Romancing the Blog | Romance Authors and Readers Who Blog

The inaugural Christian Book Expo is coming to Dallas, Texas on March 19-22. It’s a brand new consumer-oriented book event. For the first time ever, it will bring together publishers, retailers, authors and consumers.

It’s not really a trade show–though the Dallas Convention Center will be filled with trade booths displaying their wares, doing business and making deals. It’s not really a writers’ convention–though several top authors are giving workshops on how to break into the Inspirational industry. It’s not really a book festival–though there will be consumers galore and over 150 seminars led by authors who will be signing books.

The goal of the event is to reach anyone making or influencing book buying decisions. “Reaching the consumer is essential to the future of Christian publishing,” said ECPA President Mark Kuyper. “Our goal with the Christian Book Expo is to connect the top authors from across the country with core customers.”

The ECPA (Evangelical Christian Publishing Assoc.) chose Dallas to launch their event because there are more mega-churches in the Dallas metropolitan area than any other city in the country, along with thousands of Christian book buyers.

Many top name Christian authors will be in attendance. NY Times bestselling author Beverly Lewis (novel made into Lifetime TV movie, Saving Sarah), Liz Curtis Higgs (Thorn In My Heart), Don Piper (90 Minutes in Heaven), Ruth Graham (Billy Graham’s daughter), Terri Blackstock (Line of Duty), Lee Strobel (Case for Christ) and many, many more.

It looks to be a top-drawer event and is very reasonably priced ($29/day or $59 for the entire event). You can click on the banner below to learn more.

Meanwhile, I wondered what your thoughts were about this experiment. RT’s convention is the only other one I could think of that targeted the readers specifically. Are there others? What–as a reader or an author–would make an event like this work for you? What would make you shy away?

One of my favorite things to do is recommend books to a reader (it’s really no mystery how I ended up a librarian). Finding the right book for the right reader at the right time can be an art. And when I manage to get it right I am always beyond pleased with myself. That being said, I have decided that I am officially giving up making reading recommendations to my mother.

My mother and I have been having a love-hate relationship over the past few years when it comes to reading. I can’t count the number of books I’ve recommended to her (books I know she will love) and yet she has ignored every recommendation. She says she doesn’t have time to read. I think she has lost her reading mojo. Even her favorite authors don’t hold the same appeal for her as they once did. And no matter how hard a sell I do about how a particular book or author would rock her world, I haven’t been able to interest her in anything I recommend.

So imagine my surprise this past weekend when I noticed a new book sitting on her coffee table. It wasn’t one I had recommended or loaned her (I swear, that woman has at least one-third of my book collection), so I asked her where she had gotten it from. It turns out that not only had her new BFF loaned it to her but that she had already read it.

While I was momentarily thrilled that my mother had read a book (and liked it!), I couldn’t help but be a little aggravated. Hadn’t I been recommending books to her for years now? Wasn’t I the trained professional who makes a living out of matching the right book with the right reader? Shouldn’t she be reading the books I recommend before those of her friend?

Even though I’m a librarian, a well-rounded reader, not to mention her daughter, the recommendation of her BFF had more weight to my mother than my own. Her friend saying to her, “This was the best book I’ve ever read” was all my mother needed to hear to get her to read the book. And that got me thinking. Maybe I’m not the go to person I think I am for my library patrons when they need a reading recommendation. Maybe they just humor the crazy librarian and get their reading recommendations from other, more trusted sources.

What about you? Does a reading recommendation mean more to you depending on who it comes from? If so, who do you trust the most? A friend? A sibling? A spouse? A librarian? Why do their recommendations matter more than others?

There are few plots I love more than the treasure hunt.

My love affair with treasure hunts started with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. The original isn’t a romance but that’s okay. You see, I injected my own romance plot into the story. I added girls. A love interest for Jim. One for Ben also (he seemed lonely). It was one of the first novels I ‘added to.’ My juvenile version of fanfiction.

Of course, Treasure Island also inspired me to dig huge holes in our backyard looking for treasure, much to my mother’s horror.

Twenty years (or so) later, I’ve given up the hole digging but Treasure Island continues to inspire me. Invisible, my latest novel, is a contemporary treasure hunt through the world of hidden identities. Although there’s no map with an ‘X’ marking the spot (I was tempted to add one, very, very tempted), there are clues leading to more clues, all pointing to a hidden treasure (in Invisible’s case, a deed to a house). Of course, there is a baddie (or semi-baddie) also looking for the treasure.

My Lady Viking from Jean C. Gordon is one of my favorite treasure hunt romances of 2008. Kara, a female Viking Warrior, is given a map to a lost Viking hoard. With hunky Aedan’s help, she searches for these riches. Again, there are plenty of clues (some false, some true) and a healthy dose of mystery. Will they find it? Will the bad guys get there first? Is there really a treasure or is it all a myth?

I didn’t want to bungle up Deborah Cooke’s Kiss Of Fate treasure hunt storyline by spilling the beans (’cause y’all would slay me) so I was thrilled when Deborah volunteered to do the honors.

“In Kiss Of Fate. Erik is hunting for the Dragon’s Teeth, a set of teeth from one of the Pyr (dragon shape shifters) that can be converted into an army of fighting dragons. The heroine Eileen, inadvertently ends up in possession of the Dragon’s Teeth, when her old roommate asks her for advice about the strange artifacts, then the office is raided by Slayers seeking the Teeth. Eileen thinks Erik is only interested in her because of the artifacts, she knows the murdering Slayers want them, so she begins a game of hide and seek with fire breathing opponents — and one sexy determined hero, who seems intent on keeping her from harm.”

Yes, yes, what she said. You can see why I didn’t try to sum the plot up.

My list of treasure hunt novels is lengthy. In R.E. Matheson’s Starr Light, empath Starr and medieval historian Rik frantically search the galaxy to find an ancient relic before their enemies do. Harper’s Treasure, a romantic comedy from Jennifer Lynn, is a search for Blackbeard’s treasure. There’s buried gold to be found in Candace Morehouse’s Golden Enchantment.

I’m thinking I wasn’t the only little girl digging holes in her backyard.

What are your favorite treasure hunt books?

Now that strains of Freddie Mercury and David Bowie are trickling through my brain, I must confess I’m at a loss for what to write about today. There are lots of things I could discuss –

Hugh Jackman was an amazing Oscar host!
Why do my library holds always explode at the same time?
I need a clone of myself to do the boring things in life so I can have more time to read
What’s going to happen now that the Oceanic 6 are back on the island?
Rude people, especially on a Monday morning = FAIL

– but none of these things really relate to books and/or reading and/or writing, well, except the library holds. Guess this means I’m under pressure to find a suitable topic…

So let’s talk about pressure.

I’m one of those writers who agonizes over every word, possibly due to the fact I sometimes find myself falling back into a pattern of “bad writing.” My typical mistakes are overusing ‘that’ and clauses beginning with gerunds. Because I put so my pressure on myself for my writing to be perfect in the first draft, I get stuck and discouraged rather easily. Unless I’m the zone; then, more often than not, I’m in shock and awe that I wrote that.

Which is why not only am I a terrible e-published author (not productive or fast enough, in my opinion), but I fear traditional publication methods would make me break out into hives (plus that pesky word count roadblock my brain has trouble detouring around or accepting — another blog for another time).

Can anyone else relate, or am I “Crazy, table of 1?”

As a reader, I find it oh so disappointing when sophomore efforts don’t live up to first releases. Does that mean I throw in the towel on Such-and-Such? Not usually. I’m a hard sale, but I’m loyal.

On the other hand, I suppose if all writers and readers never took a leap of faith — be it with a character or plotline or on an author — the publishing world would be pretty boring. And who wants to live in grayscale?

I’m sitting at my computer, unable to watch the Oscars because my TV isn’t working correctly (it’s showing only one channel that has some Funniest Videos idiocy) and because the Academy hasn’t got with the program and I can’t find it live-streaming anywhere that won’t also live-stream a virus right through my hard-drive. (Hey, MPAA, it’s the 21st century! Plz to be live-streaming on the web! Kthxbye.) So I’m living vicariously through Twitter feeds from my friends and Oscar.com (although no live-feed!). We’re down to the final big four!

And I’m thinking of the Romantic Comedy movies I like best and how they compare with the romance novels I like best and I realize I’m pretty consistent. I’m not so enamored with the RomComs that focus on the heroine–which is actually most of them. Rather, I like the RomComs that are all about the man’s progress into the relationship and into love with his heroine. My favorite movie of all time? French Kiss with Kevin Kline playing a delightfully skeevy French gigolo and thief and Meg Ryan playing a “soon to be ex-American Canadian” who comes to France because her fiance has fallen in love with a French “godDESS.” While Meg Ryan’s character Kate has to learn to deal with risk, Kevin Kline’s character Luc has to learn to love and to set that love free without hope that it’ll come back when he falls so hard for Kate that he helps her try to get her fiance back. Watching him struggle with falling in love in the first place and then decide to put her happiness ahead of his own is incredibly romantic.

I also adore(d) What Women Want (the whole Mel Gibson thing kinda makes me feel icky when I watch it now, though). Gibson’s character is a womanizing jerk who is gifted with being able to hear what women think. After his initial freak-out, he begins using it to his womanizing advantage, only to find himself finally respecting women for the first time, as he falls in love with Helen Hunt’s character. The movie is all about the worst kind of user rake learning the error of his ways and coming to respect and therefore fall in love with one special woman. Which is precisely what I like about my favorite romance novels, too.

This is why I adore the 1996 BBC Pride and Prejudice–it’s all about Darcy! Or at least, it’s much more focused visually on Darcy and his emotions than the novel is. And that can’t be a bad thing in my book.

So, the day after it looks like an actual romance is going to sweep the Oscars for the first time in forever (ever?) (Slumdog Millionaire just took the Best Director Oscar–I don’t know if I can stay up to see Best Film), what are your favorite Romantic Comedy films and how do they compare with your taste in romance novels? (And, yay! Sean Penn won for Milk!)

by Special Guest Phillipa Ashley

Okay. This is the first time I’ve blogged for Romancing the Blog (possibly my last after this post!). I was going to talk about alternative heroes. In fact that’s what the Kates have been expecting.

You know. Has the Billionaire had his day in these days of economic turmoil? Will he give way to a more ethical hero who lives in a yurt and eschews money in favour of bartering and growing organic produce? (I’ve a vested interest in this type of hero as my latest, Matt, is a humanitarian doctor who doesn’t own a house or car and isn’t interested in money at all.)

But more of that later because I’m going to kill two birds with one stone with this blog and I hope you and the Kates will indulge me.

I first need to say that I write single title romance for UK publisher Little Black Dress. I do read and love series romance too, but I write slightly longer books that are more like chick lit. However, what most types of romantic novels have in common is that they are commercial. In my book that means both popular and accessible to a wide audience.

You see, this is where I’m going to go off message; and recently something bigger than heroes has been bugging me. It’s an article in a UK newspaper which claimed that writers of commercial fiction (and that sure is me) are no better than whores.

Er, yes. Whores. You heard that right. Here’s the link so you can see for yourself. http://is.gd/kbqs

Anyone who has an eye on the market is not a writer but a whore. Nothing wrong with being a whore, of course – just don’t try to make out you’re a writer.

Not a writer just because people want to read what you write? This kind of trashing of commercial fiction usually makes my blood boil briefly then I move on. But ‘whore’ is a strong word to use and I wondered what romance writers and readers thought of this view?

I suppose I shouldn’t really be surprised. There’s an element of the UK ‘literary’ press who detest commercial fiction and chick lit in particular. And I suppose it takes all sorts to make the literary world go round but a ‘whore’?

That’s an insult too far and I think it shows a deep-seated envy of authors who write the books people want to read – and they want to write. I think it’s both those things together that rile some people so much. Romance writers make a lot of people very happy and have a wonderful time doing it. So get over it or as we might say in the UK: knickers to you, mate.

So, rant over, back to heroes. I’ve read and fallen for my fair share of billionaires and tycoons – I even wrote one for my first book, Decent Exposure. Yet… I must admit one of my favourite heroes in romantic fiction is a single parent who makes coffins for a living. He’s called Jake and he appears in a Jill Mansell book called Falling for You. He’s sexy, funny, broke and when he first appears, he’s making a very unusual coffin which attracts the eye of a young woman.

It’s when you find out why he’s making a coffin with flowers on it that you fall for him. Instantly. His little disabled sister died in a hit and run accident and Jake made her a beautiful coffin because he couldn’t bear her to be laid to rest in the regular kind. He wanted to create his own resting place for her and now, he makes his living this way.

I’ve never forgotten this hero and I never will – for his actions thoughout the novel, which are, of course, what make a hero a hero, however large his bank balance.

Of course billionaires aren’t dead! Romance readers will always love the powerful man who can offer a glamorous escapist lifestyle. You can’t criticise anyone for indulging in that fantasy, especially right now when of us are threatened with losing jobs and homes. But I must admit, I’d be a little more eager to know how he’d made that money these days…

What do readers think? And writers? Do you have any unusual offbeat heroes who really struck a chord with you?

(from a series of articles posted previously)

One of the hardest things about doing this series of articles was knowing where to start. Really, there’s so much I could say about epublishing, but usually people say to start at the beginning. Difficult because I’m not really sure anyone knows exactly where epublishing started or who the first epublisher was. I know Awestruck has been in business for many, many years and Ellora’s Cave is arguably the most well-known of epublishers, though not the first or one of the oldest. I also know many of the very first epublishers have since closed their doors. But other than that, I really couldn’t say how epublishing started, who came up with the idea of first selling a book electronically or starting a company dedicated to that. If I did, I suppose I’d want to ring them up and thank them.

You see, I love epublishing. I would say I’m fairly new to the world of epublishing, having only been in it for about five years, but I’d also say that epublishing is still in its toddler stages, trying to establish its separate identity from New York publishing. Trying to prove that it can do things the “big kids” do and do it just as well, even if it’s done differently. And struggling hard to get people to listen to it and take it seriously. Sounds a bit like toddlerhood, doesn’t it?

So if I can’t start at the beginning, I’ll start at what epublishing is, what it can be, and what it shouldn’t be. I’ll start with the good, the bad, and the stuff that makes me want to bury myself under the covers for the next five years.

First, what epublishing is. No, I’m not going to bore you with details about how epublishing stands for electronic publishing and is a means of publishing books, magazines, articles electronically for download to your computer or another reading device. I’m going to assume that people out there reading are plugged into the publishing industry enough to know what epublishing is, if nothing else (though if you don’t, that’s okay, I’m used to still getting blank stares from people when I say I work in epublishing).

Instead, let’s talk about the business model of epublishing. Because to me, that’s the heart of epublishing, the beauty of it, and what makes it not only different from NY publishing, but different in a good way and in a way that’s needed.

First, let’s dispel some rumors. Epublishing is not easy, it’s not a hobby, and yes, there is overhead. However, it is true that anyone can start an epublishing company, some people in the epub industry don’t take their involvement as seriously as they might another business, and overhead is generally lower.

I think, for all intents and purposes, that last bit is at the center of the epublishing business model, because it’s what gives epubs the ability to be “cutting edge” so to speak. For the most part, epublishers don’t offer advances and if they do, certainly not on nearly the same scale as NY publishers. Because the business doesn’t have this outlay at the beginning, it means less worry (not nonexistent, just less) about selling a certain number of copies to recoup that money. This is a huge factor in what allows epublishers to take changes on a wide variety of new authors, unique (and sometimes bizarre) story concepts, and less popular genres. But still good stories. Different doesn’t mean bad—maybe that should be the epublishing motto. Different stories, lengths and business model, but that doesn’t mean bad.

In conjunction with that is no print run. Some epublishers do also put books in print, a topic I’ll cover in a later article, but intial release of the book is electronic. So as with advances, again, epublishers don’t have to have the same sales minimum to be met.

At this point, you’re probably wondering about my earlier statement denouncing “no overhead” as a myth. First, there is the staff behind the book. At Samhain (please note, during this article series, I’ll occasionally use Samhain as an example, since it’s of course what I’m most intimately familiar with) the staff includes editors, copy editors, artists, marketing, review coordinator, submissions coordinator, formatters and various office staff, all of whom have a hand in publishing the book. Even in epublishing, it takes a village to release each book. In addition to staff, there’s costs of advertising, marketing, web hosting, office space, lawyers, accountants…all of the things any other business might incur. An epublisher developing their business is reinvesting in their business, and there is no “pure profit”.

But still, to reuse my earlier words, the heart and beauty of epublishing is its differences from NY publishing, the lack of advances and print runs. Sometimes the very thing decried by authors and writer’s organizations. Of course, the lack of these things means some people aren’t interested in traveling down the road of epublishing, but that doesn’t mean others aren’t interested, and eager, to take the journey. Just as my husband’s disinterest (and avid dislike) of sushi doesn’t mean I can’t eat and enjoy it.

Because of this business model, I’m going to put myself out on the proverbial limb and say we have erotic romance seen as mainstream. Before the paranormal craze in NY, authors like Keri Arthur, Linnea Sinclair, Rosemary Laurey, Mary Janice Davidson and Angela Knight found their paranormal beginnings in epublishing. Epublishing has allowed NY publishers to watch readers’ reception to a genre or a concept before they venture into it, since there is considerably more risk for them.

Now, I’m not Pollyanna, so despite all my rah-rahing for epublishing, I can still see, and discuss, the drawbacks of the industry. Earlier I said “anyone can start an epublisher” and it’s true. All you need is a website/storefront, some technical knowledge, and a manuscript. That’s it. Slap a name up there, get a friend to make you some sparkly graphics, write a FAQ and you’re in business. Indeed, what I think is wonderful about epublishing ‘s business model, not having a large initial overhead, is also the very thing that works against it. After all, no one says a publisher has to do edits, copy edits, marketing, or all of the hundreds of other small and large things that add up to overhead. It goes without saying that this is the very, very bad of epublishing, the lack of these things, of interest in these things or a belief in the need for them.

And that leads me to what makes me want to bury my head under the blankets while my next five years in epublishing pass—publishers who open, lure in authors with big promises, and then close their doors in often public, ugly and damaging (to epublishing) ways. Probably most of us, if we’ve been around the internet at all, have seen some of these closings and the authors that were dragged along with them. Bankruptcy, failure to return rights, company officials posting diatribes online (often badly spelled, with poor grammar and liberal use of cuss words), and one of the worst things—failure to pay royalties. These are things that shouldn’t happen in epublishing—shouldn’t happen in any business. But they do, and in epublishing perhaps more frequently because it is so easy to start an epublisher and prey on authors’ dreams of getting their written word in front of an audience.

It’s easy to see why some people want nothing to do with epublishing or have a negative reaction when the subject is brought up. It’s difficult to know which company to trust because not all companies are professionally run and some companies have been started by authors who want to publish their own books (making epublishing sometimes seem synonymous with vanity press). There are no advances or only token advances—something that’s still important to many authors. I mentioned earlier about the blank stares I get when I mention I work in epublishing—some people don’t think of ebooks as “real” books or as someone epublished as really being published. Some authors want to see their book in print, and on the shelves in bookstores. In addition, sales numbers in epublishing are generally not as high as in NY publishing, though a percentage of book sales/royalties do match that of NY sales, and the audience reached in epublishing is not as big as that of NY publishers.

There’s a lot that’s good about epublishing, though, things that any number of authors have discovered. Epublishing can allow you freedoms in your story that NY can’t always, in story lines, genres and concepts. This is understandably so, as NY publishers have those monetary outputs out front that I discussed earlier. Because epublishing is electronic, there can be any variety of lengths of books published—no minimum page/word count to hit. Authors are also able to cross genres in epublishing,s omething that can’t always occur in NY publishing. This is the main reason NY author Lucy Monroe approached Samhain Publishing to publish her inspirational novels as L.C. Monroe. The NY Christian publishers were wary of publishing her books, given her more sensual works as Lucy Monroe.

Other great things about epublishing include a faster response time from submission to response and acceptance to publication for most epublishers, more personal contact with people within the company (though I would argue that this can also be a drawback of epublishing), no need for an agent. A selection of epublishers do also produce books in print as well as ebook. Last, in place of an advance, from epublishing authors get regular royalty payments (monthly, quarterly or biannually) with a larger percentage of royalties (35-50%). Since an author’s backlist can potentially remain available indefinitely, this also means regular royalty payments on backlist years after the book’s original publication date.

In the end, it’s up to each author to weigh the pros and cons of epublishing and decide if it’s for them. I think, with careful consideration of the risks, the publishers and the business model, epublishing can be a fantastic venue for authors looking to build a writing career. It’s not the path every author will choose, but even my husband and I don’t take the same route home from our daughter’s daycare. We have what she refers to as “Mommy’s way” and “Daddy’s way”. The same can be said for any two authors pursuing publication. Again, the epublishing business model is a viable one, one that’s made money and careers for many in the industry, and will continue to do so, even as we overcome our growing pains and find greater stability.

I had no idea what I was going to write about today, then the lovely Victoria Janssen threw out a suggestion to write about a particular kind of plot. Several come to mind, like marriage of convenience, secret babies, reunited lovers, kidnapping, etc.

So, I peered over at my books to see if I usually buy books with a common plot type. Nope. You can see two very distinctive genre types—romantic suspense and romantic comedy—but the actual plot types are all over the place. However, I don’t have a lot of secret babies or marriage of convenience. I’m not a huge fan of those. They’re just not my thing.

I love reading about reunited lovers, but I wouldn’t say the ratio of those I have is very high either. The thing about reunited lovers is that it really brings word “hope” to the forefront of the romance. If you think back to your past, you might be able to remember the one that got away or the one that you had the biggest ever crush on. But for whatever reason it didn’t work at that time. Wouldn’t it be neat to have a second chance (and I’m talking if you’re single and available)?

Of course, it would be best if the person from your past is only sort of hot now and you’re the hottest thing he’s ever seen and he can’t believe how stupid he was to ever let you get away. And then you decide no matter how hot he is that you’re hotter and smarter and you remember what an egotistical jerk he was in school and…

Ahem… where were we?

Right. Hope. I think love lost and then found again is very hopeful. I read about seniors who get married at 80+ years to the sweetheart they lost touch with during the war or just through life circumstance. It always gives me chills. Especially the ones who have these amazing epic stories of all the things that contrived to keep them apart. And here they are going hand-in-hand into whatever future they have left, be it a few years or many, many more. That’s hope. That’s love.

Sometimes it’s not a simple thing, like missed opportunity. Sometimes there is anger and resentment and hurt. Sometimes the person from your past hurt you so much, you thought you’d never get over it. But now, here he is and here you are. There are fireworks and explosions, then maybe forgiveness and understanding, then if you’re lucky, more fireworks and explosions. I love reading this kind of reunited lovers’ story. Hope and forgiveness. Love conquering in the end. Getting the happy ever after, even when it didn’t look like it was possible.

What is your favourite kind of romance plot and why? Did I miss a particular plot type, that you really love? What is it?

Right now, I’m at that stage in revisions where I lock myself in a room with an endless supply of tea and chocolate and live, eat, breathe, and sleep the book. When the ms has been sent off to my editor, I will emerge, blinking and confused. I will stare at my husband and my son and try to work out if they’ve changed, or if my eyesight has just got worse.

Last week over lunch, before I started this particular round of revision madness, I had the great good fortune to talk with an internationally best-selling author. She confirmed my suspicions that all writers act this obsessively, sometimes to the detriment of their nearest and dearest. “Bless my husband,” she said to me, “I do so make his life hell, but I couldn’t do this job without him.”

Since this past weekend was Valentine’s Day, and because my revisions meant that yet again, I failed to get my husband a gift, I thought I would take this opportunity to offer writer’s partners in general, and my husband in particular, a heartfelt open thank you letter.

Dear Husband,

Thank you for taking the kid to the park in the rain, again.

Thank you for saving up all the things you have to tell me until the end of the day, even though I’m sitting right there at my desk, staring into space, apparently doing nothing.

Thank you for not getting too offended when I yell at you for interrupting me when I appear to be doing nothing.

Thank you for doing the vacuuming, even though I do wish you’d remember to do the stairs, but nobody ever looks at the stairs anyway, so thank you.

Thank you for the 2,314,872 cups of tea.

Thank you for listening to me rant on for hours about the problems in my latest book.

Thank you for suggesting things to solve those problems and then not getting upset when I snap, “But that would never work!”

Thank you for tactfully ignoring all the photos of half-naked men on my computer.

Thank you for that time you met one of my favourite pop stars and told him your wife was an author and she listens to his music all the time while writing.

Thank you for taking the kid to the museum to stroke the stuffed badger, again.

Thank you for saying, “There are things that matter more than money.”

Thank you for realising that going to see the latest Batman movie really is research.

Thank you for saying, when I got all those rejections, “Those people obviously don’t know anything.”

Thank you for listening to that song, just one more time.

Thank you for insisting that today, I came with you and the kid to the park.

What would you thank your loved one(s) for?

The other day I bought a book by one of my Short List writers — people whose fiction I buy on sight. A writer makes my Short List because I’ve always loved everything she or he has written, and I’ve come to trust that I probably always will. I’ll buy a Short List writer’s book even if it has a setting or theme or subgenre I don’t usually enjoy; I’ll give it a shot out of trust for that particular writer.

So I started reading this book, which was the latest in a long series which I’ve been enjoying up to now, and it suddenly hit me that I didn’t care for it at all. And looking back, I realized that the same flaws which were annoying me so much in the book in my hands were also present in the earlier books.

It’s as though I’d spent all this time believing I was in love with this writer, only to suddenly snap out of it and realize it’d been infatuation all along. For the several years since my mom loaned me the first however many in the series, I’d been focusing on the good parts and how much fun I was having, and my bubbly, “Oh wow this is so cool!” feelings blinded me to the pretty major flaws the series has, or at least blunted the effects of those flaws so much that the coolness won.

Now, though, it’s like I’m looking at it clearly for the first time. The stories are all alike — she’s been telling the same tale over and over and over, with essentially the same characters. If you reduced each book to a half-page outline and replaced the character names with Bob and Mary, they’d be pretty much identical. The guys are major jerks, agressive and jealous and overbearing and smug about it. The girls all start out telling themselves how strong and independent they are, and their “character development” throughout the story always has them ending up with the “realization” that the right thing to do is surrender completely to these men who love them so much, stop their “selfish” struggle against someone who only wants them to be happy, and settle into their fluttery, admiring little mate role, The End. And of course, as the series goes on, each guy has to be bigger and badder and tougher and more dangerous than all the previous guys, so we’re at the point now (and actually have been for like ten books) where the whole Uber-Hero thing is just ludicrous.

The point isn’t the specifics, though, or whether or not this particular series is or isn’t enjoyable. The point I’m making is that I’ve had boyfriends like this.

You know, the kind of relationship where you’re swept up into the wonderful love and romance of it, all gleefully bouncy and OMGInLove!!! for however long, and then suddenly you wake up one morning and all the euphoria is gone and you’re looking at the guy and wondering what the heck you were thinking. You feel a crushing shame that your friends and family actually know that you thought you were in love with this jerk or idiot or whatever, and now that you’ve come to your senses, you’re sure they’re never going to let you live it down. That’s classic infatuation. Up until now, I thought it only happened with romantic relationships.

Sometimes a writer decides to try something different (which is certainly their right) and you just don’t like the new thing they’re into, so you move on. I imagine it works out, and they get new fans who are into the new thing as much as they lose old fans who aren’t. But that’s a different sort of situation.

In my case a couple of days ago, it wasn’t that the writer and I were slowly growing apart because she was heading into new territory I didn’t care to explore. This was a sudden falling out of love, almost exactly like falling out of love. I’m just as annoyed with myself, and just as embarassed that there are a few people around who know I used to love this writer and this series. And I feel like eating a lot of chocolate or something.

(Do you have any idea how much chocolate I could’ve bought with the money I’ve spent on these books?!)

Has this happened to anyone else? Or am I the only one who’s experienced a long infatuation with a writer’s work, and then a sudden and embarassing falling out of love?

Angie