Affiliate Marketing Secrets

A recent trip to the library revealed that at–*least*…!–13 books on vampires and werewolves from “The Little Women” to Leo Tolstoy; classic books that have been treated to a “supernatural” twist on the various themes which you and I grew up reading on as kids and teens.
I just stood there and went, “WTF?!?..!!!”
I thought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was bad enough…but from what I saw…?
I started to weep a little inside because of what’s being done to my childhood memories.
This is getting to be too much!
The genre’s getting killed over so many vampire books flooding the market–with some of them not making a lick of sense; sounding like a dark crossing between Angel and True Blood on some of the themes and a poor man’s excuse for another Twilight clone.
My wife recently read “Shadow Kiss” and even though she likes the book, I was just appalled by what the author was able to get away with and I was completely turned off–seeing how it’s just another “boy-toy”-vampire cliched novel: Girl loves guy, wants to become a vampire herself and yadda, yadda, yadda.
Insert love triangle, mortal danger, and cheesy HEA endings that make people like me want to ralph.
Where’s the imagination and the creativity in these books? Whatever happened to sticking to the lore and genre and try to maintain some semblance of originality? (Not to mention DIGNITY?)
Why the weak characters? The impossible romances? The milk-curdling plots that make absolutely no sense whatsoever?
Where’s the solid story-telling and the great character lines? Whatever happened to just “writing” a book and not worry about what the other guy has out on the shelves?
You know, it makes me almost hesitant to finish a vampire book I started 10 years ago.
I say *almost* hesitant here. I plan on finishing it and the others on my list, but I don’t want a book that is just like everybody else’s.
I’m horrified and mortified by what’s on the shelves. Very few books I’m running into makes any lick of sense and it’s becoming harder to try to find something close to home.
Y’know?
When I started it out with my first vampire book (as I write mostly science-fiction/fantasy), all I wanted was a simple half-human/vampire romance between a hunter and her human companion.
A journey of discovery and redemption. Nothing special. Nothing crazy. No “turning” the guy in the end, no trying to force a romance out of the ether, but just let things happen as naturally as possible.
And while the first draft didn’t end in an HEA (I hate those!), but tragedy for the main character–as she had to lose everyone she knew; including the guy she was with.
The second draft was altered a bit, a little more in depth with the characters, but it hasn’t contained anything abnormal or deviant–with the minor exception that the main character craves chocolate and sex. (I thought that would be a nice–normal–twist; focusing on the human aspect of the character rather than what she is: Half-vampire.
I already know what she is. Why make her out to be more than the sum of all her parts?)
But outside of that…? There’s no secret–or earthly–power to be had, no secret coven of vampires or werewolves dueling it out for power or control over the Earth, or some other whacka-doo story plot element that is totally–freakishly–*alien* to the lore/genre itself.
Nothing that trashes the supernatural genre that makes it look both silly and utterly tasteless–y’know?
I’m not doing this to be different or in “defiance” of what’s already out there, but I just don’t see how all these variant books out already is going to make people like the genre any better–than what I grew up on reading as a kid.
It’s my belief that is trend is backfire and *badly* at some point–where someone is going to cross a line that shouldn’t be crossed and people are going to go, “Okay…whoa! That’s enough! Stop!”
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Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” is a timeless classic because it embodied so much of what we didn’t *know* about vampires, but kept true to the idea of the dark and forbidden elements which made the author’s characters likable, memorable, and loved.
But I think the mainstream is pushing things too far in order to get out the next “best-seller” in the supernatural lore–by putting out soap-opera styled, media-circus, trash-tabloids that isn’t supposed to even…*exist* in the first place.
Certainly not in a publishing industry that was built on…well, *TRADITION*.
Now I see agents scrambling for the “next Twilight”–gushing about how “great” the book series was and how new writers should emulate SM’s literary genius. (And on that note–can someone stick a fork into my brain? I think

To me the only thing holding the loosely affiliated tea party patriots together is their desire for spending cuts and lower taxation.
Lets face it the tea party is a collection of dissatisfied GOPers fed up with broken promises and compromise, libertarians, younger conservatives who are mostly concerned with the economy and the fiscal side of things, a few independents sick of the crap, and also a few opportunists.
How will going back in the direction of the religious right not split the tea party/conservative vote???
*This question does not reflect on my personal views as much as it does the reality of the voting public in my opinion.

I live in Jefferson County NY and I don’t have local channels on Directv. I can get my local channels if I plug in my converter box thing but I don’t know which, if any, are affiliated with NBC. I really really really wanna’ watch this game…so does anyone know which of my local channels may or may not be affiliated with NBC so that I may watch the kickoff game on the 9th?? Thanks!

During my days as a teen a became engulfed in the underground culture. I adopted a more radical stance on the issue. In my mind, the underground was the last line of defense against the tentacles of the corporate world…and anyone who was affiliated with them (mtv,bet, snoop, jay z) was considered a yoyo/flip flopper. Now the way I went by choosing who I listened to music wise was based solely on my view of them being firly against the yoyo’s….hence, not associating with them in any way (highly disappointed with gang starr on their final album for having snoop on it). So, in your opinion, when does an underground hip hop
artist cross the line

Hi guys, I’m going to be a freshman in college this upcoming fall. I’m filipino and a girl.. I dunno if you guys know the stereotype of how filipina girls are nurses and such, it’s somewhat true, because ALL of my aunts are nurses, besides my mom. She wanted to wear a business suit and work in a cubicle. 😛 My mom has stressed all my life how I will be set with money + having a job when I get out of school. She has told me all these things about nursing that just made me feel so set.. So I grew up wanting to be a nurse. I took a health sciences course, and it was alright. It was nice to wear the lab coat and go see surgeries and shadow doctors and such, but…
lately I’ve been having some sort of doubt when I think of nursing. Although I would be making good money, have no trouble finding a job, I don’t know if this is really what I want to be. I’m just SUPER confused about what to do, because I don’t know if a job is really something you’re supposed to like, that’s what it seems. My mom says how ‘it’s just a dream job’, nursing is what will keep you living well.
Baking is a hobby of mine, and it relaxes me, and I feel so free when I bake. My niches are being creative, and drawing. I don’t like saying it, but I have always been the ‘good drawer’ in class, and I don’t know how to explain it, I know I have great potential to be a baker… This is what I made for a cake walk. I only used those $1 cake mixes, but I tried to make them pretty:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs595.snc3/31355_1215745114233_1246980568_30855536_7829023_n.jpg
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs575.snc3/31355_1215745034231_1246980568_30855534_5597875_n.jpg
I made 10 cakes in 12 hours..
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs575.snc3/31355_1215745154234_1246980568_30855537_4377712_n.jpg
I’ve never had a baking class or even really an art class… Agh, this is sort of just a rant, but I honestly don’t know what to do…

choose at least one from the top 10 teams and at three for the most from the associate and affiliate teams put the top 11 first