Welcome to A Basket Full of Kittens?!
Welcome to A Basket Full of Kittens!
How did this get started? Well, I was scrolling through twitter today and I saw a post from Cat Sebastian @CatSWrites lamenting the lack of a "rating system" for romance between light-hearted rom-coms up to and including violent, emotional crime. I thought to myself, why not?
So, A Basket Full of Kittens was born.
So, let's start rating. I haven't given this much thought, so I'm open to suggestions, but here's what I'm thinking.
1. Light, frothy, fun. A basket full of kittens.
2. A little less light, but still frothy and fun. Main character dumped at the outset by a significant other who is terrible. A basket full of puppies.
3. Main characters solve a murder where we are glad the victim's dead. Full grown cat that likes snuggles.
4. Main characters solve a murder where we are sad the victim's dead. Full-grown Dog that likes snuggles (think Golden Retriever).
5. Main characters have relatable emotional baggage. Cat only snuggles when it wants.
6. Secret identity or secret baby. Aloof cat.
7. Past abuse or trauma. Aloof dog.
8. Violence, Death, or nonconsensual sex hinted at but not fully discussed/described. Trigger warning may be a good idea. Aggressive cat.
9. Just short of full on crime scene. Violence. Death or nonconsensual sex discussed but not in print. Needs a trigger warning. Aggressive dog.
10. Full on crime scene. Violent. Death in print or nonconsensual sex in print. Needs a trigger warning. Not even going to analogize this to an animal.
Friendly, respectful debate among readers/writers is welcome. This is supposed to be fun, so meanness, trolling, or racial/ethnic epithets are not. Debates as to rating will be resolved by the author (if the author weighs in) or by the moderator (me).
Anyone who has a book they want to include, please e-mail JoannaReadsPodcast@gmail.com. If you are the author or agent/publicist, please make sure to include that info in your email.
Thank you!
H/T to Olivia Waite (@O_Waite) for suggestions for ratings. Thank you!
How did this get started? Well, I was scrolling through twitter today and I saw a post from Cat Sebastian @CatSWrites lamenting the lack of a "rating system" for romance between light-hearted rom-coms up to and including violent, emotional crime. I thought to myself, why not?
So, A Basket Full of Kittens was born.
So, let's start rating. I haven't given this much thought, so I'm open to suggestions, but here's what I'm thinking.
1. Light, frothy, fun. A basket full of kittens.
2. A little less light, but still frothy and fun. Main character dumped at the outset by a significant other who is terrible. A basket full of puppies.
3. Main characters solve a murder where we are glad the victim's dead. Full grown cat that likes snuggles.
4. Main characters solve a murder where we are sad the victim's dead. Full-grown Dog that likes snuggles (think Golden Retriever).
5. Main characters have relatable emotional baggage. Cat only snuggles when it wants.
6. Secret identity or secret baby. Aloof cat.
7. Past abuse or trauma. Aloof dog.
8. Violence, Death, or nonconsensual sex hinted at but not fully discussed/described. Trigger warning may be a good idea. Aggressive cat.
9. Just short of full on crime scene. Violence. Death or nonconsensual sex discussed but not in print. Needs a trigger warning. Aggressive dog.
10. Full on crime scene. Violent. Death in print or nonconsensual sex in print. Needs a trigger warning. Not even going to analogize this to an animal.
Friendly, respectful debate among readers/writers is welcome. This is supposed to be fun, so meanness, trolling, or racial/ethnic epithets are not. Debates as to rating will be resolved by the author (if the author weighs in) or by the moderator (me).
Anyone who has a book they want to include, please e-mail JoannaReadsPodcast@gmail.com. If you are the author or agent/publicist, please make sure to include that info in your email.
Thank you!
H/T to Olivia Waite (@O_Waite) for suggestions for ratings. Thank you!
Thinking about the other books in the series from the first post - maybe a rating indicating it deals with a historical/societal issue, like suffrage, women in traditionally men's roles, etc? It's a little more than light & frothy fun but not as heavy as murder/abuse/violence... Shelter pet that just got adopted?
ReplyDeleteAwesome point. The ratings are based on kittens and puppies. The descriptions are just general guidelines. My plan is to include a little blurb about why that particular rating was chosen. What you're describing might fall into Cat Only Snuggles When it Wants, Aloof Cat, or Aloof Dog -- depending on the circumstances
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