Learning by Reading

The Soldier’s Homecoming by Donna Alward
M&B Romance, 2008

I stick to the Historical line (usually) but picked this one off the shelf because the author’s name is one I recognise, and I’m trying to get a better grasp of the kind of writing M&B require. I wasn’t disappointed. Ms Alward’s plot is deceptively simple: Jonas and Shannyn part when he joins the army. Two weeks later she discovers she is pregnant, chooses not to tell him, and when he returns six years later, he is a wounded war vet not pleased to discover she has kept his daughter from him.

The plot may be simple, but the conflict is not, and the author depicts it from both sides with absolute fairness. The writing is not showy or over emotional, but I salute it because it selects just the right word for the task. Below is one description that gave me an instant picture of the hero – without using what I call obvious words like pecs, abs or muscles.

“He was wearing trousers but his shirt was missing and he stood before her in an Army-issue T-shirt. And, oh, he filled out every cotton inch. Flat where everything should be flat, a wide chest and broad shoulders that led to arms with muscles that dipped and curved.”

When I reached the end of the story I was surprised at the lack of a final sex scene because that’s what I’m used to in Historicals. But I was not disappointed. I didn’t check the Line before I brought it home, but the Romance Line doesn’t do sex, and if the writing is like Ms Alward’s, it doesn’t need it. The emotion was all there without it – the longing, the wish for closeness, to share, to understand, the fear of hurt. The scene where Jonas finally meets his daughter was short, simple and so touching it brought tears to my eyes. That doesn’t happen often, let me tell you.

I learned a lot from this book. I also enjoyed it as a Good Read. I’m sure you will too.

Reading

The 3 books I ordered online last Sunday are here, so bravo The Book Depository. A period of study is in order now!

Enjoyed a girly lunch in Durham today and sneaked into the library on the way. - made myself 20 minutes late, but nothing lost as she was held up by an accident on the A1. We arrived at the meeting point within a minute of each other.

Left the library with a book on The Reivers by Andrew Moffat and copy of Soldier's Homecoming by Donna Alward. I read Donna's blog from time to time and since it is a 2008 M&B, I couldn't resist.

I adore libraries almost as much as I adore bookshops., and it is a rare day when I find nothing to interest me on library shelves. Read the second book of the Nora Roberts The Hollow trilogy in 2 days flat

but couldn't hack the biog of Jennie Churchill by Anne Sebba. Possibly my fault for not reading from beginning to end, but I found she uses pronouns far too much and I kept losing track of which "he" was under discussion. I thought it might be useful as background info for the 1893 rewrite I'm doing, but those years Jennie spent in Europe, so it wasn't much help. Nothing lost there. Except I must admit to being surprised to see that phaetons were still in use. Somehow I didn't expect that when Winston Churchill was one the subjects - after all, I remember Winston Churchill! So it follows it can't have been all that long ago...I know, I'm deluding myself.

The books are stacking up on me, and I can't decide which one to drop into first! Or should I be attending to work I should be doing for the critique group? Or, getting down to doing some writing of my own?

I find that I work hard on several chapters on one of my wips and then run out of steam, so I relax by turning to something else for a day or two. It only takes a small break. and then I feel the urge to go back It is one way of keeping all the plates spinning at the same time; seems to work for me.