Some of the Books I Love

Jan Cox Speas’ three historical romances:

• Bride of the MacHugh
• My Lord Monleigh
• My Love, My Enemy

My Lord Monleigh is my favorite and was originally published in 1956.  Her books are emotional, evocative, and beautifully written. I was so disappointed not to find other books from her, and truly sad to learn that she’d died at the age of 46.  Not only was she my idol in the early days, but she wrote Scottish historical romances, and was published by Avon.

The In Death books by J.D. Robb (Roberts).  The woman’s talent consistently amazes me. Yes, I think she has a formula- Roarke thinks about his father’s fists – check. Eve thinks about the cold room in Dallas with the red light – check. Eve and Summerset snipe at each other – check. Peabody talks about sex – check. Someone steals Eve’s candy – check. There are about 70 stock plot points that I’ve found so far.  But you know what?  Her books are never old, like the Evanovich debacle I recently read.  Her dialogue is wonderful.  Plus, Roberts has never forgotten the Writer’s Golden Rule – please your readers.

Bittersweet by LaVyrle Spencer – this is one of those non-PC books about adultery that people either love or they hate.  I love this book because I can feel the angst and the characters’ questioning of themselves.

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters – what great characters!

e by Matthew Beaumont - the first book, I think, written entirely in emails and uproariously funny.

Jim Butcher’s Dresden series – my one and only keeper paranormal series. Butcher not only has one of the greatest imaginations of any writer I’ve ever read, but he expresses emotions beautifully. I think I’ve written 5 star reviews on Amazon for most of his books.

House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons - a truly spooky, spooky book.  I didn’t want to read it all the way through, but she caught me by the throat and dragged me into the book.  Siddons has a way with words.  Sometimes, she overwrites and I just get tired of it.  This book is somewhat restrained in the overwriting, thank heavens.  The story is wonderful, and it ends with the reader questioning what happened in the book.  Great suspense book – and spooky!  (Yes, I know I’ve already said that, but it bears repeating.)

Shooter: The Autobiography of the Top Rated Marine Sniper by Jack Coughlin – I started reading this book for research, because of an idea I had for a book, then kept reading because it was compelling.  It felt as if Coughlin were talking to me about what happened to him, with an openness I hadn’t expected.  It’s a must read for any woman who wants to read – or write – about an alpha male.

How about you?  Have you read Speas, Robb, Spencer, Butcher or the other authors I’ve mentioned?  If so, what do YOU think about their books?

Dave Carroll’s Now

After I posted Dave Carroll’s response to United Airlines, (Brilliant Revenge) I bought his album Perfect Blue and I love it – it’s become my background music to edits.  (I don’t write to music, but edits are different) .  Disclosure:  My money, my time, no free stuff here.

I really love one song on the CD called Now.

(There’s a Youtube video of the song, but I’m not sure about the copyright, so I haven’t posted it.)

Here are the lyrics.

NOW

Dave Carroll

When there’s no way out there’s still a way through
So don’t give up whatever you do
Surrender to moments and things as they are
From the gaps in your catch-22’s
When there’s no way out there’s still a way through

Chorus:
Cause Now’s all there is
So peaceful and still
In Now you don’t worry ‘bout what’s happened or what will
Cause Now never ends
And Now’s never been
And all of your answers are waiting for you here Now

When your world stands tough and weighin’ you down
And you’ve had enough of this merry-go-round
End your resistance to walls you won’t move
And runnin’ through old déjà vu’s
When there’s no way out there’s still a way through

Chorus

Bridge:
And when you don’t understand
How things got so far away from all you planned
And your life it feels so hard
In your fragile house of cards
Turn to your cornerstone when you’re tired and feel alone
To find your way through

Chorus

My Beloved

(Image blatantly stolen from Amazon.)

Readers often ask me the name of my favorite book.  I don’t honestly have one. But I do know that I was challenged to write My Beloved, in a way that I’ve rarely been, and I love being challenged.

Sebastian and Juliana are two characters I still remember, and I have a tendency to forget my characters.

Here are some other reasons why My Beloved is memorable to me:

• It featured a really fascinating hero (no spoilers here) with a…fascinating disease.
• Medieval ink was really gross, and it was a challenge to describe it without going into graphic detail.
• The Holy Grail theory was interlaced through the book and I didn’t want to offend people at the same time I wanted to fully explore the theory. (I wrote this book long before The DaVinci code, but my research and Brown’s was the same.)
• The Cathar religion was fascinating, but was probably offensive to a lot of people.  They believed, for example, that Christ was human.
• The Knights Templar didn’t inspire my admiration, and it was popular culture that they were noble, trustworthy knights who’d taken their vows seriously. After all my research, I wasn’t so sure.

My Beloved is scheduled to be re-released by Avon sometime in 2010 and I’m thrilled by that.

If you’ve read My Beloved, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

TV Shows – A Trend?

I really like three TV shows:

• Castle
• In Plain Sight
• The Closer

But there’s a common theme among the shows:

• All of them feature kick-ass heroines.
• All of the men give the heroine a wide berth or seem particularly wimpy next to them.
• Every single woman carries a gun.
• They all remind me of the Eve Dallas/Roarke dynamic.

Wonder what that says about me?

How about you?  Do you watch any of these shows?  Have you noticed a common theme?  Is it a reflection of the kick-ass heroine we find so often in contemporary books lately?

Castle

In Plain Sight

The Closer

Writing Advice – Questions to Ask Yourself First

Yes, yes, I know.  I’ve said throughout this blog that I’m never going to tell people what to do.  Well, starting now, I am.

I’d like to help new writers, and short of having a contest on the blog – and we might, as we go along – I decided I had some experience having been in the “business” for 16 years so I might as well share it.

So, here goes, post #1:

So, you want to be a writer.  Good for you!  Being a writer is the most fulfilling, maddening, scary, beautiful job you could have.  Before you poise your fingers over the keyboard, however, here are some questions I’d like you to answer – honestly – to yourself:

• Am I aware that writing will probably not support me full-time?  (The majority of writers have a “real” job.)
• Am I aware that writing is a long, drawn-out, process?  (Publishers don’t move very fast.  Kind of like watching a glacier melt.)
• Am I aware that publishing is going through a real change right now? (The groaning sound is one you might hear from the Titanic turning.)
• Am I aware that piracy is a real issue?  That people will steal what I sweat blood to write? (Piracy takes about 20% of my time to combat, and I never get all of it.) Edited to add: A friend mentioned that I should specify how much time it takes me each week.  I expect to work 7 days a week, but I give myself 1/2 to 1 day off for good behavior and if I’m on target, goal-wise.  If I’m working 6 days a week, that’s 1.2 days of my time taken up by piracy, and that’s pretty much what it’s been.
• Am I aware that my skin will have to be toughened considerably?  (Reviews and even comments from editors will be brutal at times.)
• Am I willing to give up my weekends and my nights if I’m absolutely determined to be published?  Am I willing to tell friends that I can’t meet with them, or loved ones that we have to make arrangements to get me more writing time?  What am I willing to give up to be successful?

Edited to add:

Forgot two very important points.  In fact, they’re so important I live with them every day:

• Am I willing to continue to learn?  Am I willing to open myself up to criticism, to the realization that I’m a work in progress?  Am I willing to always read, study, and learn about writing?
• Am I willing to never feel as though I’ve completely succeeded, to feel as if the last book was almost there, but not quite?  Am I willing to push myself continually, in an effort to be better than I was the effort before, and before that?

If you’ve answered those questions honestly, then you’re ready to start.

Scottish Trivia – Week 7

To keep consistent, I’ll post questions on a Saturday, and the answers are due in the following Saturday by 6:00 PM CDT.

The contest winner this time will get a hardback of A Scotsman in Love.

Please send your answers to: karen@karenranney.com by Saturday, July 18, at 6:00 PM with Scottish Trivia – Week 7 in the subject line.

1.  True or False?  Mary, Queen of Scots, came to the throne when she was just a week old.

2.  True or False? Edinburgh lies in the shadow of a volcano.

3.  Mary, Queen of Scots, was married to the Dauphin Francis for what reason:

• a. She fancied herself madly in love with the future king of France.
• b. She was determined to be the Queen of France before her twentieth birthday.
• c. She needed to gather together a fleet to attack the English.
• d. To align Scotland with France since Henry VIII was determined to do some rough wooing.

4.  True or False? The first known map of Scotland was drawn up by the Franks.

5.  Name the second wall built by the Romans after Hadrian’s Wall.

Mary, Queen of Scots, came to the throne with she was just one week old.

What Are YOUR Sounds of Summer?

Mine are:

• Cicadas in the trees (as kids we used to collect their skins – ugh, what kids do!)

(Click here for a sound of the cicadas. Top left hand side of screen.)

• Slamming screen door
• A baseball game on the radio (any team, any game)
• A ceiling fan
• And weeping (mine) as I hear the air conditioner cycle on – again

How about you? What are your sounds of summer?

And the Winner Is…Scottish Trivia Week 6

Julie Kornhausl

Oh, and the answer?  Perth!

A Very Sneak Peek

Re-Release 2010

Here’s an early digital cover of the re-release of Upon a Wicked Time.

You’ll see some corrections that will be done before the final cover is produced, but I thought I’d let you see an early rendition.

More details later about the re-release of this, one of my more controversial books.

Seriously, isn’t the cover lovely?

Paranormals vs Historicals

I’m not really a fan of paranormals, and I used to think it was because of the world-building.  I want a book to take place in my world.

However, I write historical romance, which is just FULL of world-building.

My perception of the 19th century is that of a twenty-first century woman.  I suspect that a Victorian woman could lecture me on all the stuff I got wrong about her world.

Maybe I don’t like paranormals because I like my heroes to be…human.  Were-lions, were-bears, oh my.  Let’s just stay with alpha males, okay? And there were plenty of alpha males in the 19th century.

What fascinates me most about the 19th century, however, is the men who dared to believe in something that hadn’t yet been proven.  They risked their own fortunes and their reputations in a search for scientific and technological advances.

Each time I read about one of the unsung heroes, like Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Cooke, who constructed the first commercial electrical telegraph, or Robert Koch, who showed how germs cause disease in humans, I’m amazed.

These men – ordinary on the surface – are true heroes, and not a were-anything among them.  I guess I’m just in love with the ordinary, which turns out not to be that ordinary at all.