Comments on: Sunday, Sunny Sunday

By: Alison Kent

Alison Kent — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 00:43:00 +0000

I’ve learned SO much from reading outside the genre. I think that’s a part of it. Looking for something unfamiliar, something different, something that I don’t spend twelve hours a day with! I’ve been reading a ton of new authors lately and loving all of them. Who knew I was so easy to please!

By: Lynn Raye Harris

Lynn Raye Harris — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 21:54:00 +0000

Okay, see, as soon as I said it, I knew someone would have a good reason I hadn’t thought of. But you did read romance, and probably a lot of it, and you still read romantic suspense. I read a lot of romance, and I also find myself editing mentally. So far, that doesn’t bother me much. I also read a lot of other things, not just for the thesis, but other genres (and I do sometimes think of it as a break from romance). Someone introduced me to a James Lee Burke novel recently. He had the best descriptions in there. And I recently read Elmore Leonard’s Get Shorty, which I thought was amazing the way it flowed along and kept me engaged. I find that my fiction reading in general changed when I started writing. Though I still get lost in a story, I am always aware of craft and always studying it. Whether it’s a romance or a mystery or even mainstream literary, I’ll analyze it. I think a lot of that is also due to my background in literary analysis. I am accustomed to reading assigned novels with a pen and frantic scribblings in the margins. Ha! I sometimes do it with my pleasure reading, especially when something leaps out at me as either very good or very badly done.

By: Alison Kent

Alison Kent — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 13:36:00 +0000

I’ve said repeatedly that I don’t read much romance any longer. The reason? It’s like doing homework. I write romance all day long, so to pick it up for pleasure is almost impossible. I mentally edit and revise and reword sentences as I go. When I read in another genre, there are no expectations. I can lose myself in the story without seeing where if this scene were tweaked it would do this for the hero & heroine, etc. I’ve heard Mary Balogh say the same thing. And I liken it to a lawyer reading briefs for entertainment. Or a doctor putting in stitches for fun in his spare time. But give me a great suspense (even a romantic suspense) and it’s all about entertainment!