Good Place Podcast, Jay & Miles X-Plain, and Guilty Pleasures

[shadowkat]

1. The Good Place Podcasts with Marc Anthony Jackson

Shawn is the head of the Bad Place. And he recaps each episode, and analyzes all of it, and invites writers and actors to help him. The above one -- has D'Arcy Caden (Janet), and the writers of the episode, Josh Seigal and Dylan Morgan. Must have for D'Arcy Caden fans --- come on, you know who you are. This is my X-mas gift or Hannuakha gift to you -- you can thank me later.

Reminds me of The Succubus Club for Buffy, but much better done. (Caveat, I don't like Podcasts. I can't just listen to something -- I have to interact with it or I get bored and start doing something else at the same time.)

2. The other fun podcasts -- if you are a fan of the X-men, is Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-men, Because Someone Has To .

3. Guilty Pleasures:

These are basically the cultural things that I find deeply comforting and entertaining, and have a life-long weakness for...but they tend to be non-mainstream and most people just don't get.

* X-men comic books and graphic novels ( I fell in love at the age of 18, and never fell out..)
* Romance novels -- specifically historicals
* Superhero television shows and movies and to a degree comics
* Daytime Soap Operas (fell in love as a pre-teen, I blame my mother)
* Japanese Anime
* Musical Theater and Musical films...often based on Musical Theater. (If it's a musical, I'll watch it, even if it is a bad musical)
* Star Wars movies
* Science Fiction/Fantasy novels and television series and films
* Rock Operas..

Comments

Romance novels

[shadowkat]

At least, when publishers had to print books on paper, some editing and vetting was done.

After talking to spikewriter -- I'm beginning to think a big part of the problem is a lack of editing oversight at the publishing companies. If you don't hire your own line-editor, you are out of luck. Because the publishers aren't doing it any longer. This explains a lot. Because Lisa Keyplas' last book, Hello Stranger! -- could have done with a good line-editor. Someone to tell her -- okay, Lisa, scale back on the sex scenes, and work a bit on your plot and characters.

I've noticed a lot of the older romance novels are better edited. (Maybe not as politically correct...but definitely better edited.)

Writers can't line-edit themselves, and you can't get an amateur to do it. You have to hire a professional line-editor. Someone who knows how to look at it from a copy-edit perspective, structural perspective, and story perspective.
And a lot of people aren't trained to do that -- fans aren't. (I've read enough betaed fanfic to pick up on that.)

That's the one thing I've noticed with the genre books -- is a lack of good editing from the "publishing houses". Also the difficulty with e-books, is the formatting can screw things up. I picked up on that when I self-published. I had to make them fix the e-book, they screwed it up. (I hand-wave a lot of typos and mistakes in e-books, because I know that the transfer can cause issues. It's also why I think e-books shouldn't be more than $5.)

They're pretty hit and miss at the moment, though. It's so hard to get a sense of where quality. Reviews are completely useless with ARC reviews and fake reviews clogging the picture.

Oh, so true. I have a few Laura Kinsale's on tap -- which I may jump to after I finish reading Toni Adymei's YA fantasy, Children of Blood and Bone. Kinsale's good. Also a couple of Courtney Milan's. And another Lisa Keyplas...who I keep wanting to like much more than I do. I think things will even out eventually. Right now there's a content boom -- more content than there are readers. And a lot of it is not very good. I finally stopped rating romance novels on Good Reads.

Re: Romance novels

[sculpturelle]

Lisa Kleypas has tried a few times to "go in a different direction" and I've never made the transition with her. And she's got a huge publisher behind her. Avon is the cream of the crop. There have also been issues with Julia Quinn's work (also Avon, I think). So... fewer editors, eh? Hmmm.

Without a doubt, I've had more luck with very disciplined indy (I think) writers (Penny Reid, Courtney Milan, Lauren Blakeley, Christina Lauren, Sarina Bowen). I do find that when they try to veer outside their niches, though, that it rarely goes smoothly.

Editors will make a comeback! Bold prediction. ;)

I like Laura Kinsale... Loretta Chase as well. Elisa Braden (another indy I think) has a terrific series out that isn't well publicized at all. Word of mouth, strictly.

Happy reading!

Re: Romance novels

[shadowkat]

I think Kleypas works best in the contemporary arena -- Friday Harbor series. With less sex, more story.

And she's got a huge publisher behind her. Avon is the cream of the crop. There have also been issues with Julia Quinn's work (also Avon, I think). So... fewer editors, eh?

Yeah, I can't read Quinn -- she has lots of problems. So does Jennifer Probst. But they get a lot marketing push.

The big publishing houses put all their money behind promoting and marketing now. The editors are really "acquisitions editors" -- which means they don't edit or work the story, what they focus on is acquiring subsidiary rights, marketing it, finding an audience, and getting as big of one as possible. They've scaled back on line and copy editors. Actually I don't think they employ line editors at all. According to Spikewriter, who is an independently published romance novelist, most of the people she knows who are traditionally published hire their own line-editor and no longer count on the houses to help.

But it's been going in that direction for a while now. I remember when I first came to NYC in the 1990s and had these big dreams of entering the publishing world. What I discovered, made me want to run screaming in the opposite direction. Literally.

Haven't heard of Penny Reid, Lauren Blakeley, Christina Lauren, Sarina Bowen or Elisa Braden -- I may have to check those out.

My go to's have been Loretta Chase (read most of hers), Courtney Milan, Sherry Thomas (until she stopped writing romances and is now writing mysteries),
Eloisa James, Meredith Duran, Elizabeth Hoyt, Laura Kinsale,
Madeline Hunter, Joanne Bourne (I think that's her name -- she writes the Spymaster series), Kerrigyn Byrn (again think that's her name -- writes Victorian Rebels)...also Alisha Rai (hit and miss), Shannon Abe (who is a hit and miss)..

I've been getting all my recs from Smart Bitches. LOL! Prior to that ShipperX (who disappeared from DW to Twitter).

Re: Romance novels

[sculpturelle]

FYI, I think only Elisa Braden does historicals.

I agree about Alisha Rai being streaky. Madeline Hunter is a fave of mine. I like her older stuff better. It had more backstory. Liz Carlyle is also very good, in a similar vein.

Re: Romance novels

[shadowkat]

Agreed, Hunter's older stuff is better. The new stuff...lacks something, maybe a good editor. ;-)