Sunday, October 21, 2012

50 Shades of Grey Cookbook

If it exists, chances are it’s had the 50 Shades of Grey makeover or has been turned into a parody. The number of 50 Shades of Grey parodies out there on the market are uncountable, however there is a new one to be released with a difference.

“50 Shades of Chicken” is a cookbook-cum-parody of the 50 Shades of Grey books that’s being released by an “established food industry professional,” according to People magazine. The alternative cookbook will be released in mid-November and is being described as “a parody in a cookbook.” The 50 Shades of Grey title will include exciting recipes such as Holy Hell Wings, Dripping Thighs and Mustard Spanked Chicken. The author’s identity of the 50 Shades of Grey cooking parody has chosen to remain anonymous, but has wittily released the books under “E.L. Fowler.”

“It evoked something I’d never been able to express. Then one day as I was tying up the ankles of a chicken for roasting, I realized why some of the scenes in the book were so strikingly familiar. It turns out I’ve been practicing BDSM for years – but with poultry,” said Fowler in an email to People magazine. The secretive author gives us more into the 50 Shades of Grey inspired literal food porn.

“The recipe and head notes follow a chef and his chicken on an emotional journey very much like the original trilogy,” said Fowler.  The 50 Shades of Grey parody cookbooks is coming out just in time for the Christmas holidays. It’s sounds like it’s great for any fan of the 50 Shades of Grey books with a sense of humor and a love for cooking. It promises its readers that it’ll offer a book where you can “sink your teeth into this naughty tale of a young, free-range, and very fresh chicken who, like Anastasia Steele, finds herself at the mercy of a dominating man; in this case, a kinky and very ravenous chef.”

We wonder what E.L. James must make of this take on her 50 Shades of Grey books, does she find the food porn titillating or just another ridiculous 50 Shades of Grey parody among the many that are making the rounds these days?

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Fifty Shades blamed for the fall in car books

What is the connection between the bestselling erotic trilogy, Fifty Shades of Grey and car manuals? Well, the books of the latter by publisher Haynes, which are often cited by car mechanics as being their bible, are blaming the success of the Fifty Shades series on the decline of their books. 


While it’s impossible to place the books from Haynes and the Fifty Shades books even in the same genre, the publishing company says that retailers are shunning their books while the Fifty Shades of Grey books continue to sell by the bucket load.

“There is little doubt that… retail purchasing budgets were tight and that much of those available budgets went towards the phenomenally successful Fifty Shades series,” said Haynes, “Our books, in the most part, appeal to automobile and motorcycle enthusiasts. They are probably oriented to a male audience and I am not sure that Fifty Shades is the kind of thing they would enjoy, but that phenomenon is impacting general publishing budget.”

The company’s chief executive, Eric Oakley continued to talk about why the Fifty Shades books have been damaging their bottom line.

“Many bookshops have spent so much money on these titles that their resources for buying other books has been stretched to the limit.”

But it’s not only Haynes who are blaming the success of E.L. James’s trilogy on the falling sales of their books, but also Quercus who published the bestselling trilogy by Steig Larsson, The Millennium Series, with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo being the most famous of the books. Ever since the epic success of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, it looks like the Swedish crime novels have experienced a significant dent in their revenues.

Fifty Shades of Grey may have begun life as a piece of Twilight fan fiction, but the trilogy by E.L. James soon became more than a publishing phenomenon, with the impact it’s had on society, but it’s also the fastest-selling book of all time. Perhaps Haynes should come up with a Fifty Shades of Grey inspired car mechanic book? With all the crazy Fifty Shades inspired ideas out there, it’s a possibility.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

E.L. James against Twilight stars in Fifty Shades of Grey movie

Her books may have been inspired by the Twilight Saga, but E.L. James wants nothing to do with Twilight couple Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart after the scandal in the news.

They may have been every fan’s favorite on screen couple, but since Kristen Stewart cheated on her sparkling vampire boyfriend Robert Pattinson, all the negative press has rubbed E.L. James up the wrong way.

Many fans wanted to see Pattinson and Stewart take up the steamy roles of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele in the movie version of Fifty Shades of Grey, but author E.L. James says she doesn’t want them to star in the movie adaptation of her books.

“It would just be… ugh, weird!” says 48-year-old E.L. James when asked about casting the pair in the movie. Having Robert Pattinson, aged 26, and 22-year-old Kristen Stewart would be a disaster, according to James, especially with all the negative press being focused on the once beloved Twilight couple.

It does seem like E.L. James has her own ideas about who to cast as the enigmatic Christian Grey and the shy and submissive Anastasia Steele.

“I have four people in mind,” says E.L. James, “But I can’t discuss the film which is a real shame.”

Recently, her husband Niall Leonard let is slip that E.L. James is considering Ryan Gosling for the role of Christian Grey, whereas others believe she got her inspiration from a fragrance ad Henry Cavill made while she was writing the books.

At the moment, we can only speculate as to who’ll be E.L. James’s pick for the casting. At the moment other heavy contenders include Ian Somerhalder from the Vampire Diaries, Alexander Skarsgard from HBO’s True Blood and Matt Bomer, whose sexuality has made him a controversial role but also a fan favorite.

It seems that E.L. James is going to remain tight-lipped about the casting, and while fans are going crazy with their personal picks, the UK based author said it was “too early” to think about casting on her Twitter stream a few weeks back. So who do you think E.L. James’s choices are for Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele?

Sunday, September 9, 2012

The secret to Fifty Shades of Grey – and it’s not just the sex!

Fifty Shades of Grey has rocketed up to the number one spot on the charts and has held onto the number one position like a dominatrix in heat. However, while many cite the books’ success to the hot sex scenes there is another kind of porn that has been making the books a smash hit – food porn.

In our modern society, we have such an unhealthy relationship with food – we either eat too much or too little. In Fifty Shades of Grey, Ana Steele has an issue with eating, only choosing to feed once or twice a day, making us wonder if the Fifty Shades of Grey heroine has an eating disorder.

However, along comes Christian Grey who wants Ana to eat and in fact, puts this down in her contract half way through book one in the Fifty Shades of Grey series. It’s sexy for Ana to eat, and seeing a man as hot and wanted as Christian, Fifty Shades of Grey is giving us a positive representation of food many of us need.

It’s become sexy to eat and to eat healthily. And having a man like Christian wanting us to eat is a breath of fresh air for many women. But not only that, Fifty Shades of Grey is full of graphic descriptions of yummy food and sometimes we just want to yell at Ana for not wanting to devour it then and there.

Christian Grey has an issue with wasted food, as we should, and perhaps 50 Shades of Grey will help us evaluate the way we eat. We don’t need to gorge ourselves into excess, but it’s not a crime to take in three meals a day.

So while many say that it’s the sex that makes Fifty Shades of Grey a sexy book, and indeed we love the sex scene, what we do love about Fifty Shades of Grey is its positive relationship with food. It’s sexy to read the dinner leading up to the foreplay between Christian and Ana, and it’s sexy to have a man who wants us to eat. Fifty Shades of Grey, we thank you!

Monday, August 6, 2012

50 Shades of Grey Replaces Gideon Bibles in English Hotel

    We all know that the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy is rapidly becoming one of the fastest selling books since the 1990s, outselling the famous Twilight trilogy, the Hunger Games and even the Very Hungry Caterpillar, but will it soon out-gross the Bible?

    One hotel in the UK has replaced the bibles in each room with the raunchy bestseller by E. L. James 50 Shades of Grey. Quite the contrast from the usual Gideon Bible you’ll find in the majority of hotel rooms, 50 Shades of Grey is an erotic adventure that follows innocent and virginal Anastasia Steele into the red room of pain of the handsome, rich and perverted CEO Christian Grey.

    So why did the owners of the Damson Dene Hotel choose the popular yet controversial 50 Shades of Grey trilogy to replace the Holy Book?

    “Everybody is reading 50 Shades of Grey,” cite the owners. Offering the steamy book is a hospitable gesture, making it available to people who are too shy about buying the book themselves because of 50 Shades of Grey’s reputation.

    Stashed discretely in the bedside table for their guests to happen upon, the owners of the hotel thought that 50 Shades of Grey would be more appropriate for Britain’s secular and liberal society.

    While some accuse the Damson Dene hotel of running a gimmick on the back of the success of the 50 Shades of Grey books, the Lake District based hotel is not the only one cashing in on the 50 Shades of Grey craze. Hotels in Seattle, such as the Edgewater and the Hotel Max offer 50 Shades of Grey packages. The Heathman Hotel in Portland had a featuring role in the 50 Shades of Grey books and also offers romantic, 50 Shades of Grey themed weekends, as well as book parties for the fans of the books.

    What’s next in the 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon? With the entire buzz around the bestselling trilogy and the plans for the movie, 50 Shades of Grey is the book that is gracing everyone’s lips. Perhaps more hotels will offer the Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele specials – because who wouldn’t want to spend the weekend in a hotel in Christian’s world?

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Sales Figures for the Fifty Shades Trilogy Get Spanked into Submission



    E.L. James’s sexy Fifty Shades trilogy is not just a bestseller, but ranks at 11th place in the all time bestseller lists from 1998, out grossing the Hunger Games books and even the Twilight series Fifty Shades drew inspiration from. However, for the first time in two months the sales of the Fifty Shades books have fallen after eight consecutive weeks of increased sales.

    The sales of the Fifty Shades books have fallen by 1.21m dollars during the last week, a whopping 16%. In spite of this huge Ana Steele-esque tumble, Fifty Shades still graces the number one lists by a huge margin.

    So, what has caused the erotic bestseller to lose its steam during the week? Only the week before, the Fifty Shades trilogy reached its peak when the book sold over 1.4 million copies worldwide. Recently, the media has been having a field day with the Fifty Shades series, and the books have received exposure all over the newspapers and TV, gaining Fifty Shades more attention than ever.

    This week, the buzz around Fifty Shades has quietened down a bit, yet the drop in sales is nothing to be worried about, since Fifty Shades is most definitely staying dominant in the number one spot.

    Saying that, the Fifty Shades series still has quite a bit to go before reaching the number one spot of the legendary bestsellers, such as Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, but who knows where Fifty Shades will be on the charts once the movies get made.

    This year’s published summer reads are struggling to meet the Fifty Shades competition, with the sales of E.L. James’s books comprising a quarter of the total books sales in the last month or so.

    So despite the drop in sales, has E.L. James’s Fifty Shades books been spanked into submission or do they continue to hold the riding crop in one hand with the other books bound up in the red room of pain? Looks like Fifty Shades of Grey and its sequels will not be submitting any time soon.    

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

E. L. James…Who is She

E. L. James


     E. L. James, whose real name is Erika Leonard, is the author of the best-selling books, Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades of Darker and Fifty Shades of Freed. But being an author is rather new to James (Leonard). Until about a year ago, she was in television production, married to Niall Leonard (the two have been married for 20 years) and the mom to two teenage sons.

     Before Leonard was E. L. James, she wrote under the pen name of Snowqueens Icedragons. Yikes! For reasons that can probably best be tagged to a pen name like that, she didn’t have much success. But that all changed when she changed her pen name to E. L. James and Fifty Shades of Grey was available to the public.

     E. L. James was just a dream for Leonard for many years. While she concentrated on raising her family and working, she dreamed of someday writing stories people would read and fall in love with. She got her wish…sort of.

     She has definitely written stories people have read. Fifty Shades of Grey has sold over 10 million copies. Authors can only dream of that being the case with their work. But as for writing stories people have fallen in love with…well, that’s not so much the case.

     Yes, E. L. James is the superstar of love stories to some right now. But most of those are people who wouldn’t know a really good book if it hit them on the head. By and large, the reviews of avid readers and professionals on the subject say the book is poorly written, juvenile, unrealistic and just plain ridiculous.

     Did Ms. James think she’d spark such popularity and emotion with her books? Probably not. Dreamed about it, sure. But think it would actually happen…no one in that situation ever does. It’s just been one of those things that no one can really explain.

     So what’s next for E. L. James? She’s said to be working on ‘another’ love story. One can hardly imagine what it might be about. But I’ll say this…if she were the mother of two teenage girls instead of two teenage boys I bet she wouldn’t be so degrading and disrespectful of young women in her writing. In fact, I bet her female characters would be treated like princesses.