I finished The Strain this morning.I was expecting something different from Del Toro. Maybe more magical realism. However, I really ended up enjoyiong it. As was mentioned upthread, I liked the mixing of the vampire/zombie traditions, and I am skepitcal that it can be stretched out to 2 more books. I wish more of the book had been like the last big section of hunting and fighting.

I am still reeling at the thought that LKH is suggesting that her books and Meyers' books are in the same genre.

That's like saying that 'The Princess Diaries' is following in the footsteps of 'Debbie Does Dallas.' Or, well, probably a flawed analogy, but SWEET ZOMBIE JESUS, the only connection between Twilight and LKH's books, other than the fact that both sets of novels are excruciatingly bad, is that they feature attractive men with pointy teeth. Which, okay, is a similarity, I'll grant you - but NOT ENOUGH OF ONE.

thinks

...okay, I take it back. Although LKH writes terrible porn sans plot, and Meyers writes terrible plot sans porn, they're both writing Mary Sue self inserts (albeit different flavours of Mary Sue) and they're both writing books that have lashings of misogyny in there, along with the attractive men with pointy teeth. And werewolves.

LKH writes terrible porn sans plot, and Meyers writes terrible plot sans porn

Best summation ever.

LKH writes terrible porn sans plot, and Meyers writes terrible plot sans porn

Together, they fight crime literature.

The now-retired Justice Souter is moving out of his in-his-family-for-generations farmhouse into a new house because the old house won't support his library of thousands of books.

"He said there was just so much weight from the books, it would be too much for the house to support," Gilman said.

Now there's a book freak for you--move instead of purge!

I skipped a lot so someone might have already mentioned this but I just noticed that Barnes & Noble (in Santa Monica at least) has a Vampire Romance section. I bet they keep Meyers and LKH there.

I've run into something that looks to me like it is self published, but I want to be sure.

I is called "Wind Turbine Syndrome" and may well have a valid point. [link] It is edited by the author's husband

It is published by a publishing company called K-Select books [link]

Which has a four person board of directors, two of those board members are the author (Dr. Nina Pierpoint), and the author's husband (Calvin Luther Martin).

I cannot find any other books the publisher has put out. Nor can I find any independent web site for the publisher. All I can find is a web page on the author's own site.

But maybe the publisher HAS published other books, and is just not very web conscious. How do I double check to find out for sure whether this company is a real publisher or a disguised form of self-publishing?

Gar, most of the publishers who aren't very web conscious are still talked about by other people, so a quick google will find them. I couldn't find K-Selected anywhere else but there and in discussions of evolution. My first guess would be self-published anyway, since that's the new face of self-publishing for people who don't want to spend huge amounts.

Ages ago, the first time I read Skinny Legs and All, it slowly dawned on me during the course of reading that I had a conch shell sitting dusty and forgotten behind some books on a bottom shelf. Spiritually inspired, I dusted her off and gave her a place of honor on the octagonal table in the front room.

A couple years ago my nephew chose a Japanese steakhouse for his birthday dinner and I ordered one of those foofy drinks that come in a ceramic container you get to take home after the meal. Some time during the course of dinner my other nephew exclaimed, "are those his balls?!"

I examined my drinking vessel and it did indeed seem to be the likeness of a panda-bear looking dude with balls so ponderous they appeared to be brushing the ground. I took him home and realized he would make an excellent receptacle for my kitchen scrubbies. And there he sat, usually facing the disposal-switch and mostly forgotten, until I picked up a copy of Villa Incognito.

During the course of reading the first few pages, it slowly dawned on me that the main character of this book, Tanuki, was the little dude who minded my kitchen scrubbies.

So now I've had two kind of weird Tom Robbins related coincidences in my life. I wonder what the third one will be.

Hope it's not your thumbs growing.