Run For Your Lives, It's The Romance Genre!

Hmmmmmm, I feel another book review in the works. Not in this post, but definitely upcoming, and soon, because I have had my eyes opened today ladies and gentlemen. I read, for possibly the first time in my 30+ years if memory serves, a Romance novel......from start to finish. That's not too shocking I suppose because I do love to read and don't like to give up on any book I start without giving it what I deem a fair shot. The fact that I actually liked it is what shocks me beyond belief.

I generally don't go for all that wishy-washy romance stuff in my books. I mean, there's not even one action scene in the whole thing (the nerve!), so I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy it. I wasn't even sure I was going to read the whole thing. I got it on my Kindle in yet another of my "I'm broke and want to download tons of free books I've never read" moods. (I do that a lot since I don't sleep well.) I was even surprised that I chose that book as one, but hey, why not? There's nothing wrong with expanding our horizons once in a while, ya know?

So I get the book, along with five others (all of the rest in the Fantasy genre). Read three of them in a few hours because they're kind of short, then turn my eyes to the fourth and don't even get past the first page. Just not feelin' the vibe on that one right now, perhaps another day. Great, now I can't even put off reading the dreaded Romance novel anymore. I get like that sometimes, where I HAVE TO read new books rather than the old standby's, and since I don't have local access to my storage unit, all my paperbacks/hardcovers are not an option at the moment. I can hardly go to the library at 10 o'clock at night and browse for some books.

Here we go, might as well get it over with. I will say up front that when I read the blurb on Amazon.com it seemed not as "bodice ripping" as I would normally come across. I'm sure that's at least part of the reason why I snatched it up. I don't do those kinds of novels, period. There's something that repels me from reading about a helpless female being entranced by a man wearing a kilt, and sex scenes every five minutes (and no, I'm not talking Erotica here, these were Romance novels) with every euphemism for male and female genitalia that a writer can think of tossed into one paragraph. OK,  OK,  I know they're not all like that, but they're just not my thing. I try to keep an open mind when it comes to my reading, but we all have our likes and dislikes. To each their own and more power to you if like those kids of books. Read a few for me, won't ya? ;-)

As is turns out, Double Trouble written by Deborah Cooke, isn't all that bad. I rather enjoyed it to be honest. Now I crave to read more about these Coxwells. They are an intriguing bunch to be sure. Partly because they are so out of the league of my "norm", partly because of the narrator's voice. I'm not sure it's just one thing, it never is for me, but a lot of things all rolled in together that made me appreciate the book. Thankfully there are more books on the Coxwells, this actually being the second book in the series. Alas, I didn't have to read the first one to understand the second one.

That's another first for me. Not only have I skulked into a new genre, I've gone against every belief I have about reading a set of series books, I didn't read the first book first. For shame! I'll just cover my head while you throw things at me and quietly explain that 1) I didn't realize this was the second book until after I'd already downloaded it, and 2) it was made very clear to me that I didn't have to read the first book of the series before the story even started. Score points for the author on that one! I enjoyed reading a "series" book that I wasn't required to start somewhere else. Like I said, I'm expanding my horizons here people.

I'll get more in-depth on the book itself during my review, but this post is more to help me understand my shock factor. Seriously, what's happening to me as I grow older? I've never been interested in reading this genre before. Don't get me wrong, there is an element of romance in a lot of the books I've read in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre, in the M/T/S genre, etc., but mostly it's about world crisis and saving someone or other, things of that nature. This is the first time I've ever stepped into the flowery world (or so I like to see it) of the Romance genre, willingly, and enjoyed it. As a matter of fact, wanted more of it. What the- ?!?! Thankfully this book was devoid of what I mostly think of the genre to be filled with and perhaps that went a long way in my feeling for the book/genre in general. As I've said, I've had my eyes opened today, but in a good way. Is it so wrong that I want to read a Romance novel that's not about some head-over-heels-in-love scenario? Where it's automatically love at first sight and these two people just HAVE to be together? That I want to read a book where, although there may not be physical fight scenes with vampires and were-creatures and witches or dragons, but actual real world problems that middle-class girls like me can perhaps relate to...on some level? Oh hey, look what I found. A book that has just that...

Here's the clincher for me. In my past (and admittedly limited) experience with the Romance genre, I've mostly read, as stated above, the tragic inconvenience that somebody couldn't be with who they wanted to be with, sprinkle in those euphemisms and all those "hot spots", and it's the same old thing over and over again for a few hundred pages. I can't even get past the first few chapters without wanting to rip my hair out. I understand that a lot of these kinds of books are character driven, (almost have to be really because what's the point in a Romance novel if there's no romance right?), and I love character driven stories. But give me some meat (no pun intended), give me something to sink my teeth into as it were. I want a reason why I should care that these people are struggling to be with their "soul mate" or whatever frilly term you want to put on your can't-live-without-you-other-half. (And by the way, I have one of those myself. He is the other half of my circle, and without him I fall over and don't roll properly. So, I'm not adverse to being wishy-washy all of the time. I'm quite sure in fact that I annoy him sometimes with my massive amounts of cheesiness  but I just can't seem to help myself around him.) Give me something to work with here, ya know? That's all I'm saying. That can be said for any genre though. We have to care about these people who's lives we are delving into, and we have to have a reason to care about them. You can't just tell me to and expect me to go, "OK, as you wish, no questions asked, I care immensely about why this poor woman/man can't be without the most wonderful man/woman on the planet."

Yeah right, like that's going to happen. Point being, I need some kind of substance to pull me in and something to hold me there. Much to my surprise, I have found it in the Romance genre. Perhaps it takes a special kind of author or book to do this for me. Perhaps I'm getting mushier as I get older. I'm not really sure. I'm inclined to explore this a little further though and see how it turns out. Who knows? Maybe one day I'll even start putting Romance novels on my bookshelf with those monsters and future technologies I covet so much. After all, anything is possible when it comes to love.

And yes, I really did just say that :-P

Random and Cluttered Thoughts

So much going on, so much to talk about, so much to do, and I can't keep my thoughts on one thing for too long. So today I've decided to randomize my blog post and see if some of this stuff just goes away. Hopefully it works.

First off, the February Blog Chain for Absolute Write this month is gonna be a tough one for me. The person going before us gets to pick our topic. This means I have two days to write about something completely random. Wha......... I don't do so well with short-term writing goals. Hence the nerves. Granted, I didn't HAVE to sign up for it, but I love doing the blog chain and it's fun to read what others write about our suggested topics. So, I WILL TRY!

I'm looking for suggestions for a Fantasy epic I haven't read yet. I suppose it doesn't have to be an epic, could be a stand alone book, a trilogy, whatever. But I prefer an epic. Those are my favorite. Nothing like being lost is someone else's world for over a week...or more if possible. I can only read the Lord of the Rings, Dark Tower series, and Shadowmarch series so many times back to back. It's time for something new.

Ugh, Anniversaries has been taken out of submissions and is strictly in revisions at the moment. I know I just said this in a recent post, but it needs repeating. I've been working on this novel for years now and it's beginning to become frustrating. I've put a lot of work into it. Perhaps it will have to sit for a while without me touching it or thinking about it. Though the not thinking about it part will be difficult, I shall do it!

I finally made a Twitter account today to link my blogs to. Yeah, go me! Hopefully it will give them a bit more exposure. Only time will tell.

Oh goodness, I was napping today (horrible, I know, but I couldn't help it) and some wank in the apartment complex was blaring his car radio right under my window. So what do I do in my cranky-first-waking-up stage? I go to the window and yell that people are trying to sleep. My man comes in the room shortly after laughing so hard that even though I was still a bit cranky, I couldn't help but smile. That's one of the only things I don't like about living here. I'm a country girl at heart, I dislike city living. And I dislike music when I'm trying to sleep even more. I get it from my mama that I just wanna get up and dance when I hear music. Always have, always will. Real talk, it wakes me up from a dead sleep every time. Something that I'm sure annoys my significant other because we have different sleep schedules (for the most part) and he likes to listen to music when he's bored. I try not to let it bother me, but it's like a television being too loud in the background when I'm trying to read. It can be partly tuned out, but not completely.

Oh, I've come to a bad place in The Dark Hand. Bad as in meaning I can't seem to write anything more on it and nothing much has happened yet (not even 9,000 words on it to this point). I was hoping it wasn't going to be yet another of those stories that I start to write and it fizzles before I get even a quarter of the way through it. That's what it's looking to be though. I have more ideas in my head, in my notebook, on my computer, and on my phone, but I was more excited about this one than the others. What to do, what to do??

I need to find better, more effective ways to promote my blogs. I know essentially they are the same thing as I post the same on both of them. And maybe that's where part of the problem is, that they're far too much alike. They are on two different blogging networks so I thought at least one of them would have more exposure. But I think I have something like three followers (which I am thoroughly grateful for) on one of them, and when I look at the stats for both, they are horrible. Well, I'll give it more time and try to get more people interested in them, and we'll see what happens.

And lastly, I never thought I'd say this, but I love Texas winters. I'm originally from Michigan so the move down here was a bit of a shock when it happened this past August. My goodness was it hot, even then. I know the temps then were nothing compared to what it's going to be like when summer is in full swing and thankfully we have central air and swimming pools in the apartment complex. Being in Texas is such a huge change for me. Mainly being away from my mom, older brother, sister (sister-in-law technically but that's a fine distinction I don't pay attention to), my nephews, and of course all my fabulous friends and their amazing kids. I miss everyone a lot some days. That being said, I couldn't be happier with the choice we made to come and live here.

There ends my random and cluttered thoughts. Incidentally it did help to clear my head a little bit so that's good. Hopefully I haven't bored you so much you've fallen asleep mid-post.

Beware, The Thesaurus Has Taken Over!

One of my biggest pet peeves when I read is feeling like the author has supplanted a dictionary or thesaurus into their book. I don't mind vivid description, please don't take my meaning here wrong, but I do mind when I read something that makes me feel like Webster wrote half the book.

I don't mean I need something "dumbed down" for me. I'm a fairly intelligent person. I just don't like the feeling sometimes that some people write using words they wouldn't normally use in normal conversation.

There are some exceptions to this. If an author is writing a genius as their character I expect it. You can usually tell if an author sat there writing his/her book with a dictionary and/or thesaurus open next to them. It has a tendency to turn off my enjoyment of the book fairly early on. And it feels, to me anyway, as if they're trying to sound smarter. I'm not sure if that's rude or not, but it's generally the perception I have. I know some people in the world talk like that, but not the majority of us...

In my opinion anyway.........

Disappointment in Reading

We write because we love it. Right? Right! So why do some books feel like zero love was put into them? I've only come across a few books like this in my life, but they were major disappointments to me. They seemed to read like the authors rushed through them just to meet a publication deadline. It felt like their hearts and minds weren't in the story they were trying to tell.

Oh, tears of sorrow and rage. How could I possibly put a book down thinking it had no heart, no life of it's own? That's truly how I feel about books. They are a world unto themselves. I want to feel like I'm a part of it, warm in it's light and cold in it's dark.

Some books, I feel, are incapable of creating that complete immersion for me. Though they are few and far in between. But when it does happen, I at least try to figure out why I feel that way. Sometimes it has to do with technique, character depth (or lack thereof), plot issues... The list goes on and on. I've even found this to be true for authors I've read most of my life. When I put my finger on it, I try to learn from it.

Not everyone has the same tastes though. We can always chalk it up to this; it's only my opinion and I'm sure others would disagree with me. But we could also say...it happens. Nobody is perfect and not everything is going to please everybody.

I only hope that if by some miracle I am published sometime in the future, nobody gets that feeling from my book..........

Going Back Again and Again.....and Again...

What is it about some books, or series of books, that makes us want to go back to them time and again? I don't think it's any one factor really, there are many reason and they vary from person to person. But while I couldn't sleep last night I was thinking about this...right before I picked up my Kindle to read The Gunslinger for (I kid you not) the hundredth time or so. I decided to bore everyone with my reasons for reading some books over and over and over to the point where I know some parts of them practically by heart.

First off let's start with The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Some of you may think, typical she likes King. I didn't read any of the DT series until I was in my twenties. (The seven book series also happens to be the first books I bought for my Kindle.) I committed the crime of reading Wizard in Glass before I read the first three. Only because the tiny library I had access to didn't have the previous books on the shelves, I had to wait, and I was impatient for a new book to read. What the heck, why not?

I loved it. Being able to read the foreword to have a small idea of what came before was helpful. Within the next few days the first three came in and I made sure they had the others on the shelf and grabbed them all. So, I started from the beginning and even read the fourth again. By the time I finished all seven books I knew I would come back to them again. Right off the bat Jake was my favorite character. Loved it when he came back in The Waste Lands. Cried in The Dark Tower. Eddie is a trip, Susannah is bad ass in all her personalities, and of course there's Roland.....and we must NOT forget Oy! Needless to say they all hold my attention in one way or another. Some of my favorite parts have to do with Roland's memories/stories that include Cuthbert and Sheemie. There are a few things here and there that I dislike about the individual books, but not many. They keep me coming back because, regardless of the fact that I know how it all turns out, I want to see it happening all over again. There are so many lines that make me smile, giggle, even have goosebumps (the scene in Wolves of the Calla in the woods with Roland and Jake does this every time), when I read them. I love how it ends. King got a lot of grief from his readers for the way he ended the series, but I thought it was the best possible solution. (On a side note I do read many of his books more than once as I own at least twenty outside DT, but these are my favorites.) I don't think I will ever stop reading this series.

On to the Shadowmarch series by Tad Williams. There's Shadowmarch, Shadowplay, Shadowrise, and Shadowheart (the last two should have been only one but we all know how these things go sometimes). Love this series! I grabbed the first two from the library without even bothering to check if there was another one coming, the covers alone made me want to read them. So I take them home and start reading about Barrick and Briony Eddon. I was sucked in from the beginning. Finally, after a torturous wait, the last two came out and I was able to finish them.....and not long after they were the second set of books I bought for it. I thought then, and sometimes still think, that Briony seems a little too full of herself at times, particularly when she's thinking about Vansen. But I still adore her. Which leads me to one of my favorite people in this series and I can't even tell you why. Vansen, there's just something about him that I'm drawn to. Barrick is my absolute favorite of the whole bunch. I look forward to reading about his parts of the books more than any others. Then there's also Shaso, Qinnitan, all the Funderlings, Skurn, Yassamez, Ynnir, Sanasu, all the Rooftoppers, all the various Qar.....and let's not forget the countless Gods and Goddesses in the story (I'm a sucker for those kinds of tales). So many others. The story intrigues me, the characters make me want to step into their shoes and go through these experiences. Even the bad ones.
EDIT: I forgot to mention his Otherland series, as well as Memory, Sarrow, and Thorn series. Tad Williams is definitely in my top five favorites.

Anne Rice: The Vampire Chronicles and The Lives of the Mayfair Witches. Enough said. I am partial to the witch stories, but still love the vamp stories as well. Granted, I don't like the way Lestat's character evolved in VC but, it is what it is. I also own and reread 95% of John Grisham's books. About fifteen or so of Dean Koontz (Odd Thomas is epic) grace my shelves. I adore James Patterson and have many of his books on my shelves and my Kindle as well. I don't think there's one book I own that I won't go back to at some point in my life. I will never stop buying paperbacks, no matter how much I like my ereader. There's nothing like the feel of a book in your hand.

All in all, for me it's a combination of the story lines and the people involved, that's what keeps me coming back again and again. Some people prefer plot over character, or vice versa. I want both. I do enjoy more character driven stories without a ton of action. Just depends on the author, writing technique, many things really. When I delve into these worlds, it can feel like I really know these people, that I'm walking by their sides. To me, that's the best part of a good book. It's what makes me keep going back again and again.....and again...