Guilty Pleasures -- Do You Read Them? Write Them?

Guilty Pleasures? What are they any way? Something you consider not worthy of reading but enjoy any way? Something you are ashamed of reading and are glad you have an e-reader so no one on the train or bus knows what you are reading?

No I don't consider Erotica a guilty pleasure. Hey, I read and have kept all the Anita Blake series except for Affliction which hasn't come out in mass paperback yet. I think Laurell K. Hamilton's bed scenes are more exhausting than titillating.

For me guilty pleasures involve Romantica of the Happily-Ever-Afters because I don't think any human should be so stupid as to bank all his/her happiness on one individual. In other words I have a short tolerance level for Idiotica. 

Having said that, I admit that I read romances. Hey I've even read a few Barbara Cartland Regencies in my life... until I ignored them because they lacked the detail of Georgette Heyer's settings and her intelligent heroines. [Yeah, I still have all of Heyer's Regencies on my bookshelves and even re-read them.] 

What kind of romances to I succumb to? Ones with a good mystery, and better yet, an interesting supernatural/real world connection tied to a mystery.

So what did I read while my brain was on meltdown from

There Be Demons edits?

Mary Balough: The Proposal -- Lord Trentham, a commoner [rich], gained his title for battlefield bravery but now reluctantly looks for a wife since he promised his father on his deathbed that his sons would carry on the family business. Hero chances upon Lady Muir, a widow and part of the intricate family networks of the Bedwyn world. The premise: the struggle to reconcile two conflicting worlds. Yeah this is a b/g meets g/b - b/g loses g/b - b/g wins g/b book. Balough makes the book a winner with her command of the Regency era .and the complexities of her characters. -- Five Stars and a Keeper.

Stephanie Laurens: The Taming of Ryder Cavanaugh -- At first, the book looks a simple romance where Mary Cynster, the last unmarried Cynster female of her generation, finds her true love with the help of a mystical necklace connected with the Lady, a mystical Scottish entity connected to her family. The story soon complicates into a decent who-done-it as Ryder and Mary try to figure out who is trying to kill them. -- Four Stars since too many of the Cynster heroes blend into an repetitive pattern. Still the series has been enjoyable, if unchallenging, reads.

Last but not least, Heather Graham's Heart of Evil -- Graham's supernatural villains are the topping that makes her supernatural mysteries so enjoyable. In this story, former lovers must reconcile against the background of the "Krewe of Hunters" -- an FBI group of paranormal mystery solvers -- tackling the murder of a Civil War enactor who is found swinging from an angel in a plantation cemetery. -- Five Stars for inventiveness here.

So now you know what I've been reading during the three weeks I've been doing edits of There Be Demons for the Grumpy Dragon Press editors. Yeah it's escapist "literature". But they are all good, relaxing reads. May I be so successful.

Some Writing Thoughts -- Making Your Writing Better

Am really putzing. Like I'm not making much progress with my word counts.  One problem: I try to edit as I write. Slows you down, but I like the results better than encountering an embarrassing mess the next day.

Not doing much marketing either. Read Facebook but haven't contributed anything ... not even about the rioting roses and clematis. Even have slacked off on Twitter. Did read six of the early Anita Blake novels in front of the fan-enhanced A/C. In fact, I recommend the early Blake books by Laurell K. Hamilton. Better than anyone else I can remember off-hand, she weaves two-three plot lines with finesse ... without the romance/erotic stuff which adds other complications and distractions.

Are you editing yet?. Better yet, do you want to memorize some words that'll make your writing leaner so your storyline reads faster? Lauren Spieller has some suggestions for you: Words to Eliminate from Your Writing.  --

One of the ways I check for "flabby" words is to use the "find" in my toolbar. For "to-be" forms I seach for "ing" since it usually happens using "to-be"

While you play with ideas, do you also play with titles? What do you think of Emily Veinglory's comments on adding "xxx: a novel" to the end of your title? -- 

Titles are always hard for me. Like my current title for the opening to my Half-Elven series is 'Forbidden Fruit'. Don't like it but it sums up the situation. And, no. It isn't a 'romance' even though relationships are central to the plot line. And, yeah. I added "A Tale of the Half-Elven" to the title "The Foiling of Gorsfeld". [free at my author website]

Coming up with new, unused, or beaten-to-death situations is another problem for writers.  Susan Vittitow Mark wrote a blog at The Writing Bug about Making Big, Messy Art.   Bottom line: Mark writes about journaling to create a mine where you can dig for ideas. The opening is a gas. Won't do a spoiler here. Just go look at the pictures.

Then there's procrastination. There was a great article on the differences on being a writer 20-30 years ago. I didn't capture the url and paste it here for further use. In the meantime my computer and the phones died. Short version: Being a mid-list for major publishers has become a version of "hell". 

Oh, the computer -- I'm learning how to type on a new laptop computer. Don't have all the files finessed ... but it looks like I haven't lost any in the transfer.

Gargolye news. Have a tentative publication date for April 2014.  I'm waiting for the second edits on There Be Demons which should be done when I get back from visiting family in July. Oh, it is July. Well I'll be gone for a couple weeks.

And Pat, the Pet will come out in February or March. The delay here has been the artwork edits. Think we have an artist for the work -- both for the short-vowel stories and the unpublished long vowel ones. May do another set on dipthongs/letter combinations but the editor hasn't decided what. -- Actually, she's making noises about chapter books, and that scares me.

Enjoy ... and don't melt in the heat.

20 Years and Counting -- Think You Could Write a 23-Plus Book Series?

The Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton has dwindled down to a "guilty pleasure" for me -- and no, not because of her multiple-multiple sex scenes. She's created characters I care about but often have no major roles in subsequent books. 

Was hoping Kiss the Dead would change the pattern. But it's gotten worse. Many characters have just stopped growing as people. Or if a character has changed, like Claudia hinting she has a significant other in Kiss the Dead, Hamilton mentions it and drops it.  --[Claudia is a senior security guard in Master of Saint Louis' underground compound.]--

When I first started reading the series I was fascinated by Hamilton's plot twists and her take on the preternatural/ paranormal conventions. I also like the the fact the main character is short and Mexican/German. --[Hey, there aren't that many of us around in the US.]-- Even understood the conflict of Blake's abilities to raise the dead and the Roman Catholic church, not to say her German grandmother, who unfortunately never made an appearance in the books. Unfortunately, Blake has moved on from her conflicted youth to accepting her unconventional, polyamorous live style.

Yeah. I consider the books a guilty pleasure because, even though Hamilton kept her place on the best seller lists, the plot lines got thinner and thinner and potential conflicts get mentioned and tossed without much, if any, emotion or elaboration. Like Hamilton tells us what was going on rather than showing us. 

Still I hung in there when Hamilton introduced  Mommie Darkest, the mother of all vampires [in Blake's world at least], as an antagonist. When the big denouement with Mommie Darkest came in Hit List , it lasted maybe five pages. Big Time Bummer.

Then, Kiss the Dead appeared in mass paperback. I couldn't resist buying it ... just because I was wondering what Hamilton would do once the founder of all vampires had been destroyed. Also had a interesting hook -- the capture of a fifteen-year-old. I waited, hoping Hamilton would get back some of her old moxie. Wondered how defeating Mommy Darkest would influence Blake's life, reactions, and feelings. Turned out ... Blake hardly thinks about it as she chases a laisez-faire vampire who believes in individual liberty.

Okay. I liked the book better than Hit List. But, and it's a big but. The writing competence is there. But the characters don't seem to exhibit much fire. Blake seems to be wading through much of the same emotional ground without a strong mystery component. The flavor of the book doesn't include much cayenne or even chili. 

And where oh where did Jean Claude go. Wasn't he supposed to be a major character? There aren't any conflicts going on with him setting up a Council of Masters of American Cities though there is a minor toss up with Asher being pissy. What's new?

I give Kiss the Dead three stars -- even though I'm keeping it for now.

One thing the book did do -- sent me off to read Guilty Pleasures, the first in the series. No, I won't be doing a review. I only review about a third of the books I read. Guess I need to get on Goodreads more.

====

Turned in the first round of edits for There BE Demons to the Grumpy Dragon. Now seem to be wallowing in summer-type ennui even though we've turned on the a/c. Still trying to finish the first novella of the Half-Elven companion novels ... but it's a slow slog. Think I'm trying to draft it too perfect ... if that makes any sense

I might be self-publishing the short story that started it all:

Night for the Gargoyles

which was published by Spectra Magazine, volume five.

Grumpy Dragon is deciding if they want to do it. 

Here's the tentative cover if I self-publish.