Sunday, April 02, 2006

Fishing for Groupers

The latest big name romance grouper blog has a fetching title: Well Behaved At All Times. Sizzles with the promise of being a hotbed of BSL writer angst and controversy against a stark backdrop of truth in publishing, doesn't it?

We can hope, anyway.

Have you noticed that it is next to impossible to find a decent scandalous grouper blog to read lately? Where are those blogs murky and dangerous and potentially career-destroying, like The Latest Dark Cabal was before a couple of the groupers hiding behind those catchy handles were exposed and quit in a group sulk? Alas, Johnny Dark, we hardly knew ye.

I'm wondering where all the grouper manifesto-writers have gone, too. Remember how stunning genre movements like Mundane SF were going to change the way we thought about whatever they harped on? Okay, so they didn't, but they tried, didn't they? Sort of. At least all that bickering with people over on Live Journal was pretty entertaining. SF is always in desperate need of a good movement.

Everything looks dead over at The Lit-Blog Coop. No, I'm not making fun of them, for real. It seems that daily, weekly, and even monthly blogging is out of the question for that entire slate of groupers. Must be the demanding task involved in picking a single book to rec from that towering and diverse stack of novels by their struggling poor award-snubbed unknown author candidates. I know it would take me years, if not decades, to plow through it.

Maybe I should start an edgy, scandalous grouper blog. I already have enough pseudonyms to outfit a basketball team, and we have all sorts of dirt on each other. Like, did you know Rebecca has a tattoo, and S.L. has a Ph.D., and Lynn is horribly disfigured? And we're pretty sure that Gena is dead, or on an iron lung in a private nursing home outside Springfield. It wouldn't take a lot of effort to send ourselves worshipful e-mails that we could post on the blog. It would fit in great with our new marketing plan to give each other cover quotes and interview each other in genre rags, too.

What? It could work.

14 comments:

  1. I think it would totally work, especially if you add in some of your characters. Imagine the entries the Darkyn would write!

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  2. Anonymous10:33 AM

    Nalini wrote: Imagine the entries the Darkyn would write!

    Phillipe already wants his own weblog. :)

    Joel wrote: "Grouper" blogs?

    From the Portuguese garoupa, the word for a type of perch found in the waters off Portugal.

    In the wild, groupers are members of the genus Epinephelus. They're primarily ambush-loving bottom feeders who swallow their prey whole. Very tasty, high-yield fish that can grow to goliath proportions, so some species are farmed now. Bigger ones have been known to attack unwary humans who dive into their waters.

    I posted a parody on their two-legged counterparts here.

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  3. And wait until your cats join the fun and tell some juicy things about you.

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  4. Anonymous1:15 PM

    LOL When I first read this Inside my head it said Fishing for GROPERS

    hehehe


    *shaking my head at myself*

    ~Erin the Innocent

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  5. and you still cling to those professions of innocence, Erin. Jaynie is such a bad influence on you.


    Seems like some of more amusing blogs are dying. A couple of friends ran one, but they ended up getting to busy to keep up, so they just got rid of it.

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  6. I only knew about the racier blogs when someone linked to them. What can I say, I'm out of the loop. *g*

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  7. Anonymous8:10 PM

    I remember getting into Dark Cabal just as it crashed. How sad. As for Mundane SF, there are few SF-related writing topics which get under my skin as much as the Mundanians.

    Sheila, why don't we start an SF group blog for SF writers who are anti-mundane? You know, folks who value story, and character development, and plot, and who don't give a hang about the science. Folks like you and me.

    What's BSL, by the way?

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  8. Doug, now that sounds like a blog I would read.

    if there's nothing more to the story than the science, it puts me to sleep quicker than a sleeping pill.

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  9. Anonymous8:51 PM

    Gabriele wrote: And wait until your cats join the fun and tell some juicy things about you.

    I'm simply glad they don't know how to work the video camera.

    Erin wrote: When I first read this Inside my head it said Fishing for GROPERS

    Must. Resist. Pun.

    Shiloh wrote: Seems like some of more amusing blogs are dying. A couple of friends ran one, but they ended up getting to busy to keep up, so they just got rid of it.

    It can be a real time sink, especially on top of writing, family, and having some sort of social life. I honestly don't know how folks with day jobs swing it.

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  10. Anonymous8:58 PM

    Jordan wrote: I only knew about the racier blogs when someone linked to them. What can I say, I'm out of the loop.

    You're always too busy attracting people over to your weblog with those calming, thought-provoking posts and getting them into helpful discussions that never turn into snitfests. :)

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  11. Anonymous9:14 PM

    Doug wrote: ...there are few SF-related writing topics which get under my skin as much as the Mundanians.

    Oh, there are plenty of SF mighty mites out there.

    Sheila, why don't we start an SF group blog for SF writers who are anti-mundane?

    Because besides you and me and Jon and Dean, there aren't any? Lol.

    What's BSL, by the way?

    Shorthand for Bestseller List.

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  12. Anonymous9:40 PM

    I'm so sorry to hear about Gena. I bet Rebecca was responsible, I've heard she has a tattoo. ;)

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  13. This calls for an "Anything Goes" blog where all the characters, household members, and symbiotic beings join in the blogging fun and groping (where legal--minors should remain off-limits to groping. Miners are another story.).

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