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Monthly Archives: May 2006

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.

–Carl Sagan

This week, the arts and entertainment world has been buzzing with the accusations that Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarized from Megan McCafferty, Sophie Kinsella, and Meg Cabot in her book How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life.

The passages she allegedly copied are striking in their similarity, which begs the question of what the heck was she thinking? But when the story first came out, before I’d noticed the similarities myself, I was pondering what makes an original story. Is it the plot? Well, sometimes; certainly science fiction and fantasy authors create distinctive plots all the time. In romance, however? No. Our plots can be distilled to this: Female and male meet. There is a conflict to what seems like a perfect relationship. Bad things happen, good things happen, until the conflict is resolved and the female and male can be together.

I even had to admit to borrowing from others’ work, too; not in the open, Viswanathan way, but in inspiration (the picture below is of Calliope, the muse of arts and poetry). For example, in the last edit of A Singular Lady (the version that got it sold to Signet), I added an evil uncle whose cane dropped a piece of wood which my heroine kept in her pocket to remind her of what she had to do to save herself and her family. I thought of that after reading Judith Ivory‘s Starlit Surrender, where the heroine sees a red handkerchief she knows belongs to a woman in the hero’s past (plus Judith Ivory gave a talk on the Writer’s Toolbox and explained the whole concept of objects taking on additional meaning, which is when the epiphany struck). I remember somewhere Eloisa James saying she got inspired in her love scenes by reading Loretta Chase‘s Lord Of Scoundrels, which she keeps within easy reach of her computer when she’s writing.

But what keeps most authors’ work from being labeled plagiarism is VOICE. That intangible thing that keeps us reading the same old story time after time. Voice is the way the author says things, which is why the plagiarism accusation cuts so deep; stealing someone’s VOICE is stealing someone’s way of saying things, not like Jamiroquai borrowing Stevie’ Wonder’s phrasings, or Christian Slater doing a Jack Nicholson impersonation, but stealing someone’s core personality.

I’ve been told that, for all my failings at plot and correct titles, I’ve got a good, distinct voice. I value those compliments; plot and title stuff can be corrected, achieving a distinct voice is a lot harder to do. My favorite authors possess their own, distinct voices–authors like Loretta Chase, Eloisa James, Anne Stuart, Mary Balogh, Julie Anne Long, Judith Ivory, Julia Ross, and I could go on and on (and that’s just in romance!).

So–when you read, do you read for plot or for voice? Do you savor the author’s voice? Which authors have the most distinctive voices?

Thanks for being vocal,

Megan
www.meganframpton.com

I have been watching the Tele Vision Feature “American Idol” recently. I have a few Questions about Names.

1) Why are modern people named things like Ace, but never Eight or King?
2) Why Bucky, but never Poundy or Dollary?
3) Why Paris, but never Dusseldorf or Liverpool?

If anyone can satisfy my curiosity, I will be much beholden to you.

Exquisite (as ever),

Bertie the Beau

From an English road specifically–I’m visiting my aged father in Reading. Reading’s claim to fame is that Oscar Wilde went to goal (English for jail) here, and Jane Austen attended the Abbey School; the school building still stands, after falling down completely in the 19th century and being rebuilt. It also boasts the interestingly-named St. Mary’s Butts church–named for the archery practice area, but now giving rise to such hilarities as Butts Dry Cleaning. Ah, simple pleasures.

I visited Bath yesterday and I think I’m sort of Bathed-out, having been there so often, but today I went to Bristol, which is now my favorite place in the whole world. Go to Bristol. It has terrific free museums, some stupendous Georgian architecture (sorry, folks, I missed Queens Square), and some lovely churches. You can also take a ferry around the docks to travel around the city which on a day like today, warm and sunny, was wonderful.

Next week, a jet-lagged report upon Erddig, a National Trust property where they never threw anything away and painted pictures and wrote poems about the servants. Excellent.

Riskily yours,
Janet

Now that it’s finally warmed up in upstate N.Y., I’m enjoying birdsong outside my window again. It reminds me of the first spring after my husband and I were sent on assignment to the U.K., when I realized that the birdsongs there were quite different. Later that spring, I heard a real live nightingale for the first time. Nothing like it.

Anyway, I thought I’d share some of my favorite British birds.

European Goldfinch (above) live in the wild but have also been domesticated for a long time, as evidenced in the painting of Madonna of the Goldfinch by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) (right). According to a Myra, a helpful lady with a website on finches, The Finch Niche, the Euro Goldfinch is one of the tamer and more interactive species. It is possible to train them to sit on peoples’ fingers or heads (unlike most finches, which are more, um, flighty) and when whistled to they will whistle back. So I thought they’d make a nice pet for the children in LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE.

Click here to hear a recording of a goldfinch’s song.

Another fave is the nightingale (left). A most romantic bird—just imagine it serenading your moonlit liaison with a dashing Regency hero in a secluded bower. It’s not much to look at, actually, but check out this recording of its song. (Just try to imagine it without the street noises.)

For more birdsongs, check out Northamptonshire Wildlife’s Sound Gallery. They’ve got just about everything including the Common Chiffchaff to the Great Tit (I’m not making these up, honest!)

The images of the goldfinch and nightingale are prints (c.1870) available at www.printspast.com. More great bird images from Morris’s British Birds 1891 at www.birdcheck.co.uk.

Any favorite birds, British or otherwise? Do you enjoy descriptions of nature in a romance, or do they leave you cold?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com
LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, an RT Reviewers’ Choice Award finalist

Posted in Research | Tagged | 6 Replies

In recent weeks, we have tried to find the ideal mate for two of Jane Austen’s characters, Elinor Dashwood and Colonel Brandon, both of Sense and Sensibility. (If you click on their names, you can still vote on who they should marry!)

Today: on to Pride and Prejudice! Mary Bennet is an earnest, studious girl clearly in need of a story of her own featuring a suitable hero (as several of you pointed out on last Thursday’s post). But what will her story be — and which hero???

How about Edward Ferrars? He’s another quiet reader, and Mary’s modest earthly ambitions surely wouldn’t mind Edward’s small income. He’s kind and sweet, too. Are they a perfect match? And with Marianne as a sister, would Mary learn to lighten up? (Or would Marianne just annoy her the way Lydia and Kitty did?)

Or would Colonel Brandon be more Mary’s style? (Yes, he is very old for her, but we know he likes fresh young things.) Mr. Bennet seems to have been a decent father to Jane and Lizzy, but I’ve always suspected he’d given up by the time Mary came along. So she may need a father figure — and Colonel Brandon is very dependable, and never cruel. He could be the father Mary never had, and the husband she never knew she wanted.

Or does Mary secretly have a thing for the caddish Wickham? In her heart does she wish that the scarlet-coated rascal would stop paying attention to her sisters and court her instead? Could Mary’s high-mindedness reform Wickham, while his love of pleasure would at the same time be opening her eyes to earthly delights?

Or does Mary need a very young, physical hero? Would she be a good match for the young Horatio Hornblower? He’s equally hard-working and earnest. Would her intellectual abilities improve his mind, as his experience in the world broadens hers? Then again, he’d be gone for long periods at sea! (But would she mind? She could catch up on her reading!)

Or does Mary really need a worldly rake to awaken her sleeping desires? How about Mr. Rochester? She does in some ways resemble Jane Eyre, so why not? Her primness and his brutal earthiness could be an exciting combination.

How about Tom Jones? He would bring youthful energy into Mary’s life. He’s a bit of a bad boy — with the emphasis on boy this time — but surely Mary Bennet could handle him. (She does have that stern schoolmistress thing going for her!) And who doesn’t love a rascal?

Or maybe Mary needs more excitement in her life! If she were married to the Scarlet Pimpernel, she’d have plenty! She’s reserved, so she’d be excellent at keeping secrets. What do you think?

Who would suit Mary best? Or would someone I haven’t mentioned be the best match for sober Mary Bennet?

All opinions welcome!

Cara
Cara Kingwww.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER — Award of Excellence Finalist!