Archive for April, 2007

“Dear Reader” Monday

Monday, April 30th, 2007

What kinds of books do you read?

Some readers are loyal to one genre of fiction, heading directly to the romance or mystery sections of the bookstore and rarely browsing any of the other sections.

Some readers read nearly everything they can get their hands on, regardless of the “label.”

Other readers read only literary fiction, turning their noses up at those “little books” that make the best seller lists and earn money for their authors.

And still others wouldn’t touch a book described as literary if it were the only thing left to read.

Where do you stand, and why?

I will admit that I tend to be in the fourth category a bit. I took, my last semester in college, a course called “20th Century Novel.” As a reader of fiction and someone who yearned to actually write a novel of her own, I thought this would be an easy course to finish out my required number of credits. Some of the books, I will admit, I enjoyed.The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion (Oxford World’s Classics) by Ford Maddox Ford and even wrote a paper on it, getting a B on the paper. Another book I liked, to my surprise, was The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway.
However, much of the course was about books that didn’t seem to have any meaning or purpose to me and the professor was obsessed with analyzing the symbols in the books.

I read for pleasure and I write the same way. I hope my books aren’t used in college courses because I don’t want kids to HAVE to read them and then be bored out of their socks by some professor trying to find some deep meaning in my prose. I write my books to entertain, and I read for the same reason.

I do tend to head straight for the romance section of the bookstore. I like to see my friends’ names out there and I like to see what’s being published. I do, however, stray sometimes to the fantasy section, looking for books written about female character by female authors. Then I head to the mystery section and dream of having time to read all those funny, modern cozies that I want to write, too!

So, tell, me, dear reader, who are you and what do you read?

Posted in Dear Reader Monday | 2 Comments »

Writing Tip Friday – #1

Friday, April 13th, 2007
Romance Definitions
Those of use in the romance writing field, like people in any profession, have our own jargon. If we intend to have a meaningful discussion about writing romance, or any genre fiction, really, we need to define our terms. This came home to me when talking to my husband about the book he’s writing. He and I often talk at cross purposes because his idea of a “romance” and mine are different.
To prevent anyone else from having unproductive conversations about his/her writing, I offer these definitions. Please feel free to add any of your own.
Romance – a novel that revolves around a growing relationship between two people, generally a man and a woman, leading to a long-term, monogamous, commitment. The main focus of the book is the relationship, regardless of anything else going on. If the “love story” part of the book were removed, there would be no book.
Love Story – a. the part of a romance book that is the focus
b. the story of two people falling in love
c. a book and movie by Erich Segal that “taught” us that the line “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” sounds sweet when you’re 12 and absolutely ridiculous when your 40.
d. a book written by a man that ends with someone dying or with the couple deciding they can’t be together for some deep, tragic reason that will get the critics to proclaim the book a masterpiece while ignoring books that celebrate long-lasting loving relationships that end happily (little soapbox moment)
POV – Point of view, the eyes through which we see a story or scene. It’s impossible to know what someone else is thinking if you’re not in their point of view.
WIP – Work in progress. This one took me awhile to figure out as I kept reading it in conjunction with the term “woman in jeopardy” and the acronym didn’t fit.
GMC - Goal, Motivation and Conflict. We have Debra Dixon to thank for this and her wonderful book. Goal, Motivation and Conflict: The Building Blocks of Good Fiction. A way of looking at what your character wants/needs, why he/she wants/needs this and why he/she can’t have it. Completely changed the way I think about my characters and sometimes the way I watch movies.
critique partner – Often the first and only person you’ll let read your story before the final draft. This person can be as valuable as any diamond, gold mine or contract on the face of the earth or she can be as useless as a fountain pen without ink. To find a good one takes a lot of time and cultivation, but totally worth it.
Gothic - NOT a teenage girl who is obsessed with vampires and Hot Topic. A sub-genre of romance that involves big, mysterious houses, dark brooding heroes with secrets, young heroines often of good breeding with no money, children who are motherless and need a governess, possibly a crazy aunt or grandmother in the attic and covers with women in long flowing dressing running away from said house in the dark. Some of the most fun books to read, in my opinion.
sweet romance – a romance novel that includes no sex beyond a closed mouth kiss, but does contain lots of sexual tension.
inspirational - a romance where at least one of the characters has a strong relationship with God and uses that relationship to get through the trials of his/her life. Often contains Bible truths and never includes sex. The writers of these books are often misunderstood and presumed to have a “problem” with sex or to be judgmental of other writers.
Paranormal - a blanket term used to encompass anything from ghosts and vampires to fantasy characters and settings. This is a very difficult term to explain to anyone who has never been to an RWA conference or meeting. Fantasy novels are not, by popular definition, paranormal, nor are vampires and werewolves. Psychics, ghosts, or UFO are consider paranormal to the “uninitiated.” As a fantasy writer, I still have trouble thinking of my books a paranormal, but this is the standard RWA definition.
There you go, gentle readers. Any other definitions you’d like to add?

Posted in Writing | 3 Comments »

Why read/write romance?

Tuesday, April 10th, 2007

Why read romance? Why do I write romance?

When I was in school, my best friend, Sharon, was a voracious reader, going through about a book a day. She read…:gasp:…Harlequin romances!!! Our school had book fairs twice a year where you literally could buy a Harlequin for fifty cents. You could also get little books of Peanuts cartoons the size and shape of a mass market paperback for fifty cents, but Sharon would actually check the numbers of the romances and make sure she read every single title.

It was just annoying to me. They couldn’t be GOOD books if you could read them in a day. I mean, come on, that’s just common sense.

I, on the other hand, was much more selective in my reading. My parents belonged to a book club – Doubleday or Book of the Month or something like that – and our home was full of the clearly superior, HARD COVER books. I read through my mother’s collection of Victoria Holt books and fell absolutely in love with the Gothic. I didn’t realize at the time that these were considered…:gasp…romances!!!!!! I absolutely ADORED On the Night of the Seventh Moon and kept my old copy for years. I think I will have to read it again soon.

Anyway, I got older and moved on. I knew I wanted to write but I didn’t really know what I wanted to write about.

Then after three years in the Army and four in college, I found myself living with my parents out of work at 25 years old. My sister, three years younger, who graduated from the same college on the same day (about five seconds before I did) had moved out, getting a job in Carlisle, PA as a newspaper reporter. She left behind a book, How to Write a Romance and Get It Published, although hers was an older edition than is available now. She left it to me and I read it. Of course, it made writing romances sound easy and I knew they HAD to be because, well, they were just romances.

However, I started reading a few and getting involved with romance writers and discovered that writing romance isn’t as easy as I thought (it took me about 17 years to get published) nor are the books, especially these days, as simple or naive as they once were.

Now, I LOVE romances and I don’t really read much outside it. I do read fantasy because I love them, too, and some cozy mysteries, but my first love is the romance novel. I don’t read all the subgenres. I stay away from erotica and I tend to avoid Westerns. They just aren’t my cup of tea, but pretty much anything else I’ll try. I’ve found authors I love and those I can take or leave.

I hope someday to write a Gothic romance. We lived in Germany for two years and our street was called Weissdornweg or in English, White Thorn Way and I KNOW that could be the name of one of those big houses with a heroine running away from it through the night with the mist around her ankles. Now, if I could just find a plot to go with that picture….

BOOK GIVEAWAY UPDATE:

Caroline, who commented on Little Bitty Lies, please contact me again. You won!

Come on, people! Join in the fun! Tomorrow I’ll be reviewing Finding Home (Harlequin Next)and you have a chance to get a free copy. Stop back in then!

Posted in Writing | 2 Comments »

Reading topic – Are libraries necessary in the 21st century??

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007

Years ago, I heard someone discussing the necessity of having Public Television, funded by the government and “viewers like you” with the advent of cable and the hundreds of channels available. There was a time when PBS was the only place you could find cultural programming, educational programs and cooking shows, but with cable television it’s possible to find a channel devoted to almost any topic you can imagine. In our house, there are at least two channels devoted to only preschool programs, all day, and several more with cartoons and other kid-type programs. We have a cooking channel, and several that show art films, independent films, and other kinds of “cultural” programming, including a channel devoted to only gay and lesbian programming!!

Today, I heard a similar discussion about libraries. Do we need to have huge main libraries in every city with smaller branches around the area? Do we need to have the government fund things like DVD rentals, large paperback collections and every magazine published? With the Internet and places like Amazon, huge bookstores and independent and used bookstores, do libraries serve the same purpose they did in the past?

What do you think? Do you still use the library? If so, why? If not, why not?

Posted in reading | 11 Comments »