Heroines who remind me of girls I knew in high school, Part TWO

Why am I doing this? See part ONE below.

Savi Murray: (Demon Moon by Meljean Brook)
Savi reminds me of that rare kind of girl who was liked by kids from all walks of life—burnouts, the nerdy smart set, even the jocks, (thanks to her fake ID selling business for the fictional Savi). She’s the girl who spent most of her time in the computer lab (when I went to high school, kids didn’t have their own computers to bring). Savi is one of the smarter heroines I read, which is highly enjoyable. In classes, the Savi type of girl I'm specifically thinking about was a bit of a screw off, only because she was bored by the lessons, being that she already knew everything. You can sometimes find a Savi type of girl in band, playing a more outrageous instrument like tuba or drums. And if bagpipes were allowed in band, she would probably go for that. Never flute.

Anita Blake (Anita Blake, Vampire Slayer by Laurel K. Hamilton)
In high school, Anita was one of those girls other kids didn’t understand, skulking around the halls in black. Really goal-oriented and tough and serious, and maybe a bit judgmental. I was slightly in awe of the Anita I’m thinking of, and I would’ve liked to know her better, but I if actually socialized her, I doubt she would’ve had much patience with me - she would’ve thought I goofed around too much, like I wasn’t a really serious person. Anita had precisely one friend, and together they had their own private, rich, interesting world. They could frequently be found doing interesting projects with some hip teacher.

Margrit Knight (Heart of Stone, C.E. Murphy)
I had a friend like Margrit—the serious smart girl who wins all the awards, and a member of a lot of clubs, on the paper and all that. We scheduled classes together, like German, where she was the star. We were also on track team and tennis team, where we had weird little private jokes. She had excellent taste in music and a slight weight fixation. My Margrit was sensible, reasonable, mature and fun. This Margrit type makes for a strong, totally admirable heroine.

Jezebel (Hell’s Belles by Jackie Kessler)
Jezebel was a girl I secretly watched and tried to copy in the fashion department, with dismal results. She smoked in the bathroom and sucked at gym class, math and all other classes, not that she cared. The Jezebel type I’m thinking of would seek out a more studious girl like me out around test time, begging for me to explain stuff to her, because she blew off class and homework. And I would help her and explain things to her, just to be near her, hoping she’d rub off on me a little bit. The Jezebel I remember was on the sexy dance squad, and then she was kicked off the sexy dance squad. An enjoyable heroine to read about.

Heroines who remind me of girls I knew in high school, Part ONE

I recently made a list of heroines I identify with in a comfortingly seamless way during the act of reading--like they’re an other me.

This made me think about heroines I love reading about just as much, but don’t identify with as completely. I have decided this happens when the heroine isn’t A) vulnerable enough in a way that resonates with me, or B) she is vulnerable enough, but way too different than me, like a different animal.

Sometimes I prefer that. Reading about heroines like these is like having an adventure with a friend who is fascinating or admirable in some way, rather than a comforting proxy self. Reading should take a person to new places and new realities.

On my heroines I totally identify with list, some people mentioned Sookie as a heroine they identify with, and I really thought about putting her on that list, because I am CRAZY about those books, and I love her and I enjoy being in that wonderful world she inhabits. Especially if Eric is hanging around. (I may even splurge on the new book coming out in May, even though it’s in hardcover. Please, don’t ask me why I can’t show my face in the library anymore. That’s a topic for another day.) However, while I identify with Sookie often, she is often an othergirl to me—in a good way.

Anyway, thinking about all this, I realized this weird thing: when I think about heroines I love reading about but don’t 100% identify with, I think about girls I knew in high school and I put them in categories from high school. I don’t know why, as I am MANY years past high school. Maybe I’m just not over it. Without further ado:

Sookie: (Southern Vampire mysteries by Charlaine Harris)
I had a best friend like Sookie - sweet, sexy, blonde, smart, her own easy fashion sense, all the boys loved her. (I know supposedly boys don’t like Sookie because of her telepathy, but you know. I think they sort of would.) Sookie is also vulnerable and her world is delightful to dwell in, but she is so the opposite of my high school self—I was not pretty, smart but not a high performer, and a total moron when it came to boys, hair and fashion. So while I identify with Sookie in a pleasurable way while reading, I identify with her as a best friend rather than a proxy self.

Phedre: (Kushiel’s Series by Jacqueline Carey)
Phedre is the mysterious girl I would’ve admired from afar and been in awe of. I would’ve wanted to be friends with her, but she would’ve run with a cooler group and taken more obscure classes. Her cleverness with guys would’ve mystified me, too. And if I’d ever talked to her, like at parties, I would’ve said stupid things, being so in awe of her. I would’ve wished desperately to be her, just for one day. Though I frequently identify with her during the act of reading, Phedre is very othergirl.

Riley Jensen: (Riley Jensen Guardian Series by Keri Arthur)
Riley’s kind of a wild girl, and she loves to have fun. I had groups of friends that contained wild girls like her, and every once in a while, a Riley would befriend me for some inexplicable reason, and we would drive with the music too loud, and she would rampage around at the Walgreen’s, maybe get us kicked out of the A & W and it would seem like an incredible adventure to me. Eventually our friendship would fizzle, because I could never keep up with a Riley. Not that I didn’t long to.

Tomorrow: Anita Blake, Margrit Knight, Jezebel, Savi Murray

Blog interrupted by life

Petunia 1991-2008

Identifying with heroines

Well, I must say that Three to Get Deadly, the third Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich, is really doing the trick for an escapist comfort read. I am just a sucker for that world. Mom has been making pot roast. Faithful Rex the hamster is always running in his little wheel. Last night Joe Morelli even brought over a pizza from Pino’s. He was there when I ordered it, and decided to surprise me.

Don’t worry, I know that I’m not Stephanie, but I have to say that my experience of identification with Stephanie is scarily complete when I’m reading one of these books, and I’ve been thinking, what’s that all about? A lot of it is obviously about her vulnerability - she's not that great a bounty hunter, and she's even scared a lot, and checks her closets when she gets home.

Of course I’ve read heroines who are so vulnerable and needy that I want to slap them. You have to have something on the plus side, too. For Stephanie’s it’s her resourcefulness, and the fact that she never gives up. Plus, she has this intense desire to be a good bounty hunter.

I don’t have to identify with a hero or heroine to love them or love a book, but when I want a comfort read, I do. So what the hell, I have decided to make a list.

Heroines I have the highest and most gratifying identification experience with during reading:

1. Stephanie Plum.
2. Harper from the Grave Surprise series. Sorry, I have a kitty on my lap, so I won't be getting up to see what the official name of the series is, but it's the other one by Charlaine Harris. I sure love this heroine. Every town she goes to, everybody thinks she’s a freak because they’re sort of scared of her, and because she makes them uncomfortable. Then she ends up helping them, because she believes in what she’s doing. And the assholes end up feeling or at least looking like real assholes. It’s an unusually satisfying series in this way. She is so easy to identify with, though.
3. Georgina from Succubus Blues. I haven’t read the new one, so maybe she gets downgraded or upgraded in relate-ability, but she has a tragic vulnerability in the first book in that she will destroy any man she loves, but she wants to love! Her wanting something badly and never getting it, and the internal struggle of that somehow makes her really easy to identify with.
4. No, this isn't a book, but how could I not put Buffy on this list?

Tomorrow: Heroines who I admire and/or am of in awe or fascinated by, but don’t fully identify with.

Fabulous winner news

Running a contest is fun, and it feels good to give away prizes. It sure made me feel better after a sad kitty day. And my winners chose really interesting books. Also, you'll want to watch their blogs for their pay it forward contests!

Vicki, who you can visit over at Writing with Vicki, chose prize #1. So in addition to Bettie Sharpe's Like a Thief in the Night, she decided to check out these books by new authors:

Vicki Pick #1:
Total Control by Pamela Britton

Indi Wilcox has a bad track record with race-car drivers—and the skid marks on her heart to prove it. So when she's forced to team up with Todd Peters, NASCAR's number one bad boy, to grant the wish of a terminally ill child, she vows to keep things professional.

Todd isn't sure what he thinks about the new Miracles caseworker. Except that she's gorgeous—and steaming mad. Not that he blames her. He accidentally let down one of her kids. Determined to prove to Indi that he's not just another spoiled NASCAR star, Todd sets out to make things right. With every combustible moment they share, deeper feelings take over. Giving up total control might be the scariest—or the best—risk they ever take.

Vicki pick #2:
Danger Zone by Debra Webb

For team owner Buck Buchanan every day at the Huntsville track is a rush. The noise. The dirt. The roar. The furor. NASCAR's golden boy has only one regret: Jenna Williams. Not that he blames her for ditching him twelve years ago, but now she's back and has thrown a red flag.

Jenna is downright frantic, clutching a ransom note demanding a cool million in exchange for her daughter's safety. Their daughter's, actually. Yes, she knows how it looks asking Buck for help. But it's true. The child is theirs and Buck's the only one who can wrench her out of danger.Even if that means trading himself for a girl he's never known.

RachaelfromNJ, hostess of What am I reading, chose prize #1.
Her two other new author books are:

Rachael pick #1:
Black Magic Woman (Quincey Morris Supernatural Investigation) by Justin Gustainis
CHECK out the Jim Butcher blurb.

"Black Magic Woman is the best manuscript I've ever been asked to read. Keep an eye on Justin Gustainis. You'll be seeing more of him soon."
- Jim Butcher.

"Family vendettas abound in an intriguing tale that pits a descendant of Bram Stoker's Quincey Morris against two kinds of dark magic -- an inherited curse and Zulu fetish witchcraft. As much as I enjoy walking in a Wiccan wonderland, stories that explore other witchcraft traditions are a treat. This one's a real page-turner and a solid start to a new paranormal detective series."
- Elaine Cunningham

Rachael pick #2:
Greywalker by Kat Richardson

PI Harper Blaine sees a strange shift in clientele in Richardson's dizzy urban fantasy debut. After being dead for two minutes as a result of a clobbering by an angry perp, Harper discovers icky side effects complicate her Seattle life in unexpected ways—she sees ghosts and attracts otherworldly business as she pops in and out of a shadowy overlapping world. Harper seeks the assistance of Ben Danziger, self-proclaimed "ghost guy" and linguistics professor, and his wife, Mara, a witty Irish witch. They educate Harper on the Grey, "a place between our world and the next." Harper tries to maintain a normal life, dating a sexy antiques expert while battling wits with Seattle's vampire king, but being a Greywalker means she can only "pass for human."

And our Lisabea from Nose in a Book went with the Bettie Sharpe book and a craft! The book she wants her craft based on: Demon Moon by Meljean Brook. Not only will it be based on this book, it will physically contain elements of it. Perhaps I will put a photo up here when I actually make it.

The pleasures of cozy

It was only this year that I learned what exactly a cozy mystery is. I sort of find the term odd. I guess I’ve read a few, particularly if you count Dorothy Sayers. And this year I have started the Stephanie Plum series of cozy mysteries, which I love. I first read #2, and later #1, which was so excellent—wow, could I ever feel the first book energy in it.

Anyway, the central drama these days in my life is our beloved cat, Petunia, being sick with cancer. She has been for months, but she has continued being her kitty self, so it was okay for the most part. But now she seems to be getting worse, and she’s become less often her kitty self. I can’t tell you how much we love this cat! Anyway, after a very sad day today of agonizing over what to do when, some books arrived in the mail from Amazon. I am such an addict of ordering books. And in spite of an outstanding roster of books I am currently reading: Demon Moon, My Fair Captain, and Karma Girl, there was the third Stephanie Plum mystery in that box, and it’s like the only thing I can think of reading.

I want Stephanie’s mom to make roast and exhort me to sit at the table and ask about my day, and do I want dessert? And what about that nice nephew of somebody? And for Grandma Mazur to appear wearing something outrageous, and for the father to be grumbling from behind the newspaper. And I want Morelli to be just this dependable guy, attracted, interested, but nothing dramatic. And Ranger always willing to show up. Cozy mystery seemed such an odd term, but now it doesn’t seem odd or wrong at all. There is something so wonderfully cozy about that world. It’s all about that world. Cozy and familiar. Always waiting for you.

Winners!

Winners: Vicki, Lisabea, and RachelfromNJ!

You will be happy to know that each of your names was written on a ripped up piece of envelope and put in a little pile other ripped up pieces of envelope with other names. I then lovingly transported them across the apartment in my trembling, cupped hands, and knelt before my husband, trembling. My lord, I said, would you do me the honor of choosing among the worthy entrants of my contest. He bade me stand, and breathlessly he chose your three names as I wept with joy.

Okay, actually, he was at his computer and he looked confused that I would want him to select ripped up bits of envelope from my hands when he had so many better things to do. But he complied. And chose you!

Now, you must choose your prizes! Here is the prize recap:

1. Support new authors prize - This is in honor of new author Bettie, who put up with a lot of changes from yours truly on the header. The prize is Bettie’s new book, LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT, PLUS two other books of your choice by NEW authors. (Sorry, no hardcovers. But you can pick fancy trade paperbacks if you want!) If you already have Bettie’s book, then choose a different third. What’s a new author? I’d say somebody on their first or second book. Maybe without a giant promo engine behind them. But you can define it for yourself.

2. Support new authors and keep your coffee warm - You get two books of your choice by new authors, PLUS a cup warmer. It’s like a little hotplate for your coffee cup. Yes, I’m regifting, but the cup warmer is super cool. Bettie says it's great as a candle warmer, or for wax.

3. Crafty + book - I will make a really super funky piece of art incorporating the cover of any book you please, possibly suitable for display (that is, I will feel it’s suitable for display. Also, understand that the cover may be cut up, altered or merged with other elements and possibly objects in ways that I feel make a sort of sublime sense.) It can’t be out of print because I will need to buy it. I will probably also read and review it. In addition to that piece of art, or rather, “art,” I will send you ONE book by a new author.

Directions:
I'm not totally sure how to do this, but I think you should email me - carolyn7000(at)earthlink.net - note lowercase letters - with the names of whatever book/books you choose and I'll swing you an Amazon gift certificate (after I investigate how to do that), and then I should get your addresses if you choose the coffee warmer or crafty prize! And I guess only one person gets the coffee warmer!

Come for me!

I am sure I’ll regret posting this entry, but it has been a burning question of mine for some time:

Does anybody really say Come for me in real life?

Lately, I have seen this phrase pop up in sex scenes, where the partner, usually the more experienced or bossy one, says this, and the other magically complies. I mean, obviously they were heading there anyways, but still. I don’t get it. In my world, many things are amenable to verbal requests and commands. Coming is not one of them.

Like Einstein doing his famous thought experiments as he developed his important theories about time and the curvature of space, I have done my own thought experiments on Come for me and in what way such a command could possibly be effective. Maybe I am showing off my sexual naiveté for all the world to see here, but through my own thought experiments, I have determined that if my husband or any pre-husband man I was with said Come for me in bed, it would have the total opposite effect. I would be out of the zone because suddenly it’s supposed to happen at this given time. I am going to excuse hunky Captain Nate from saying it to Aiden in My Fair Captain. I could definitely see it working on a 19 year old boy. Or, I could see it having the intended effect if it was put in an interestingly dirty way. Or, if you’re already past the point of no return, so to speak. But Come for me? And what if then you didn’t? Isn’t there enough pressure on the female orgasm already?

Like Einstein, because you know I am totally like Einstein, I have this theory that the phrase was born in the fictional universe and spreads only there, from character to character without ever interfacing with real life. Like, the Regency rake says it, so suddenly some other author’s domineering werewolf character has to say it. And then the vampire brothers can’t be left out. And suddenly the sexy policeman is saying it. Because it’s the bed command all the cool heroes are using, sort of like Open your eyes, Watch me, or some other sort of command along the lines of See what I’m doing. Which I could see working.

I mean, obviously lots of things in the books I read don’t happen that way in real life, but Come for me, specifically, has me wondering. So please, people, enlighten me. Take the quiz at the left!

Villain recognition

Great Moments from last night's reading
Book: Gabriel's Ghost
Author: Linnea Sinclair
Spoiler level: low-medium

Wow, I am REALLY enjoying this book!! The characters are wonderful, the action is tight. I want to talk about one little plot aspect here that I really admired: the villain giveaway. 

I’m one of those people who pegs the villains fast. It’s a talent that impresses my husband to no end during TV shows and movies. Of course I don’t tell him who the villain is – that would ruin his fun, but being the smarty-pants show-off I am, I do coyly tell when I know.

Like any minorly awesome talent, this one can be a burden. Because it’s no fun to know the villain TOO soon. Especially in novels. Which comes down to the author’s ability to manage the readers’ perceptions.

Managing the reader's perceptions for maximum fun is something Linnea Sinclair does wonderfully well in Gabriel's Ghost. Which brings me to my great moment, which was a culmination of great moments of this book. Let me take a time-out here to stress here that Gabriel’s Ghost is NOT about a ghost, and our hero is not the dorky ghost looking figure on the cover, a worry of mine in a previous post, possibly a case of PTSD from LU.

Now about that villain! Okay I had an inkling about the identity of the villain early on but certainly not from the first or second time of “exposure” let’s say, to the character, but early enough. But then I wasn’t so sure. Then I re-suspected, but then not, due to a character I trusted not suspecting. And then it became quite plain, and then there was real evidence, but our heroine, Chaz, overlooked the evidence—understandable for the situation, though this ignorance naturally put Chaz and her hero in danger.

It’s fun knowing the villain when the hero and heroine don’t, but it’s not fun if it goes on too long. Here it went on just long enough, and then Chaz got it. It was a perfectly satisfying arc.

This book shows up on a lot of best of lists, and I can see why. It’s smart all the way through, there are larger themes treated interestingly, and the HEA has a realistic edge to it. I could see people arguing about the HEA and it would be a very enjoyable argument to have.

An exciting bit of news to the many fans of this book - a sequel, formerly entitled Chasidah's Choice, now called Shades of Dark, is coming out in July.

Protective bawdiness

Great Moments from last night's reading
Book: My Fair Captain
Author: J. L. Langley
Spoiler level: medium

Well! In honor of man-love Monday over at Lisabea’s and Sula’s blogs, and also being somewhat observed at Tumperkin’s blog, I would like to pay tribute to an outstanding moment from My Fair Captain, the gay outer space Regency romance that’s all the rage right now.

There are two - nay, three things I enjoyed in this highly scandalous and delicious scene. Imagine: young Aiden steals into the older and more experienced Captain Nate’s bedroom in order to catch a glimpse of the cock ring he was so shocked to discover during an earlier moment of mild impropriety. Aiden hides behind a chair as Nate comes out of the shower, but not before accidentally dropping a drawing pencil on the floor. Oops - does Nate see it? Aiden thinks not - phew! - but the fair reader suspects otherwise.

Nate then flops onto the bed, naked, and proceeds to masturbate rather wantonly, while imagining, out loud, a totally bawdy scene between him and Aiden. I won’t give things away, but it gave me some psychological insight into the practice of fisting that was heretofore missing from my pantheon of sexual knowledge. Of course the reader suspects Nate is purposely trying to steer young Aiden away from the roguish likes of him. It doesn’t really work, being that Aiden gets off on it rather heartily. After, Aiden runs away the first chance he gets.

Number one, I liked the scene itself - I’ve never seen anything like it. It was unexpected, creative and believable for this world. Two, I liked the way Nate’s motives aren’t confirmed right away - you suspect he knew Aiden was there, but you don’t get Nate’s side of the experience until a bit later. I found myself thinking, Well, maybe he really didn’t know Aiden was there. So then it was a highly entertaining surprise to find out how much Nate knew about what was happening. And thirdly, I rather enjoyed the characterization of Nate here.

Nate, I have to say, has wonderful intentions around not compromising the virtue of young Aiden, but in practice, he really doesn’t do a great job of keeping his boundaries. He wants to be good…yet not! It’s the perfect portrait of temptation - you edge a bit closer, often in the guise of resistance - and then closer and closer, always with a seemingly good reason, and then it’s too late! And you wouldn't have it any other way.

My PAY IT FORWARD contest

Do you like my new header? I love it verra much, as Jamie Fraser would say. I won it in Bettie Sharpe’s “Pay it Forward” contest. If you win the contest, you have to hold a contest of your own where you give away something to others. It could be graphic design time, like Bettie, or a book, or even a promise to send something unusual to the winner at some point in the upcoming year. The prize could be something simple or more elaborate. I guess my prize is on the elaborate side, but I'm in an elaborate mood.

For my pay it forward contest, you get to choose your prize! Leave a comment and you’ll be entered. The drawing will be on January 15th. THREE people will win a prize. Considering the low readership on this blog, the odds for you are excellent.

1. Support new authors prize - This is in honor of new author Bettie, who put up with a lot of changes from yours truly on the header. The prize is Bettie’s new book, LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT, PLUS two other books of your choice by NEW authors. (Sorry, no hardcovers. But you can pick fancy trade paperbacks if you want!) If you already have Bettie’s book, then choose a different third. What’s a new author? I’d say somebody on their first or second book. Maybe without a giant promo engine behind them. But you can define it for yourself.

2. Support new authors and keep your coffee warm - You get two books of your choice by new authors, PLUS a cup warmer. It’s like a little hotplate for your coffee cup. Yes, I’m regifting, but the cup warmer is super cool. I had one before, but then I got this high-tech thermos carafe.

3. Crafty + book - I will make a really super funky piece of art incorporating the cover of any book you please, possibly suitable for display (that is, I will feel it’s suitable for display. Also, understand that the cover may be cut up, altered or merged with other elements and possibly objects in ways that I feel make a sort of sublime sense.) It can’t be out of print because I will need to buy it. I will probably also read and review it. In addition to that piece of art, or rather, “art,” I will send you ONE book by a new author.

Goofus v. Gallant

Maybe I’m dating myself here, but do people remember that cartoon for kids called Goofus and Gallant? It was about two brothers, the screw-up, Goofus, and the good brother, Gallant. It was a two-panel affair, with the first panel saying something like, Goofus throws his banana peel on the floor. And then the second panel would say, Gallant puts his banana peel in the garbage and takes the garbage out without his mother even asking.

There is actually a point to this. We rent the second floor of this old triplex. The landlords, an older couple, live on the top floor and this other couple, B & D let’s call them, rent the first floor. Anyway, this whole thing has evolved where the landlords have decided that M & I are Gallant, and B & D are Goofus for no particular reason. Like, whenever a light is left on, B & D get a note. Whenever there is some trash left somewhere, or a door left open B & D get a note. Because M & Carolyn Jean couldn’t POSSIBLY have done it. While we’re slightly more conscientious than B & D, it’s not like we’re perfect. We have actually laughed about this whole thing with B & D.

Well, today the landlords went to Mexico, and because those Goofuses B & D are such screw-ups, Gallant M & Carolyn Jean have been asked to care for the landlord’s cat, and take out the trash, and shovel if there is a big snowfall. The ugly side of being Gallant has emerged!

Anyway, another version of Goofus and Gallant is the Ant and the Grasshopper. Do people know that one? The Grasshopper sings all summer while the ant works hard to store away food, and then in the winter, the grasshopper is really bummed.

Somerset Maugham, one of my favorite old authors, had this total fascination with the grasshopper, and if you really look at his work, you see that the grasshopper was the hero of many of his stories and novels. But the way he worked it, things end up turning out okay for the grasshopper, and the ant is the one who is bummed. In Maugham’s moral world, the grasshopper is rewarded for following his heart and doing what he pleased instead of slaving away with a grim, puritan work ethic.

This is what I was thinking about as I dragged the big garbages to the curb. That Goofus and the grasshopper and Somerset Maugham are totally on to something.

Gargoyles!

Great Moments from last night's reading
Book: Heart of Stone
Author: C. E. Murphy
Spoiler level: low

You walk by a big old building and look up at a gargoyle and think, what if that thing came alive and flew around at night? What if it only just now froze and pretended to be a statue, but as soon as I look away, it will fly somewhere? That's the situation in Heart of Stone, where author C.E. Murphy has created a wonderful shadow world of 'Old Races,' and gargoyles are one of them. Alban, the gargoyle hero here, gets the prize for the coolest shifted form, as well as for being incredibly nice.

I love the moments where people are first putting things together, where the paranormal bleeds into the normal. My great moment from last night's reading was when our heroine, Margrit, is with this not-yet-believing fellow, and they're looking out the window and they see a gargoyle on a high ledge, and she's like, was there a gargoyle there before? He thinks surely there was. But then later, there isn't one there at all. Ooops.

There are five Old Races - dragons, djinn, vampires, gargoyles and the weird selkies, sort of like sea lion people. Actually, all five of the categories spend much of their time in human form. And in the case of the dragon and the djinn, they spend time in human forms that have a bit of the batman villain in them, and I mean that in the most positive sense possible.

Ah, the infamous clawed door

Great moments from last night's reading
Book: Demon Angel
Author: Meljean Brook
Page: Finished
Spoiler level: HIGH HIGH HIGH

I distinctly recall being midway through this book and thinking to myself, gosh, how are these two EVER going to be together? So it was delicious when they finally were, in the infamous clawed-door sex scene. I am a big fan of power-balance shifting in my fiction, and that scene, which I will not attempt to recount, did it wonderfully. But the moment from last night's reading I want to appreciate here came well after that delightful scene. It was when Lilith and Hugh returned to Lilith's apartment to get her clothes and they discover the door has been removed, taken, most likely, to be analyzed in a forensic lab. I just loved that, and it sort of doubled the pleasure of the initial scene just thinking of somebody in a lab trying to make sense of that evidence. I don't have a list of top 2007 reads, but this one would be somewhere near the top.

Welcome to my planet

Great moments from last night's reading
Book: My Fair Captain
Author: J. L. Langley
Page: 40
Spoiler level: low

I often think it would be so great to live in the olden days, and England's Regency period (early 1800's) is quite attractive. Then I think, But wait! Medieval dental procedures! Lack of women's rights!

In My Fair Captain, J. L. Langley has quite neatly gotten around this problem by creating an outer space society that's based on the Regency model. You have all the fun of Regency clothes and courtship rituals and castles and balls, plus all the high-tech conveniences you'd want. I would totally live there. And if you are a secretly gay and hunky spaceship captain on assignment to the planet Regelence, you are also quite pleased to note that this Regency society is quite different from traditional Regency societies in another key way.

I always love a good "reveal" moment in a book where a character is really surprised by something the reader already knows and this one was fun. Nate's superior, Carl, informs Nate that he'll be the guest of King Steven and his consort, Raleigh while investigating a crime. Carl goes on to say,

"I doubt you will be recognized, but if you are it will not be a big deal. And while we are on the subject, Steven and Raleigh are the only ones who will know the true reason you’re there. Off the record, I know both of these men personally. They are good men and they aren’t involved. You can trust them fully. However, officially you report to me. You’ll be briefed fully when you—”

Nate blinked, totally losing track of what the admiral was saying. Did he say—surely not. “Wait. Did you say he? The king’s consort is a man?” Societies like the one they were discussing, like the one Nate grew up in, did not tolerate same-sex relationships.

The admiral laughed. “Did I forget to mention that Regelence is a very patriarchal society?"

Very patriarchal indeed! The entire ruling class is gay. There are lube faucets in every bedroom. This book also has a delightful "duel scene" opening. The text is written in a highly conversational way, and therefore sort of lax on language, but that's part of the personality of the tale here. I find myself thinking about this story a lot when I'm not reading it. I won this book on a contest at Lisabea's Nose in a Book blog, and it's tons of fun. Thanks! I'm at the part where fair captain Nate is about to attend a ball. Will he be able to retain his professional demeanor around enchanting young swain Adrian? I hope not!

What's wrong with suddenly? and other forbidden and hated words

I wish I could remember where I read this the other day, but some web writing authority suggested that there is no good use for the word suddenly in fiction. Yes, yes, I can see the point, show and don't tell, but gosh, suddenly is a kind of go-to word for me. I can't imagine a world without suddenlies!

A writing mentor of sorts of mine, who has steered me right in oh so many things, does not like the word seems in non-dialogue descriptions for the same reason. (Example: The man seems angry.) This is another show don't tell issue. Better to tell the reader that the man is frowning, or frothing at the mouth and clawing at somebody's face.

I try to do this, but every once in a while I really want to use a seems construction. It is like my lazy forbidden fruit. Yummy!

The word select as a verb used to irritate the hell out of me. Why not pick or choose? I felt that, as a verb, select sort of puts on airs. Please select a color. But I don't hate that word anymore because sometimes you want a verb to put on airs. However, I do dislike the word dollop. It's just too precise; there's no wiggle room in it. I know that's a bad explanation, and I know it's not fair because there are no other words that mean what dollop means. But there it is.

My husband dislikes the word nosh as a replacement for words like eating or snacking. I am in complete sympathy with him on that. Though in a certain devilish mood I will use it in a conversation with him.

Do other people have words they single out unfairly to dislike? Could any other words possibly be more deserving of it than dollop or nosh?

Characters and taste

Great moments from last night's reading
Book: Demon Angel
Author: Meljean Brook
Page: 160
Spoiler level: medium

Okay, I’m almost halfway through Demon Angel and SO enjoying it - it rises well above most books I’ve read lately, in genre and ordinary literature. I see now why everybody loves it. The big fun is the interplay between characters, especially Lilith and Hugh, and Lilith and Colin. It just sizzles and crackles!

But the enjoyable moment I want to talk about from last night is sort of small. It was getting insight into Hugh’s character and current circumstances through his aesthetic sense, specifically his décor, shown here through Lilith’s eyes: dark wood, thick rug, “everything here was uncluttered, minimalist. She would have thought it sterile if not for the colors...” which are warm and rich and bright. And then, “apparently he abhorred white.” Hugh, with his heavenly heritage and pedigree stretching back to antiquity, goes for a contemporary and warm decoration scheme, which is quite at odds from what he is, or at least has been most of his life. In this way, the décor went beyond making sense for Hugh's personality, it actually went to the plot. It characterizes him, and at the same time, suggests his unease with aspects of himself, something that’s becoming evident elsewhere. And Lilith, of course, notices his preferences because she loves him. Oh, the pathos!

I love hearing about characters' artistic sensibilities. Laurel K. Hamilton was great at this, too. I’ll never forget Jean Claude’s decorating schemes, or the time he sent Anita Blake a bunch of roses after she was hurt, and they were all white except one red one. And then Richard, who’s way more a wildflower guy, sees them and could not be more full of derision. I don’t have this example on hand, but I recall Nalini Singh put a lot of thought into the décor Lucas chose for his werewolfy treehouse-like home.

Christmas gift exchange in Romancelandia

Welcome to the Christmas Advent Tour edition of my blog.

For my contribution, I thought it might be interesting to see what our favorite characters (or at least my favorite characters) are giving each other for the holidays.

Coming soon: New header by Bettie!

I won Bettie Sharpe's Pay it Forward contest where she generously offered to do a design project for each winner. So I asked her to put together a new header for this here blog. I am SO excited to see what she comes up with. NO pressure, Bettie!

I believe she is working on it now, unless I have totally annoyed her with all my little caveats. And I will be running my own pay it forward contest, as soon as I can think of an equally cool prize. So much excitement.

Bettie Sharpe, author of Ember
and the forthcoming Like a Thief in the Night,
is pictured here relaxing at her LA home.

A perfect little scene

Great moments from last night's reading
Book: Demon Angel
Author: Meljean Brook
Page: 79
Spoiler level: low

I love when angelic Guardian Hugh and demonic Lilith are standing on a London rooftop in 1666 as the city burns, and he presents her with a bound quarto of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus.

"Her heart thundered. 'You would give this to me?'" Of course, Hugh knows she has haunted various writers and poets, though she can't tell him why such things are so important to her, then,

They staggered as the roof buckled and caved; a hole opened yards from where they stood. Flames shot up, sparks showered down around them. Yes, it was much like Below. What would Lucifer do should she have such a gift in her possession? She wouldn't be able to hide it, or excuse it. It was not a theft--was not something she could cover with a lie.

She clenched her hands by her sides, tempered her shields, and forced the words through the tightness in her throat. "No. I want nothing so worthless."

His features hardened, and his gaze dropped to the book. He slid his palm reverently over the tooled leather cover.

Then he tossed it into the fiery pit beside them and walked away.

Oh, she so wanted the book! I loved this moment; it was so poignant, and so dramatically illustrative of their whole relationship. Also, I love how these two stand around conversing in the midst of lots of action. With a lot of books, if you think about them too hard, especially when it comes to plot and character motivation, they fall apart. While I'm still early on in the book, I have to say, the more I think about the plot and the people, the richer and more interconnected the text becomes, the more tightly it holds together, even grips, sort of like a Chinese finger trap. Well woven, Ms. Brook!

Dear Black Dagger Brotherhood,

Please, my brothers! April 1st was so long to wait, but now you say you won’t be back until June 3rd? Please reconsider! SEVEN LONG MONTHS is too long to wait. I miss you so much! I miss your crazy sayings and your red smoke and freakass tattoos and music, and even your giant SUVs, even though I am personally against them.

I am interested in what you have to say—I am!!! And I want to get to know your brother Phury, and I want to long for the union of him and his woman as only you can make me long, and I want to be vicariously satisfied when they finally unite as ONLY you and your XXXL craziness can satisfy me. I cannot wait SEVEN LONG MONTHS!

Is it something I said? Yes, I was disappointed about Jane being a you know what, but it’s only because I love you and I didn’t want that for you. I understand now that VU was one of your most creative endeavors. I was such a fool not to recognize it, not to blog about it. It’s okay with me if you make the women you know whats, if only you will let me back into your world. I don’t even care about the women, it’s all about you and your world, and the mannish way you help and comfort each other, and your booth at the club, and the way you go around, a little bit victims and a little bit badass victimizers. Please, HURRRRRY.

6-10 of the 10 coolest things about Keri Arthur's Riley Jenson Guardian series

6. Memorable hero entrance. I loved the entrance of Talon in Book #1, Full Moon Rising, for its over-the-topness. Setting: werewolf nightclub. Talon’s way across the club and up on the stairs, but our heroine, Riley, feels the sexual energy radiating off him, turns to see. “He walked down the steps, stripping off his shirt as he did so and tossing it casually toward an empty table.” I love that he throws off his shirt. Insert the requisite description of leather pants and erection, then, “The force of his aura rolled before him, hitting the women nearest him like a tidal wave. Sighs and stares followed in his wake, but he didn’t stop, his gaze on mine as he strode toward me.” Ah, the classic nightclub entrance. It sort of reminds me of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. But in a good way. “He stopped when there were still several feet between us, his gaze sliding casually down my body before rising to meet mine again. The lust that surged between us caressed my skin until I felt like I was glowing.” And then they have sex like nine times. I believe the term “inferno of lust” is utilized at one point.

7. Quinn, an excellent and complex lead. Though it is understandable that certain astute readers are becoming fed up with the recurring problems between Riley and Quinn (cue the Richard and Anita music - I think about Van Morrison for some reason) but there is one significant difference for me: whereas Richard, in a way, yielded up his treasures early on, and went on to become a somewhat dried up automaton, our secretive and mysterious Quinn has yet to yield up his riches. I believe the solutions to many problems are within him, and within his and Riley’s relationship - their interaction and growth. That’s my big hope, anyway. Plus, I like him. He’s a secretive and mysterious badass.

8. Keri Arthur manhandles the reader on setup. I don’t know that this qualifies as cool, but I’m putting it in because it’s interesting to me as a writer. Like, if there is something she wants you to know, she’ll repeat it all over the place. I suppose sometimes it feels redundant, but it’s way better than when writers just expect you to have an encyclopedic knowledge of their every musing, and they bury important stuff in the middle of a paragraph on page 8, and then on suddenly on page 199 you’re like, WTF? If there is a key thing you have to get, Keri Arthur goddamn makes sure you get it. She’s taking care of the reader in her own manhandley way.

9. The blurbs on the cover. Who is writing these? Keri? The publicist? Some of them are great. Like, “Half vampire, half werewolf, all trouble…” I love that one. Or this: “Desire. Temptation. Seduction. Let the night begin.” That one’s great too. But this one is sort of crazy: “Between desire and bloodlust is the sweetest sin of all.” That’s a whole lot of tundra between bloodlust and desire for a human like me, in fact, I think it would encompass every sin, sweet and not. For a werewolf vampire, however, I’d imagine the spectrum between those concepts is razor thin. And you never quite find out what that sin is! This inquiring mind wanted to know! Okay, and this last blurb earned endless derision from my husband: “In a realm without inhibitions, there’s nothing more seductive than temptation…” The “nothing more seductive than temptation” part is really what got him, but really, when you think about it, the entire blurb is sort of insane. And now that I think about it way too hard, in a realm without inhibitions, temptation probably wouldn’t exist, because it relies on forbiddenness.

10. Strong supporting cast. I especially like Riley’s gay brother, Rhoan, who is a fully drawn badass and all-around fun fellow with his own robust relationship drama that I’m sort of getting into. I also like the boss, Jack. Like Quinn, I believe he has treasures to yield. The next book, The Darkest Kiss (!) comes out in April 2008! Color me definitely reading that one.

1-5 of the 10 coolest things about Keri Arthur’s Riley Jenson Guardian Books

1. They deliver. A friend of ours, when asked why he, a fabulously intelligent person, prefers action adventure movies to art house films, had this two-word reply: “They deliver.” That’s my overall feeling about this series. Steamy sex? Delivered. Violence and thrills? Delivered. Monsters? Delivered. This is my total go-to series in the way the Anita Blake books once were. Oh, the steaminess drops off a bit in book 5 but strong plot thrills deliver plenty of fun.

2. Good creepy bad guys. The bad guys here are bad in creepily creative ways, which I really like. Sometimes the bad guys and their nefarious plans can get a little TOO creepy. Which brings us to #3.

3. The reader doesn’t always get what she wants, and sometimes is put through a bit of hell. I sometimes find the urban fantasy/paranormal romance genre lets the heroines out of awful situations too easily. As a reader in the act of reading, I want things to be easy and tension to be resolved quickly, yet when it is, that drains a bit of drama from my fun experience. When I read urban fantasy, I like to feel like I’ve gone through something. The best book for this is #3, Tempting Evil, with the madman-scientist villain!

4. Strong central quest. I like a heroine who has that. Riley Jenson wants a family and a picket fence. With every book she seems to get further away from that goal, but hey, the night is young. This particular quest is pedestrian, sure, but that doesn’t matter.

5. Wanton sex. Riley Jenson, as a vampire/werewolf combo, is totally into having sex with lots of different partners. (One at a time - not all at once.) Arthur gets away with this because she portrays its being in the werewolf nature so very well. In this world, werewolves go to clubs and dance around naked and have all kinds of sex. In fact, it is dangerous for them not to get a certain amount in during the full moon week, though many eventually settle down with a single partner. I tend to remember reviewer complaints of the implausibility of Riley Jenson having sex with a guy, say, while sadistic bad guys are hot on her heels. Yes, that is a problem in Book #2, Kissing Sin, I think. The most egregious infraction occurs in a scene that involves her riding a horse shifter—they’ve escaped an evil villain’s lair, and they stop by a stream to rest and drink water, I believe, where they have sex. Mind you, they were both in their human forms at the time. See "wolf sex vs human sex" below for an enlightened discussion of that topic. Anyway, yeah, yeah, inappropriate for the action and tension level. But I got over it.

Coming soon: 5 more

Future Quiz

I suppose if I was a better person I'd get some sort of book on scientific trends and the future and do future research, but I hate research, which is one of the many reasons I don't write historicals. I enjoy making stuff up.  And hey, with a novel in set 40-something years in the future, you'd think I could make it all up. But actually, you can still have anachronisms, and that's something I struggle with.  I have the geopolitical, transportation and clothing issues figured out, but sometimes it's the little things that give me most trouble. 

Here are some questions at the top of my mind lately as I revise. Feel free to weigh in!

1. 40-something years in the future, will they still use the terms:

• Freak out as in, "don't freak out about my messy car."
  
• Shit, as in, "oh, shit."
• Angsting, as in, "he's angsting about his job again."
• Will they still say wow, and if not, any suggestions?

2. I'm getting that there won't be phones, but rather a single small device that does everything and hooks to stations, or is carried around in a pocket. (In my book it's called a cometz.)  But when somebody calls a person on their cometz, will people still say it's ringing? I sometimes think about it toning, but I hate tone as a verb.  Currently, I just work around it.   

3. Will people still wear watches?

4. Will there still be paper or hemp-print magazines, or will it all be digital? I have a magazine scene, and I need them to be paper, but I worry about that.  

5. Will all supermarket and store checkouts be digitized, or will humans still be involved?

  

Goodbye, Ebola Similie

For those of you who have been keeping breathless track of my life, I have been cutting in all areas of my novel, but particularly in the first 100 pages - I was advised to cut them in HALF (by an agent who agreed to reread the first 50...eeep!)

Well, I've succeeded in cutting them by slightly more than a third (from 27, 523 words to 18, 312 words, or 97 pages reduced to 65). But wow, does that opening ever move! And I'm still going to cut more. Anyway, I had my husband, who is both handsome AND brilliant, read the first 50 pages last night, and he found some additional cuts, including one of my favorite, albeit silly, similies which today will leave its home on page 10, way too early for such a thing, and go into a file I keep for such cuts, where it will live out its days in quiet darkness. Here it is.

I pull the covers over me. Sometimes when I’m alone in Cubby’s condo I try to feel what it would be like to be him. Cubby has faith in life the way you might have faith in a five star hotel: you assume everything is perfect, and the place is full of caring people and sunny swimming pools and plush towels, and the folks at the front desk are highly capable—just call if there’s a problem and it will be fixed. To me, life is a trip into a jungle full of toothy predators and fire ants. You find shelter in an Ebola cave and set out a vase of flowers on a doily to cheer up the place, and everybody pretends people aren’t disappearing. I want more than anything to live in Cubby’s safe hotel. To just go through one day without fear.

He suggested the cut because I already show what I tell here about the heroine. Alas, he is right.

In other news, I wrote Xmas cards last night, and I used Star Wars stamps, which all looked absolutely beautiful on the deep red envelopes I had, though not that festive. I refrained from using the Darth Vader one, though I wish I had used it for one of my sisters, because she and her husband would think it was pretty funny. It's like twice as large as a normal stamp. Maybe I'll save it for a health insurance bill.

Ghost sex vs human sex

I have had Gabriel's Ghost in my TBR pile forever. I heard it was great, but somehow, I couldn't get past the cover. Not only did it make me think the book was a romance with a ghost, but with a SUPER DORKY-LOOKING ghost. (He's sort of hard to see in the picture, but obviously, the humanoid on the right.)

Like, if you name your book Gabriel’s Ghost, and then you have a ghostly dork-ghost on the cover, and then the blurb says, “A life and death battle where giving up the ghost has a whole new meaning.” And then the lead is actually called “a ghost from her past” on the back,” well, how can you blame a girl for drawing such conclusions?

So I was relieved to find that Gabriel is NOT a ghost. Now, I just started it, so I suppose he COULD become a ghost, but the ghostly image on the cover is a different character. Phew!

**spoiler**

I wasn’t up for another ghost-human romance after my traumatic experience with Lover Unbound. I’ll review it at some point, but yow, I loved that sex scene in the bathroom between Vishous and Jane. It was my favorite Ward sex scene since the first book with Wrath and Beth. However, the instant Jane became a ghost, I was no longer interested in her relationship or her sex life, even though there was nothing technically different about her when she was with V. I was thinking, why is that not good enough? Why am I not interested in a romance with a ghost if the ghost is corporeal enough to have sex, and has almost a normal life, except for being a ghost most of the time? I don’t really have an answer. But after that scene at the dinner table where she was just empty clothes, she ceased to count for me. Maybe part of the excitement of romance is who the person is in the world. Maybe it’s something about balance, or polarization between people. Because if I really liked a guy, and then you told me, ‘Hey Carolyn, when he is not around you, he is a ghost!’ I think I wouldn’t like the guy anymore. It’s funny how many clichés come to mind as I write this— non-entity, doesn’t hold water, no substance. Maybe those cliches have a root in the way humans are hardwired, who knows.

Wolf sex vs human sex

One of the things I loved about Bitten (which I consider to be one of the best - possibly THE best - paranormal romances out there) was how vividly and convincingly author Kelley Armstrong wrote about the pleasures of being in a wolf body—running around in the forest, nuzzling other wolves, playing, hunting, having a coat of fur. Reading it, I always said to myself, Armstrong loves dogs and she’s observed them with incredible attention and imagination.

This was all a few years back and I remember reading the Amazon reviews of Bitten, or possibly Stolen, the sequel, and I came across some guy griping about the fact that werewolf sex always takes place in human form, never wolf form.

This comment sort of surprised me, and to be honest, I never ever craved a wolf-body sex scene. I never even thought of it! Maybe I'm being species-centric here, but animal body sex scenes don't strike me as having very many fun possibilities. I suppose if anybody could pull it off and make it enjoyable to read about, Kelley Armstrong could, but I don’t believe she’s ever tried it. (I could be wrong - it’s been a while, though I’m pretty sure I’d remember it!)

I’ve read quite a few werewolf books since then and I’ve never seen a sex scene in wolf bodies. Alluded to, maybe, but never played as a scene. I’m reading all the Riley Jensen books now (excellent!) and her werewolves consider sex in wolf bodies to be like rape.

Maybe there’s a reason for this lack of sex-in-wolf-body scenes. Zero foreplay goes without saying, but I don’t know, animals never seem to enjoy animal sex in general. Granted, I’ve only seen pigeons having sex, but the female always just wants to get away. Is any werewolf author out there doing sex in wolf bodies? I’m sure this guy on Amazon would be pleased, but would anybody else?