Link it to me: the more bang for your buck edition

So I’m sitting in my cubicle the other day, just surfing away on the internet when my phone rings. “Thank you for calling X, this is Linsey. May I have your name and account number please?”

“Oh, thank goodness. I got the right number,” an elderly gentleman says on the other end of the line.

“Sir?”

“I called Y racetrack to get the number for your service and they gave me 1-800-XXX-XXXX. Have you ever called the 1-800 version of your number?”

“No, sir. I haven’t. What happened?”

“Well, this woman’s voice came on the line and she said if I was interested in a hot call I should enter in my credit card number for just $0.61 a minute. And I didn’t want a hot call! I wanted a hot horse!”

…And that, my friends, is when I learned to control my immediate impulse to laugh and where you get your bang for you buck. Or in this case your phone sex for $0.61.

Oh dear.

Now in book news, the NY Times highlighted different computer programs to help you keep track of your characters and motivations when writing your book. Interestingly enough, they didn’t highlight any Apple programs that do the same thing (and I’m pretty sure they’re out there). Part of me feels that the article read more like an extended advertisement for Microsoft than comparative journalism, but that didn’t stop me from coveting the Microsoft Project program despite not being a writer. What can I say, I’m weak. I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

The Times also launched its own book blog this week, run by Dwight Garner, a senior editor of the Book Review. Does this mean that the NY Times Book Review now supports the idea of lit bloggers or not?

The always entertaining Ms. Weinman of Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind linked to this article. It appears that the ten-year-old real life mystery that Tony Hillerman used as a plot base in a recent novel may actually have been solved, though probably not as Tony solved it. We can compare and contrast real life and fiction if anyone knows the book I’m talking about.

Frequent commenter on this blog, Marta Acosta, has blogged over at Fresh Fiction with some thoughtful ideas on being part of the paranormal fiction pack and why it appeals to readers. I have nothing to add really other than the following image from I can has cheezburger might represent the next wave of paranormal fiction: vampire cats.

Don’t tell me that Stephen King has done it already, I refuse to listen.

In honor of my first regular blog post over at Romancing the Blog, I give you Bully’s Ten of a Kind representation of romance comic book covers. It seemed only appropriate since most of the women on these covers look seriously put out with their male counterparts.

I found Ironic Sans through an article on Galleycat on the topic of covers that look alike (we’ve all groaned and/or worried over the topic a time or two). Be sure to read the comments for an enlightening look at the cover art process.

The Written Nerd has her BEA recap post up to go with the pictures she posted last week. If you are not BEA-ed out, you might want to take a look.

Now, if those weren’t enough links to keep you busy, please check out this post that’s chock full of more links at The Inkwell Bookstore Blog.

Otherwise have a lovely day. I’m off to do homework in the sunshine.