Read A Good Book Lately?

What are you reading? Did you like the book?

I have eclectic tastes in both reading and writing. Right now I’ve been reading Rosamund Wallinger’s GERTRUDE JEKYLL’S LOST GARDEN as research for a cozy mystery I’m writing, BONES IN THE GARDEN. In my manuscript, the contemporary heroine has the opportunity to restore an old garden designed by a world-famous (fictional) landscape architect in 1899. Finding a skeleton in the garden complicates her project, especially when the body is identified as the husband of the heroine's distant relative.

For a local book club, I just finished James Hilton’s 1941 classic, RANDOM HARVEST. This was the first time I’d read this book and I have to admit the ending was a pleasant surprise to me. Next month we're back to a contemporary mystery.

Recently, I’ve been reading Phillip DePoy’s Flap Tucker series. I love the humor and relationships. I also reread Maggie Osborne’s 1997 THE RPOMISE OF JENNY JONES, which is one of my all-time favorite books. It’s more adventure than romance, but has the happily-ever-after ending I like. Maggie Osborne is an amazingly creative writer and I never miss one of her releases.

Next on my list is JoAnne Fluke’s CHERRY CHEESECAKE MURDER. I hope Hannah Swensen will hurry and make a decision on which man she wants to marry! And I’m biding my time until Jodi Thomas’ new series starts in November. I love all her books, but the historicals are my favorites. Also in November, Lorraine Heath's A DUKE OF HER OWN is released. Not only is Lorraine a wonderful author, she is a super person who helps upcoming authors whenever the opportunity is presented. Don't you enjoy a book more if you know the author is a nice person? I certainly do.

Now it's your turn to tell me what you've been reading.

LIfe Reflected In Art

During the past week I have read several posts from writers about how anger they thought they'd dealt with, buried, or forgotten surfaces surprisingly in their work. Not naming the writers, but their comments made me think about our subconscious and the fodder for our stories. I believe my historicals came about from stories my father [in his fifties when I was born] and maternal grandmother [sixties when I was born] told about their childhoods and incited my interest in history. But I hadn't considered that characters might sometimes grow out of frustrations with family members. Sure, I knew writers killed off in print people they hated--one of the cathatrtic joys of writing. I hadn't thought of other characters as manifestations of our frustrations or desires. One writer mentioned a sociopath mother who had humiliated and tormented her childhood. Not until she was editing a work did she realize the heroine's mom was based on her own, right down to an event she'd included. That made me realize that a hero in one of my books was based on my constant hope for a family member--that he will see the error of his ways and reform for the love of a good woman. Consciously, I know he won't and that he's looking for and finding the other kind of woman, is always going to be a self-absorbed con, and believes the only crime is getting caught. Subconsciously, I reinvented him and made him end up a much nicer guy--a hero who deserved the heroine. A friend whose last book was edgier than any of her others admitted that it was because of all she went through when her mother was ill and dying while my friend was writing the book. As writers and as humans, we are the sum of our experiences, both good and bad.

It reminds me of a quote about television in the forties and fifties, and films in the thirties, forties, and fifties. Nick Clooney [brother of singer Rosemary] said, "People wanted to see life, not as it was, but as they wished it could be." I suppose the same is true for readers of popular fiction. And for writers of the same. We write not so much as life is, but as we wish it could be. For every heartache, a healing. For every good person, victory. For every bad person, redemption or swift and painful retribution. Our lives--and our dreams--are reflected in our art.

Critiquing

There are various types of critique partners and groups. I have two very nice long-distance cps with whom I critique via email. I also have a face-to-face group which is helpful.

Critiquing requires honesty and committment. If I only want a pat on the head and a "well done," I have a mother for that. You telling me that the chapter is great is nice, but NOT helpful. For a critiquer, I need a person or persons who read the genre I write, who are well-informed in industry standards and trends, and who will be honest without being mean. It's all right to say my writing needs such and such, but NEVER all right to launch a personal attack against me. I may dress funny and need to lose a few pounds, but that doesn't have anything to do with my writing. Nope. I need constructive comments such as "the pace lags here" and "what's the heroine thinking here" or "there's too much back story in this scene" and so forth. And I need specific comments such as "your plot needs more conflict" instead of "you write lousy stories." You see the difference, I'm sure. I can add more conflict. What can I do to combat the other comment? Nothing.

So, if called upon to critique another writer's work, please read carefully and make specific, constructive comments. He or she will thank you for it. Then, when you need comments, you'll have someone to ask.