Re: Excuse Me...

In article <1184105197.584799.104600@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Jane <JaneHadd@xxxxxxx> wrote:

On Jul 9, 6:15?pm, Larisa <purple_bov...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

So how do you respond to books? When you read a mystery novel, what
do you think to yourself? What do you remember? What do you think
about? I, for one, am rather curious about how an author responds to
fiction - I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Eh. It depends on the book. When I first started writing
professionally, I spent a lot of time analyzing mysteries, but I don't
much anymore.

I think we all have to get past that habit if we're to continue
to be able to enjoy reading fiction for pleasure at all. But once
you find your own confidence as an author, I think it's easier to
sail along without those niggling little hang-ups (oh no, not
another adverb with "said"!).

Although I have to admit, in my own case I got past my own
editorial impulse by switching my recreational reading out of
my own field -- SF/F/H -- and reading mysteries instead (but
I do favor the ones with a dash of the supernatural, ie fantasy).
That's why I welcome the occasional request that I join a board
of judges for some SF/F/H award or other -- I am forced to
read in my own field, and as it's an "assignment" I get to read
for both pleasure and critical assessment. It works pretty well.

I fo for narrative voice--there are some voices I like
to hear in my head. Yes, includinng KS's.

You know, that's right -- the voice is crucial, but I don't normally
think about it while reading. Of course the qualities of an
effective narrative voice often include unobtrusiveness.

I'm not a romantic about historical periods. I wouldn't have
wanted to live in the Victorian period OR in the Middle Ages--

Do you know a book called "The Victorian Chaise Longe" (sp)?
It's a very effective little time-travel story, in which the heroine
does accidentally travel back into Victorian times, where she
dies young of TB. It's a horror story, really -- she can't convince
anyone to let her get out of her sickroom and into some healthy
air and sunshine, which she knows might benefit her condition.
I think that's the first novel I read that made me think seriously
about the killer-details of living in earlier times. Connie Willis'
"Doomsday Book" is another (England, Black Death, nothing to
be done . . . )

one thing you get from seven years of graduate school studyng the
Middle Ages is that nobody in his right mind would want to live there
if he had a choice--but lately I've been thinking about Paris Hilton a
lot.

Like, maybe we should find a way to send her back into the Middle
Ages, as a comely milkmaid? I'd son onto that project in a hot
minute!

Suzy
.

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