Romance Weekly #LoveWriteChat

Welcome to Kim Town. My part of the blog hop of talented romance authors responding to a weekly set of questions. This week’s questions come from The Blue Rose Romance authoress, Collette Cameron. If you haven’t done so, scoop up her latest Regency Romance The Earl’s Enticement for a great summer read!

 

How do you respond to someone calling your writing smut or demeaning your work in some other way?   I think it’s more a reflection on them than on me. They either haven’t read the genre, in which case they are pre-judging. Prejudice is a transferable trait (if one is prejudiced in one area they can be in others) so I would infer from their comment the naysayer is a person who takes shortcuts and doesn’t necessarily indulge in independent thought. If the person mattered to me in some way or another, I might attempt a debate (for example, “romance novels are modern revisions of patriarchal fairytales, plus women like sex – get over it,” – for some specific good references raid Jenny Crusie’s arsenal i.e.: http://www.jennycrusie.com/for-writers/essays/glee-and-sympathy/ she puts Nathaniel Hawthorne in his place) but more likely than not, I’d decide to keep my pearls rather than cast them.

When critiquing or beta reading, do you ever find the voice of the other author creeping into your writing? Yes. But only in a phrase here or a suggestion there. And only in the early phase of a book/chapter. Usually by the time, I’ve done the number of re-writes it takes for me to be satisfied with my work, (enormous – which is part of the reason why I’m still unpublished) those phrases/suggestions have been filtered, molded and otherwise touched into my words/ideas/voice again.

What’s one quirky thing you do or must have around you while writing? I don’t like to write at a desk when I’m creating or revamping. Then I must be on a couch, lounge chair, rocking chair (with feet up) or the stairs of my back balcony. But when I’m critiquing my own work, that’s when I need that flat table or desktop and hard wooden chair. (I think it harkens back to Sister Mercedes and the other nuns I try to channel from part of my childhood) To plot, I must have a crystal cat given to me wonderful authoress Sarah Hegger nearby. Kitty’s kind of a talisman.

 

 

Next stop on the blog hop: Susan Scott Shelley, whose book Tackled By the Girl Next Door, on Wild Rose Press I can’t wait to read. It’s out in October. Isn’t her cover gorgeous? http://www.susanscottshelley.com/#!blog/c1cod