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Category: Reading

Posts in which we talk about reading habits and preferences

Alpha-Bad-Tizing

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He was at least a decade older than me, smoked cigarettes, refused to be photographed, barely got out of high school, dealt some illegal substances, and drove a ’57 Rambler. Oh, and he looked like Willem Dafoe.

So what did I do?

Reader, I dated him.

I love bad boys.

I am, quite possibly, the goodest girl you will ever meet. Besides my sometimes outlandish fashion choices, I always got enough sleep, stayed out of trouble, did my homework, read everything on the suggested reading list, felt guilty when I discovered I’d been given the wrong change. But I am irresistibly attracted to men who seem to walk on the edge of danger, which is how I like my romance heroes, too.

Anne Stuart writes the best bad heroes. Liz Carlyle also has a penchant for less-than-perfect men, and of course anybody who’s written a vampire hero usually walks on the dark side.

The funny thing is, I can’t write them. My heroes seem to be pretty nice, sometimes almost boring, and it drives me insane. Why can’t I create what I love so much? I’ve tried to make them meaner, but it’s very hard.

I’ve just finished the first draft of a new book, and this month’s revisions process will include toughening up my hero, Reeve.

So–do you like bad boys in fiction? Which are your favorite? What are the best ways to show he’s a bad boy without making him kick a puppy or something? And have you ever dated one in real life? Did he live up to your fantasies? Come on, share!

Megan
www.meganframpton.com

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Love me, love my book?

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I can’t imagine why anyone reads books by the well-known adulterer Charles Dickens or that spiteful gossip Jane Austen (no wonder Cassandra burned most of the letters).

Yet I frequently hear, particularly from other romance writers, “Oh, I don’t like Author X. I’m not reading her books.” And it always puzzles me. Sure, not buying an author’s book will deprive her of the few pennies of royalties she might earn through your purchasee. Of course, that begs the question of whether it would be morally responsible to borrow said book from the library, read it illicitly in a couple of expensive java visits at your local Borders, or pay a quarter for a copy at the thriftstore. A further ethical question might be raised if you enjoyed the book—oh horrors—what then? Does it mean you, the reader, are tarred with the same brush, or, rather like earnest clerics researching pornography, corrupted without even knowing it? Chances are you might flip it closed with the satisfaction that Author X is indeed confirmed as a Bad Person—”I knew it when the heroine’s kitten drowned and that sweet lisping child fell into the midden”—and feel your point is proved.

Part of the trouble is there’s just too much information on romance authors. And it’s our own fault. We’re all over the place, chatting away on blogs and websites, and thinning the line between promotion of our books and promotion of ourselves, just being just so darned nice all the time. And if that niceness slips into real opinions and passions, it may raise some hackles. I’m not excusing bad author behavior or authors who are rude to people in public (I think most of us have had experience with those), but it seems you can get away with a lot more as a dead literary lion (most of whom were not Boy Scouts in real life) than as a live genre writer.

Is good writing good writing—whatever?

Janet

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The Keeper Shelf

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Last week I blogged about books I don’t finish; this week I’d like to talk about the opposite.

I have a problem that’s probably pretty common to the Riskies and our guests. Too many books, not enough bookshelves, despite the fact that there’s book storage in every room of our house except for the bathrooms (hmm… no, maybe not a good idea.) Since it’s unthinkable to stop the incoming flow, some books must go. I recently forced myself to go through this annual decluttering exercise.

To the donation pile:

  • Books I didn’t enjoy.
  • Books I got at a conference over three years ago, still haven’t gotten to, and aren’t somehow calling me to hold onto them.
  • Duplicates–too many of them!

Keeper shelf items:

  • Books I love so much I can’t part with them.
  • Classics and useful reference books.
  • Personally autographed copies.
  • Books by favorite authors or recommended by friends, or with truly intriguing blurbs, that I will get to someday.
  • Books by favorite authors that I didn’t love, but merely enjoyed. Somehow I feel disloyal parting with them. Or is that I like to keep a collection together?

The keeper shelves are still pretty full. My TBR list is enormous and growing daily. It made me wonder. Why keep a book if I may never reread it?

But the answers came. I do get to TBR books. Eventually. With books I’ve already read, I do often share them with friends, and I may share them with my children when they’re older. Very good reasons to hold onto these treasures.

So how about you? What makes a book a keeper? Do you clean out now and then?

And oh, yes, any suggestions for the best places to donate a boxfull of books of mixed genres, largely romance?

Elena
LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, Romantic Times Best Regency of 2005!
www.elenagreene.com

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Have we created our own cult?

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There were four-and-twenty virgins come down from Inverness

And when the night was ended there were four-and-twenty less…
trad. rude song
As long as the plots keep arriving from outer space,
I’ll go on with my virgins.
Barbara Cartland
This topic started off as a conversation with my buddy Pam Rosenthal as part of our meanderings on our workshop at the 2006 Beau Monde Conference. (Yes, the workshop is called Pam and Janet Evening. It’s on writing erotic historicals.)
Virgins.
A dime a dozen in romance-land.
Why?
Granted, they were around. Virginity was by implication an important part of the business deal that upper-class marriage was even in the Regency period–the groom wanted to be sure that his heirs would truly be his, and not the in-laws’ third footman’s. Yet we still have extraordinary plot twists to ensure that the heroine is untouched when the Big Bang occurs–virgin widows, husbands who had to rush off to take part in Waterloo (sorry, honey, not before the big game), couples who didn’t want to marry and so therefore didn’t want to…you know. Or the hero turns out to be her first and last, with diversions in between (guilty as charged). And not just in historicals, where the concept of a virgin heroine is justified, but all through the genre.
Consider also the typical defloration/consummation, where after some minor carnage, the heroine gets to Nirvana with very little effort (and snorts of disbelief from me)…and despite the bloodbath, they keep doing it. Or, we’re told, if she has had previous partners, there (1) weren’t many, and (2) it wasn’t that good, so therefore she holds blank slate status.
Yes, I know these are huge overstatements and I can come up with exceptions too, but why do these conventions exist? Is it the only way we can show that this is IT, the Real Thing, the Big Banana?
Despite the boom in erotic romance and erotica, why are we still so wary of a true depiction of female sexuality?
Thoughts, anyone?
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When does time run out for a book?

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I used to finish every book I started. I think it was partly due to a strong desire for closure, but the other thing that motivated me was artistic sympathy. Even if I really didn’t like the beginning of the book, I kept reading, thinking it might get better.

I still feel that artistic sympathy on opening a new book; I always hope I am going to enjoy it. But things have changed since I became a mother and a writer (just about simultaneously). I have accumulated an enormous TBR list, full of good bets from favorite authors and kindred spirits met at writers’ conferences and the like.
I’ve finally decided that it’s just not worth the time to finish a book I’m not enjoying, when it’s so easy to find something more to my taste. Sometimes I’ll give up after a few chapters, or even a few pages.

Now I feel like I’m striking doom into the hearts of any published or aspiring writers reading this. Because we all want readers to keep going and get to the “good parts”. (Though we try to make them all “good parts”.)

But let me clarify. I’m not really that hard a sell. I do finish and enjoy most books I start.

Things I am NOT picky about:

  • Slow beginnings. If the characters are interesting, I’ll read on and I’ve never been disappointed. Good characters eventually get the plot moving.
  • Very action-oriented beginnings that may be confusing or weak on characterization (too much going on, too many characters). Early chapters are a bear to write, and I’m sympathetic about that. It usually settles out as I read on.

Where I draw the line:

  • Simplistic or unpleasant hero or heroine. Tortured and flawed are great; petty and small or disgustingly perfect are not.
  • Seriously purple prose (a little flowery is OK).
  • Confusing point of view usage. I like books that make me think, but not ones that have me rereading just to figure out who is talking.
  • Extreme historical errors that indicate the author had no clue and didn’t care. Ex., a prologue I read that implied the British were fighting the Portuguese during the Peninsular War.

I do wonder how long other people give a book. Do you always finish? How far do you read before you give up? What makes you give up on a book? What will keep you going even if you’re not quite sold?

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

P.S. The 18th century watch in the picture is available at www.anthonygreen.com.

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