I don't know how everyone else particularly feels about it today, but MAN has it been a long week! I'm not sure what it is about not feeling well and all but it seems like last Sunday occurred about a month and half ago.
Now that I'm back among the living, I started going through both my personal and blog email accounts today and replying to messages from the course of the week. There were a number of them that were not only worth a reply (yes, I'm trying to learn my lesson and not engage those ill prepared for a battle of wits) but were actually good enough to share with all of you as well. Also, since the email response postings seem to be something a lot of you like to read according to the numbers, I think what I'll do is try to make this a regular Friday routine. As usual some bits are edited but on the whole the message is the same.
I'm in the third year of my English degree. My creative writing professors have encouraged me to pick a genre for my work and then stick with it so I can mature and grow my craft within it. I have noticed that your novels are not in the same genre... will you elaborate on that decision?
Okay, here seems to be a great place for my standard disclaimer on the subject of the writer's craft. I can only speak to what I learned in school and what I've learned from experience. I tend to stick to Dennis Miller's great quote on the subject: "I know shit. Write what you want to read." Your professors are very correct in that you should find a genre that you enjoy and grow and develop within it, in my opinion particularly when you are starting out. Remember that I've been doing this for twenty years give or take. As far as why I don't stick in one genre, well, it's a fairly simple explanation. I focus more on telling the story I want to tell, not what genre I want to force it into. Bounce is a dramatic comedy / tragi-comedy / hell I'm not even sure, By Design is an unconventional romance, my next two are romances of a sort, and then I've got a murder mystery and a sci-fi tale on tap after that. So, essentially, when it comes to genre advice, I got nothing.
If you'll pardon the pun, I've noticed that both of your novels are fairly soaked in sex. Do you find that a necessary part of telling a story?
Pun pardoned, but only because it wasn't that bad. The simple answer to your question is no, it's not necessary to use sex to tell a story. The first two books contained a fair amount of sex because it was used as a means of characterization. Mack Reynolds is a pig who views women as conquests and his sexual exploits help to illustrate that. Dina Sheridan is a very conflicted person whose sexual identity is in a constant state of flux. I used both characters bedroom behavior, so to speak, to give the reader more insight into who they really are as people. My next book, however, will have only one or two implied sex scenes and absolutely nothing explicit. It just doesn't need any.
Dude, seriously, enough with the redheads already...
How about this instead: I only have one redhead character remaining THAT I'VE PLANNED, and you've already met her. Lina, Mack's "sister" from Bounce, is one of the two protagonists in Hurricane Carolina.. So, unless I just happen to run across another piece of inspiration that leads that way, I'm close to done with the ginger ladies. Feel better?
This has nothing to do with writing. In your last post you mentioned that your dog is a "Great Dane / Dodge Charger mix." WTF?
Jake is a six year old Great Dane mix. The vet's best guess was possibly a lab or boxer. I say Dodge Charger just to be silly. I figured if you've read my blog the silly was sort of understood...
I think it's great that you're a man and write romance novels. I was going to do one but my girl told me it would humiliate her. What does your wife think?
First of all, if what you want to write is potentially upsetting to your girlfriend, I recommend trading in for a new model. My ex-wife used to tell me regularly that I sucked as a writer and was wasting my time. Of course all she ever read was a T.V. Guide, but I digress. I listened and wasted five years I could have been scribbling away. Fuck her, the Pontiac Grand-Am she rode in on, and the broom she flew off on. Secondly, sir, I do NOT write romance novels. That term implies the bodice-ripping tripe that sells by the case load at Wal-Mart. Until such time as you read one of my characters "melting in passion at the sight of her lover's purple-headed ecstasy warrior" you may safely assume that I stand firm on that fact. Should that happen, well, you can safely assume that there was a contract involved. Oh, and just for your soon to be ex-girlfriend's edification, over 60% of the current true romance novel writers out there are men. You have to be smart enough to read the front matter page because a lot of companies, Harlequin especially, use a popular female author's name for an entire series no matter who wrote it. See what kind of useful information you pick up working in a library? As for my wife, well, she doesn't seem to really have an issue. Her friends have read my stuff and no one has laughed in my face yet, so I guess we're good on that front.
You haven't written anything about Cleveland Library in a while. Do you still volunteer there?
Folks, Cleveland Library is in desperate shape. We are staggeringly short on volunteer help and, at last count, we are in the last one or two months of funding. I can't say this enough. This project will go under and the community resources it provides will disappear without the support of its surrounding community. If you live in the area, it's time to get involved - NOW.
Well kids, that's all the mail that's fit to print for this week. I'll see you back here with more next Friday!
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