Happy New Year!
I usually like to do a rundown of my favorite books and movies of the past year but this is a bit difficult. There are two books which are absolutely outstanding, neither of which are romance (although Pam Rosenthal may not agree):
Jo Bake
r’s wonderful Longbourn, a novel about the parallel universe of Pride & Prejudice, the story of the servants at the Bennets’ house. Their story is not necessarily that of their employers, and ranges far wider than the upstairs characters ever do–Africa, Spain, and with harsh, beautiful experiences at home. This is the English version, which I own–it has a servants’ staircase on the back cover.
Life Aft
er Life by Kate Atkinson, an astonishing story of England in the first half of the twentieth century. It’s about what could happen if you had the chance to change history, to relive your life and make things right, a fantasy we’ve certainly all shared to one extent or another.
This holiday season I’ve been lounging around eating toast in bed and rereading Deborah Crombie and Julia Spencer-Fleming. Both great mystery series.
But I haven’t read much romance that knocked my socks off. I know I’ve bought/read quite a lot on the kindle, but it doesn’t stay in my mind. And to paraphrase the Monty Python guys, it’s all getting too silly. I don’t know whether I can write this stuff any more, feeling that I just squeaked into the genre via some odd loopholes.
So I’m not sure what I’ll be writing in 2014. I have a sequel in the works to A Certain Latitude–that reminds me, just a few days to go to enter the Goodreads giveaway. I’d hoped I might get the sequel, A Certain Proposition, out by the end of the month, but the lying around reading and eating toast got in the way of that. However, I’m self-pubbing my Jane Eyre novella, Reader, I Married Him, later this month.
But after that? I have to find something new to write. I have to master the Facebook thing. Lots of things to do.
What are you planning for 2014?
Happy New Year, Janet, and thanks so much for not shutting up about how great Longbourn is until I ran to get my copy. And it is so a romance! READ IT, romance readers (and then read me on why it’s a romance and wonderful.
I forgot about “Life After Life” when thinking about my 2013 reads! I loved it…
Lately covers on historical romance are so similar. Big foofy dresses that imply light and fluffy stories, even on titles by authors who don’t usually write light and fluffy. I haven’t read enough (so hard to read while writing!) so I don’t know if the stories really are of a sameness.
In either case, I believe there’s a niche of readers out there who appreciate variety. Here’s to historicals that stray from the tried-and-true. Hope you keep writing what you would enjoy reading, Janet!
Janet, I happen to love what you write. Variety is the only thing that will keep this genre alive. Every time the pundits say historical romance is dead it comes back again and always a bit different. Writing historical romance is like crossing a frozen river – just keep moving forward!