unhappy SBD and ADD girl
I don't think I can celebrate SBD because for the last month I haven't finished a single romance. I've been reading other genres mixed in with lots of contest entries.
A couple of unpublished partials I've read are better than many of the published romances I've started and put down. Are you Listening, LINDA W? I'm talking about you. (And you, Linda I, but you know that already.)
Anyway, the books I've been reading are Life of Pi (and that's because it's on tape) and I'm dipping into a couple of non-fiction books that I can randomly open and start reading. I don't even miss the central looove relationships and HEAs. I sure hope this is just a stage I'm going through.
Most of this putting-down-the-book isn't the writer's fault. I started Megan Frampton's book, A Singular Lady, a lovely traditional Regency with just the right kind of crisp and witty trad regency language and a promising plot, an appealing heroine and hero--all the right elements. The snippets of dispatches from the mating battle-front make it a keeper . . . .but mommmmeeeee, I'm not in the mood for Regency right now.
I've carefully put her book away where I'll be able to find it again. (Not an easy thing in this house of bookshelves) Trad Regencies are an endangered species and I can't afford to lose a good one.
I make my way through the huge TBR pile.
--Okay, how about a historical? How about falling asleep reading someone else's love scene? It makes a nice change. I usually fall asleep writing my own. And that heroine's head snaps back too often. She's gonna dislocate something.
--A suspense with supernatural elements? Naw, can't suspend disbelief and the hero's an alpha jerk.
Alrighty then.
--A nice fantasy? Gawd. It's got an elf warrior. Save me from sacred oaths and pointy ears and pseudo-olde englishe language. Damn you, Tolkien.
But Kate, you like that kind of stuff.
Not today I don't.
--A chick-lit featuring the devil and a pyramid scheme for gathering souls? Well, cute, and I actually finished it, but I don't believe the central character's transformation. Yo, Kate It would probably have rung true if you'd actually read every line of the book. Yes, it's true. I skipped a page here and there.
Okay, I give up. I think I'll go into my kid's room and steal Thud! by Prachett. If the kid catches me and takes it back, I can always reread Stiff. I liked that book so much, I wrote to Mary Roach, the author, and I'm on her mailing list.
This is a letter she recently sent out.
Hi. I wanted to let you know that my second book, Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, is about to hit the bookstores. Like Stiff, it’s my usual goofball, attention-deficit hodge-podge. You can check it out at http://www.spookthebook.com/
I apologize in advance: There are no corpses in this one. But there is:
--Vaginally extruded ectoplasm
--An attempt to weigh the soul of a leech
–A Cambridge University ghost experiment carried out at an X-rated movie house
--A 1927 laboratory experiment to produce an outline of a monkey’s astral body
--Cameos by Elizabeth Taylor, Nikola Tesla, Homer Clyde Snook, and the Prince of Wales
Attention-deficit? hodge-podge? Soul of a leech? I'm so THERE, babee.
A couple of unpublished partials I've read are better than many of the published romances I've started and put down. Are you Listening, LINDA W? I'm talking about you. (And you, Linda I, but you know that already.)
Anyway, the books I've been reading are Life of Pi (and that's because it's on tape) and I'm dipping into a couple of non-fiction books that I can randomly open and start reading. I don't even miss the central looove relationships and HEAs. I sure hope this is just a stage I'm going through.
Most of this putting-down-the-book isn't the writer's fault. I started Megan Frampton's book, A Singular Lady, a lovely traditional Regency with just the right kind of crisp and witty trad regency language and a promising plot, an appealing heroine and hero--all the right elements. The snippets of dispatches from the mating battle-front make it a keeper . . . .but mommmmeeeee, I'm not in the mood for Regency right now.
I've carefully put her book away where I'll be able to find it again. (Not an easy thing in this house of bookshelves) Trad Regencies are an endangered species and I can't afford to lose a good one.
I make my way through the huge TBR pile.
--Okay, how about a historical? How about falling asleep reading someone else's love scene? It makes a nice change. I usually fall asleep writing my own. And that heroine's head snaps back too often. She's gonna dislocate something.
--A suspense with supernatural elements? Naw, can't suspend disbelief and the hero's an alpha jerk.
Alrighty then.
--A nice fantasy? Gawd. It's got an elf warrior. Save me from sacred oaths and pointy ears and pseudo-olde englishe language. Damn you, Tolkien.
But Kate, you like that kind of stuff.
Not today I don't.
--A chick-lit featuring the devil and a pyramid scheme for gathering souls? Well, cute, and I actually finished it, but I don't believe the central character's transformation. Yo, Kate It would probably have rung true if you'd actually read every line of the book. Yes, it's true. I skipped a page here and there.
Okay, I give up. I think I'll go into my kid's room and steal Thud! by Prachett. If the kid catches me and takes it back, I can always reread Stiff. I liked that book so much, I wrote to Mary Roach, the author, and I'm on her mailing list.
This is a letter she recently sent out.
Hi. I wanted to let you know that my second book, Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, is about to hit the bookstores. Like Stiff, it’s my usual goofball, attention-deficit hodge-podge. You can check it out at http://www.spookthebook.com/
I apologize in advance: There are no corpses in this one. But there is:
--Vaginally extruded ectoplasm
--An attempt to weigh the soul of a leech
–A Cambridge University ghost experiment carried out at an X-rated movie house
--A 1927 laboratory experiment to produce an outline of a monkey’s astral body
--Cameos by Elizabeth Taylor, Nikola Tesla, Homer Clyde Snook, and the Prince of Wales
Attention-deficit? hodge-podge? Soul of a leech? I'm so THERE, babee.
Dude, I am so having the same problem. I haven't read a trad Regency in ages, for example. I am barely reading Regency-set historicals. I read George R. R. Martin's, which has funny names, and am looking forward to an Anne Stuart category, since i can get in and out quickly.
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, Kate, I get the hint, LOL (thanks for your comments over at my place!). Now, if I could just find an editor to share your opinion . . .
ReplyDeleteOh gad, Kate. I hear you. I've been in such a reading slump I still haven't finished Harry Potter 6!
ReplyDeleteThe stack of TBR is growing. Help before it collapses on me and the story shows up in the Enquirer. :)