Nine Books You Should Buy From Not Amazon

So, anyone who follows the publishing industry has heard about the throwdown between Macmillan Publishing and Amazon today.  I think there's a lot of insanity from both sides, but it sounds like it went something like this.

Macmillan: Hey, Amazon, we're not so thrilled that you're price-fixing eBooks for the Kindle.  Since iPad is going to take over the world, uhm...yeah...we're gonna need you to go ahead and up the prices on Macmillan ebooks.  All of them. Also, we're pretty sure that Steve Jobs can kick Jeff Bezos's butt in a cage match.

Amazon: Yeah...no. 

Macmillan: Well, we're at an impasse then.  Because that means we won't let you carry our eBooks. So, there.  

Amazon: Uhm...while we're at it, why don't we make it ALL your books.  Paper ones, too?

Macmillan: Uhm...

Amazon: Tell Steve Jobs it's on. 

Macmillan: Shit. 

Ok...so there's some crazysauce on both sides of this debate.  And I don't really know who was more ridiculous in the discussion, because, frankly, Macmillan shouldn't have been so astoundingly short sighted, and Amazon shouldn't have been such a bully.  BUT...what I do know is this: Authors who publish with Macmillan (or any of the imprints of Macmillan, like Tor, Farrar Straus & Giroux, Holt, and St. Martin's) are pretty well screwed by this news...because for a lot of authors, Amazon accounts for the lion's share of their sales.

So...without further ado...I give you Nine Books You Should Buy From Not Amazon. All of these books are published by Macmillan. And, yes. Some of these authors are my friends...because I want them to be able to eat. I think it's important to stress how INCREDIBLY vast the impact of this kind of major publishing event is--it impacts authors from all genres...as you can see from the list below.

1. Elizabeth Strout's, Olive Kitteridge (Literary Fiction & Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)

2. Lisa Kleypas's, Blue-Eyed Devil (Contemporary Romance)

3. Lisa Mantchev's Eyes Like Stars (YA)

4. Polly Frost's Deep Inside (Erotic Horror) 

5. Liel Leibovitz's Aliya: Three Generations of American-Jewish Immigration to Israel (Nonfiction)

6. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series (Bestselling Mystery)

7. Natalie Babbit's Tuck Everlasting (Children's & one of my favorite books of all time)

8. Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall (Historical Fiction & Winner of the Booker Prize)

9. Deva Fagan's Fortune's Folly (Middle Grade Fiction)

Really, team?  We can't get it together and reach some kind of agreement?

ETA: There are, of course, thousands of other authors impacted by this insanity.  Visit the Macmillan website to look for more.

you can have my book for free!

**with many thanks to the fabulous Saundra Mitchell for the icon.

9 Books that I Can't Wait to Read

I'm on deadline.

Like, that awful, I-have-to-work-every-waking-minute-between-now-and-two-weeks-from-now-to-make-my-deadline kind of "I'm on deadline."

It's always right about now in the process of writing a book that I get this burning desire to read books.  But I persevere and ignore it...and make a list of all the books that I'm going to read once I turn in my book.  I have them in a pile in my house...and they are my prize.

Here are 9 books I will read the very second I can:

1.  Lisa Kleypas's Tempt me at Twilight - which has been pretty much torturing me since it came out in September.  When I'm working on a book, I always take one romance novel by one of my very favorite authors and set it aside as my "I finished the book!" treat.  This one is it.  And OMG I'm DYING to read it.

2. A.J. Jacobs's The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible - I love nonfiction that follows an author through an insane journey.  This seems like a completely insane journey.

3. Alison Weir's The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn - I will pretty much read anything that Alison Weir writes.  If you like British History, you should do the same.

4. Carrie Ryan's The Dead-Tossed Waves - Carrie is a dear friend, and I've been wanting to read DTW for months.  Finally, I'll be able to!

5. Charles Dickens's Great Expectations - I know. This one is just embarrassing. But, no, I haven't read it.

6. Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love - I appear to be the only female on earth who has not read this book.  It's time.

7. Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking - It seems weird to want to read a cookbook, I know.  But I feel like this one has so many fantastic little nuggets of information...I'm in.

8. Sandra Hill's Viking in Love - Uhm.  Romance novel about Vikings.  Yes, please.

9. Steig Larson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Because I don't read enough thrillers...and this one has a heckuva title.  And I don't think I've heard of a single person who didn't love it.

Ok, readers.  What did I miss?

Sunday Sighs...The West Wing, Josh & Donna

Every time I watch an episode of The West Wing, I think I find my favorite line from the whole show.  But, the romance reader/writer/lover knows that there's only one answer to this question.

It's in the second season, during the episode titled "17 People." This is a fantastic episode--one that shows the incredible talent of Richard Schiff (who plays the curmudgeonly, patriotic Toby Ziegler)--in which, among other things: Toby is made the 17th Person to discover that President Bartlet has MS; Ainsley Hayes (my favorite Republican on television) reveals that she is a Smithie; and Sam & Ainsley have a fantastic argument about the need (or lack thereof) for the Equal Rights Amendment.

But the very best moment in the whole show is when Donna and Josh peel off from the rest of the group, and she confesses that she came to work for the White House not (as he's always believed) when her boyfriend dumped her, but when she dumped him--because the tool stopped to have a drink with friends on the way to pick her up from the hospital after she had been in a car accident:

Josh gets superior (as he does), and says:
"I'm just saying that if you were in an accident, I wouldn't stop for a beer."
Donna replies:
"If you were in an accident I wouldn't stop for red lights."

ok.  le sigh.

But if that weren't enough, here's the kicker. The audience knows in that moment (if they didn't already) that Josh and Donna are destined to be.  But the stellar writing staff of the show doesn't give in to what I am certain was an overwhelming desire to just-get-them-together-already-and-have-them-make-out. They go another five seasons before we get the smooch we want here in season two.

And OMG it's worth it.

And that is just one of the many reasons why I think The West Wing is the greatest thing that has ever been on television.

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Call into Blog Talk Radio Chat with Sarah MacLean!

I'm super excited to join Barry Eva for A Book & A Chat on Blog Talk Radio on Saturday, January 16th at 11am ET!

Please listen in...and call in with questions about The Season, the upcoming Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, me, my writing process, Baxter, Brooklyn, my obsession with The West Wing, or anything else you'd like to chat about!

I survived 2009

And this is very likely the reason why:

Thanks to the very fabulous 2009 Debutantes.  Yes.  They are made of win.

Sunday Awesome: Gail the Goldfish!

I just discovered this awesome easter egg in The West Wing...then discovered that someone awesome has created an entire website as an homage to Gail the Goldfish!

Gail first appeared on The West Wing early on in Season 1...Since that episode, Gail has become more than a prop on a set, she’s become the focus of private jokes between the West Wing production team and eagle eyed fans of the show. In most episodes her bowl contains some object that alludes to the plot, and this web page catalogues as many of these as possible.

For the record, I noticed Gail's special decor in Six Meetings Before Lunch, which is about panda bears and the national zoo. Gail gets two in her bowl!

I am now through being a West Wing nerd.
For today.

Dream Occupation: Romance Novelist

I think I've blogged before about the fact that I've always wanted to be a romance novelist...I usually tell a story about a silly "tell us about yourself" project that I had to do in high school that still lives on my bedroom door in the house where I grew up, on which I wrote: Dream Job: Romance Novelist.  Well, thanks to Eric's iPhone, I can now share the proof with you!

There I am...17 years old.  And there it is...my dream job.

17-year-old me would be "wicked stoked" right now.

Also, because I followed that 11th Commandment to the letter.

Mostly.

At least...I didn't date a lot of actors.

And I didn't *marry* an actor.

She'd also tell me I had to get back to work or risk having to become an economist or something.

You Say You Want A Resolution...

Oh, January 1st, how you tempt me with your big, fresh, blank slates and fresh, exciting promise.

Every year, I make New Year's resolutions. Every year I break New Year's resolutions. And, in the immortal words of Paul Thomas Anderson, And so it goes, and so it goes. And the book says...
"We may be through with the past...but the past ain't through with us."

And so, here we go again. It's January 1, 2010. A new year, a new decade, and here I, Sarah MacLean, do hereby resolve to:

1) Write every day. Even when I'd rather watch The West Wing for the 43rd time.

2) Finish three books. "But Sarah!" you say, "You only have two books due in 2010!" Ah hah! See what I did there? I aimed high.

3) Make Pate de canard en croute. Yes. That requires deboning a duck. I know. I'm wicked adventurous.

4) See at least one movie, in a movie theater, a month.

5) Read Great Expectations. All the way through.

6) Use my elliptical for more than a clothes hanger. At least once a week.

7) Take fewer taxis.

8) Do more yoga.

9) Do a better job of keeping in touch with old friends.

10) Learn one new skill. I haven't decided what this will be. Any ideas? Should I learn a language? Pick up an instrument? Take a photography class? Join an archery club?

Ok...so what are your resolutions?