This giveaway is now closed.  Many thanks to all of the readers and reviewers! After many delays of the Murphy’s Law variety, the print edition of Dodging Eros, Through Past, Present and Pleasure is scheduled to be available for the summer reading season, which is why the Grown-Ups Getaway Giveaway has been extended to Saturday, August 6, 2016 with the second winner’s name posted by Saturday, August 13. No purchase necessary, Void where prohibited. Every previous eligible entrant remains entered except for Paula S., who won in February.  Please see the original Grown-Ups Getaway Giveaway Facebook page February 21 posting for eligibility terms and details. Good luck!

There’s a publishing company that uses algorithms to calculate the number of elements and probability of success for book manuscripts. Now as a capitalist my support is strong for ethical endeavors that up the odds and accelerate the speed of generating profit. And winning recipes and formulae have been applied in literature composition for millennia. The Iliad and The Odyssey rely on the repetition of visual cues and cycles of conflicts, journeys, and returns to keep listeners (originally) and readers engaged. Other storytelling templates and tropes endure: the three-act structure; the poor, innocent ingénue and the wealthy, jaded older man; star-crossed lovers; the love triangle; the mistaken identity and many other popular storylines. But how can a mathematical formula calculate the unquantifiable x-factor that makes Room by Emma Donoghue an international bestseller adapted into a critically acclaimed and commercially successful movie when other novels about traumatized, yet...

How does the frequent use of rape in fiction and other entertainment content impact society’s ambivalence toward sexual assault as a serious crime that’s worthy of prosecution and incarceration of the assailant?