Archive for September, 2006
As an aspiring writer I’ve got my ear pressed firmly to the ground for what’s hot, what it is that publishers, and presumably readers, want. When Harlequin puffs a book I listen.
Their latest push goes to Angel’s Rest.
Here’s the link. Go ahead and check it out. I’ll wait.
What do you think? Is it romance? Nope. Are they not happy being the largest romance publisher? Didn’t they just discontinue Silhouette Bombshells? Am I missing the big picture? Are the non-romance lines going great guns somewhere else? Or are editors and marketing departments fallible human beings like the rest of us?
Posted by Evanne Lorraine @ 10:48 pm |
Trends in the market what’s hot, what’s dead, is a continuous low level buzzing that ebbs and swells occasionally bumping into my self-absorbed imaginary world. This week I read a few discussions on erotic elements, the demand for more sex scenes, hotter sex scenes and laments about poor writing in the erotica market offerings.
An uneasy feeling infiltrates my haze. Writers, maybe more than most, live in sheltered communities. Romance writers in particular read each other, whether in print, audio or blog form. We all nod and agree with the current pronouncements. After all they reflect our views. Surely, poor writing will be punished. Everyone agrees. Scan through all the comments, almost all the other romance writers agree. Isn’t that everybody?
Um, no. What about the readers who are still flocking to buy the latest politically incorrect undead jerky hero? Maybe they aren’t keeping up with truth as preached from every romance writer’s blog. Maybe they’re busy downloading smut because they like smut. Maybe they don’t give a damn about good writing.
Critics, English professors and the intelligentsia have deplored the state of popular literature for a long time. Doesn’t have any noticeable effect on what sells. For those interested in selling it pays to be realistic about the market.
Posted by Evanne Lorraine @ 8:59 pm |
Story Essentials – Continued
Recapping as we work our way down the editor’s wish list, so far we have an opening hook and an appealing, human heroine. Next, we need a hero to fall in love with. He must be human, appealing and honorable.
Crafting an acceptable hero is a task I find challenging. I have a definite weakness for those bad boy alpha males. You know the kind. A man who so easily crosses into asshole territory. Once he drops out of the hero class, it’s darn hard to sell him as a hero, no matter how much reforming him appeals to me.
Funny about those alpha males, call him undead and he can chew up the scenery gnashing his fangs. Send him back to an earlier time and his primal instincts are suddenly acceptable and, interestingly, not incompatible with honor.
Grumbling, changes nothing I need to find the right balance between plausible real life guy and heroic. With that goal in mind, let’s look at our six already read hero introductions.
All Rowena noticed was that the man was there, tied down on the bed, with no more than a large bath sheet draped over his bare loins. Tied down? Nay, she noticed now the iron cuffs at his wrists, which lay above his head. And two chains came out from under the bath sheet at the end of the bed to curve down under it. Chained Down! He had to be chained down? And he was asleep, or senseless.
The author doesn’t bother physical description of the man. Rightly, she concentrates on the horror and the injustice of the situation.
She couldn’t get him off her mind.
Heaven knew she’d tried, but every time she closed her eyes, she could see Rorke’s face when he’d first walked through her door. Meeting him, she’s expected to feel uncomfortable, but he was the awkward one, standing there looking so tense, so rigid, so battered. Her heart had gone out to him.
Again, no words are wasted on his sculpted chin or mighty shoulders. Instead the author goes right for the emotional jugular showing us a still proud, but beaten man.
Lily’s arm tingled where he touched her. Raw, barely leashed power rolled off him in waves, almost as tangible as the scent of his aftershave. It swamped her, stole her breath.
A few words, and instantly the reader labels the barely met man hero.
Beside her, Simon chuckled, a sensual sound that rippled through her senses. She’d missed it.
“Of course they have the same drill. But I bet you researched the security process, didn’t you, Marian?”
She couldn’t help smiling at him calling her Marian, like the librarian in The Music Man. Simon teased without cruelty or humiliation. Simon’s kidding never hurt.
Nice first line, the audio input felt fresh. The author lost me at Marian (not the heroine’s name) the librarian in The Music Man isn’t a character I know. Already I’m feeling left out of private joke. Then she finishes her brief introduction of her hero with a redundant line.
The poor author has just tripped over one of my pet peeves, repetition. The reader either is comprehending your words or she’s not – repeating them isn’t going to help.
He stood in the doorway, but all she could see was his silhouette. He was so large. His shoulders nearly filled the space, his head just a few inches from the top. There was something in his hand. A mug. Her coffee mug. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He spoke softly. Barely above a whisper.
The heroine may still be terrified, but I believe him. Enter the hero, bigger than life and twice as strong.
The first time she’d seen him had been a week ago, he’d been standing beneath a tree in Ann Morrison park. She’d jogged past him and might not have noticed him at all if it hadn’t been for the cloud of cigarette smoke surrounding his head. She probably would have never given him another thought if she hadn’t seen him the next day at Albertson’s buying a frozen pot pie. That time she noticed the way his muscular thighs filled out his hacked-off sweatpants, and the way his hair curled up like small cs around the edge of his baseball cap. His eyes were dark, and the intense way he’s watched her had sent an alarming shiver of pleasure up her spine.
Aside from the slightly dated cigarette smoke, the introduction draws a compelling picture of a hero. The imagery is scapel sharp bringing the hero into focus.
Posted by Evanne Lorraine @ 3:38 am |
Dana Marton wrote a Harlequin Intrigue that hit all the right notes. The opening tested this reader’s credibility by having a single agent on bodyguard duty 24/7, but it worked for the story. I read patiently on.
The story progressed nicely with a sketched threat of appropriate menace. The sexual tension crackled between the protagonists. Threats to the heroine’s life uped the stakes. The couple was on the run. The standard elements were handled well, acting as familiar landmarks.
The suspense was light. The sex was light too. The story moved rapidly and the characters were believable. The balance between suspense and romance was just right. Obviously, other readers thought so too. This was book one in the Shadow series.
Ms. Marton’s early books are no longer available new. Used copies are available on Amazon.
Posted by Evanne Lorraine @ 6:20 pm |
Stephen said, “Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. Reading is the creative center of a writer’s life.” in his book On Writing.
That was the best news I had last year. Up until reading that I’d been foregoing reading in favor of writing. For A life long addicted reader it was the highest price. The ego blows of rejection barely count compared with the sacrifice of good books.
I hadn’t given up all reading I’m not that crazy. I had confined my reading to craft books and the line I was targeting. It wasn’t a total waste of time. I learned a lot about the craft of writing. I met and fell in love with a couple of new authors. Always a happy event for a reader.
After reading Stephen King’s frank pronouncement and a short period of shocked rumination to allow the truth to settle into my head, Happy Days Are Here Again burst into surround sound in my mind.
A career choice that requires reading widely, frequently and deeply. No wonder everyone wants to be a writer.
Posted by Evanne Lorraine @ 12:56 am |
The sample I posted last week from my first manuscript leaves me more conflicted than the most twisted of my plots. I still love the concept, adore the characters and believe passionately that there’s a good story inside all that messy prose.
Can it be unearthed? I’m sure of – but the job is overwhelming. I understand one of my writing friend’s feelings about her first story so much better now. She writes much better than I do, her natural voice is a lyrical tone poem that makes editors beg her to consider revisions. Sigh, I’d hate her but how can you hate someone so talented and nice? Where was I? Editing. After dinking around and getting nowhere, I decided to start back at what should have been the beginning. Goal, motivation and conflict worksheet, bios, synopsis and short outline. I’m hoping with a good story map the core story can be excavating, rinsed off and shined up to a glossy good read.
Writing isn’t for the fainthearted.
Posted by Evanne Lorraine @ 10:14 pm |
I’d have to be living in the bat cave to have missed that paranormal is hot.
Yesterday really brought just how hot the supernatural craze is home. While I was out grocery shopping a stand alone display of Nora Robert’s Morrigan’s Cross winked at me from the aisle next to the new shipment of Tuscan cantaloupes.
When even Nora is crafting Vampire stories I feel very out of it. Am I the only reader in the blogasphere that dislikes paranormal romances? There are exceptions. I’ve run across paranormals so well written that I enjoyed them in spite of the story choice, not many and not enough to make me a fan.
I’m sure there are readers who threaten to gag if they ever read another regency. I know there are those who will not crack the spine on a romantic suspense title. Selfishly, I hope the publishing industry keeps supplying the reading public with variety.
Posted by Evanne Lorraine @ 5:37 am |
When both Hunter and Tru bond with Amber their mating triangle threatens everything they hold dear.
Determined to help rescue the princess, Cassandra agrees to act as the dragons’ sex slave, but can she guard her heart from the dominant males?
Camille, a plump, sweet-natured breeder, is caught in New Eden’s endless war with Baldor. Her mates, Jaxon and Aegis, need cunning and courage to rescue her. They need a miracle to capture her heart.
Werewolf-whisper Daniel is the only one who can heal Scarlet’s broken werewolf connection. If he succeeds then the pack’s needs will eclipse his claim on her heart. But if he fails, they'll both die.
A lonely woman finds passion with a dominant much younger lover, when she tries to leave she learns her new master plays for keeps.
One dangerous warrior woman plus two rogue demon males equals a love to threaten an empire.
Getting paid to watch Eduardo is Desiree’s dream assignment, but when he reaches out to her, crossing the line, everything changes.
Deep in her secret heart, she lusts for a sexy pirate who’d be her master and commander in the bedroom. But, this man may be too dangerous
She finds paradise in the arms of twin brothers, but their law demands she chose one warrior to mate and one to die.
One woman, two men, three wounded hearts--though already mated their love is still forbidden.
