Alison Kent

There are two award winning romance authors who, imo, are also two of the best writing teachers around. Much in the way Chris Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey can be applied to strengthen a book in any genre, so can the generous lessons these two authors give across the country. Interestingly enough, neither of them, as far as I know, do much fiction writing for publication any longer. I would hazard a guess that both have found their true calling as teachers. The wealth of information they’ve shared with other authors is immeasurable.

I started thinking about them and their ability to teach broad spectrum fiction-writing skills when I ran across some arguments recently touting what’s wrong with the romance genre - arguments espoused by aspiring authors - arguments showing that these hopefuls don’t get the basics of “romance” - arguments for change that would take “romance” out of genre fiction and into mainstream literature. ::bafflement:: Thing is, there are fiction skills/tenets/rules that define good and bad writing. And then there are specifics that apply to genres - whether world-building in fantasy or happily ever after in romance or what have you.

Yes, I’ve admitted that I don’t read a lot of romance because I have a problem with so many heroines. Yet in the same breath, I admit I’m the exception to the rule of an author reading what she writes, and that I look for my own reading material elsewhere. No harm, no foul. I still love AND respect the core values of romance. And I write the heroines I want to write and hope they find an audience.

What I *don’t* say is that all heroines have to mirror mine or they don’t belong in the genre. Or that the genre basically sucks because I, personally, can’t find books with characters resembling people I know. I’m not stupid. I can go weekly to the RWA site and check the Waldenbooks Bestseller list and see that what I want to read is not what the majority of the genre’s readers want to read. Does that mean because my preferences aren’t met that the genre doesn’t work? [Maya Wilkes Voice On]Oh, hell no.[/Off]

My point here is understanding the genre. The absolute most basic concepts. If you don’t want to read boy meets girl/boy loses girl/boy gets girl, don’t pick up a romance. If you don’t want to write that, ditto. If you can’t find yourself as an author adhering to the genre’s tenets, that would almost lead one to believe that you’re only pursuing publication in the field because it outsells all others and there’s money to be made. Or because it’s easier to break into, having lower standards and all that ::koff,koff::

Respect what you write. If you don’t, readers will know.

Now, I’m well aware there are a lot of people who don’t necessarily agree with or even like the things I say here at Alison Central. (Then there are those who misinterpret things [I haven’t been clear at times; I willingly bear the blame] as well as those who take can take a celebratory post intended as an homage to fabulously skilled authors and turn it into an insult, sigh and boggle, not to mention misquoting me!) Lee Goldberg, in his response to other mystery writers who thank him for bringing hot topics into the open on his blog, says:

I asked them why, if they share my views, they don’t say so publicly. The answer across the board was the same: fear. They’re afraid of getting lots of angry emails, losing sales, and awkward encounters with fans at signings and conventions.

Do I worry? Not really. If it happens it happens. I don’t expect everyong to agree with my views. I have no problem with that. Free country, and all. (As an aside, I had the sweetest note from another author today who told me that I shouldn’t leave RWA, but should instead make a statement by sticking around to fight. [I’ll answer your note tomorrow, K!])

Thing is, when I believe something, I believe it strongly. When I praise other authors for their skills, that praise is heartfelt. When I support a cause, I’m there all the way. When I commit to a project, ditto. Many of the subjects I tackle are ones I’ve been asked to address. (You don’t think I come up with all of this on my own, do you? *gg*) Being in the public light means taking the slams along with the praise. Hey, if I can schlep my own suitcases through airports, I’m strong enough to deal with anything! *ggg*

Wondering why you’re writing? Go read the very insightful tambo:

It’s a crap shoot here in publication. Roll the dice and be surprised. But while you’re rolling, please try to remember why you stepped up to the table in the first place. Are you here to look good, get a couple of free drinks and go home with a floozy? Are you here to right a perceived wrong in your life or show someone else up or become the object of adoration? Or, are you at the table because you have something to say?

That would be the latter for me, ma’am, thanks much!! *gg*

I’ve always been leery of cover blurbs, even more so since moving into single title and wondering whether or not they help or hurt. (That’s a topic for another day!) But Monica’s post today has me reeling - and truly thinking it’s not worth the hassle!

Now, there’s been conversation across the blogosphere the last few days about readers speaking out to publishers and making known their thoughts on certain elements in fiction. Well, here’s something very specific you can do to help an author currently facing a career crisis. In Holly’s own words:

I finally had an idea of something my readers here could do that might help. This may be too little, too late. But one thing you can do, if you like the chapter of LAST GIRL DANCING that I posted yesterday, and know anyone else who you think might enjoy it, is . . .

(Okay, I’m making you go to her site to read the rest of the post. To read the way wowza excerpt she posted, you do have to register and login, but it’s a totally painless process!)

I went another step. Having read MIDNIGHT RAIN and knowing quite well that Holly does great suspense, I’ve pre-ordered the book from Amazon. As Holly says:

Presales — not sales — of LGD will determine whether I’m offered a new contract or not, so having people buy the book in advance is huge for me. If you can afford it, then, that would help, too.

From Amazon.com:

Obsessed with discovering what happened to her missing sister, Atlanta detective Jess Brubraker is willing to disappear into a sordid nightworld to find the answer. But that means leading both herself and her lover into the most intimate and terrifying trap of all.

[Steve Martin Voice On]The new Coben is here! The new Coben is here![/Off] Of course, I have NO time to read and am MAJORLY bummed about that. Hmm. Else I could just sit down and do it and it would be done, Coben being a one-sit reading for me!

Have you noticed how things in the blogosphere come and go in waves? First, everyone’s doing it. Next, everyone’s backing off. Tickles me! I talked about the overload of online info recently on RTB in my post on TMI. PBW talked about not backing off and why not to. (I love acronyms; am trying to use as many as I can.) Check out her list of ten ways to keep your blog a-bloggin’!

So, yesterday after getting my edits finished and sent off, I left at noon-thirty with the FVT to go downtown and get her hair cut and highlighted. Yes, we drive 27 miles to the same hairdresser who’s been doing our hair for eight years. We were way early (never know about the drive time) and hung out for a bit, then while she went under the chemicals, I walked down to visit with my ex co-workers for a couple of hours. It was a ball seeing everyone; I haven’t been back to the office for at least 8 months! The HR guy told me how nice it was to hear my laughter coming down the hall again! Got to see pics of one girl’s new house, one girl’s new dog (her dh flew to a Michigan rescue shelter to pick up the Jack Russell terrier - yeah, flew himself *g*), and just had a fun time visiting with everyone on the 9th floor.

This last week we’ve been working to clean out our garage. We had an old car we needed to get rid of but were having title issues, finally got a release of lien straight from the FDIC, and now the car is gone and we can see what’s out there. Understand, we combined two households 8 years ago, had one person who left come back, had another move in. We have more crap than any one family needs to have. In all the digging and tossing today, I ran across a few pictures that I thought would be fun to share.

This was taken at the 1993 RWA conference in St. Louis. On the far left is Jan Freed, in the middle Marian May, and yours truly on the right. If you saw the 48 Hours clip, these were my two critters at the time.

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I have no real stake in the fray because the mindset at the root of it all is why I don’t plan to renew my RWA membership. I do just fine with my hot shot agent, my two incomparable editors, my writing buddies, and my readership that appreciates my work. What more can a girl ask for? *g* (And who the heck needs the rampant disrespect and negativity?? ) That said, Shannon makes a hilarious case of the pot and the kettle, i.e, she who doth protest too much in the RWR having the same type of covers sporting “dopey-looking hunks” that she objects to, LOL! Oh, it’s too much.

The second letter in the RWR, however, is the one that really should make authors think. The letter writer says:

There is sex in my work, but it comes about after the protagonists have at least developed the shell of a relationship if not the soul-deep thing. (…) My idea of romance is sexual tension that builds naturally between two adults. One takes time to know the other’s qualities apart from sex.

Okay. Let’s think about that for a minute. ::ponder, ponder:: Yep, it’s all well and good. However . . . do you realize how skilled an author has to be to carry off a relationship that STARTS with sex and manages to maintain, if not INCREASE, the sexual tension???? Talk about AMAZING writing! Almost anyone can write a story with tension that begins with a seed of attraction and builds to a climax and a declaration of love. But the number of authors who can START with a climax and THEN work toward love without EVER losing the reader’s interest in how the couple is going to get together? Ah, yes. Therein is the truth of the skill!

I can’t say it often enough, even though I stole it straight from Sasha. Sex can be about emotions that have nothing to do with love. People who don’t get that have no foot in the real world. That’s not making a judgment on moral beliefs - that’s just plain and simple fact. Sex happens for a lot of reasons. Except in romances it seems.

Romances are character driven at the most basic level. Two people battling conflicting and copious other odds to get together. Do we really think that the sex they share is only about love? C’mon, people! Look around you. Observe mankind. We are writing about the real world inhabited by real people. Why should romances reflect such unreality, or support the idea that sex has no purpose without love (inspirational romances aside)? Are we that intent on fantasy that we can’t imagine frustration and fear and panic and dread resulting in an intimate encounter? Isn’t it MORE realistic . . . oh wait.

Romances are fantasies, right? They shouldn’t include realistic elements. Like emotional sexual encounters that aren’t about falling in love. D’oh!

Go here for all the details! Win books if you want to read or win a critique if you’re writing. Either way, a donation will be made in your name to Jamie Denton’s Medical Fund!

Just a few things from around the web because I’m out of my own ideas, ha!

I’ve quit watching Desperate Housewives and have no idea why. I have everything taped, but I haven’t watched an episode in two months. Now, Grey’s Anatomy? Oh, I am SO there! I’ve also quit blog hopping. I just don’t have time. Yesterday I finally did a quick round and found so much fun stuff I’m missing I wanted to cry, LOL!

PBW talks about writing rushes. I’m actually quite envious of her storytelling skill that has her unable to type fast enough to keep up with the words. It’s very very cool. It’s also never happened to me. *g* Yeah, I’ve written a 75K word book in six weeks and a 100K word book in eight. There was never any nuclear energy going on. Just a big time lack of sleep, ha! Just sayin’, ya know? We all have our ways!

Douglas Clegg talks about discipline. (Scroll down to the 4/22 entry.) One thing he said struck home for me:

The truth is — I’m disciplined as a writer, probably more so than I am in anything else in life. I am at my desk within thirty to forty minutes of waking (this varies, but you’ll understand why.)

Yep. That happens here, too. Coffee first, then to the desk. Unfortunately, nothing else gets done it seems. I so admire authors who write with demanding familes. I’m lucky to be able to tell mine to go and do. *g*

The schedule arrived this week for the RWA conference workshops. It’s as if you can tell the state of publishing by what’s offered. *g* For the past three years, there have been copious and I mean COPIOUS workshops on writing sex/love scenes/hot and hotter romance. Heh, I gave one in 2002 in Denver with a panel of two other authors and our editor, and we were one of the top selling tapes that year! This year? I find one given by a panel of Ellora’s Cave authors on what makes a good erotic romance, one given by Christina Skye on writing the unforgettable love scene, and one by Jennifer Dunne offering tips for heating up your writing. That’s it. At least all I can find.

Then there is one called “Falling in Love without Falling in Bed”, which covers the WAY hot inspirational market. (I read a quote from a bookseller the other day that she canNOT keep inspirationals on the shelves - especially the big non-preachy ones *g* that give readers hope.) Anyhow, the rest of the conference? Craft, craft, craft and MORE craft! And THIS mirrors what Kathleen O’Reilly posted awhile back to her blog about editors at Harlequin specifically being all over craft these days. (As I said then, Hallelujah!!)

Lastly, I read a rant while out and about that went over the wall for me. First of all, I didn’t find it the least bit humorous which I believe it was supposed to be. Neither did I find it sarcastic, but I have a different threshold for both than a lot of people. *g* However, you know that wall we all try to respect? Bash the creation but not the creator? This rant barreled through and sent bricks flying. I think I broke a tooth in the process.

So, you don’t like the prose, you don’t like the plot, you don’t like the characters, you think it’s nothing but trash. Fine. Say it. Sing it. Shout it. But make the ranting all about the creation. Leave the creator out of it. For me, that’s just beyond the pale.

Larissa has been very very bad. Had she not been, her website would not have been suspended. Oh, wait! That’s not it! She was hacked this morning, poor baby! I’m sure those little script kiddies in Israel playing with her site were simply looking for the magic handshake to publishing success!!!! Yeah, that’s the ticket!

And speaking of websites, here’s my newest to launch: Marie Donovan is a brand new Harlequin Blaze author. The site is very color intensive and best viewed in a 1024 x 768 resolution. She’s running a fun “Lusty Month of May” contest, so check it out!

Last week I went to see Sin City, which I thought totally lived up to the hype, and yesterday I went to see The Interpreter, which I thought totally did not. Not a spoiler, but favorite scene in The Interpreter? The bus. If they could’ve kept up that same tension throughout, it would’ve been a killer!

Now, about the RITA competition . . .

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Now touring on the Girlfriends’ Cyber Circuit, Ann Marie Michaels, author of Cooking to Hook Up

It’s a fact. Women will always choose men with wooden spoons over men with Gold Cards (unless you’re in L.A.). But there’s a world of difference between any dinner and the right dinner. Should you serve sushi or meatloaf? Play Sting’s greatest hits or the latest Yo La Tengo single? Wear the Birkenstock sandals or the Armani loafers? It all depends on the Girl.

Casanova, arguably the most successful seducer in history, had a simple philosophy: Get to know the woman, find out what she lacks, and provide it. Seduction through food is a time-tested technique. However, and this is the big however, you must choose the right food, the food that works for that particular girl. Cooking to Hook Up gives you complete meals designed for every female taste.

Ann Marie’s passion for food and cooking came from her sister, a self-taught gourmet chef who refuses to acknowledge the existence of the word margarine, let alone the substance. She earned a B.S. in film at the University of Texas at Austin. A Gourmet/Indie Girl-hybrid, she now lives in Los Angeles with her dog Maude, who is also a Gourmet Girl (evidenced by her love of foie gras and cassoulet). Ann Marie is a freelance web producer and is working on a novel. This is her first book.

Ann Marie, how did the idea for the cookbook come about?

One night when we were newlyweds, my ex-husband decided to cook dinner for me. He made orange roughy. He said you would have thought he had bought me a Mercedes. He had no idea cooking could impress a woman so much. He said, “I wish I had known this when I was single!” (I also taught him to wear product in his hair and not to wear the black socks with the khaki trousers.)

We got to talking about it and I agreed — women are impressed by a man who can cook. But I explained to him that not all women are alike. Granola Girls like tofu and organic vegetables; Uptown Girls like filet mignon and Champagne. We got to thinking how fun it would be if there was a cookbook to impart this information — one that would teach guys about the different types of girls (Granola Girl, Uptown Girl, Indie Girl, etc.) and not only how to cook for them, but what kind of shoes to wear, what CDs to play, and what magazines to put on the coffee table.

And straight from the author’s mouth:

I also have some brand new exciting news: We just got word that a TV production company wants to option our book and make it into a TV show. In addition to that, I’m going to be teaming up with author Diane Brown (The Seduction Cookbook) to teach cooking classes at Sur La Table and other locations here in Los Angeles. Also, the Discovery Channel is going to do a show about us and our cooking class in June for their “Sex Files” show.

Now, for the best part . . .

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This is what the dh does for fun when I’m not looking. (Check out the hair on the dog [shaved from the surgery] that will NOT grow back!)

Do you ever have days that are just GREAT? Where everything falls together and you just feel on top of the world? Okay, the writing is NOT going as well as I’d like but that’s normal and will eventually look up. I talked to a friend today who said she’s experiencing exactly the same thing right now - misery loves company and all that! I talked to another author who I SO respect, and who gave me hope that my own schedule will eventually settle into something close to sane - only took her 7 years! I’m about to finish reading a book I am LOVING and can’t WAIT to get to the end. And the web biz is freakin’ booming! I’m SO excited about all the work I’m doing.

When I talked to my editor on Tuesday, in fact, she complimented me on two of my newest sites - one that’s seeing a LOT of action from eHarlequin - the Hush-Hotel site. If you haven’t signed up for the newsletter there, go and do! A contest is coming very soon! I told her I’d do a lot more sites if I had time because I LOVE doing them. Her response? The web design world’s loss is publishing’s gain. *ggg* And it’s pretty damn cool to be recognized and linked from my publisher’s site for creative endeavors beyond the books!

Oh, and I sent a birthday gift to my best girlfriend last week, and it arrived today. Check this out. Is this the coolest thing you’ve ever seen? Okay, obviously I’ve had TOO MUCH CAFFEINE or something tonight. Then again, could just be getting the copies of Larger Than Life. I cried. I’ve never cried getting a book. I LOVE THIS BOOK! *ggg* Not sure there’ll be room in the bed for the dh tonight considering I got a couple dozen copies and feel the need to keep them close!

Interesting link o’ the day (if you’re going to RWA): Reno Reactions

I have REAL AUTHOR COPIES of Larger Than Life!!! OMG, this book is GORGEOUS!

(The giveaway is done, so I’ll share the quote!)

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