Tuesday 17 November 2009

I'm doing a lot of work on my latest wip as I recuperate. There's not a lot of other things to cloud my attention, and my "straight historical" still flows easily enough to make me believe this is what I should be doing. Either that or I'm way, way off course!


I'm still in two minds about letting my hero and heroine come together in an "encounter of the bedroom kind" or whether to keep them apart, but that will sort itself out further down the line. What's nice is that I'm not trying too hard to make any of my characters likeable. They either are or they aren't. If I keep them apart, them I can't be accused of writing a sloshy romance again. But as a friend of my husband says, "Shagging sells!" So it has to be a consideration.


I've had The White Queen on my to be read pile for quite a while now, and dipped into the first few pages when I first came home from hospital.


It may be that it is too similar to Campion's book, which I finishd just before I went in, but TWQ did not grab me. It is written in the first person viewpoint of Elizabeth Woodville, consort of Edward of York, parents of the Princes in the Tower. The pervading tone is dismal and sadly lacklustre.
Now I'm willing to concede that this may be more to do with me than the book; but in my defence I have to say I put it down in favour of a little gem called the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (see my Books I'm reading list for the authors) recommended and sent as part of my birthday present from my daughter-in-law. An odd little book by any standards, compiled of letters between an author bereft of a story and a collection of Guersey individuals picking up the pieces of their lives after the German occupation in the 1940s - but a delight.

2 comments:

Carolin said...

I think you're really good at a straight historical (totally enjoy Matho's Story). And it does free you to address topics that are taboo in romance (like rape, as discussed on Hisfic), to have characters that are (in my view) more complex and less 'likable.'

I have to say, I agree with your friend who says that sex (shagging *grin*) sells. Also, it's often part of the story anyway, so why not be explicit about it. It doesn't have to be tasteless - and it shouldn't be gratuitous, just like violence, in my opinion, shouldn't be gratuitous.

Jen Black said...

Thank you for the vote of confidence - that will keep me going for weeks!
Jen

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