This Meeting Will Come To Order Please

Hi, my name is Carolyn and I'm a collectoholic.

Who knew it it could come to this?

Well, actually, I should have; I've displayed these tendencies for years.

Started with recipes. Yes, terrible cook that I am, I once collected recipes. Came from working with a bunch of women who loved to cook and did it well. I copied recipes from magazines (still do sometimes) that never got used; I bought those cookbooks that Church Ladies put out to raise money. I bought ingredients that were used once and later (much later) thrown out because they were way past any kind of date you'd like to name and I didn't want to take the chance of killing a family member.

I think this phase lasted until my boys got into sports and then who had time for cooking? It was time for Mickey D!

Then I learned to crochet. Oh dear. And oh my. And good lord! I bought BIG loose leaf notebooks to keep my patterns organized. I joined clubs that provided their own loose leaf books; one afghan club had to give me two extras. I had three notebooks full of doll patterns and heaps of 'extras' to trim vintage clothing.

Then I happened to notice cross stitch. Counted cross stitch. And I was off again. Lots and lots of patterns, but very little finished product.

Now I have a Kindle PC.

I am doomed.

If you looked at my bank account you'd see lots of $.99 and two and three dollar purchases, interspersed with larger purchases of - oh, $5.99 maybe. Lots and lots. And lots.

I said in another post that perhaps the agency model saved me from nickel and dime-ing myself to death. I'm here to tell you I'm accomplishing it just fine all by myself. Even finding many free books doesn't ease the sting. I bet if I added up all the books, recipes and patterns over the years, I could buy a nice, cheap car or something.

There is one redeeming quality to my obsessions. They have given me hours of enjoyment and yes, even pride. But my obsessions are one reason I don't drink or go to casinos. Ha!

Those of you who buy epub - do you find yourself buying more? Do you get high with the instant gratification? Do you go hunting for more? Something - anything - to download?

I shall have to haul myself up by the bootstraps, because it's getting ridiculous.

But before I do, there's that newest Julia Quinn book that looks and sounds sooo good ....



Hi Carolyn, my name is Lori and I collect things too.

I blame blogs for some of it. How often do you go to one of the romance blogs you enjoy and they're praising one book that 100 people love and you want to read it too so you go and buy it only to go back and there's another book they're talking about that sounds so good!

Add onto that Amazon has a Buy Now button and paperback swap beckons and I can't even mention real books on real shelves in most stores you go into.

And I suffer with Carolyn too who is always going on and on about books she's reading, books shes bought, books she's downloaded (everything but books she's written but we'll discuss that later...)

What bothers me about the book collecting is that I can see books on my shelves that I bought because of high praise but I don't have a lot of interest to read.

I refuse to discuss all my obsessions here because that's what God made psychiatry for. However, because you are all my best and most trusted friends I will admit that my home improvement obsession is currently emptying my bank account and I do have about 4 notebooks filled with recipes currently...

Woo Hoo!!

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews came in the mail today. *big, big grin!*

I sneaked a peek at the acknowledgments whilst still at work - she said, and I quote, "This book does have sex in it. Please don't hit me anymore." LOL!

Y'all pardon me; I'll be back later.

Carolyn

Old Farts Are Age Appropriate Old Farts

After our little John the reviewer kerfluffle, we saw a few blogs elsewhere continued the conversation about age and reading and reviews.

A lot of people misinterpreted our concerns with a wish to censor what a teenager read, which was never anybody's intention. If it isn't my child, I have no concerns what's on any child's bookshelves.

What was a surprise to us was the number of posters who claimed to be reading romance at ages as young as 8 and erotic romance a few years later. "Really?" Carolyn said to me. "Age 8 they were reading Nora?"

"Don't ask me," I said, "it was in the early '60s and I was still playing with Barbies. Why don't you write a blog post about it?"

"Well I just think I will..."



Carolyn:

I was shocked to discover recently how many women had started reading romance - explicit romance - at a very young age, some as young as eight.

Now, here's where I show my Old Fartness.

When I was eight I was reading Little Women and all the sequels, the Bobbsy Twins, and Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (those shiny hardback books, I had quite the collection and besides I was in love with Trigger). Also Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.

I graduated to biographies (loved anything re Elizabeth I) and autobiographies and segued into histories and generational tomes and then discovered SF&F.

The first romances I can remember reading were Georgette Heyer and she's hardly explicit. I think I was about 13 when I discovered her, but I won't swear to it. (It was VERY long ago, lol). At some point I remember trying some romance a la 'The Wolf and the Dove', went euwwww and never thought of romance again until I found Nora late in my life. Oh - but the backlist!!

So now I'm feeling REALLY old. Is it because it's a different era? With the discovery of online Romanceland, I've also realized just how naive and ignorant I was and am. Every day is an education for me. :-)

I don't regret my late start with the more explicit romances. Little Women was just right for me at the time and my eight year old heart beat wildly, hoping against hope that Mr. Bauer and Jo would get together; sighed with happiness at Laurie and Amy's first kiss.

I didn't need anything more back then. Sometimes I don't even now.



Lori:


I agree and if that makes me an old fart then I'm happy to be one.

I read Nancy Drew I think while these others were claiming to read sex. I read Little Women and anything by Louisa May Alcott and Frances Hodgson Burnett.

When I was 13, The Exorcist (the book) came out and my parents bought it for me. I don't know if they would have had they known how graphic it was (fucking herself with the crucifix, the language and the imagery).

I was not a mature child. I was an age appropriate child.

However, I handled the book fine. I also still remember it clearly.

Romance came later although I do remember reading teen romances back when I was a teen. That would have been the early 70s. Our books weren't riddled with cussing, violence or sex. In fact, my favorite sweet 16 romance didn't even share a kiss, if I remember correctly.

My daughter is nine and she's reading The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. She's playing at reading Harry Potter. I have the whole Nancy Drew library for her, if she's interested.

I think I'll keep my Maya Banks books out of her hands right now. Geez, I really must be an old fart....

A Question

What would you write if you could write about anything? Would you write stories that were poems, using words as characters? Would you bloody the page with mayhem or cloud it with confusion?

Are your untold stories romances? Are your whispered tales the fantastical from your childhood?

What would you write if your heart did the writing for you?

The Publishing Poop

Just wanted to provide an update on the piece of crap Carolyn and I have been trying to get published.

One editor was hospitalized with severe vomiting. One gouged her eyes out.

Two need psychiatric help and have sent revise and resubmit letters.

Two have not yet responded although rumors have been heard that they've ordered eyeball bleach.

We'll keep you updated.

Why I Read Romance

Carolyn:


I'm not exactly sure why I read romance

Yes, yes, yes - once there was the obvious; the in depth descriptions of bed play and the accompanying sechs. At that time if I were grading books, I would have used 'twitches' instead of numbers or letters, lol.

Unfortunately, I moved out of the erotica stage before I discovered the epub sites. Shame, really.

Now? Well, now I look for depth. Depth in character and relationships. And a storyline that allows the sechs to appear naturally as the plot develops and the characters evolve. Emotions and sexual tension do more for me these days than Tab A into Slot B.

Now, I have the problem of sifting these deeper stories out of the chaff. That's where review blogs come in real handy.

I read Georgette Heyer in my teens and early twenties; forsook romance for SF&F for most of my life and only returned to romance after falling in love with the music called popera. Oh lord - how I wanted romance then - it was so singularly lacking in my life. Now, I've segued back to GH, and others who are true storytellers.

My list?

Georgette Heyer (of course)- anything she wrote
Laura Kinsale - Flowers From the Storm
Jennifer Ashley - The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie.
Loretta Chase - Lord of Scoundrels, Mr. Impossible.
J. D. Robb - the In Death series.
Jennifer Crusie - Agnes and the Hitman, Bet Me.

And because of my fantasy past:

Iona Andrews - the Magic series
Patricia Briggs - anything she writes.
Elizabeth Vaughan - Warprize and anything else she writes.
Nalini Singh - the Archangel series.

I enjoy some of Balogh and Quinn, but never know if I'll find myself bored.

And, of course, I read romance for the HEA. It's a guarantee or else it isn't a romance. I need the escape from real life. :-)


Lori:


I first read romance by mistake. I was living in San Francisco and somehow ended signed up for a Harlequin monthly book club. This was back in the *cough* 1980s and most of the books had virginal British blondes and rough handsome bosses and they bordered on ick. I was hooked because I always wanted to kick the heroes ass and tell the heroine to get a spine. Feisty thing, even back then.

I stopped reading for a long time until I stumbled on Jayne Ann Krentz. Loved her writing, loved that her stories were local and loved that the heroines were smart and feisty and not British.

I never followed the genre, romance has always been just among the books I read. It wasn't until I started writing that I discovered the genre and started to really read. Jennifer Cruisie and Welcome to Temptation reeled me right in.

The romance blogland has had a lot to do with my continued reading. Reading reviews and comments where people just grow incandescent with descriptions of favorite books and writers makes me want to read those books and writers. Going onto blogs or Twitter and enjoying the online presence of certain writers has caused more than one book purchase.

Now I'm discovering that I read romance because I like reading. And it's one of the genres I read and becoming less the primary one.

I read and write because I love a well crafted story with words that flow and bite and dare you to lose yourself in them. I read because a well turned phrase is more delicious than the taste of chocolate and a clever retort on a page can make me smile for hours.

I love that moment when the characters become real and their feelings settle under your heart.

Why do you like to read romance? Or are you fonder of a different genre?

(I really hate weak heroines and so love the paranormals still as well as chick lit and my #1 favorite which is literary fiction. Also love poetry.)

Talking Sex With Teens

Over at Dear Author, a new reviewer who is fifteen years old has been reviewing romance and YA. Now he's reviewed an erotic romance.

To say I'm uncomfortable with this is an understatement. The reviewer is obviously intelligent, well spoken, thoughtful and appears more mature than I am on a good day. I'm old enough to be his grandmother by the way. And I'm much too old and much too polite to talk erotic romance with a fifteen year old boy.

When my daughter starts stealing books out of my library and reading them for the hot parts, I'll look the other way and let her read as she likes. If she chooses to read what I write (and there are some hot parts in those too), I'll blush and look the other way.

If my daughter wants to talk to me about what she reads then as her mother I'll be right there and listening. That's part of my job as her mother. However, if her best friend wants to join the conversation then that's where I have to draw the line. It's inappropriate for an adult to have a conversation with a child that isn't theirs about sex and all the squishy stuff that entails.

If I found that someone was discussing sex with my underage child I would be contacting the authorities. I'm just that kind of Mom. It's my job to keep my child safe and even if my child was mature and the person they were talking to was hands-off and just sharing conversation: it would still be wrong and I would be all over that with mace and handcuffs.

Having a fifteen year old boy discussing erotic romance on a popular website seems like a bad idea in every way I can think of. Is there anyone else out there who finds this as wrong as I do? Or am I just a reactionary old bitch who doesn't understand that fifteen is the new forty?

What say you out there?