artist fired from teaching job

Signs of a thaw in writers' 30-year feud

In Warren's Words: Plagiarism

Orgasmic Simulator

Favorite Gossip Tidbit of the Day

My favorite gossip tidbit of the day appeared on the Answer B!tch:

Why did Tom and Katie have to publicize how much money they spent for their wedding?
—Florence, Oak Forest, Illinois

Stars often feel the need to remind us they're larger than life. Especially when they are, in reality, rather short.

OD'd on celebrity gossip

Last night I discovered Ask the Answer B!tch at the E!Online website. I spent the next couple of hours overdosing on it. Readers can ask the Answer B!tch any question they like about Hollywood filmdom and celebrities...the AB can probably find the answer. Her snarky, witty, smart-ass approach makes her columns fun to read. Her archives contain over 170 questions. The mixture ranges from the serious ("What is Method acting?", "What do stand-ins do, exactly?") to the inane ("Which cell phone plans do the stars get?", "Why hasn't Britney Spears written me back?", "Does everyone in Hollywood get colonics?"). The Answer B!tch's responses not only offer interesting facts, but also make inanity a hoot.

Even the AB, however, has to tiptoe around some topics ("Who in gay Hollywood can I look up to?"). At least one query is of interest to writers: "Why don't writers have any power in Hollywood?"

Blog Harvest

I am at home semi-sick (feels like flu coming on), but had to check out my favorite blogs, plus some I haven't read before, and the links on each lead to more articles, with more links...well, you know how it goes. Here are some tidbits I found.

Booksquare takes on one of my favorite rants, the lack of adequate proofreading in books now being published. In Castration by Drapery, or, The Importance of Good Editing Booksquare focuses on a recent J.D. Robb novel full of mistakes that should have been corrected in the editing process. J.D. Robb, author of a best-selling futuristic/paranormal romantic suspense series, is a pseudonym of fabulously successful romance author Nora Roberts. I was impressed that The Nora herself responded to Booksquare's post, with apologies for the errors and a promise to have her publishing team work harder on catching all those nagging little nasties before publication.

The Renegade Writer talks about she writes her freelance magazine articles so quickly in Channeling Your Inner Squirrel.

Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind takes a look at the types of readers who like mysteries in Oh, so that explains it--which actually is a comment with a link to an article on that subject, but you're being sent to Confessions first because it's an excellent blog for readers and writers.

And for some juicy/bitchy gossip-speculation, read Gawker on Stalk of the Town: Maury Povich's Current Affair. Alas, poor Connie Chung....

Whatta a Buncha Skanks!

Click on the title of this post to check out Bella Stander's blog, Reading Under the Covers, for her pithy comments on the publication of O.J. Simpson's book, O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened.

I will be out of town for a few days for a wedding, so probably won't have time to post again until mid-week. Y'all have a nice weekend.