Thursday, March 17, 2005
Recent discussions spawned at least one tangent -- why does anyone care what anyone else reads? This wasn't about what anyone specifically reads. You don't have to tell me who your favorite authors are. I appreciate that we all like different things in our books. To each her own. This was more about a feeling I'm getting that there's a growing general malaise among many authors. It's not just selectivity in reading material, it's disillusionment. And it occurred to me that the solution, the cure for this malaise, might not be to just quit reading and accept that romance is headed down the tubes. It might be to get excited about what's exceptional in the genre. Not just to write the stories you want to read, but to dive in and wade through the books that are out there and find the ones that move you. To wave those books around in front of editors and publishers and especially readers and say, "This! This is it! This is what I'm talking about!"
edit: Diana Duncan deserves huge kudos for this inspiring entry.
Another tangent, that regarding heroines. Other bloggers have posted their opinions thoughtfully and eloquently.
Jill Shalvis asks what you want to see in a heroine.
Jorie has begun a discussion on what "needy" really means.
Lydia has totally separate musings on different versions of one type of popular heroine.
And Sharon provides some balance.
Enjoy and join in!