Oct 30, 2008 | Books, Reading |
I read a lot of books I love, and I don't usually talk about them because there are review blogs that do a much better job than I can. But last night I started a book I could NOT put down. Marjorie M. Liu's Tiger Eye. It's the first book in her Dirk & Steele series. I'd been hearing about this series for a long time, and I finally decided to give it a try. OMG. Could. Not. Stop. Reading.
I didn't finish. Alas, sleep became a necessity, but tonight — must finish. This book is different than anything I've read lately. Not a vampire in sight! And this was a debut novel back in 2005. Holy sheesh, the woman's power with words! I saw her at RWA in San Francisco a few times, but I hadn't yet read any of her work. Good thing, because I might have stammered in awe. 🙂
What gives this book the page turning quality? The words, yes. But also the style. There's a question on every page that you want the answer to, often quite desperately. (This wouldn't work if you didn't care about the characters.) That's what I hope to do with my writing. To make the reader care and to ask questions to which she simply must know the answers. It's a continual learning process, but I do hope I've succeeded.
Have you read any really fabulous books lately that knocked your socks off? Or do you have a favorite author who always delivers? (I have those too, but I love branching out. I also have Kresley Cole on the TBR pile. I've never tried her, so I look forward to it.) What's the best book you've read lately? The most unusual book?
Oct 15, 2008 | Reading, Writing |
I found this site last night and had to share: Sheikhs and Desert Love. This site specifically catalogues all romance novels featuring sheikhs, desert princes, etc.
Yes, yes, I know that the reality of the modern Middle East isn't all that appealing, and that desert chieftains aren't exactly Omar Sharif or Oded Fehr (pic) lookalikes in caftans. But I love sheikh romances. Always have since that first Harlequin Presents fix I got as a pre-teen. There are most certainly deeper mythological connotations to the dark desert prince/sheikh romances, and as an English major I could certainly go into boring and copious detail about the fantasy aspect–
But no, not happening. I just love these stories for the sheer exoticism of them, and I hope to write one of my own someday. I've read TE Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom twice — the reality of the desert is harsh, but the text is also romantic in its own way. Lawrence was certainly inspired by the life he found out there (and changed by it, no doubt).
So how do you feel about the sheikh romances? Total turn off? Or can you suspend disbelief enough to get lost in the world of camels, desert palaces, and golden dunes?
Apr 7, 2008 | Contests, Reading, Writing |
The hermit crab has a lovely little shell to run into when he wants to hide. Me, well, I'm in my office. You can't see my face, which is helpful right now. Because my winning chapter from THE SPANISH MAGNATE'S REVENGE is on the I Heart Presents blog this morning.
Not that I mind sharing it with you. But it's nerve-wracking to be so publicly out there with my writing, where instant feedback can happen. I felt this way with my published short stories too, btw. It's scary, and I have a feeling I will always feel this way, even should I be lucky enough to have a long and productive writing career (which is my goal).
So I'll be here hiding while you go read my chapter. 🙂 It's already been revised since I sent it to the contest, but alas, you can't see the revisions until the book is finished and in print (thinking positively of course).
I hope you enjoy it! 🙂 If you don't, don't tell me. *grin*
Jan 10, 2008 | Reading, Research, Writing |
I started following this story about Cassie Edwards's copying a couple of days ago, and I'm still shocked, dismayed, and yeah, even sympathetic to what she may be going through. No, I absolutely do NOT condone plagiarism. But I can't help but wonder what she's feeling right now and feel kind of sorry for her. I doubt she copied reference works maliciously, but the fact remains that she copied them almost word for word. And now she's got Nora Roberts pissed off.
I've had my own brush with plagiarism. In college, a fellow student copied my A paper and turned it in as his own. He only got caught because I got suspicious when the professor said the same things to this student, in front of the class, that he'd said to me two weeks before. When I brought the matter up to the prof, he compared the papers and found that, except for a couple of odd verb changes, they were identical.
So what happened to this guy? The dean begged the prof to let him write another paper and not to fail him. The prof, who became a dear friend of mine and remains so to this day, was pissed off but had to comply. A few months later, the student got arrested for stealing from his church. The two aren't necessarily related, but if he'd failed the class, if he'd learned there were consequences for dishonesty, maybe he'd have thought twice about stealing church money.
What will happen to Cassie Edwards? No idea. Her publisher initially claimed that she'd done nothing wrong, but that was before Nora got publicly involved. The side by side examples of the reference works she used and her own work are damning. The words are the same, with a couple of changes here and there.
I read the examples and I feel like Jane Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. Lizzie tells Jane, when she keeps trying to make Darcy and Wickham into nice guys, that they can't both be good if the facts are as Darcy has related. I keep trying to make CE into a blameless victim, and I know that's not right. She typed the words she read in her research books as her own. She typed them. She either did a cut and paste, or she sat that book open on her desk or her lap and she typed. And that is clearly wrong.
Should writers of fiction be required to list bibliographies? I think a lot of historical writers wouldn't mind because their research can be very extensive. But to cite chapter and verse in the manner of an academic paper? Uh, no. If I had to do that, I wouldn't write. No reader wants endnotes in her fiction. It's ridiculous.
Do you think, if you've read the examples, that she should have known it was plagiarism? Or is there room for people to be confused about what “put it into your own words” means? I'm clear on what constitutes plagiarism, but do you think it's possible for someone not to be clear on it? To think that changing a couple of words makes it okay? Or am I being too much of a Jane Bennett?
Update: The more I think about this, the more I'm coming around to thinking that apparently Mr. Wickham did do some bad things with full knowledge they were bad. I keep picturing this writer with her research books open on her lap and transcribing what she's reading into dialogue for her characters. How could she not know that's wrong? How could she not want her characters to sound like HER characters? I know so many fine writers, and as I prepare to head off to a Heart of Dixie meeting tomorrow, I just can't imagine any of our published authors sitting down at their desks and doing the same thing CE has done. Their work means too much to them, as listening to them talk about writing for the past year has made apparent to me. Same with the fine unpublished members we have, of course.
Nov 27, 2007 | Books, Reading, Writing |
For all the detractors who claim romance novels are unrealistic fluffy trash meant to be devoured at beaches when you want to give your brain a rest from the hard parts of life, this anonymous letter ought to make you realize that romance writers aren't lumpable into a single category, nor dismissable as hacks. (NOTE: This letter is not for the faint of heart. I believe there is a warning when you start reading, but if not, consider yourself warned.)
For a look into the life of a brilliant, beautiful, and talented romance writer, this article about my fellow Hawaii chaptermate Jane Porter shows you just how smart and well-spoken a romance author can be. Yay to Jane for not making excuses about her writing! She tells a good story and she's proud of it. She's an auto-buy for me, not simply because I know and admire her, but because she writes thought-provoking stories that resonate with me.
Oct 24, 2007 | 70 Days of Sweat, Reading, Writing |
I didn't anticipate writing over the weekend, because it's difficult to do so when the hubby is home (simply because I don't want to ignore the man who goes to a job every day and lets me stay home to pursue this dream of mine), but I did write on Sunday because he wanted to play with the computer.
Sun = 926
Mon = 1435
Tue = 863
So I've written 3224 words in three days (haven't done today's words yet)**. I think I'm on target (though my goal was 1285 a day) because this feels right for the story. I'm finally coming to the end of this thing, and I would not have done that if I hadn't been Sweating with Sven, I guarantee it. 🙂
This weekend will present challenges because I'm off to my Heart of Dixie chapter retreat in Tennessee. I'm taking the laptop, and I'll try my darndest to work, but who can resist the lure of friends, fun, and margaritas? 🙂
**It's Linda Howard's fault I haven't started today's writing yet. Yesterday, I received Mackenzie's Legacy from Amazon (featuring Mackenzie's Mountain and Mackenzie's Mission). Yes, I'm like the only romance reader on the planet who hadn't read Mackenzie's Mountain, or any of the Mackenzie stories, yet. This morning, when hubby left for work, I decided to crawl back in bed with the book — just to get a nice start on the morning since it was raining and chilly and I didn't want to get out of bed yet. Big mistake. I didn't finish, though I wanted to (less than 100 pages to go of Mountain), but I had to finally drag myself out of bed and to the computer or I'd have spent the whole darn day reading. Wonderful story, great characters. And, as my CP would say, not an explosion or dead body in sight. Just great storytelling. We need more of this kind of story!
