Eh...Wed Reading Meme..
Dec. 3rd, 2014 10:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatWill state one thing, reading all these romance novels is making me feel better about my own novel, which, ahem, I've been editing at work. Doing a lot of second guessing.
I really need a good line editor - commas, semicolons, and colons are my nemesis. Not helped by the controversy regarding - when to put a comma before "and". Some people believe you don't in a line, others that you do. Depends on whether you were a English major or a Marketing major. I pretty much know the rules intuitively, but there are places where they make no logical sense. Math is similar - the rules that make logical sense to me, I remember, the one's that don't, I don't remember. But how to find a good line editor - that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? Should I just go through Create Space and use theirs? Book is 92,624 words. Anyone know of any good betas?
On the book front, my mother and I discuss books over the phone. Let's just say that I come by my eclectic reading tastes naturally. She just finished Phillip Meyer's August Rust (which she doesn't recommend, The Son is a heck of a lot better). And The Rosie Project, which she didn't like as much as everyone else seems to, including Bill Gates of all people. The Rosie Project interestingly enough started out as a screenplay, when it didn't get picked up, the writer turned it into a novel. My mother's issue with it was that it relied heavily on "embarrassment humor", which makes us both cringe. We both associate embarrassment humor closely with bullying which is why we hate it. Did give me an epithany regarding bullying; I can't help but wonder if most bullies are just bad practical jokers? They don't really see themselves as bullies so much as just making a joke, albeit at someone else's expense?
Humor can be cruel and sadistic, after all.
1. What I just finished reading?
Bound to Your Touch by Meredith Duran - it's okay. I like Duran's writing style - mainly because her focus is on character, and usually their internal lives and voice. Often using the plot as a way to examine their familial and personal hang-ups. In this case both characters have to find a way to forgive themselves for being duped by relatives that they loved deeply, and who either betrayed or disappointed them. The plot, which is largely in the background, is the heroine's father, an Egyptologist as is the heroine, who was educated - it's the Victorian era, is smuggling gems through his antiquities shipments. The antiquities shipments that are frauds. He's doing it to fund his expeditions and his daughter's livelihood. The heroine feels rather betrayed by this and can't bring herself to forgive at the end of the book. Yet, she is somehow able to finally forgive or at least understand why her sister stole her beau. So progress. The hero is forced to come to terms with why his sister has chosen to stay in an insane asylum. For most of the book he believes his father is behind it all. But no, it's her choice. The sister had gotten into a rather abusive marriage. I like what Duran does here - she comments on the Alpha male/domineering romance trope - the sister thought she could change her husband, that he would get better after she married him, even though her brother strongly warned her against it. But no, instead he beat her, until she stabbed him in self-defense. She left him once, her father sent her back (the time period), but her brother did offer to help her get out of the marriage - but she denied his aid.
The brother blames himself for what happened. But the sister, and this is interesting, tells him that he had no control over what happened. She entered into the relationship against his advice. She knew what her husband was. And when she had an opportunity to leave him - she didn't. She has to figure out why that is - before she can trust herself out in the world again. I found that bit intriguing.
2. What you are Reading now?
Written on Your Skin by Meredith Duran - in some respects this is better than Bound to Your Touch, in other's its slower or drags more. Odd. But there it is.
This is the sequel to Bond, Phineas and Mina are initially introduced in Bound, and various Amazon reviewers were disappointed in how they are portrayed in the sequel.
I wasn't. I actually find these two characters more complex and interesting than the one's in Bound, and more subversive. Mina - for all appearances is the society dame, a feather-brained, bubble-headed classic damsel in distress - tiny, doll-like, fragile, blue-eyed, plantium blond hair...but in reality this all just a facade which she uses to her advantage. She's calculating and ruthless. She has to be. And she fears becoming her mother - a victim, a frail butterfly who depends on abusive men.
Mina - wants no part of men, marriage, or dependency. She's her own woman. She decides to lose her virginity to a man in New York - in order to be "ruined", so that men will stop asking for her hand in marriage, and people will stop asking when she will get married. She runs a successful business, and has little patience for the British aristocracy or class system. Phineas...was born poor, studied and aspired to become a map-maker, got roped into becoming a spy against his will - because he had a talent for it, and finally got out of the spy business when he inherited his cousin's Earldom. He fears becoming his abusive, alcoholic father. On the surface, he appears to be your typical Alpha Male Rakish hero, but in reality..that too is just a facade. The two of them lead a marry dance as they ride across the countryside in search of Mina's kidnapped mother.
Reviewers on Amazon disliked the story because it didn't have enough "romance" (I'm guessing hearts and flowers) and the characters are rather abrasive and prickily for a romance novel - while I'm rather enjoying it for well those reasons. This happens to me a lot with reviewers - I often love a book for all the reasons they hate it, and hate a book for all the reasons they love it. At times, I think, my taste appears to be at odds with the general populace at large. Hmm.
3. ) What I'll be reading next?
Eh, no clue. Whatever the spirit moves me to read, I expect. Certainly have picked up enough to choose from. Latest group? Prince of Moonlight or Midnight (can't remember which) by Laura Kinsale, about a legendary highwayman, who has become a bit of a recluse with a wolf for a pet and the lady who seeks him out to obtain revenge - gets disappointed, and decides to do it without his help - but he falls for her, and decides to help, regardless. (Hmmm...did the writer watch LadyHawk prior to writing this?), then there's her novel about an absent-minded but brilliant inventor and her knight in shining armor who is having one devil of a time keeping her safe, mainly from herself. (Moonlight something or other). Talk Sweetly to Me by Courtney Milan which features a black heroine. Then..the Lori Brighton ones with the male prostitutes..and female madam.
I honestly think by the end of this year, I will have managed to have read every possible romance novel out there.
Considered trying a Pulitizer prize winning one by Laurie something or other, entitled Foreign Affairs, which I never heard of. But it sounded rather dull - about academics. This is the problem with a lot of literary writers - as my father once stated - they, like all writers, tend to write about what they know - and all they know is academia. Which is okay, if you are into reading books about academia.
As you can see - while my reading taste may be largely eclectic...at the moment it doesn't appear to be, but if you've been reading this blog since 2003 or thereabouts, you'll realize it is, the one consistency is that I am into characters. It's how I write as well. I care most about characters. I build their inner lives in my head.
The plot generates from them or flows as I write, but the characters are first.
If a story doesn't have characters that appeal to me on some level or speak to me, I'm out of there. They don't have to be likable, which is largely subjective and for me, at least, mood based anyhow, but they do have to be interesting.
I really need a good line editor - commas, semicolons, and colons are my nemesis. Not helped by the controversy regarding - when to put a comma before "and". Some people believe you don't in a line, others that you do. Depends on whether you were a English major or a Marketing major. I pretty much know the rules intuitively, but there are places where they make no logical sense. Math is similar - the rules that make logical sense to me, I remember, the one's that don't, I don't remember. But how to find a good line editor - that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? Should I just go through Create Space and use theirs? Book is 92,624 words. Anyone know of any good betas?
On the book front, my mother and I discuss books over the phone. Let's just say that I come by my eclectic reading tastes naturally. She just finished Phillip Meyer's August Rust (which she doesn't recommend, The Son is a heck of a lot better). And The Rosie Project, which she didn't like as much as everyone else seems to, including Bill Gates of all people. The Rosie Project interestingly enough started out as a screenplay, when it didn't get picked up, the writer turned it into a novel. My mother's issue with it was that it relied heavily on "embarrassment humor", which makes us both cringe. We both associate embarrassment humor closely with bullying which is why we hate it. Did give me an epithany regarding bullying; I can't help but wonder if most bullies are just bad practical jokers? They don't really see themselves as bullies so much as just making a joke, albeit at someone else's expense?
Humor can be cruel and sadistic, after all.
1. What I just finished reading?
Bound to Your Touch by Meredith Duran - it's okay. I like Duran's writing style - mainly because her focus is on character, and usually their internal lives and voice. Often using the plot as a way to examine their familial and personal hang-ups. In this case both characters have to find a way to forgive themselves for being duped by relatives that they loved deeply, and who either betrayed or disappointed them. The plot, which is largely in the background, is the heroine's father, an Egyptologist as is the heroine, who was educated - it's the Victorian era, is smuggling gems through his antiquities shipments. The antiquities shipments that are frauds. He's doing it to fund his expeditions and his daughter's livelihood. The heroine feels rather betrayed by this and can't bring herself to forgive at the end of the book. Yet, she is somehow able to finally forgive or at least understand why her sister stole her beau. So progress. The hero is forced to come to terms with why his sister has chosen to stay in an insane asylum. For most of the book he believes his father is behind it all. But no, it's her choice. The sister had gotten into a rather abusive marriage. I like what Duran does here - she comments on the Alpha male/domineering romance trope - the sister thought she could change her husband, that he would get better after she married him, even though her brother strongly warned her against it. But no, instead he beat her, until she stabbed him in self-defense. She left him once, her father sent her back (the time period), but her brother did offer to help her get out of the marriage - but she denied his aid.
The brother blames himself for what happened. But the sister, and this is interesting, tells him that he had no control over what happened. She entered into the relationship against his advice. She knew what her husband was. And when she had an opportunity to leave him - she didn't. She has to figure out why that is - before she can trust herself out in the world again. I found that bit intriguing.
2. What you are Reading now?
Written on Your Skin by Meredith Duran - in some respects this is better than Bound to Your Touch, in other's its slower or drags more. Odd. But there it is.
This is the sequel to Bond, Phineas and Mina are initially introduced in Bound, and various Amazon reviewers were disappointed in how they are portrayed in the sequel.
I wasn't. I actually find these two characters more complex and interesting than the one's in Bound, and more subversive. Mina - for all appearances is the society dame, a feather-brained, bubble-headed classic damsel in distress - tiny, doll-like, fragile, blue-eyed, plantium blond hair...but in reality this all just a facade which she uses to her advantage. She's calculating and ruthless. She has to be. And she fears becoming her mother - a victim, a frail butterfly who depends on abusive men.
Mina - wants no part of men, marriage, or dependency. She's her own woman. She decides to lose her virginity to a man in New York - in order to be "ruined", so that men will stop asking for her hand in marriage, and people will stop asking when she will get married. She runs a successful business, and has little patience for the British aristocracy or class system. Phineas...was born poor, studied and aspired to become a map-maker, got roped into becoming a spy against his will - because he had a talent for it, and finally got out of the spy business when he inherited his cousin's Earldom. He fears becoming his abusive, alcoholic father. On the surface, he appears to be your typical Alpha Male Rakish hero, but in reality..that too is just a facade. The two of them lead a marry dance as they ride across the countryside in search of Mina's kidnapped mother.
Reviewers on Amazon disliked the story because it didn't have enough "romance" (I'm guessing hearts and flowers) and the characters are rather abrasive and prickily for a romance novel - while I'm rather enjoying it for well those reasons. This happens to me a lot with reviewers - I often love a book for all the reasons they hate it, and hate a book for all the reasons they love it. At times, I think, my taste appears to be at odds with the general populace at large. Hmm.
3. ) What I'll be reading next?
Eh, no clue. Whatever the spirit moves me to read, I expect. Certainly have picked up enough to choose from. Latest group? Prince of Moonlight or Midnight (can't remember which) by Laura Kinsale, about a legendary highwayman, who has become a bit of a recluse with a wolf for a pet and the lady who seeks him out to obtain revenge - gets disappointed, and decides to do it without his help - but he falls for her, and decides to help, regardless. (Hmmm...did the writer watch LadyHawk prior to writing this?), then there's her novel about an absent-minded but brilliant inventor and her knight in shining armor who is having one devil of a time keeping her safe, mainly from herself. (Moonlight something or other). Talk Sweetly to Me by Courtney Milan which features a black heroine. Then..the Lori Brighton ones with the male prostitutes..and female madam.
I honestly think by the end of this year, I will have managed to have read every possible romance novel out there.
Considered trying a Pulitizer prize winning one by Laurie something or other, entitled Foreign Affairs, which I never heard of. But it sounded rather dull - about academics. This is the problem with a lot of literary writers - as my father once stated - they, like all writers, tend to write about what they know - and all they know is academia. Which is okay, if you are into reading books about academia.
As you can see - while my reading taste may be largely eclectic...at the moment it doesn't appear to be, but if you've been reading this blog since 2003 or thereabouts, you'll realize it is, the one consistency is that I am into characters. It's how I write as well. I care most about characters. I build their inner lives in my head.
The plot generates from them or flows as I write, but the characters are first.
If a story doesn't have characters that appeal to me on some level or speak to me, I'm out of there. They don't have to be likable, which is largely subjective and for me, at least, mood based anyhow, but they do have to be interesting.
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no subject
Date: 2014-12-04 10:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-05 03:57 am (UTC)Ah, well, I have actually read a broad range of litfic about academia. Got a wee bit burned out on it. (Was in two book clubs and book clubs love this stuff, also was an English Lit major and English Lit professors love this stuff as well - which is the problem. Actually that's the problem with many of these writers - they are all taught to write the same way. No one tries anything new. Their voices are the same. You read about a 100 of them and they sort of blur. There's a few stand-outs here and there, but you really have to hunt for them. It's my biggest pet peeve with MFA programs - you aren't supposed to teach writing style or voice, but help the writer discover their own individual voice and style. Because after all - there aren't any new plots or new ideas, what distinguishes the stories is the style, the characters, and how the write approaches the subject matter. If everyone writes the same way - it's all rather dull.)
I loved the following academic litfic, which I found distinctive - but granted mileage does vary on this point:
* Possession by AS Byatt
* The Secret History by Donna Tartt
* something or other by Jane Smiley, the title I forget completely
* A Separate Peace by John Knowles
I like Straight Man by Richard Russo, it was funny, but I can't remember it at all.
And not exactly litfic, but academic...Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand.
Good litfic often has nothing to do with academia, such as Proust, The Bone People, Ulysess, Dubliners, Age of Innocence, Toni Morrison's Beloved, Pride and Prejudice..etc. But an issue I have with a lot of lit writers in the field is they feel the need to write like people in the early part of the 20th Century did. (eye roll). I prefer the ones who find their own voice - such as the Isralie writer behind The People Who Are Not Afraid, the writer's name I forget.
The central figure is a middleaged unmarried woman who studies children's literature, which is not considered a point in her favour as far as academic status goes.
That sort of sums up my issues with academia in a nutshell. Seriously, any group that considers someone who studies or reads "children's literature" as being beneath them..really needs to reevaluate why they are doing what they are doing for a living and what if anything they are truly contributing besides a lot of hot air.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-04 02:58 pm (UTC)I actually seem to grow worse with grammar with age. I don't know why.
And I keep having these romance novel plots bubbling in my head that I will most likely never write down. *sigh*
no subject
Date: 2014-12-05 03:20 am (UTC)And I keep having these romance novel plots bubbling in my head that I will most likely never write down.
yeah, me too. Then I tell them to myself and think...okay stuck now.
My difficulty with my own stories - is I need it to be more than a romance to keep my interest...so it will often turn into a suspense thriller or action adventure halfway through. Wrote one in my head about an attorney who was trying to take down a airplane manufacturing tycoon, who she holds responsible for her father's death in a private plane crash - along with various others. She falls for a messenger who works for the company (but he's in reality the tycoon) and he falls for her. Her half-sister, who she's estranged from works for him. I had plot twists and everything...then, I lost interest and it sort of died.
Like how she allegedly dies in a plane owned by his company...but she never got on the plane. She thinks they tried to kill her and he's having an affair with her sister, and seduced her to get her off the case. Not helped by the fact that her best-bud and partner was killed on the plane. She couldn't be more wrong about the hero (of course). And her sister and the hero blame each other and are insane with grief. But in reality, the heroine is off having a blast in Brazil and doing flash mobs in his brothers clubs in Brazil. The flash mob routine in the clubs catches attention - and a world-wide protest flash mob is planned for New year's eve...the songs are all about how she could care less about him - (Mein Heir, Mamma Mia, She's Not There, Bad Romance, the theme song from True Blood - I had a soundtrack and a complete music vid in my head). His brother sees it. Shows it to him - and he realizes wait, she might be alive?? So flies to Brazil to find her. That's when I got stuck...and lost interest. It seemed rather silly, so didn't bother to write it down outside of here.
Oh, and the Spuffy stories - I was obsessed with an edgy version of human Spike, who comes back hating vampires, and takes on the Giles role as Buffy's Watcher/Trainer...also deals with Willow. A friend of mine and I even played out the dialogue. I kept hunting for that fic - but no one wrote it. Spike was always the poor woobie if souled or human (I don't know why people thought he'd revert to William...but they did.) I should have written that one down. My problem with a lot of Spuffy stories is they were almost too syrupy or angsty, and not edgy enough.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-08 07:33 pm (UTC)Sounds interesting. And a challenge for marketing.
Then I tell them to myself and think...okay stuck now.
My difficulty with my own stories - is I need it to be more than a romance to keep my interest...so it will often turn into a suspense thriller or action adventure halfway through
I can enjoy them straight, but I agree that the good ones have more to them. That's part of what Milan does that I like so much. She seems to be developing an theme in each of them. And one aspect I liked of the first few Hoyte's that I read was that she added POV's that had independent thoughts/actions/views.
Wrote one in my head about an attorney who was trying to take down a airplane manufacturing tycoon, who she holds responsible for her father's death in a private plane crash - along with various others. She falls for a messenger who works for the company (but he's in reality the tycoon) and he falls for her. Her half-sister, who she's estranged from works for him. I had plot twists and everything...then, I lost interest and it sort of died.
Sounds interesting! But, yeah, I understand how when you are thinking through these things the urge sort of dies.
One thing I discovered when thinking through one, is how difficult it is to pull off dual protagonists. I have a group of Victorian romances in my head, and in the first one I first thought it was too hero-centric so I tried to think up what was going on with the heroine. By the time I developed the heroine's story, it had taken over the hero's... and now the whole story is so complicated that I keep trying to think of ways to simplify because now TOO MUCH would be going on.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-08 11:45 pm (UTC)Yes, I'm the queen of complicated plotting. I also can't tell a story in one point of view - I need multiple points of view. Another marketing challenge for my novel? It has three protagonists or three points of view. I managed to get it to work - but I did keep the plot simple and didn't write too much of a romance.
You almost have to outline it out in your head. Or on paper. That's sort of what I did. Only switching points of view to further plot/theme/character.
But..it probably bears keeping in mind that this is the sixth book that I've written. The first three - aren't publishable. Too many characters, too convoluted a plot. I'd go off on tangents...LOL! I wrote one book - in which I went off on a wild tangent about a ghost of a woman who died in the Victorian era. It was about an antiquities smuggling ring that was attempting to resurrect a celtic deity or power through an arcane ritual, using various celtic artifacts and human sacrifices. Got rather complicated, and not helped by the fact that I could not decide what it was about. Was it about an antiquities smuggling ring using an art publishing house as a cover? A bunch of immortal Celts who were attempting to create another of their kind - by merging the heroine with some ancient deity? (That part was vague - I'd been reading a lot of occult horror novels at the time - Waking the Moon, Secret History, Anne Rice...Tom Tyron's Harvest Home). Had a few people look at it, including an agent - they loved the writing, just didn't think much of my convoluted story. The agent wanted me to turn it into a cozy...I wanted to turn it into a romantic horror mystery novel, because cozy's bore me. Needless to say we were at odds. He decided it wasn't for him. I think I would have been fine - if I hadn't introduced the Victorian era subplot.
The tough part about writing is keeping the plot clear and concise in your head and not going off on tangents just to entertain yourself - which I have a tendency to do. Was able to reign that impulse in for my current novel.
I may go back to the airplane storyline...that could be marketable if I was willing to research the airline industry and manufacturing a bit more. The legal stuff - I got.
Grammar
Date: 2014-12-05 03:21 am (UTC)Grammar in English makes no sense partly because at one point Latin grammar was rather haphazardly imposed on a Germanic language.
That explains a lot. Taking French threw off my English, for years I put e's on the end of a lot of words, and I'd flip verbs and nouns.
Also reminds me of an explanation of Yiddish that a co-worker provided today...apparently, Yiddish is combination of multiple languages and vernaculars...like slang. It combines bits of Hebrew, Russian, German, amongst others. He was telling me what a "mensch" meant and "smear".
I do grammar a lot by sound and how meaning is conveyed. For example?
Joanie, who is my next door neighbor, hates cats. I makes no sense to say Joanie, who is my next door neighbor hates cats. Where it gets complicated is when you bring in "ands" and "buts". And I do a lot of complex sentences. Also, my tone and voice is casual or informal, with a lot of slang - "conversational" - which means shorter sentences. Phrases. And one word sentences. It's necessary - to convey how these characters think. I deliberately don't write in the formal manner that many writers do - because I'd lose that snarky or witty conversational undertone. (In other words it's more or less written in the same style as many of my live journal entries and reviews ...because that's where I found and developed my creative voice. My business voice is formal, and precise - technical writing and legal writing is a bit like academic writing, it is insanely precise and wordy.)
Re: Grammar
Date: 2014-12-08 07:40 pm (UTC)Michael Drout has an interesting Audible lecture on it. (He does lots of Audible lectures. He has one on English language, debate/rhetoric, Tolkein, Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, and the Anglo-Saxonx, etc.)
But, yeah, Latin grammar was introduced at Oxford because they wanted to fomalize English and because there was a bias for thinking that Greek and Latin trumped something as bastardized as English. Therefore we've ended up with rules that sometimes have nothing to do with the way the English language developed. One example is ending a sentence with a preposition. In Latin you literally cannot end a sentence with a preposition. In English you can. Not only can you, but sometimes you have to torture a sentence so as NOT to end it in a preposition. That's because in the base languages that English developed from, ending in preposition was not a problem. This is a rule that came only in the last couple of centuries, and did not evolve from the language, but from taking rules and simply imposing them.
It's been a while since I listened to the lecture, but it was quite interesting.
Re: Grammar
Date: 2014-12-08 11:53 pm (UTC)Ah. My pain in trying not to end sentences with prepositions is now explained. Well, not all the time.
Right now, I'm having fun with these critters:
Semicolon
Colon
Comma
Hyphen
Have actually gotten better at it - most likely all those years writing precise legal contracts, memos, technical statement of works, financial justifications, and business letters at work. Also, blogging helps - I have a lot of pedants who pop up on my flist. LOL!! Made me a wee bit self-conscious.