Romancing the Blog | Romance Authors and Readers Who Blog

With summer coming to an end I find myself trying to get caught up on all of those books I wanted to read over the summer but just never got around to. Every year it is the same. At the beginning of summer I make a series of promises to myself:

• I will finally try reading authors X, Y, and Z.
• I will finally read books Q, R, and S that my patrons keep asking me about.
• I will read two books from my TBR pile for every new book I add.
• I will not let myself be distracted by summer television, blockbuster movies, outdoor concerts, etc.

Unfortunately, most summers my good intentions never quite pan out. But I wanted this summer to be different, so I decided to make it as difficult as possible for me to not keep those promises. I pulled out all the books I kept telling myself I would get to when I had the time and arranged them on my living room’s coffee table. Those books were the last thing I saw when I left my house in the morning for work, and the first thing I saw whenever I came home. If I decided to sit down and watch television the books would be sitting there – looking at me, making me feel guilty for not reading them.

For the first few weeks of summer my plan worked pretty well. Anytime I left my house I made sure I had at least one book in my hand, sometimes two. When I packed for a trip I put in two older books for every new book in the suitcase. After about a month of doing this I was happy to see the number of books on my coffee table start to get smaller, but that pile of books wasn’t decreasing fast enough for me. I needed to kick my summer reading into high gear. But how?

Then it happened. I finally tried an author that one of my patron’s has been bugging me about reading for months now. I read the first book in the author’s series, and from page one the book took hold of me and wouldn’t let go. As readers we often describe a great book as one that is so good we couldn’t put it down. Those words, however, don’t come close to describing what I experienced. The compulsion to read and finish the book was so strong I became completely irritated by everything. I resented having to go to work. Whenever my phone rang all I could think was, “Why is someone calling me? Don’t they know I’m trying to read?” At night I would calculate the last possible moment I could go to bed and still get a decent night’s rest.

As completely psychotic as it might sound, as a reader I LOVE those kinds of experiences. They’re not the typical reading experience, and when you have them you just have to revel in them. As it turns out, they are the perfect experience for jumpstarting any flagging reading habits. After I finished the book that I now affectionately call The Book That Would Not Let Go, I tore through the other books in the series. Once I was done with them I turned my attention back to the TBR pile on my coffee table, and I have been demolishing my way through those books. Like an addict, I know that I am looking for another book to grab me this way – my next fix. And when I find it do me a favor. Please don’t call my house and want to talk to me.

What about you? Have you ever read a book that sent you into a reading compulsion?

I read Neil Gaiman’s blog pretty much every day. Just the blog, not too much else, although his site is chock full o’ wonderful. One post came up recently that had me arching my eyebrows. There’s a gang of his fans that are getting tattoos of his characters. These are permanent tattoos. Like forever.

It got me thinking about why there isn’t a group of Jo Leigh fans out there with tattoos of my characters. When I stopped laughing (which took a long time) I thought about the nature of fandom, and how unique each venue seems to be.

Gaiman tattoos actually make a weird kind of sense, seeing as how he does a lot of visual work. So maybe these tats, while being an homage to Neil’s characters, are really more about the illustrator. No? Maybe?

Anyway, it seems to me as if there are fannish things for each kind of fiction – the science fiction bunch tend to draw stuff, compute stuff, play stuff, act out stuff. The literary fans seem to like to talk a lot, and write from a distance, but I don’t know of any lit fans who do much jousting or wearing of costumes (with the notable exception of characters from ThirtySomething who went as Will and Arial Durant for Halloween). Thriller fans? I’m not sure about them. I assume they don’t actually plot to take over the world, but I could be wrong.

Mystery fans? Depending on the brand, they can go anywhere from knitting something, in front of a fire, preferably, as they listen to their favorite cozy read by a British actor to learning how to how to play a lonely sax in a dark alley for those noir-lovers out there. But I do think the main thing for mystery fans is making friends with a long standing character and chuckling quietly to themselves as they mentally sneak out of a conversation with whomever they’re really with, to imagine they’re with the witty and wry gumshoe they’ve come to admire.

Then there’s the whole fanfiction thing. That’s all about sharing the wicked. Squeeing over the naughty bits. The forbidden. Somewhere in there is a streak of rebelliousness. That middle-aged housewife you’re standing behind at the grocery store? The one who kinda needs her roots done, wearing the mommy jeans? Only she knows that she’s just written this incredibly dark and disturbing Mulder/Krycek slash that’s going to singe the eyelashes off her flist.

Now comes romance. I probably know the least about romance fans, which is weird. The one thing that I know for sure is that they tend to keep books. All of them. Forever. They move them from town to town in boxes that weigh two tons. They shelve them in every room because it makes them happy just to know they have the books.

I also know some fangirls (or fanboys, not sure about that, either) who have taken on the roll of Author Protector, sworn to destroy the words of anyone who doesn’t understand and appreciate their Beloved Scribe.

Then there are some fans who find bliss in the history, and expand that love to costumes, or at the very least reading nonfiction history books on the Regency period.

But I think there are more ways we show how we’re romance fans. Romance fans feel things so deeply, they must feel the need to express themselves in unique, wonderful ways.

My confession? I’m one of those fans who gets an incredible rush when I meet or speak to a like-minded stranger. Any mention of Hornblower, and I’m atwitter. I’m also that way about Sondheim, Laura Kinsale, Carl Sagan, Jane Austen and some characters in TV shows that if I told you, you’d laugh. No matter. The connection for me is where it’s at. The chance encounter. The kindred soul.

How does your fangirl come out?

And can we talk about Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd???

As an agent, I see thousands of queries and hundreds of sample pages. It’s one of those strange occurrences in the universe when certain concept themes suddenly become popular and/or are endlessly repeated in the query letters we see.

And most aspiring-to-be-published romance writers probably don’t realize that as an agent, I probably say NO to more projects because of an unoriginal story concept than I do for writing that isn’t quite up to snuff.

In other words, I’m seeing a lot of writers who can write but don’t have an original concept that will let their manuscript stand out from the hundreds we read.

So to get published, you need to get original and the best way to get original ideas is to step outside your everyday world. The ordinary or the “normal” becomes familiar and it’s not familiarity that fosters originality.

You have to do something different. And here are some suggestions:

1. Read outside of the genre you are writing in. (And my suggestion is for you to step way outside of what you normally enjoy such as reading a fantasy novel if you’ve never read one before).

2. Don’t watch romantic flicks to get inspired about romance. It usually doesn’t happen. I was just at a conference here in New Zealand where Jennifer Crusie and Anne Stuart were speaking. I can’t remember which author said it but one of them mentioned that she watched several romantic flicks to get inspired and came up with zilch but when she watched several action flicks, that got the juices flowing and she wrote several books based on the inspired ideas generated from watching them.

3. Take a class that’s different for you. Even if you write contemporary romance, taking a history class might reveal certain strange moments in history that might end up inspiring a modern tale. What about reading and discussing some classics in a literature class? You never know where that germ of an idea might form. Maybe toy with taking a non-literary type class like learning karate or how to cook.

4. Travel. Nothing like going to another country to get you out of your everyday life; however, that might not be cost effective. Even a small trip will do—a weekend getaway can shake it up for you.

Step outside your world and you’ll find that original ideas flow!

So tomorrow my kids go back to school. For the tall kid, we’re a little BTDT since he’s going into seventh grade, but the short kid—he’s going into first grade. Full-time days. 8:50-3:15. There was much moping among the other post-kindergarten moms, who seemed to be lost and depressed at the concept of their children being gone all day. I nodded and made sympathetic clucking noises, but all the while I was thinking…Are you people freakin’ crazy?

I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for twelve years, and I can tell you I won’t be moping tomorrow. Won’t be lost and won’t be depressed. I plan to park my butt on the couch and…read. Okay, so if I’m totally honest, I’d say the short kid is a high-maintenance, highly-interactive kid and I know I’m going to miss having him underfoot at times. But the three days leading into the Labor Day holiday? I’m treating it as a total male-free vacation.

Just me, Dunkin Donuts iced coffee, Doritos and a big, juicy book.

I’ve noticed in the last several years, my reading tastes have changed. Well, not really changed, but been forced to adapt. Whether a book is romance or thriller or whatever, I want fast pacing, fast dialogue, and lots of white space. A literary Autobahn. I don’t have the time or attention span for leisurely, scenic meanderings through lush, detailed landscapes. But sometimes, like over Christmas break or—in this case—a vacation day twelve years in the making, I like to dig out a big, fat, much-loved book and immerse myself in it.

Some of my choices:

Anything by Laurie McBain

The first three books in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon

Anything by Maeve Binchy

Gone With the Wind

The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The entire Little House on the Prairie series (while not lengthy or deep, they require a reverent and nostalgic frame of mind and are my very favorite for the act of peaceful savoring.)

So do you have books—either old favorites or in the TBR pile—that you save for special (child/husband/responsibility-free) times? Maybe they’re comfort books when you’re sick, or your favorites for curling up next to the campfire. Do you have any larger-than-life books you savor like that? I’m making a list because I’ve got 19 hours and 15 minutes to kill.

by Holly Root of the Waxman Agency

“I just didn’t fall in love with it as much as I’d hoped.”

If you’re a writer, you’ve probably seen those words from an agent or editor. And while they are no fun to hear or say (after all, everybody wants to fall in love), they’re totally true.

So much of what we do as readers, as agents, as editors is a question of falling in love. Think about that moment when you open a book in the store. It’s first date time. You’re excited. You want the book to take you away, to sweep you up and make you miss your stop on the train.

But if you’ve had some tough luck recently, picked up several books that failed to get the sparks flying, you might be wary of having your reading heart broken yet again. It’s time for the “let’s hang out as friends” kind of reading—you know, when you read a couple chapters standing there next to your TBR pile (or, ahem, TBR bookshelf) before committing. But you keep trying because you truly want the next thing you read to be that thrilling, sweep you off your feet kind of book.

That’s true for me as a reader and as an agent—I want to fall in love. With the books I love, both the ones I rep and the ones I admire from afar, I know pretty fast that I love them. The voice, the pacing, everything just fires for me and boom, it’s love. In books as in life, it’s all about chemistry.

But the lovefest can’t end with me. Being an agent is often like being a matchmaker; you want to help someone else fall in love. You’ve gone out and kissed a lot of frogs (or, as I prefer to think about it, other people’s princes) and found the one you love. And best of all? It might just be perfect for Editor X, Y, and Z. It’s always a good sign when I’m reading a manuscript and just have to keep a notepad nearby because that little moment or character just reminded me of an editor I can’t wait to send the book to—those are the books and authors that get bumped to the top of the Must Represent list.

Of course, as anyone who’s set up a couple on a blind date knows, matchmaking is a tricky business. Sometimes someone’s good on paper but the chemistry isn’t there, and so it goes with books. Welcome back, “I just didn’t fall in love with it as much as I’d hoped.”

I was kicking around this idea with an editor friend, and she compared the process of acquiring a book to bringing a boyfriend home to meet your family. First you fall for him. Then you convince your friends (other editors, who give second reads) how wonderful he is. If they like him, you bring him home to meet the folks (higher-ups, execs, sales people, etc.). Who are sometimes not inclined to love your new love, because after all you’ve brought home plenty of them before, and let’s not even talk about that disreputable boy last week, the one with the piercing and the shaggy hair, I mean really is your taste in men so great after all?

It can be pretty daunting, so an editor’s got to feel the love to convince everyone else that this book is The One. And if she or he succeeds, the “happily ever after” is a year or more of living and breathing that book—yet another reason the love had better be there!

Love is rare and publishing success can be too, but I like to think the challenge makes it sweeter. As an agent, when that love connection happens, first with an editor and then with readers, I get to fall for the book anew at each step of the process. And that, to me, is the best of happily ever afters.

What about you? Are you a hopeless romantic, ready to fall for every book? Or are you more wary, courting a new author for a good long while before settling down? How often and easily do you fall in love?

What I love about reading romance – well, you know, besides the love itself – is the breadth and depth of choice. Simply enter a bookshop, inhale that heady scent of aisle upon aisle of clean, beautiful pages, and you’ll know what I mean. Pick up any of the romance novels on offer and you’ll be transported into one of a thousand different worlds, featuring a million different people all working their way through a gazillion different scenarios.

And every single one of them will be different.

As a reader who has publicly admitted to coasting her way past the safe shores of What She Knows, it’s actually a little overwhelming to think that my own slice of romance cake is merely a teeny, tiny sliver of what’s out there. And as I grow bolder, grabbing the biggest spoon I can find to really dig in and sample that cake, I can’t help but be amazed at how many different tastes are on offer, how vast that choice really is.

Where else other than the Romance aisle can you pick up two books from the same genre and end up with two COMPLETELY stories? One funny, one serious, one a gritty true-to-life tale, the other a flight of pure fantasy? So few genres offer the reader a choice – a real choice – between modern day and period pieces, happy endings and sad ones, stories of heartbreak and betrayal and mystery and horror and triumph. There are sub-genres upon sub-genres, all of them there to satisfy that particular itch for that particular reader.

And yes, we all have our favourites. The authors and scenarios and stories that are tried and tested and we know won’t disappoint, but just how amazing is it to be able to, at any point, take a leap any which way and try something new – whilst still remaining in safety beneath the romance umbrella?

It’s awesome, isn’t it?

Readers and writers of romance alike still often face that (ridiculous) prejudice that deigns to set our genre of choice as inferior to others, but when I look at what’s on offer and how wonderfully diverse our reading selection really is, I’m so proud to have a part in it – however small it may be.

Now pass me that spoon!

One of the best things I like about reading is feeling like I’ve discovered a new world, a new character, a new voice—a new author. Yes, more than likely I will meet new characters in new books but, as we already know, I’m a series slut so, often, I don’t.

What I really mean is… when I open a book by a new-to-me author. It’s a scary process because I have that list of authors that I know I can go to and, usually, find exactly what I’m looking to read. Sometimes an author changes their voice and completely messes with me but, for the most part, I know where I can find my comfort reading (so to speak).

When I crack that first page open, or light up my palm pilot with an ebook, I experience the thrill of anticipation. Hopefully, the first line and paragraph keep that feeling going. It’s an amazing thing when an author does this. When you aren’t sure where to put the book down, because you just might miss something (even though you know it will still be there when you get back—I didn’t say it was logical). Or when you are able to clearly visualise the characters and their world, and it captures you.

I remember when Harry Potter first came out. I wasn’t interested. I didn’t read that kind of book. But, others kept talking about it and I bought one to find out, thinking perhaps it would be good for my son when he was older. Instead, I was hooked. From the first book to the last, I fell in love with that world. A new to me author, a new to me genre.

This last couple of years I’ve been lucky enough to discover some more new to me authors, some who I now correspond with fairly regularly. I respect them and I’d be lucky to learn from them. From Shannon Stacey and Jaci Burton to Colleen Gleason and Lara Adrian, I have again been captured. Some of those worlds I would never have read before, yet I took a chance and I’m so glad I did.

While I’ll still seek out the newest Jonathan Kellerman Alex Delaware Novel and Fern Michaels’ Sisterhood books, I now open my mind, and eyes, to new authors. Sometimes I get lucky and find a jewel.

What author have you discovered this last year? Was it in a genre/style that you didn’t expect?

That’s the first thing I heard when I mentioned how one day, when I was rich and famous, what I would do with my millions and millions of dollars. (Yes, hire a maid is first on the list. Second is a chef, but I’m not sure my family would survive without their heavy doses of carbon each day) They told me right off the bat, unless you’re La Nora, you’re not going to be making millions. Honestly, I don’t even want to say Nora does because I’m not really sure. So, let’s go with, unless you’re an actress, model or otherwise famous person with no ability to write, interest in learning or training whatsoever, you won’t be making millions and millions of dollars to write a book. In fact, most of the writers out there must sustain a day job for quite a while before their writing might support them.

Which got me to wondering. Are we like the Superhero community? Do we only know each other by the names and powers we have? I mean, did Batman ever find out that Wonder Woman was really a secretary? Does that make our day jobs and our real names our “secret identity”? Do you hide your secret identity or can you share your day job?

Dee
Message Board Moderator
Flash Movie Maker

Over the weekend, I figured out how to get myself to clean my kitchen.

Write for a deadline.

Here’s how the weekend went. I had a deadline for a story that required me to write all weekend. I did, but I found my mind wandering…

…Time to do laundry!
…I could use some groceries.
…I’m sure I need a break.
…I’ve got a great idea for Work In Progress #2…
…Hmm, that kitchen could use some work.

I already knew I was a skilled procrastinator. This merely confirmed it. It’s not because I don’t enjoy writing. Or that I’m low on story ideas. Still, no matter how much I like to write, how much I enjoy seeing my pen name on a cover, writing is work, and it comes most easily when it’s a habit.

Still, the deadline made me buckle down and finish the story. I didn’t do the laundry, buy groceries, or switch to WIP #2. I did take occasional breaks, and I also cleaned off the counter and swept the kitchen floor. I’m half tempted to set another deadline so I can clean the stove. At this rate, writing will lead to increased productivity in other areas of my life.

Writers, what motivates you to write? And what are your writing habits?

I’m not fond of too much sex in a romance novel. Authors quite often bombard readers with chapters filled with detailed sexual encounters between the hero and heroine. I’m not a prude; like most people, I love sex and I don’t mind reading about it. Some
authors, however, go a bit too far, neglecting character development in favor of extensive description of the hero’s tightening loins and “weapon of passion.” Personally, I don’t care about his loins, not when they’re mentioned in every chapter.

It’s hard to enjoy a romance novel, when you’re left questioning the seriousness of the characters’ feelings. A novel filled with too much sex and little else inevitably leads one to wonder whether a couples’ ending is truly a “happily ever after” one. We are left to examine whether the love is simply lust or mere infatuation. It’s up to the author to assure us that the heroine and hero are indeed meant for each other. We shouldn’t use our imagination for that. On the contrary, it should be spelled out for us.

Character development is essential; the reader must fall in love with the characters and understand why anyone would develop deep feelings for them. Only then is a happy ending, a “’til death do us part,” truly believable. Sex alone isn’t enough; for longevity in a relationship, you need more. Unfortunately, some authors didn’t get the memo.

What are your views on the topic? Do you find romance novels filled with sex and little else fulfilling and enjoyable reads?

Please Note: The post concerns romance novels only, not Erotica.