Emmelnie is Sharing the Shallows

October 28, 2017November 19, 2017shallowreader 2 Comments

In July, my twitter tweep Mary Lynne, contacted me to ask if I would be in Sydney in early August as she was travelling to my Emerald City and would love to meet up. As luck would have it, I had to respond that I would not be in Sydney on her dates as I was going to be in the US of A. Mary Lynne asked and we were both thrilled that we instead would meet up in New York City. She came to my hotel with Stacey Agdern on my first night and the two of them took John and myself out for a meal and a walking tour of their city. Mary Lynne was just like her twitter stream and our many exchanges. Fun, smart, chatty. A few weeks later, I was thrilled to see that she visited just about all the places I recommend to her for her Sydney visit.

Mary Lynne Nielsen

@emmelnie

Can you describe yourself?

My name is Mary Lynne Nielsen, and I’m known on Twitter as @emmelnie. I work in my day job at a nonprofit, where I help build global awareness and use of the consensus industry standards that underpin, say, the very technologies you’re using to read this blog post right now. I also worked as a professional editor for many years, so I really go nuts with typos, plot gaps, and lack of stylesheet use in my reading!

I’ve been reading romance for 40 years—I started as a teenager. I was mistress of ceremonies at a romance reader convention for many years, so I’m quite public about my devotion to and support of romance as a genre deserving of respect, worthy of analysis, and able to handle critiques.

What is your main reading medium (books, blogs, games, news, etc) and how much time do you spend reading a week?

I read books and news every single day. How much time in a week depends on what’s happening in the other aspects of my life. I sometimes travel for my job, so that can be a good or a bad thing for reading depending on the distance and level of activity at the location! I subscribe to several newspapers, so I use that for news and information; I read books continuously; and I track several blogs and many author newsletters. I also use Twitter and Facebook; the former for conversation, the latter for author information. Continue reading →

Kate Cuthbert is Sharing the Shallows

October 21, 2017shallowreader 2 Comments

In 2011, I moderated a romance event for the City of Sydney Libraries. I promoted the event and lots of people, especially from the then still new and fresh online world of Twitter had booked in to come along. There was a bit of a buzz amongst tweeps as we were all excited to be meeting each other. Kate, living in another city, on the day of the event contacted me. “Is there room for me to come along with my baby”. My answer of course was “Hell Yeah!”. Most impressively, Kate drove for near 3 hours with her baby all the way to Sydney to be in the audience. She (and her gorgeous bub) totally blew me away! And this is Kate through and through! She is a total personification of the deep commitment and love and knock-me-out-effort to romance fiction. Even though we met in this way, Kate has since become a great and supportive friend.

Kate Cuthbert

@katydidinOz

Can you describe yourself?

KATE CUTHBERT is Managing Editor of Escape Publishing, the digital-first imprint of Harlequin Australia that she established in 2012. When Kate is not reading manuscripts, she is working on her PhD, tweeting about grammar, and probably procrasti-baking.

What is your main reading medium (books, blogs, games, news, etc) and how much time do you spend reading a week?

I read mostly submissions and the internet, though I keep a ready supply of aspirational books and newspapers should I suddenly find myself with some unassigned time.

What or who is your joyful reading (guilty or otherwise) pleasure?

Historical romance is my first love, and when I need a boost, I often reach for an author that I know can deliver the right balance of romance, humour, and hope. I read and re-read Anne Gracie, Amanda Quick, Sarah MacLean, Tessa Dare, Julia Quinn, and many others. I do have a handful of contemporary romance authors that are joyful reads for me: Victoria Dahl, Sarah Mayberry, and recently Sally Thorpe’s The Hating Game.

Do you have a favourite storyline or plot? And do you have one you will not read?

I really really really like stories that involve friends becoming more. The emotional stakes are so high in these stories and the consequences are life-altering. I also really like siblings of friends stories: that growth from annoying to suddenly very noticeable.

I have a very hard time with stories where children are harmed or in any kind of peril. I have to read them for work, but they are plot lines I studiously avoid in all other contexts.

Why do you/don’t you use a public library?

I love my public library! The story times are great for my youngest daughter (and she always sleeps so well afterwards) and I have a small addiction to cookbooks that is mitigated by taking them out from the library first to see if they are worth adding to my collection. Our public library here has a great park out the front as well, with a climbing wall and slides, so going to the library becomes an outing, where the kids can entertain themselves and I can read my borrowed books. I also worked for awhile in the library industry, and the role that libraries can play in people’s lives is truly extraordinary, so even if we didn’t use ours, I’d make sure we were all members to help boost the numbers.

Do you RUI*. If so, what?

I have visions of one day having a bathtub big enough to drown in, with a dedicated shelf for a glass of wine, and basically living in there with my books, but that hasn’t happened yet 🙂

Do you have a favourite reading spot?

I really love reading in bed, and there’s a spot on my couch that catches the sun on warm afternoons that I occasionally retire to, under one of my selection of quilts.

Toilet reading:

b) Only my own books/phone/tablet/ereader

(I have two children under 6. Sometimes I escape to the bathroom just to have a minute to myself!)

Romance fiction of the Happily Ever After (not the love tragedy) kind – are you a Lover or a Hater and why?

Lover. Cynicism is cheap and plentiful. It takes courage to see the good in the world, and to celebrate those elements that are happy and optimistic and hopeful.

What would you give up reading for**?

Oof. I mean, if the lives of my children were in danger? Otherwise, you can take my books from my cold, dead hands (and even then I have some books I’ve earmarked to be included in my coffin).

Can a romance/crime/super/etc hero be the driver of a hatchback?

Abso-freakin-lutely.

Kit only from Bookgroup is Sharing the Shallows

October 14, 2017shallowreader Leave a comment

It is the second Saturday of the month, and once again, a member of my bookgroup is sharing today’s shallows. I met Kit when our bookgroup started over 16 years ago. Always funny, always foodie and always insightful. Like me she is the only other bookgroup member who would bring her son along to our meetings from a young age. Our bookgroup topic today was “crafty” and Kit won the most-tenuous-link-to-the-topic award with her book on the gut. A-ha. That’s the way she rolls.

Kit

I am a mother, a carer and sometime banker, originally from Melbourne, but diehard inner westie (Sydney). I live a very vanilla life with lots of irregular influences.

What is your main reading medium (books, blogs, games, news, etc) and how much time do you spend reading a week?

I’m ashamed to say facebook but with links to loads of good news sites and a really interesting friends group who post articles and thoughts I would never see otherwise. I also have several books next to my bed that get read sporadically.

What or who is your joyful reading (guilty or otherwise) pleasure

Kerry Greenwood – Corinna not that 20s bird or Kurt Vonnegut

Do you have a favourite storyline or plot? And do you have one you will not read?

Unhappy endings or not the way you think its going to go. Pretty much happy to read anything but am using the patented Vassiliki method of reading the first chapter and if it hasn’t grabbed me, give up. I do struggle with “the classics” but keep revisiting them in case I’ve got grown up enough to enjoy them.

Why do you/don’t you use a public library?

We used to go when Ben was little but I think I was trying to be a “good” mum. Once I went back to work that pretty much went by the wayside. I think we were fortunate to be able to buy loads of books so did that instead.

Do you RUI*. If so, what?

Not really, my only vice really is alcohol and then my eyes get too fuzzy.

Do you have a favourite reading spot?

My new wiz bang office chair with all the levers or bed, occasional weekend magazine in the bath slightly soused (the magazine not me, keep up people!)

Toilet reading:

Yep, but usually only magazines or Sudoku, occasionally phone. I don’t really see why this is an issue, long got over the bodily functions hysteria.

Romance fiction of the Happily Ever After (not the love tragedy) kind – are you a Lover or a Hater and why?

Sorry Vassiliki but ew, I guess I was lucky enough to have this IRL so made me want to puke in books, also couldn’t stand the predictability – will they, won’t they, well of course they will.

What would you give up reading for**?

Oh geez, daughter of a book editor and publisher, don’t think I could – new ideas, hilarious jokes, bits of the world you would never see, how could you give that up. Even if I was blind I’d get talky books.

Can a romance/crime/super/etc hero be the driver of a hatchback?

Sure as long as they don’t wear white socks with dark pants

*Reading Under the Influence

**I like stranded prepositions

Miss Bates is Sharing the Shallows

September 30, 2017September 30, 2017shallowreader 4 Comments

The Shallows are back! Having taken a slightly longer hiatus than I planned, I am splashing back into the shallows with a post that I have anticipated for a long time – today, Miss Bates Reads Romance is answering my questions. I first met Miss Bates over on Twitter in 2013 and I am going to be effusive. The two of us clicked immediately. We both love romance fiction. Neither of us are fans of smexxy books. We both love Patrick Leigh Fermor. We are both Greek but with that cynicism and deep love of our heritage that makes it a sensitive area to navigate. We are both Orthodox, and Miss Bates has rekindled my long dormant interest in our shared belief, and I am especially thankful for her introducing me to the wry Sister Vassa. Just a few months ago, we finally met in person, and all I can say is that she was more wonderful than her wonderful online self. She is the friend, that had we met at school, we would have been κολως και βρακη (bum in undies or bosom buddies). We just absolutely clicked. I absolutely adore her. And one day, the two of us will write a romance with a proper dancing Greek hero/λεβεντη. But in the meantime, I will share her wit and wisdom……

jane austen image Miss Bates Reads Romance

@miss_batesreads

https://missbatesreadsromance.com/

Can you describe yourself?

Miss Bates of the romance review blog, Miss Bates Reads Romance, works in education and spends her day tutoring, teaching, advising, and mentoring. By night and by summer, Miss B. reads, reads, reads, and blogs about her favourite genre: romance! She got her blogging moniker from a colleague as she sat musing a blog name. The colleague exclaimed, “Miss Bates!” and MBRR was born. It fit, as MissB is known to talk up a storm and lives with her long-suffering, precocious mum.

Miss Bates also loves a good cozy, woo-woo gothic, and any hybrid thereof, always with a good dose of romance. Though she’s been quiet about it so far, she reads a lot of non-fiction, mainly history, politics, and current events. Lately, she’s thinking of branching out to write about non-romance reading on her blog.

With Vassiliki, she shares a love of their common Greek heritage, with its penchant for story-telling and rhetorical flourish, romance reading and critique, twirly Greek dancing, and the state of education in their former British colonies. Continue reading →

DrScrabblette and DrFriendless are Sharing the Shallows – He Reads/She Reads Special Edition!

July 15, 2017September 30, 2017shallowreader 2 Comments

DrScrabblette is such a phenomenal woman. She is the first academic I taught for at university and she has since become a dear, dear friend. We talk about everything from reading and culture and information and life and il/literacies and her dog whispering skills and just her incredible ability to connect with every one she meets. Her students love her, and I have to say that this love is highly deserved as she knocks herself out for them. Through DrScrabblette, I have met DrFriendless a few times, and he too is an open and giving person who, despite his chosen pseudonym, is very friendly and always interesting.

DrScrabblette and DrFriendless

University academic and computer wizard, sharing a celebrity dog named Samantha.

Dog leaning on paper and pen

Can you describe yourself?

We started sharing bookshelves in 2006. She didn’t know how to read at all until she was ten. Homeschooled until ten on her Indian grandmother’s fantastic stories, myths, and legends, she has a lifelong obsession with fairytales and retellings. Once she learned to read, she consumed a lot of beautifully illustrated Russian Fairy Tales from Soviet bookstores, Tinkle magazine, Archie comics, Amar Chitra Katha stories, and Mad magazine, alongside tons of pulp fiction and cartoons in Tamil magazines. After completely skipping several phases of reading “chapter books” and YA fiction etc., she read Future Shock at fifteen, and has never stopped reading since.

He misspent his youth reading Enid Blyton, then heroic fantasy, then classics and literary fiction. Then he learnt French and read French classics and “polars” – noir detective stories. He read “The Hobbit” and the first couple of volumes of Harry Potter to his son when he was young, and the son grew up to read Chuck Palahniuk. These days he just reads computer texts, but has aspirations to write when he grows up.

She introduced him to Robert Coover, Indian mythology, and Luigi Cavalli-Sforza, and the son to Ryu Murakami. Both are avid players of tabletop board games, and he loves reading the rules diligently whereas she just likes breaking them. Continue reading →