Last week, we ran a poll asking people if there were storylines that people would just not read. A whopping 80% percentage of people said "yes." I received a few private emails by authors despairing over this poll. Fear not authors! For every reader who hates a particular trope, there are people who love [...]]]>

Last week, we ran a poll asking people if there were storylines that people would just not read. A whopping 80% percentage of people said "yes." I received a few private emails by authors despairing over this poll. Fear not authors! For every reader who hates a particular trope, there are people who love them.

For example, one of the oft repeated storylines to be avoided by the commenters were secret baby stories. The obvious conclusion to draw from this is that no one should write secret baby stories. But Sarah Morgan's One Night-Nine-Month Scandal debuted at number 49 on the USA Today list. Anything above 50 is included in the USA Today printed list. She sold more copies, according to USA Today’s metric, than Jennifer Crusie’s hardcover Maybe This Time which clocked in at 75 for its first week of sales.

The truth is that there are stories that people don't like and those stories still sell. And there are stories that people love and don't sell. When I was sorting through the Berkley books for the giveaway this weekend, I noted that there were 7 titles that no one requested which, if you think about it, is pretty amazing given that there were over 800 comments. But the books that weren’t requested were of very popular story tropes; books with story lines that didn’t seem to hit anyone’s hot button topics.

I’ve heard editors lament that the worst question that they can get on a panel is “what are you looking for” because authors seem to want an answer like “300 pages on a secret baby plus Navy SEAL hardened by the loss of his mother at an early age who seeks out vengeance upon his family’s killer while falling in love with a tender, virginal, but tough county prosecutor with her own demons set in the deep south and the characters’ names should be Eli and Sarah.” But what editors really want, they tell me, is the best book that author can write. I believe that is what readers want as well.

So let's talk about storylines in the reverse. I am a big fan of marriage of convenience stories, marriage in trouble stories, and friends to lovers. I will almost always buy a book containing those tropes.

When we showed the Madeline Hunter cover at RomCon, the readers noted that the tag line suggested “marriage of convenience” and that interested them. Are there tropes you will (almost) always read?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

What are they?

We have a lovely op ed piece by Janine due for tomorrow so this morning we are going to run a poll instead.   I recently read a blurb for a story that featured the heroine working for a tabloid and   was trying to write a tell all story. It appeared, by the blurb, that [...]]]>

We have a lovely op ed piece by Janine due for tomorrow so this morning we are going to run a poll instead.   I recently read a blurb for a story that featured the heroine working for a tabloid and   was trying to write a tell all story. It appeared, by the blurb, that she was going to try to get close to the subjects she was writing the tell all story about.    (There is a Patricia Wilson or Sally Wentworth book with this kind of storyline).

It’s not a book I’m likely to read, no matter the writing. I can’t get past the blurb to even read an excerpt or sample.   About the only time I can overcome this prejudice is with a specific trusted reader recommendation.   Sometimes I have been able to read these books and enjoyed the storyline, in spite of my initial dread. Yet faced with a new book and a new author, in particular, I’m not likely give that book a try.

Betrayal storylines are another hard sell for me. Those are the ones in which one of the characters enters the life of another under subterfuge because the innocent character has something the other wants. I can read these but I’m not drawn to them and more often than not, I will pass these storylines up for something else.

Is there any one else that has a storyline or character trope you just won’t read?

I mentioned on Twitter that I thought Christine Feehan was the mother of Paranormal Romance. [...]]]> I was perusing the HarperCollins catalog and came across the entry which noted Christine Feehan’s Dark Prince was going to be re-released in hardcover with 100 additional pages. I don’t know if this is a rewrite or just extra material.

I mentioned on Twitter that I thought Christine Feehan was the mother of Paranormal Romance. Others disagreed. Michelle Hauf, for example, thought Kenyon or Maggie Shayne and Susan Sizemore pointed toward Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s St. Germain books:

I would say that Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s St. Germain books are the first paranormal romances & rest of us are Quinn’s children.

BuriedbyBooks posited that Laurell K Hamilton popularized paranormal romantic elements and Feehan moved those elements from fantasy to romance.

Kenyon’s Fantasy Lover was published in 2002. Laurell K Hamilton’s first book, Guilty Pleasures, was published in 1993. I started reading LKH with Blue Moon, published in 1998. Maggie Shayne’s vampires were introduced in 1993. I am not very familiar with Shayne’s works.

The reason I place Feehan as the mother of PNR is because so many of the elements of her Carpathian series can be found in other series. Dark Prince was first published in 1999 by Dorchester. For example, Feehan’s Carpathians were primarily male. After 200 years of existence, a Carpathian male begins to lose his sanity. He can no longer see in color, loses sexual desire and the ability to feel emotions. All of these things are aroused once they find their mate. They mate for life. The link between the male and female is both in body and in mind.

Carpathians hunted vampires, or Carpathians who had gone rogue. Vampires went rogue when they hadn’t yet found their mates. When the darkness overtakes a Carpathian male, it can be alleviated temporarily when in the act of killing another. At this point, a “good” Carpathian will kill himself by seeking the sun. A bad one turns rogue and becomes the prey of the Carpathian. There are few Carpathians because the lack of females and thus, the lack of progeny.

Carpathians can shapeshift, speak telepathically, and some have special other powers.

JR Ward and Lara Adrian are two popular authors who use variation on of the Carpathian myth. From Ward’s glossary:

transition n. Critical moment in a vampire's life when he or she transforms into an adult. Thereafter, they must drink the blood of the opposite sex to survive and are unable to withstand sunlight. Occurs generally in the mid-twenties. Some vampires do not survive their transitions, males in particular. Prior to their transitions, vampires are physically weak, sexually unaware and unresponsive, and unable to dematerialize. (my emphasis)

In Adrian’s series, the Breed vampires hunt down Rogue vampires, bloodsuckers who have given into their bloodlust. There are few Breeds. Conception for females is rare and the women breedmates, a human gifted with unique blood and DNA properties, are cherished. The Breed vampires consisted solely of males.

The Carpathian stories are almost completely stories of heroes in pursuit who have serious territorial issues much like the Adrian and Ward men.   While the “alpha male tamed by the love of a good woman” existed prior to Feehan, I think she popularized it (along with Stephanie Laurens) and to some degree this trope permeates the mate filled paranormal romance series.

Of course, the myths in Ward and Adrian’s themes can be traced to other books but I see echoes of the Feehan series in many paranormal romance books published since 1999.

Who do you see as the “mother” of paranormal romance? Any one in the poll? Someone who is excluded? None of the above? A mixture (that’s too easy!).

A couple of readers confessed that they are skimming or skipping the sex scenes.   hapaz says

I can't speak for every one, but I usually [...]]]> There is an issue that was prompted by a review of Charlotte Featherstone’s Sinful written by our newest addition to Dear Author, John.   (He already had the J name).

A couple of readers confessed that they are skimming or skipping the sex scenes.   hapaz says

I can't speak for every one, but I usually skip explicit sex scenes because I almost always find them  badly done.

By which I mean they don't resonate with my own experiences, they seem to be trying too hard to be "hot", the language doesn't match the activity, and frequently I suspect them to be physically impossible.

nutmeg agrees:

I'm with hapax on this one. I don't find sex scenes to be anything near what I have experienced(and yes, some seem physically impossible too), so I just end up laughing or rolling my eyes. I skim them, or read them if I'm in the mood for a laugh, but I rarely find them necessary to a plot line. I guess that's why I don't read a lot of erotica.

Ridley says she skips sex scenes if they are boring or don’t further the plot/character development:

I skim the sex sometimes as well. "Insert Tab A into Slot B" is boring, and so is sex that doesn't further the plot or character development. But I skim anything like that – shameless sequel baiting, fan moments with previous books' characters, bizarre "suspense" plots in straight contemporaries – so it's not a sex-specific thing, it's a writing thing for me.

Mina Kelly points out that once you start skimming sex scenes, it can be habitual:

When I can finish a 900 page book in under two hours because I'm skimming the sex scenes, that's too many sex scenes. I mean, I read the first six or seven, but the plot hadn't even kicked off- It took a while before I could read sex scenes in other books after that, since my now Pavlovian reaction was to skim automatically. Enough bad sex scenes, or an expectation of bad sex scenes, tends to put a person off.

I really enjoy a good erotic romance and a good sex scene, but I   have found myself skipping/skimming sex scenes often.   What about you? Do you skip/skim?   Why?   What would make you stop?   What are you looking for in a good sex scene? What are some good or bad examples?

Pre K to 1st grade:   Nora Gaydos “Now I’m Reading” series.   I like the collection of 10 books which help your child build her phonics skills. [...]]]> Do you buy books as gifts? There’s something wonderful about sharing one’s love for reading with another, particularly kids.   Here’s my last minute holiday book gift guide.   Share yours!

Pre K to 1st grade:   Nora Gaydos “Now I’m Reading” series.   I like the collection of 10 books which help your child build her phonics skills.   The books are to be read by the child and upon finishing the book, the child can place a sticker on the front.   There are forty stickers, four for each book.   The end of the book contains exercises to aid in reading comprehension such as questions about the content, rearranging sentences, and filling in the blanks.

I also love the Letter Bingo game by Gaydos.   The kit contains four tab slide Bingo cards and an Alphabet spinner.   It’s fun for adults to play with the kids.

Slightly Older Child:   The books by Grace Lin are simply wonderful.   Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a take on a fantasy story where one girl goes on a journey to find the Old Man of the Moon to change her family’s fortune.   The Year of the Rat and The Year of the Dog are two semi autobiographical books about a young girl named Grace and her middle school experiences being a Chinese American.   The lessons that Grace learns about being confident in herself and being kind to others regardless of their appearance is one for kids of all races.

Teenage Girl:   Forget the Twilight books.   Not only have those girls probably already read those but there are really good stories out there that are more female positive. Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games and Chasing Fire as well as books by Justina Chen Headley or Sarah Dessen.

Adults:   Last Night I Dreamed of Peace is the diary of a North Vietnamese female doctor, her encounters with enemy troops, and her dream of peace.   Her diary was found by an American soldier who was charged with clean up.   He read the diary and could not destroy it and instead violating military regulations, sent it to a friend.   Thuy, the doctor, passionately believed in the North Vietnamese cause and has many an unkind thing to say against the American soldier, but it’s a poignant story about war and the cost that it inflicts on both sides.   I’m not a big war book reader but I was captivated by this story.

If your friend likes fiction, I’ve been hearing awesome things about Stieg Larsson’s series starting with Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.   I have this book set aside as part of my holiday reading.

Stay safe with your family!

I [...]]]> I was emailing with a friend of mine over two backlist titles from authors whose recent work we both enjoyed tremendously.   The backlist titles were such poor quality compared to the recent works and I thought that had I read those backlist titles, I would never have wanted to pick up the recent works.

I know that Nora Roberts does not want Promise Me Tomorrow ever re-released and Jennifer Crusie is not a big fan of her novella, Sizzle (which I didn’t think was that bad).    I recall Iris Johansen trying to disclaim her past romance novel writing history.

From a reader point of view, do you think authors should remove backlist titles from circulation (if they could) that don’t reflect their current work, either in quality or tone?   Authors, are there books you would remove from circulation, if possible?

There is obviously overlap between the readers and movie goers.   So I ask you, will you see a movie [...]]]> New Moon was released this past weekend and grossed a whopping $140.7 million. Record shattering.   New Moon also debuted at No. 5 on the NYT Bestseller Children’s list and spent 11 consecutive weeks on the list.

There is obviously overlap between the readers and movie goers.   So I ask you, will you see a movie of a book you’ve read and conversely, will you read a book of a movie you’ve seen. (I bought Q&A by Vikas Swarup after watching Slumdog Millionaire).

In the commercial world, we are used to thinking of value in the context of price. A "good value" is often defined by some quotient of quality and price, specifically as relatively high quality for a [...]]]> Robin (aka Janet here) wrote a great piece for Access Romance Readers’ Gab blog about value and creative content.

In the commercial world, we are used to thinking of value in the context of price. A "good value" is often defined by some quotient of quality and price, specifically as relatively high quality for a relatively low price. But the value of books, while commercial art and commercially marketed products, is not so easy to define.

I admit to be one of those people who equate value to length (among other things).   Going into a purchasing situation, I will be willing to pay more for a longer work than a shorter work even if at the end of the reading both, my positions would have flipped because the shorter work was of higher quality than the longer work.   But buying decisions are made on the front end so I balk at paying a higher price for novellas or short stories than I would for full length novels.

Does the length of a story affect how much you are willing to pay for it?

Now, the qualification in the copyblogger post is the term “talented” which can have a whole gamut [...]]]> Keishon, avidbookreader.com, linked to a discussion at copyblogger which debated whether the theorem that talented authors write badly when they are trying to express an idea and conversely write well when they are trying to touch an audience.

Now, the qualification in the copyblogger post is the term “talented” which can have a whole gamut of interpretations. But setting aside that term, should the author be writing for the reader or writing for herself? Unlike many of the commenters at the copyblogger forum, I believe an author should write for herself.

Interestingly, I think that there is a big difference between “writing for the market” and writing to touch an audience. The commenters, to me, are discussing creating an emotional connection with the readers (which I think is very important, thinking back to the post by Chloe and why she reads). So I’d ask you when voting that you think about the poll in terms of the development of a relationship with the reader through writing and not writing to the market.

I voted in [...]]]> JMC posted last week about having problems with con artist protagonists. I’ve enjoyed the occasional assassin book such as Kelley Armstrong’s Nadia Stafford series or Barry Eisler’s John Rain series. Jenny Crusie seems to love the morally ambiguous protagonist with books like Welcome to Temptation, Faking It, and Agnes and the Hitman.

I voted in the poll that I sometimes like the con artist or criminal protagonist, but you know, I prefer the non criminal heroes and heroines. What about you?

“For you as a reader, is it important that you can pronounce character names?”

Yes is [...]]]> There is so much I could write about in terms of names in books (and maybe that will be an upcoming Tuesday post) but for today, we have a poll inspired by author Christina Dodd who tweeted today:

“For you as a reader, is it important that you can pronounce character names?”

Yes is my reply. I will stop reading a book just because of the character’s name.

Really beautiful heroines [...]]]> To give equal time to the women, I present the heroine poll. Do you like your heroines perfect or flawed, physically? Personally, I like both but if I had to choose (and I am making you if you want to vote) for the physically flawed heroine because perfection can be boring.

Really beautiful heroines have their own problems and some authors choose to deal with it such as in The Guardian by Joan Wolf or even to some extent in Surrender of a Siren by Tessa Dare.

From The Guardian:

I bit my lip in indecision, and then I told her something I had never told anyone else-’ not even Stephen. “I have this test I apply to people. I think: If I had smallpox, and my face became scarred, would this person’s feelings toward me change?”

Eugenia said, still in that softly gentle voice, “And that is how you select your friends?”

“Yes. For example, I know that no matter what I looked like, Sir Matthew would still want to hunt with me, and Susan Fenton would still want to gossip with me, and…” I let my voice trail away. “Do you see what I mean?”