No, I didn’t interview la Nora.  I have seen her at RWA conferences.  I stood in a hallway with her once (and a couple dozen others), but The Guardian recently did a piece on her, and I thought it worth reading.

I can’t say I’m a big Nora fan.  Her novels seem so exhausting to read, but I’m open to trying again, especially after the praise given her regarding her kick ass heroines.  I’ve been reading Regencies lately, so a kick ass H will be a good change.

I won’t budge on my opinion, though, that she’s a robot.

Maybe an alien robot.

It bears investigating

Not to beat a dead horse, but are you reading?  If you’re a writer, you should be.

Reading the works of great writers is an opportunity to learn from them.  I don’t limit myself to classics when it comes to this method of learning; many of the “classics” have outdated styles that most readers have no patience to endure.  (Really, I understand some of the meaning behind the styles of older works, but I cannot see myself spending 2500 words to describe the staircase my hero is about to climb.)  In my opinion, the modern “greats” are better teachers to emulate. 

Currently, I’m reading Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.”  It’s a great story.  It’s a political and social commentary with great questions of action and consequence, of morals and rights.  But for me, it’s even more.  It’s a study of great prose.  I find myself rereading parts in order to study her construction, her word choices, and her plotting methods.  Rand’s work is so different from my normal favorites like Grisham and Follett, but she conveys ideas with such superb clarity that I feel privileged to read her work.

When it comes to studying other writers, I also like to study C.S. Lewis and  E. B. White for their clean, simple, and masterful use of the language.  I also find (This is going to kill anyone who considers himself a “literary” person.) Brian Tracy and John Maxwell to write non-fiction with a certain grace and beauty.  If I were to write a non-fiction book, I would want it to sound like one of theirs.

I’m not a Nora Roberts fan.  It isn’t because I don’t like her writing, it’s because I haven’t read her stuff.  But, if you’re into romance and you want to write it, you really have to read Roberts.  Ask yourself, what is it that makes her readers love her?  Look at the way she strings a plot together.  Look at her use of language, her sentence and paragraph construction.  Study The Nora if you want to write romance.

Want to write “guy” books?  David Baldacci and John Grisham will be your teachers for about $14 a seminar. 

Read, my fellow writers, read.  You know you want to anyway.  But now you can claim you’re working or taking a class taught by another writer.  What could be better?

Have a great week!

–Mary

The writer’s group I belong to is not without competition.  I’m not sure how non-profit groups end up in competitive relationships, but our group has been silently snubbed by other groups in the area.

Our offense?  Inclusiveness.

Yes, in a world where you can be your own grandmother (there’s a country song that explains it) or cry foul when your boss fires you for not showing up several days in a row, we, the Grand Rapids Region Writers Group, suffer the snubs of many a writer for  – wait for it … writing genre fiction.

That’s right, world, we write the low grade, non-literary stuff that gets lumped into the genre category.  So ordinary.  So common.  So unsophisticated.

But oh so sell-able.  Our authors sell their work.  Mysteries, inspirational, erotica, romance, non-fiction, and urban fantasy sell.  As in, the writer gets paid for writing.   Why?  Because people like to read it. 

I sometimes imagine what other groups talk about – the deep, earth shattering meaning of their work; the political statement hidden in the pages of their story of a woman finding meaning in her work with orphaned exotic birds; the meaning of life laced into the story a man who has decided to become a woman after his brother changed from being his sister; or the fabulous commentary on the human race to found in their latest story of a young man coming of age in war torn Bosnia.  Yes, the literary types are very, very sophisticated.

But do they have as much fun?  I doubt it. 

I find it interesting to listen to people talk about the books they read.  For the most part, people enjoy genre fiction.  Sure, there are the literary types who won’t read anything too fluffy.  I feel sorry for them.  They miss out on so much of the fun that goes with finding out “who done it,” the joy that accompanies falling in love again through the eyes of characters from another world, the relief of knowing the hero made it through and saved the free world while he was at it. 

While the works of Tolstoy may live until the end of time, I’d dare say that Nora Roberts has given many more people a brief escape from their busy lives.  And while Solzhenitsyn may still be read a hundred years from now, Grisham has captured the imagination of millions without having his works listed on the required reading list of some tenured professor. 

 What makes one author so much more acceptable than the other?  Hmmm?  I wonder how many literary snobs might read genre fiction if they didn’t have friends to impress.

My name is Mary, and I read and write genre fiction.