what's worse?

[maderr]

Expecting romance and getting trash, or expecting romance and getting 'I like to think I write literature'

And FYI for that latter crowd, it takes more than eye-crossing prose and big words to make literature. I do, contratry to popular belief, read literature - I read damn near everything. This is why I'm so fucking annoyed when one genre pretends to be another.And believe me, I'm pretty broad in how I define my genres. I like when the lines get blurred--blurred well, anyway. I hate when a writer is secretly ashamed of what he writes and tries to tart it up. I hate that above and beyond all things.

I have never once denied that I write anything more than romance. People try to tell me I write something else, but this is simply not true. Define a romance--define it honestly, and not to make yourself more comfortable about reading such a genre--and you will see my books fit that bill.

Argh, it just drives me crazy. I wanted a romance, not an I really write literature, not romance, book.

Maybe I'm just harsh. I am often told I need to chill the fuck out. I can only say I'm about a million times harder on myself than I ever am on anyone else.

Comments

[aggybird.livejournal.com]

I think if an author's good enough, they don't even have to try to make their romance "literary" - it'll just show through on its own. You can tell when they try too hard to hump Faulkner's or Fitzgerald's leg.

Also, you don't have to try. ;)

[sixpence1323.livejournal.com]

Actually, both are pretty bad, and both have happened to me when reading before too, so... Is it that you think you've done this? Or am I getting confused? And the who the heck said you write, um, not-romance? Cause I'm pretty sure you've yelled fifty billion times that you write romance.

*shrug* Feel better, really.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Just something I'm reading. I tend to be leery of any romance that begins with friggin' Emily Dickinson.

As to my writing, I write HOPELESS FLUFF and know it. I think some of my readers give me more credit than I deserve.

I'm good, I just like ranting about books. Given the money I drop on them per year, I think I'm allowed ^_~

[sixpence1323.livejournal.com]

What? Emily Dickinson? Are you kidding me? *shakes head* Yeah, I can really see where you're coming from now. The thing I've always understood about her is that she writes about one thing, and means another.

So, I'm guessing the book you're reading not only uses Dickinson, but in the completely wrong context as well.

*laughs*

Oh my gosh, that made me laugh so hard my dog got scared. Good luck with that, really. (Does it use ridiculously long words that no one in their right mind would use anyway? I got that vibe now)

[aggybird.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I love Emily Dickinson, I do, she and Robert Frost are my favorite American poets, but -

This is maybe one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRHiXKI3m3I&feature=PlayList&p=808BDB40F892B521&index=2

XD

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Oh, you would like Dickinson. If I didn't love you so much, we might have to break up. The poem they use actually also is the source of the title (the title being Zero at the Bone).

I am not clicking on anything YOU find disturbing.

[aggybird.livejournal.com]

Haha, I didn't like her at first, I thought she was this CRAZY LADY, and then I took a class pretty much devoted to her, had all her poems dissected and explained, and was like, Hm, she might be MY KIND of CRAZY LADY.

Most people probably wouldn't find it disturbing, but it creeps me ouuuuut.

Also, for added creep factor, as I was typing this the terrifying Deliverance dueling banjos tune came up on my playlist. SIGNS. I HAS THEM.

[virginymph.livejournal.com]

-. - It's not just you.

BTW, you write slash. The bar is low.

I mean, it's all I read, but... yeah. I feel like people should make slash versions of certain stories. Just to dabble with the main character, maybe change a gender or two from there. I read British comedy too. It's bad.

I don't know what you mean here. I just followed a link. I hear you write slash. Can't find it tho so I'm still looking. 0 .0

Peace up H town down.

;.; paputsza

[(Anonymous)]

You might say you don't write literature, but I view it differently. To me, there's a continuum between trashy and elegant in the romance genre. If it helps to visualize, here's a few thresholds:

Harry/Snape fanfics with Mary Sue OCs by 15-year-olds
$5 supermarket bodice rippers
Smutty drabbles from original stories
Original slash by non-pubescents
Generic fiction with romantic sub-plots
Pride & Prejudice

I'd say that some of your original works are fairly well up there -- and towards the end, it becomes more and more difficult to differentiate romance from "genuine literary works." After all, Pride & Prejudice is about the Jane/Darcy pairing at its core; one could say that age and notoriety have simply given it the air of respectability.

Personally, I'd throw Prisoner in at the generic fiction stage. It's got a nice relationship, but ultimately you focused more on describing the world and advancing the plot than giving us an eyeful of Dieter's naughty bits and kinky bedroom practices. That made all the difference, and I think the novel was all the better for it; it kept the story engaging rather than blandly prurient.

So, don't sell yourself short just because the standards of explicit sexuality have changed in the last three centuries. Who knows? In another hundred years, some English professor might decide to focus on your work as a great example of 21st-century online literature, and you'll get to rub shoulders with the Brontë sisters. :P

--medeii

[duchessa.livejournal.com]

...Jane/Darcy?
But yes, I very much agree with everything else.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, that ought to have been Elizabeth/Darcy -- was thinking of Jane Eyre and mistyped.

-- medeii