Through the JR Ward message board, I have developed a few friendships that are just as rewarding as friendships I maintain in real life (RL). We communicate mainly through instant messaging and phone calls. I have found people with similar lifestyles and similar interests, so the conversation flows naturally.
My biggest interest is reading paranormal romance and while this particular subgenre of romance is growing exponentially, I can't seem to find people in RL that share both this interest and others. Many people I converse with don't read paranormals or, worse, have a disparaging view of romance novels in general. Of the people I've met in RL who do read paranormals, we don't have anything else in common. Granted I can talk about books for hours on end, but variety is a good thing.
Another problem is inclusion in the "mommy club." I swear, once you have a baby and have those demands, maintaining a friendship with a childless friend is distressing in my experience. I've been able to find people with kids of similar ages to mine who understand me on a level that others can't. If I'm frustrated because Peanut woke early from a nap or is sick or is being a general pain in the keister, venting to someone who either is going through the same thing or who went through it not so long ago helps me. Peanut is a relatively easy baby, but she definitely has her moments.
The largest problem, though, is the unreliability of my shut-up filter. That's the filter between my braiin and my mouth that keeps stupid, offensive, and otherwise inadvisable words and phrases from being spoken. I call this unreliability my "foot-in-mouth facilitator." When I have gone too long between saying something I shouldn't, my brain circumvents the shut-up filter and I say something that offends, alienates, or hurts someone I care about. Worse, I can't seem to stuff my face with food and drink enough to keep myself from talking. This problem really asserts itself at my knitting group, where I knit with wonderful people. I said something a few weeks ago that had a really bad effect and I'm still suffering for it.
Online friendships are mostly spared the worst of the foot-in-mouth facilitator because I can read over my words before I hit send. I have a chance to consciously activate the shut-up filter before crap spews out of my mouth. It's been a lifesaver. I don't really have anyone I do stuff with in person. Those people who are similar to me as far as the kids thing goes live too far away for casual drop-ins and hang-outs. The friend who is close enough for that isn't speaking to me thanks to the foot-in-mouth thing.
My online friends are my best friends. I adore those I knit with, but I've never done stuff with them that wasn't knitting-related. When I'm online chatting with "aprilla", she can crack me up and comiserate about the antics of babies and toddlers. I can talk with "kraus" and see what the stay-at-home-mom gig will be like in a few years. Listening to "jade" go on about stuff lightens my mood on even the worst of days. I even get to chat with my brother who lives in Maryland on occaision.
I love the internet. :)
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Lover Revealed...continued
Okay, so, Butch and Vishous and their unique relationship. I hate it when people try to label them because labels involve generalities. What is going on between Butch and V is very specific to these two personalities.
Again, I warn you, I am NOT a spoiler-free zone. I'm about to reveal the coolest part of the book, so if you haven't read it, stop reading this and go read Lover Revealed. It's a better read, anyway.
At the end of LR, Butch is inducted into the Brotherhood. Here's how the ceremony works: each of the Brothers bleeds into a cup, then bites the new Brother and takes a sip of him. When they are finished biting the new guy, he drinks the blood in the cup. This is how they become brothers--flesh of each other's flesh. When V bites Butch, it turns into a very erotically charged moment and they get pretty close. Oddly enough, I didn't see it as a sexual moment when I first read it. It is actually the very definition of sexual: they get physically close in a very sensual moment brought on by emotional intimacy. This scene is yet another example of how gifted a writer JR Ward is. Her descriptors, her phrasing, and her bravery in even writing this scene are amazing.
So V and Butch get up close and personal and it's pretty damned sexy. I still don't think they were ever sexually attracted to each other/desired each other that way. But they got physical in that moment because it progressed from their emotional intimacy. It was a one-time-thing, of course, because they are best friends, not lovers, and Butch is mated to Marissa. But I think it was a good thing that they had that moment, especially for Vishous. His sex life is really hardcore and he distances himself from the females he's with; he deserved a moment of embracing and being embraced by someone who loved him unconditionally.
This, of course, means that I am going ABSOLUTELY INSANE waiting for Vishous's book, Lover Unbound. It CANNOT come fast enough for my taste. His female is a human trauma surgeon and we're speculating on her like crazy on the boards. I really think that we'll finally meet Lassiter, too, because every time he's been on the boards, it's been to clash with V and they obviously have a history. And I think that John Matthew will transition in LU because it was remarked that he's getting close in LR.
I really could go on and on about this book and this series, but I'll spare you. :)
Again, I warn you, I am NOT a spoiler-free zone. I'm about to reveal the coolest part of the book, so if you haven't read it, stop reading this and go read Lover Revealed. It's a better read, anyway.
At the end of LR, Butch is inducted into the Brotherhood. Here's how the ceremony works: each of the Brothers bleeds into a cup, then bites the new Brother and takes a sip of him. When they are finished biting the new guy, he drinks the blood in the cup. This is how they become brothers--flesh of each other's flesh. When V bites Butch, it turns into a very erotically charged moment and they get pretty close. Oddly enough, I didn't see it as a sexual moment when I first read it. It is actually the very definition of sexual: they get physically close in a very sensual moment brought on by emotional intimacy. This scene is yet another example of how gifted a writer JR Ward is. Her descriptors, her phrasing, and her bravery in even writing this scene are amazing.
So V and Butch get up close and personal and it's pretty damned sexy. I still don't think they were ever sexually attracted to each other/desired each other that way. But they got physical in that moment because it progressed from their emotional intimacy. It was a one-time-thing, of course, because they are best friends, not lovers, and Butch is mated to Marissa. But I think it was a good thing that they had that moment, especially for Vishous. His sex life is really hardcore and he distances himself from the females he's with; he deserved a moment of embracing and being embraced by someone who loved him unconditionally.
This, of course, means that I am going ABSOLUTELY INSANE waiting for Vishous's book, Lover Unbound. It CANNOT come fast enough for my taste. His female is a human trauma surgeon and we're speculating on her like crazy on the boards. I really think that we'll finally meet Lassiter, too, because every time he's been on the boards, it's been to clash with V and they obviously have a history. And I think that John Matthew will transition in LU because it was remarked that he's getting close in LR.
I really could go on and on about this book and this series, but I'll spare you. :)
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Lover Revealed
So on February 27th, I read Lover Revealed by JR Ward. It's official release date was March 6th, but Wal-Mart has a habit of putting books out early. Not my Wal-Mart, though. Nor the other four Wal-Marts at the top of the list that walmart.com gave me when I put in my zip code. But the fifth one, a thirty minute drive out, had it out. Since it was my birthday, I decided to be a bad cellie and buy early. I have been itching for this book since the beginning of September and I just couldn't let my birthday pass without reading it.
For all of you who have not yet read this book, stop reading this blog. I am NOT a spoiler-free zone. The book has been out for over a month. Read the damn thing already. Also, unless you have read the whole series and frequent the author's message board, I might lose you. I am a rabid fangirl and I will let it show. (So hi to all the cellies)
Anyway, I started it at about 7 pm, after putting my daughter to bed. She woke a few times because she was getting her first tooth, so I will forever connect my first child'd first tooth to LR. But after we finally got her down for good, I read nonstop and finished it at 3:30 am. WOW. Just WOW. I love this book. I love everything about it. EVERYTHING. Lover Revealed is Butch's story. I've always loved Butch, ever since Dark Lover. He fits in with the Black Dagger Brotherhood naturally, as a dear friend to them. Butch doesn't see it that way, though; he sees himself as being on the fringes, not in the thick of things. He has a warrior spirit trapped in a human body, and later on we find out why. Butch is the product of an affair with someone who had vampire DNA. Amazingly, he is related to Wrath, which I thought was GREAT. And Wrath seemed very happy and proud that Butch was of his blood. Wrath even took off his sunglasses for Butch when they found out. I got way sappy. So what they are able to do is force a transition. This means that--YES!--Butch ends up a vampire. This may seem a convenient solution to a lot of problems with Butch and Marissa's relationship, but it was actually hinted at throughout the three preceding books.
Marissa is a gorgeous fragile slip of a female vampire--or so she thinks. She ends up flexing that newly-discovered backbone on a number of occaisions. In the beginning she's a little exasperating to someone who hasn't read the whole series because they didn't see how she was when she was still tied to Wrath: he never loved her, so she thought she was unlovable. He never desired her so she thought she was undesirable, that there must be something wrong with her. These feelings of inadequacy were exacerbated by how she was treated by the glymera, the vampire aristocracy. They're total assholes, but that was the society she grew up in. Poor thing. Anyway, she has some serious self-esteem issues for a while. But she eventually develops her "rule number one": no one defines her but her, no one makes choices for her but her. This is a very good thing. It results in her burning her entire haute-couture wardrobe, among other things.
So Butch and Marissa are dayum hot together between the sheets. H-O-T-T, hot! What I love about their lovescenes is that Butch is always so careful not to push her, to not make her uncomfortable. He is one of the most considerate lovers I have ever seen in a romance novel and it's perfect for Marissa. There does come a time, though, where she finds her sexual confidence and matches him.
We see a lot of Rehvenge, that ultra-hot, bad-boy, half-symphath, drug-dealing, club-owning pimp who is also Bella's brother. I LOVE this male. He has a serious thing for Marissa and he treats her so well. He gets his clock cleaned by Butch at one point because Rehv fed Marissa, but that was great because Rehv had always been mystified why Marissa loved a male who wouldn't feed her and when he finds out that it was Butch, whom Rehv likes and respects, Rehv lets the punch slide. And, well, Butch was dead drunk at the time. Rehv has one of my favorite lines: very near the end, when Marissa basically sticks it to the glymera mucky-mucks and takes rightful control of her family's vote on the Princeps Council, Rehv says, "Hot damn, girl. You are so the shit." I can't wait for more of Rehvenge. YUM.
We get a great scene between Zsadist and Bella where he's chasing her around the mansion. I think I reread that scene three or four times before I finally moved on. It was so sexy and sweet at the same time. To see Z go from that angry mysogynistic victim of horrible sexual abuse to a sexually confident male who can also instruct trainees on the finer points of explosives was really remarkable. I fell in love with Z even more in this book. Lover Awakened will always be my favorite because it was just so damned good, a lovestory I will never see equalled. But LR still rocked.
But the most compelling aspect to this book was not Butch and Marissa's relationship. It wasn't that Butch became a vampire. It wasn't the glimpses we got into this amazing world that JR Ward has created. It was the relationship between Butch and Vishous.
I put my take on their relationship on the boards, so I won't repeat too much here. But getting to the bottom line of it, Butch is the first person for whom Vishous has felt anything and this new emotional attatchment confuses the heck out of him. One thing I hate is that when many people talk about V's feelings for Butch, especially when they talk about when V bites Butch as part of the Butch's induction into the Brotherhood, is when people use words like "homoerotic" and "bisexual." Why do I hate that? This blog entry is already too long, so I'll pull a WARDen and say...
KEEP READING!!!
For all of you who have not yet read this book, stop reading this blog. I am NOT a spoiler-free zone. The book has been out for over a month. Read the damn thing already. Also, unless you have read the whole series and frequent the author's message board, I might lose you. I am a rabid fangirl and I will let it show. (So hi to all the cellies)
Anyway, I started it at about 7 pm, after putting my daughter to bed. She woke a few times because she was getting her first tooth, so I will forever connect my first child'd first tooth to LR. But after we finally got her down for good, I read nonstop and finished it at 3:30 am. WOW. Just WOW. I love this book. I love everything about it. EVERYTHING. Lover Revealed is Butch's story. I've always loved Butch, ever since Dark Lover. He fits in with the Black Dagger Brotherhood naturally, as a dear friend to them. Butch doesn't see it that way, though; he sees himself as being on the fringes, not in the thick of things. He has a warrior spirit trapped in a human body, and later on we find out why. Butch is the product of an affair with someone who had vampire DNA. Amazingly, he is related to Wrath, which I thought was GREAT. And Wrath seemed very happy and proud that Butch was of his blood. Wrath even took off his sunglasses for Butch when they found out. I got way sappy. So what they are able to do is force a transition. This means that--YES!--Butch ends up a vampire. This may seem a convenient solution to a lot of problems with Butch and Marissa's relationship, but it was actually hinted at throughout the three preceding books.
Marissa is a gorgeous fragile slip of a female vampire--or so she thinks. She ends up flexing that newly-discovered backbone on a number of occaisions. In the beginning she's a little exasperating to someone who hasn't read the whole series because they didn't see how she was when she was still tied to Wrath: he never loved her, so she thought she was unlovable. He never desired her so she thought she was undesirable, that there must be something wrong with her. These feelings of inadequacy were exacerbated by how she was treated by the glymera, the vampire aristocracy. They're total assholes, but that was the society she grew up in. Poor thing. Anyway, she has some serious self-esteem issues for a while. But she eventually develops her "rule number one": no one defines her but her, no one makes choices for her but her. This is a very good thing. It results in her burning her entire haute-couture wardrobe, among other things.
So Butch and Marissa are dayum hot together between the sheets. H-O-T-T, hot! What I love about their lovescenes is that Butch is always so careful not to push her, to not make her uncomfortable. He is one of the most considerate lovers I have ever seen in a romance novel and it's perfect for Marissa. There does come a time, though, where she finds her sexual confidence and matches him.
We see a lot of Rehvenge, that ultra-hot, bad-boy, half-symphath, drug-dealing, club-owning pimp who is also Bella's brother. I LOVE this male. He has a serious thing for Marissa and he treats her so well. He gets his clock cleaned by Butch at one point because Rehv fed Marissa, but that was great because Rehv had always been mystified why Marissa loved a male who wouldn't feed her and when he finds out that it was Butch, whom Rehv likes and respects, Rehv lets the punch slide. And, well, Butch was dead drunk at the time. Rehv has one of my favorite lines: very near the end, when Marissa basically sticks it to the glymera mucky-mucks and takes rightful control of her family's vote on the Princeps Council, Rehv says, "Hot damn, girl. You are so the shit." I can't wait for more of Rehvenge. YUM.
We get a great scene between Zsadist and Bella where he's chasing her around the mansion. I think I reread that scene three or four times before I finally moved on. It was so sexy and sweet at the same time. To see Z go from that angry mysogynistic victim of horrible sexual abuse to a sexually confident male who can also instruct trainees on the finer points of explosives was really remarkable. I fell in love with Z even more in this book. Lover Awakened will always be my favorite because it was just so damned good, a lovestory I will never see equalled. But LR still rocked.
But the most compelling aspect to this book was not Butch and Marissa's relationship. It wasn't that Butch became a vampire. It wasn't the glimpses we got into this amazing world that JR Ward has created. It was the relationship between Butch and Vishous.
I put my take on their relationship on the boards, so I won't repeat too much here. But getting to the bottom line of it, Butch is the first person for whom Vishous has felt anything and this new emotional attatchment confuses the heck out of him. One thing I hate is that when many people talk about V's feelings for Butch, especially when they talk about when V bites Butch as part of the Butch's induction into the Brotherhood, is when people use words like "homoerotic" and "bisexual." Why do I hate that? This blog entry is already too long, so I'll pull a WARDen and say...
KEEP READING!!!
Friday, March 23, 2007
Coming Soon
I know I'm terrible about keping this thing current, but I promise to do an entry on all the cool books I've been reading. Lover Revealed was INCREDIBLE, of course, but that's no surprise. I'm also reading a few series that I'll talk about too. SO for all you people who actually read this, I'll post a bigger, better entry soon!
Monday, February 19, 2007
I wrote a pattern!
My cousin, Wendy, was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly before Christmas. She recently had a mastectomy with reconstructive surgery and will be undergoing chemotherapy soon. She has had a wonderful attitude throughout the entire ordeal and I am in awe of her for it. Her family and friends have been incredibly supportive and I want to do my part, too.
I knit hats only occaisionally. The last one I knit was for Peanut, a cute little pink number. I decided that, since Wendy will be losing her hair, I would knit her a couple of awesome hats. They will be lovely and feminine because I think that losing one's hair must not detrimental to one's femininity. The only problem I forsaw was that I wanted to use very high-quality yarn that is, of course, expensive. So I asked my mom and my sister to donate the money, I asked Auntie, Wendy's mom, for color recommendations, and I'm the one making the hats.
I found two wonderful yarns: Louisa Herding Grace, a lovely silk-woll blend in cream, and a grey baby cashmerino by Debbie Bliss, which is a blend of merino wool, cashmere, and microfibre. The silky stuff is luxurious and decadent and I wanted a hat that wasn't too simple, but wasn't too complicated either. And I wanted to knit in these pretty goldish beads I got at Joann Fabric and Crafts. I couldn't find a pattern that I was happy with, so I wrote my own. It has cables, which is something I had never done before but turned out to be frighteningly easy. The hat is gorgeous and here's the pattern for it:
Wendy Hat with Cables and Beads, copyright 2007 by Courtney U
Gauge: 23” head circ. @ 6 sts/in = 138 sts
Pattern: four stitch cable
Place bead: bring yarn and bead to front, sl 1 purlwise, bring yarn to back, leaving bead at front
pm: place marker
C4F: sl 2 onto cable needle and hold at front, k2, then k2 from cable needle
Thread beads onto yarn before casting on
CO 130, pm every 10
1: *k2, p2, k4, p2* repeat around to 1st marker
2: *k2, p2, k4, p2* repeat around to 1st marker
3: cable: *k2, p2, C4F, p2* repeat around until 1st marker
4: *k2, p2, k4, p2* repeat around to 1st marker, placing bead after every marker
Repeat rows 1-4 four times or until the desired number of twists are achieved.
For all rows after cables are done: *k2, p2, k4, p2* repeat until hat measure 5.5 in. from bottom. Remove all markers except first.
Decreases:
1: *k2, p2tog, k4, p2tog* repeat to first marker
2: *k2, p1, k2tog, k2, p1* repeat to first marker
3: *k1, k2tog, k2, k2tog* repeat to first marker. All sts after this row will be knit
4: *k11, k2tog, pm* repeat to first marker
Knit every stitch, knitting 2 together before every marker until 7 or so stitches are left on needles. Thread yarn through remaining stitches and tie off. Weave in ends and the hat is done!
I'm very proud of this pattern. It's not perfect and it probably has a few kinks that need to be worked out, but it's mine and I'm happy with it. Next up: the grey cashmerino hat. I'm going to knit a simple rolled-bottom hat and make some knitted flowers to attatch to it. This the the hat that matches Wendy's business suits, so it will be professional with a touch of girly embellishment.
I knit hats only occaisionally. The last one I knit was for Peanut, a cute little pink number. I decided that, since Wendy will be losing her hair, I would knit her a couple of awesome hats. They will be lovely and feminine because I think that losing one's hair must not detrimental to one's femininity. The only problem I forsaw was that I wanted to use very high-quality yarn that is, of course, expensive. So I asked my mom and my sister to donate the money, I asked Auntie, Wendy's mom, for color recommendations, and I'm the one making the hats.
I found two wonderful yarns: Louisa Herding Grace, a lovely silk-woll blend in cream, and a grey baby cashmerino by Debbie Bliss, which is a blend of merino wool, cashmere, and microfibre. The silky stuff is luxurious and decadent and I wanted a hat that wasn't too simple, but wasn't too complicated either. And I wanted to knit in these pretty goldish beads I got at Joann Fabric and Crafts. I couldn't find a pattern that I was happy with, so I wrote my own. It has cables, which is something I had never done before but turned out to be frighteningly easy. The hat is gorgeous and here's the pattern for it:
Wendy Hat with Cables and Beads, copyright 2007 by Courtney U
Gauge: 23” head circ. @ 6 sts/in = 138 sts
Pattern: four stitch cable
Place bead: bring yarn and bead to front, sl 1 purlwise, bring yarn to back, leaving bead at front
pm: place marker
C4F: sl 2 onto cable needle and hold at front, k2, then k2 from cable needle
Thread beads onto yarn before casting on
CO 130, pm every 10
1: *k2, p2, k4, p2* repeat around to 1st marker
2: *k2, p2, k4, p2* repeat around to 1st marker
3: cable: *k2, p2, C4F, p2* repeat around until 1st marker
4: *k2, p2, k4, p2* repeat around to 1st marker, placing bead after every marker
Repeat rows 1-4 four times or until the desired number of twists are achieved.
For all rows after cables are done: *k2, p2, k4, p2* repeat until hat measure 5.5 in. from bottom. Remove all markers except first.
Decreases:
1: *k2, p2tog, k4, p2tog* repeat to first marker
2: *k2, p1, k2tog, k2, p1* repeat to first marker
3: *k1, k2tog, k2, k2tog* repeat to first marker. All sts after this row will be knit
4: *k11, k2tog, pm* repeat to first marker
Knit every stitch, knitting 2 together before every marker until 7 or so stitches are left on needles. Thread yarn through remaining stitches and tie off. Weave in ends and the hat is done!
I'm very proud of this pattern. It's not perfect and it probably has a few kinks that need to be worked out, but it's mine and I'm happy with it. Next up: the grey cashmerino hat. I'm going to knit a simple rolled-bottom hat and make some knitted flowers to attatch to it. This the the hat that matches Wendy's business suits, so it will be professional with a touch of girly embellishment.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
It's February!
Ah, February. I like this month, especially this year. For starters, it means that the shock of the new year has worn off and I'm mostly used to writing 2007 on my checks. And since I have a wonderful husband, Valentine's Day will be nice. I was never one to lament the lack of a relationship if I was single on February 14th, so it's not like I'm grateful to be attatched or anything, but Trin and I do get extra mushy.
Second, this is my birthday month. I'll be 25 on the 27th. I'm not sure what to make of this birthday. On the one hand, I'm halfway to 30. My youth, such as it is, is slowly but surely passing. But I think of my parents who are in their fifties and I don't worry that 30 is bad at all. Goodness knows Mom and Dad still have plenty of youth left to last for a while. But I'm quite satisfied with how my life is right now. I have a loving husband who is a wonderful father to our little girl, who is the cutest baby on the planet. We own our own home, have an affectionate (if a little headstrong) cat, I'm a stay-at-home mom, and life is in general just fine. Trin's still looking for a job, but I have every confidence that he'll get one. We have our health, as do most of our loved ones. So 25 doesn't really faze me much.
Another wonderful thing about this month is that at the end of it, or just after, the book I've been waiting for for six months is coming out. Lover Revealed, the fourth installment of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J. R. Ward, is officially releasing on March 6th, but I'm thinking I might be able to find it early at Wal-Mart. I found the third book, Lover Awakened, over a week early. Maybe I'll even find it on my birthday! Oh, what a present that would be. As soon as that book is in my hands, I'm ignoring everyone (except Peanut) and reading until I can't see straight. Then I'll rest for a few hours and read it again. I suppose I'll let Trin read it after I've read it twice; any more and he might start to complain.
And when February is over, along with the coming of Lover Revealed is the coming of slightly warmer temperatures. March is hardly ever as frigid as February. Today it was in the -20s--that's just inhuman. My sister called me and told me her husband described people who live in this weather as insane. Needless to say, I did not argue. Seriously, I haven't left the house in days. I have stuff to do, but it's to damn cold and there's no way I'm taking Peanut outside.
So I'm here, patiently waiting for the end of the month. Well, mostly patiently. Sometimes when I think about the wait for the book, I get twitchy. But time flies, so I'm trying not to think about it.
Second, this is my birthday month. I'll be 25 on the 27th. I'm not sure what to make of this birthday. On the one hand, I'm halfway to 30. My youth, such as it is, is slowly but surely passing. But I think of my parents who are in their fifties and I don't worry that 30 is bad at all. Goodness knows Mom and Dad still have plenty of youth left to last for a while. But I'm quite satisfied with how my life is right now. I have a loving husband who is a wonderful father to our little girl, who is the cutest baby on the planet. We own our own home, have an affectionate (if a little headstrong) cat, I'm a stay-at-home mom, and life is in general just fine. Trin's still looking for a job, but I have every confidence that he'll get one. We have our health, as do most of our loved ones. So 25 doesn't really faze me much.
Another wonderful thing about this month is that at the end of it, or just after, the book I've been waiting for for six months is coming out. Lover Revealed, the fourth installment of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J. R. Ward, is officially releasing on March 6th, but I'm thinking I might be able to find it early at Wal-Mart. I found the third book, Lover Awakened, over a week early. Maybe I'll even find it on my birthday! Oh, what a present that would be. As soon as that book is in my hands, I'm ignoring everyone (except Peanut) and reading until I can't see straight. Then I'll rest for a few hours and read it again. I suppose I'll let Trin read it after I've read it twice; any more and he might start to complain.
And when February is over, along with the coming of Lover Revealed is the coming of slightly warmer temperatures. March is hardly ever as frigid as February. Today it was in the -20s--that's just inhuman. My sister called me and told me her husband described people who live in this weather as insane. Needless to say, I did not argue. Seriously, I haven't left the house in days. I have stuff to do, but it's to damn cold and there's no way I'm taking Peanut outside.
So I'm here, patiently waiting for the end of the month. Well, mostly patiently. Sometimes when I think about the wait for the book, I get twitchy. But time flies, so I'm trying not to think about it.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Why I Read Romance Novels
I often get razzed for reading romance novels. I almost always get razzed for reading paranormal romance, particularly because I prefer those with vampires. I've apparently earned the dubious title of "vampire porn girl." But I don't read those books for the "good parts." I heartily enjoy them, of course, but that's not the main draw.
I live an average life. I have a woderful husband whom I love very much, a beautiful and intelligent baby girl, and an ordinary house. I knit, I clean house, I spend time with Peanut and my other half. We watch cartoons on Saturday mornings. It's a great life, but an ordinary one. Basic. Simple.
I love it, but my mind craves adventure, great stories, seeing the guy get the girl. I love seeing two people fall in love in all the myriad ways that can happen. I love seeing them have their happily ever after in a committed relationship. Today's romance heroines are strong and willful, not the wilting female who swoons and knows only how to let her man sweep her off her feet. Women still get swept away, but on their own terms and with alpha males who want a relationship with an equal.
As for the paranormal tales I favor, I find that there's no better way to go somewhere in my head than to visit a place that is so far away it isn't real. I love the various angles on the vampire myth that authors take and how those differences affect the story. And whether it's vampires, valkyries, witches, or werewolves, I love seeing the humans try to make sense of it.
And as for romance novels being "girly porn," that irks me. I read a wonderful article on writing good lovescenes By one of my favorite authors, Angela Knight. She said in her blog:
Repeat after me: Romance does not equal porn
A year or so ago, I saw an RWA-sponsored ad to the effect that romance novels don’t really have all that much sex in them. It then listed various books and the number of love scenes in them – generally just one or two.
That ad really ticked me off, because it implied that a book with only one sex scene is somehow more moral than one with four or five. I’ve encountered that attitude a lot in other romance writers who sniff that they write love scenes only because their publishers demand it.
Apparently, like Victorian wives suffering the attentions of randy husbands, they lie back and think of England.
My personal belief is that somebody who writes mechanical sex solely to placate a publisher and make money is a lot more guilty of being a pornographer than I am.
No matter how much some writers might like to pretend otherwise, at their core, romances are about a sexual relationship between a man and a woman, not a purely spiritual union of souls. After all, when was the last time you read a romance staring Ghandi?
I think Knight pretty much summed it up to a tee. So don't call it vampire porn anymore. ;)
I live an average life. I have a woderful husband whom I love very much, a beautiful and intelligent baby girl, and an ordinary house. I knit, I clean house, I spend time with Peanut and my other half. We watch cartoons on Saturday mornings. It's a great life, but an ordinary one. Basic. Simple.
I love it, but my mind craves adventure, great stories, seeing the guy get the girl. I love seeing two people fall in love in all the myriad ways that can happen. I love seeing them have their happily ever after in a committed relationship. Today's romance heroines are strong and willful, not the wilting female who swoons and knows only how to let her man sweep her off her feet. Women still get swept away, but on their own terms and with alpha males who want a relationship with an equal.
As for the paranormal tales I favor, I find that there's no better way to go somewhere in my head than to visit a place that is so far away it isn't real. I love the various angles on the vampire myth that authors take and how those differences affect the story. And whether it's vampires, valkyries, witches, or werewolves, I love seeing the humans try to make sense of it.
And as for romance novels being "girly porn," that irks me. I read a wonderful article on writing good lovescenes By one of my favorite authors, Angela Knight. She said in her blog:
Repeat after me: Romance does not equal porn
A year or so ago, I saw an RWA-sponsored ad to the effect that romance novels don’t really have all that much sex in them. It then listed various books and the number of love scenes in them – generally just one or two.
That ad really ticked me off, because it implied that a book with only one sex scene is somehow more moral than one with four or five. I’ve encountered that attitude a lot in other romance writers who sniff that they write love scenes only because their publishers demand it.
Apparently, like Victorian wives suffering the attentions of randy husbands, they lie back and think of England.
My personal belief is that somebody who writes mechanical sex solely to placate a publisher and make money is a lot more guilty of being a pornographer than I am.
No matter how much some writers might like to pretend otherwise, at their core, romances are about a sexual relationship between a man and a woman, not a purely spiritual union of souls. After all, when was the last time you read a romance staring Ghandi?
I think Knight pretty much summed it up to a tee. So don't call it vampire porn anymore. ;)
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