Category Archive

books

Potter pregnancy announcement: Pregnant Potterphiles need to see these downloadable pregnancy announcements

Pregnant Potterphiles need to see these downloadable pregnancy announcements

If you’re waiting for a yet-to-be-named future wizard to join your family, these Harry Potter pregnancy announcement graphics are for you. Created by Mugglenet designer Cheyenne, these downloadable graphics can be plugged into an announcement email or into Facebook, Instagram, or your social media of choice.

Let’s peek at these Potterphile pregnancy graphic styles…

From Mr. Rogers to Afropolitans in space: What we’re watching, reading, and listening to right now

We haven’t been talking a lot about what we’ve been consuming media-wise lately. And that’s no good since I know we’re all watching, listening, and reading things that aren’t just terrible news media. You’ve got to spend some time in other worlds sometimes, be they fictional fantasies, crime dramas very much not set in reality, and enjoying whatever it is we love most.

Harry Potter decor

Merlin’s pants! This incredible Harry Potter decor wins the House Cup

Sometimes I have dreams of recreating Hogwarts in my own home and finally get that admissions owl I somehow missed at age eleven. Then you see what Jasper Price and his wife Angie have done to recreate the Hogwarts common room and realize that you’re out of your quidditch league. They’ve amassed the most mystical of Harry Potter decor collections (Mrs. Norris lookalike included!) and turned their home into the wizarding world of our dizziest daydreams.

Dancer’s Flame by Jasmine Silvera

Bad Romance part 3: Demanding greater diversity in who gets a happily ever after in romance

One of the big success stories in self-publishing is romance. According to popular platform Smashwords, the genre dominates the market. With a few clicks any writer can become an author. Which makes it possible that a novel most major publishing houses and quite a few small presses would have turned down, one that hasn’t seen an editor’s red pen, or even a proofreader will wind up on Amazon more than in other genres.

There’s an argument for gatekeepers, right? Not so fast. Here’s part three in this series on romance as a genre…

Dancer’s Flame by Jasmine Silvera

Bad Romance part 2: The romance genre needs better critique, not more gatekeepers

Though romance novels have always centered relationships and women, there’s no argument that issues of consent and coercion abound in the genre's shady past. Consider the conflicted relationships readers have with Kathleen Woodwiss’ The Flame
and the Flower
, a novel that is said to have started the modern “bodice ripper” romance genre. Here’s part two analyzing the romance genre in books…

On meeting your heroes: the Elfquest creators who helped create me

On meeting your heroes: the Elfquest creators who helped create me

This year is #FortyYearsofPointedEars for my favorite graphic novel series, Wendy and Richard Pini’s Elfquest. They are heading to Chicago’s C2E2 which means I’m finally going to get to meet my heroes. Here’s how Elfquest has impacted me (in life, career, and elsewhere) and how I plan to make the best use of my brief moments with them.

Have you met your heroes?

These book purses are actual BOOK bags that will tickle your bibliophile senses

These literary purses are actual BOOK bags for bibliophiles

I stumbled upon these literary purses and instantly wanted ALL OF THEM. Carry around my Harry Potters in a Harry Potter book bag? Hell yes I will. Etsy seller Krukru Studio Books has tons to choose from, too. Think Anna Karenina, the works of Jane Austen, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, and so many more.

5 books that changed my life this year (no, like, ACTUALLY changed my life)

There were a few books this year that changed my life — not in that hyperbolic “omg this cup of chai is like totally changing my life right now!” way, but as in these books completely shifted how I look at my existence, structure my days, manage my relationships, and handle my sanity. Like, these books actually changed my life this year.