A letter I sent to my friend Tony
Today I read an email from my dear dear friend Tony the Filmmaking Scriptwriting Genius, and he signed it "More Love than All the Romance Novels Combined," assumably teasing me about my love for romance novels - especially bad ones.
I can't describe my love for romance very well. I hope that I'm thought of as intelligent by people. The intelligence or lack thereof isn't a factor, though, really, when determining whether or not one loves romance novels.
The factor is thus: Are you a romantic?
That is all.
I am a diehard romantic, and therefore am enraptured by a good romance novel. A BAD romance novel (rather the more regular than the good), now that's fun too.
I don't have much worry about whether or not I'll be published when I finish writing a few of my novels (currently working on eleven at one time as of now). This is because of all the immense crap that gets published all the time in the romance biz. And I'm more picky than most, being a writer. I think as a writer when I'm reading, and I see everything that I don't like about bad romance novels. I see, and I decide why I don't like a certain thing, and I resolve to never make such a stupid mistake in my novels.
This is why I believe that I am a better writer than some, or dare I say many and risk a fairly large ego, of the writers I see published. I am determined to not do those things which make a reader scream (in their head at least) in frustration at the stupidity of the plot, the action, the line, the gesture, the thought patterns.
By avoiding the bad and concentrating upon the good, I believe that I can make a fairly good novel. Or eleven, as it is, although one is not romance, but is instead fantasy.
Anyway, here is the letter which I sent back to Tony:
Dear Tony,
I should HOPE more love than all the Romance Novels Combined. You know, I just read a romance novella last night by one of my favorite romance authors, a new one that just came out Tuesday, and I was pissed about it. So it's three o'clock in the morning and perhaps I wasn't thinking my most coherent thoughts, but I can still think, and I don't like my intelligence to be insulted.
Oh, it was a lovely little novella (included in a wonderful anthology, which had four novellas altogether, two of which I liked greatly, especially one of them which was surprisingly lovely and charming, and then this one, and then one which I didn't even finish because CONTRIVED CONTRIVED CONTRIVED, but that's another matter altogether.)
Actually, it's not another matter altogether, because that's my problem with this last one. I love this author; she's so funny, and she can turn a witty phrase so well.
The problem was this:
-lovely novella up to the point where the hero decides he loves the heroine.
At this point I'm like, what? So you just decide three times after you really meet a lady that you love her tirelessly, endlessly, forever-ly? For what reasons?
Contrived reasons. Don't insult my intelligence. I know this is a romance novel, and I know they need to fall in love, but don't just say that he realized that he was in love just because they had a good connecting moment.
And the pit of it was, when she right after that told the heroine's point of view, the heroine was in love for the exact same reason: she had connected with him for a moment, and isn't love grand?
I really like Before They Realize They Are In Love. I really like After They Realize They Are In Love. But When And Why They Realize They Are In Love - it was just dumb and spoiled the whole novella for me.
The book I'm talking about, for your information, is called The Further Observations of Lady Whistledown, in which I am annoyed with Julia Quinn's contribution. She's usually excellent. Have I just missed all the other books? Now I have to reread them. No, I think that she did fairly well in them. Perhaps it was the pressure of it being a novella instead of a novel; there wasn't as much time for them to fall in love. But that's a challenge of being a writer.
And for anyone who's a romance writer, Mia Ryan's contribution in the same anthology is marvelous, in my opinion. Quite a surprise, because I've only read one other thing by her. It was also a novella contribution in another anthology, and it was good, I think I remember. But this one was so VERY good, that it surprised me. I was all ready to deem Karen Hawkins the best of the bunch in the Further Observations book, and then I read Mia Ryan's story, the shortest of the bunch actually, and I was just enchanted. So lovely. So lovely. I love lovely romances.
And now I must say something intelligent, so as to redeem myself in those romance-hating eyes of the Public:
One of the major contributions to reform and revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and even into the twentieth, was the change in the method of crop rotations in Europe. Once they took over the commonland area so as to use it in their crop rotation, the area formerly reserved for those who had no land, well, then, that meant a lot of people had no method to farm food. This is why they went to work for others on their land, or went to the cities to find work there. This is a great influence for what instituted the working classes.
Oh, guess what! I'm going to learn Ancient Chinese script! The one that is only read, and not spoken. The one the Analects of Confucius and the Tao Te Jing and other lovely things are written in. Isn't that awesome?
And I just this week sat down and wrote out the prologue for a fantasy novel which I have been planning for a bit. I'm quite excited with it, because I think it works very well. Then again, this could just be me blinded by writer frenzy, and in three months I'll realize that it really is the worst kind of garbage. Well, maybe not the worst, but quite rank.
I'm hoping that this does not happen. I rather like my plot, and my different details of this story. I've never written a fantasy novel before, so this will be fun. Even if it's never published, I'm going to have tons of fun with it.
Did you know that at work we have 82 reservations for the Harry Potter 5 book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix? Interesting. Well, to me it's interesting. Noone's going to be able to get the book for at least a month if they aren't on some kind of reservation list, I'm guessing.
And with that, seeing that I have written far more than I thought I would (I thought this would be a quick note to say hello again), I will leave you.
More Real Love Than All the Fake Love Romances Offer These Days (and THAT is a SUBSTANTIAL amount),
Suzanne
I can't describe my love for romance very well. I hope that I'm thought of as intelligent by people. The intelligence or lack thereof isn't a factor, though, really, when determining whether or not one loves romance novels.
The factor is thus: Are you a romantic?
That is all.
I am a diehard romantic, and therefore am enraptured by a good romance novel. A BAD romance novel (rather the more regular than the good), now that's fun too.
I don't have much worry about whether or not I'll be published when I finish writing a few of my novels (currently working on eleven at one time as of now). This is because of all the immense crap that gets published all the time in the romance biz. And I'm more picky than most, being a writer. I think as a writer when I'm reading, and I see everything that I don't like about bad romance novels. I see, and I decide why I don't like a certain thing, and I resolve to never make such a stupid mistake in my novels.
This is why I believe that I am a better writer than some, or dare I say many and risk a fairly large ego, of the writers I see published. I am determined to not do those things which make a reader scream (in their head at least) in frustration at the stupidity of the plot, the action, the line, the gesture, the thought patterns.
By avoiding the bad and concentrating upon the good, I believe that I can make a fairly good novel. Or eleven, as it is, although one is not romance, but is instead fantasy.
Anyway, here is the letter which I sent back to Tony:
Dear Tony,
I should HOPE more love than all the Romance Novels Combined. You know, I just read a romance novella last night by one of my favorite romance authors, a new one that just came out Tuesday, and I was pissed about it. So it's three o'clock in the morning and perhaps I wasn't thinking my most coherent thoughts, but I can still think, and I don't like my intelligence to be insulted.
Oh, it was a lovely little novella (included in a wonderful anthology, which had four novellas altogether, two of which I liked greatly, especially one of them which was surprisingly lovely and charming, and then this one, and then one which I didn't even finish because CONTRIVED CONTRIVED CONTRIVED, but that's another matter altogether.)
Actually, it's not another matter altogether, because that's my problem with this last one. I love this author; she's so funny, and she can turn a witty phrase so well.
The problem was this:
-lovely novella up to the point where the hero decides he loves the heroine.
At this point I'm like, what? So you just decide three times after you really meet a lady that you love her tirelessly, endlessly, forever-ly? For what reasons?
Contrived reasons. Don't insult my intelligence. I know this is a romance novel, and I know they need to fall in love, but don't just say that he realized that he was in love just because they had a good connecting moment.
And the pit of it was, when she right after that told the heroine's point of view, the heroine was in love for the exact same reason: she had connected with him for a moment, and isn't love grand?
I really like Before They Realize They Are In Love. I really like After They Realize They Are In Love. But When And Why They Realize They Are In Love - it was just dumb and spoiled the whole novella for me.
The book I'm talking about, for your information, is called The Further Observations of Lady Whistledown, in which I am annoyed with Julia Quinn's contribution. She's usually excellent. Have I just missed all the other books? Now I have to reread them. No, I think that she did fairly well in them. Perhaps it was the pressure of it being a novella instead of a novel; there wasn't as much time for them to fall in love. But that's a challenge of being a writer.
And for anyone who's a romance writer, Mia Ryan's contribution in the same anthology is marvelous, in my opinion. Quite a surprise, because I've only read one other thing by her. It was also a novella contribution in another anthology, and it was good, I think I remember. But this one was so VERY good, that it surprised me. I was all ready to deem Karen Hawkins the best of the bunch in the Further Observations book, and then I read Mia Ryan's story, the shortest of the bunch actually, and I was just enchanted. So lovely. So lovely. I love lovely romances.
And now I must say something intelligent, so as to redeem myself in those romance-hating eyes of the Public:
One of the major contributions to reform and revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and even into the twentieth, was the change in the method of crop rotations in Europe. Once they took over the commonland area so as to use it in their crop rotation, the area formerly reserved for those who had no land, well, then, that meant a lot of people had no method to farm food. This is why they went to work for others on their land, or went to the cities to find work there. This is a great influence for what instituted the working classes.
Oh, guess what! I'm going to learn Ancient Chinese script! The one that is only read, and not spoken. The one the Analects of Confucius and the Tao Te Jing and other lovely things are written in. Isn't that awesome?
And I just this week sat down and wrote out the prologue for a fantasy novel which I have been planning for a bit. I'm quite excited with it, because I think it works very well. Then again, this could just be me blinded by writer frenzy, and in three months I'll realize that it really is the worst kind of garbage. Well, maybe not the worst, but quite rank.
I'm hoping that this does not happen. I rather like my plot, and my different details of this story. I've never written a fantasy novel before, so this will be fun. Even if it's never published, I'm going to have tons of fun with it.
Did you know that at work we have 82 reservations for the Harry Potter 5 book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix? Interesting. Well, to me it's interesting. Noone's going to be able to get the book for at least a month if they aren't on some kind of reservation list, I'm guessing.
And with that, seeing that I have written far more than I thought I would (I thought this would be a quick note to say hello again), I will leave you.
More Real Love Than All the Fake Love Romances Offer These Days (and THAT is a SUBSTANTIAL amount),
Suzanne