I adore Eva Ibbotson, whom many romance readers adore. I was given her as an example of a romance author I'd like, although another romance writer says she's classed as Georgette Heyer -- i.e. not a romance writer, but one that romance readers like. She reminds me much of Robin McKinley, absent the fantasy elements.
Let me say this: I have no problem whatsoever with people hating every Luna title they touch. Or every fantasy novel. Or every SF novel. Or every military SF novel. At the store, this is common; some people read everything, and some people are so allergic to specific sub-genres they break out in hives when they walk past one on the shelves <wry g>.
My objection is not that the author has contempt for them -- because this does happen frequently, and in any genre -- but rather that, contempt in tact, the author intends to write one, which implies contempt for the reader, to me.
There was a very funny story about an author who tried to write a romance novel, and confessed that she did write one that a friend who writes in both fields read and ... hated. I'm paraphrasing, because I don't remember it all, but the reader said, "Your heroine is a dishrag, your hero is a jerk, and nothing anyone does makes any sense!" And the frustrated author replied, "Exactly! I have faithfully captured everything I've read."
To which the reader replied, "Stick to SF."
(It was the author who told this story, btw). I think there are readers with a tin ear for romance (it all sounds bad), and writers are also readers (I've mentioned there are agents with tin ears for different genres as well), and although it can be strenuously argued that my first four books fit the romance paradigm (they were my beauty and the beast books, although I didn't realize it until a perceptive reader point this out), I can't quite figure out how to write it on demand; I don't understand how it all works. I struggle with the idea, because I also understand that easily half of the adult human condition in the industrial world involves attraction, romance, love, and all the good -- or bad -- that comes out of it.
Someone gave me a Jennie Cruise book (I may be spelling that wrong, and apologize if I offend, but I'm being 'net lazy) and my first thought was "this is witty" and my second was "now where's the plot?"
Because, to me, it read so much like a Tanya Huff novel in terms of dialogue and description -- but without the fantastic elements, or sfnal elements that form the rest of the story into which the romance is an element.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-08-16 07:15 pm (UTC)Let me say this: I have no problem whatsoever with people hating every Luna title they touch. Or every fantasy novel. Or every SF novel. Or every military SF novel. At the store, this is common; some people read everything, and some people are so allergic to specific sub-genres they break out in hives when they walk past one on the shelves <wry g>.
My objection is not that the author has contempt for them -- because this does happen frequently, and in any genre -- but rather that, contempt in tact, the author intends to write one, which implies contempt for the reader, to me.
There was a very funny story about an author who tried to write a romance novel, and confessed that she did write one that a friend who writes in both fields read and ... hated. I'm paraphrasing, because I don't remember it all, but the reader said, "Your heroine is a dishrag, your hero is a jerk, and nothing anyone does makes any sense!" And the frustrated author replied, "Exactly! I have faithfully captured everything I've read."
To which the reader replied, "Stick to SF."
(It was the author who told this story, btw). I think there are readers with a tin ear for romance (it all sounds bad), and writers are also readers (I've mentioned there are agents with tin ears for different genres as well), and although it can be strenuously argued that my first four books fit the romance paradigm (they were my beauty and the beast books, although I didn't realize it until a perceptive reader point this out), I can't quite figure out how to write it on demand; I don't understand how it all works. I struggle with the idea, because I also understand that easily half of the adult human condition in the industrial world involves attraction, romance, love, and all the good -- or bad -- that comes out of it.
Someone gave me a Jennie Cruise book (I may be spelling that wrong, and apologize if I offend, but I'm being 'net lazy) and my first thought was "this is witty" and my second was "now where's the plot?"
Because, to me, it read so much like a Tanya Huff novel in terms of dialogue and description -- but without the fantastic elements, or sfnal elements that form the rest of the story into which the romance is an element.