Charlene Raddon's Blog: Historical romance, page 4

Publisher Blames Ryanair For Drop in Sales

Did anyone see the tidbit in today's The Passive Voice, about an independent Irish-owned book chain blaming Ryanair’s baggage allowance for a drop in sales? This little article came via Irishtimes.com. I don't know about you, but having dealt with Ryanair, I found it pretty amusing.
It seems that Frank O’Mahony of O’Mahony’s Booksellers, which operates four shops and a warehouse in midwest and southwest Ireland, said yesterday that demand for holiday reads in summertime had dipped, and it was all Ryanair's fault. We all know how the growth of ebooks has affected traditional book sales. O'Mahony claims Ryanair's baggage regime is having a far bigger impact.
Ryanair currently allows one item of cabin baggage per person weighing up to 10kg. The weight of an average hardback book is about 1.3kg, with paperbacks weighing 300g. This means Ryanair passengers have to fit books into their cabin baggage, at maximum dimensions of 55cm x 40cm x 20cm. Or they can check in luggage weighing up to either 15kg or 20kg for a fee. This means passengers are buying fewer books to take with them on their trip.
According to Irishtimes.com, Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara dismissed Mr O’Mahony’s contention as “complete rubbish”. “Passengers are packing what they always packed. There is no basis for what he is saying at all. It is absolutely ridiculous,” he said.
If you've flown on Ryanair, you know it truly is difficult to take much luggage on their planes, especially without paying a fortune for baggage fees. I can tell you as well that you'd have to get a dispensation from the King of England or maybe the Pope to get your money back from Ryanair, should something happen to prevent you taking your flight. Being deathly ill and getting a letter from your doctor certainly won't do it. I wish you luck, O'Mahony.

Trail Dust

Has anyone ever heard of RANCH ROMANCES? I bought five of these magazines a few years ago at an antique store in Phoenix and just got around to looking at them today. What fun. A column entitled "Trail Dust" begins with this solicitation: PARDNERS! Here's an open invitation to you to cut sign on colorful happenings of today's West. Send clippings to us, and include the name and date of the paper where you found them. We'll send you one dollar per usable item; in case of duplicates, first come, first served! I love it. Simple, folksy and down to earth. Several brief articles follow the announcement. My favorite in the First October 1953 issue is this one: "In Henryetta, Okla., a disgruntled farmer came to town and dumped two loads of debris on the main street--retaliating for all the refuse left on his property by city residents."

A Book By Any Other Label

I wonder how many people other than me become frustrated by the way online stores categorize books? I'm an eclectic reader. Contemporary, paranormal, romantic suspense, historical--I like them all. As long as they're romance (since that's the genre I want to discuss today). Of course, it's not really so simple, is it? Within each genre there are subgenres. Look in the RT Book Reviews magazine and you'll find sections for Historical Romance, Mainstream Fiction, Teen Scene, Comics/Manga(Manga?)/Graphic Novels, Inspirational, SF/Fantasy, Romantic Suspense, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Contemporary Romance, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Series Romance and Erotica. Whew, I'm worn out just typing all that. But my point is that within each subgenre there are sub-subgenres (is that word legit?) and it's entirely up to you to figure out which books are the ones you want. Now, I don't know about you, but when I go to an online store to browse for a new read, I get a little nutsy trying to determine whether or not a title is what I'm really seeking. I can type "historical" in the search box, but even then, which of the titles that pop up are Regency period? Which are medieval? And which are the books I'm actually looking for--the westerns? I can't tell you how many times I've bought a book, only to find when it arrives that it isn't the historical I was expecting, but a contemporary instead. Or, rather than being set in the American West, the story takes place on the British Isles. Fourteenth century instead of nineteenth century. Would it truly be so difficult for bookstores to label or place books so that customers don't have to spend hours flipping pages to try to determine settings and time periods? Or better yet, why can't publishers mark book spines more appropriately--not just Historical, but Western Historical, British Historical, Paranormal Historical, or whatever? Tell me, am I alone in all this, or are there other readers out there who feel the way I do?

Rousing the Reader's Senses

I know better. Have for many years. Yet I continually repeat this sin. I know I'm not alone. All I have to do is pick up someone else's book to see that other authors make the same mistake. But that's no excuse. I'm not responsible for their writing, just my own. The solution lies within my own deepest emotions. They are the tools I must use to awaken my readers' emotions, an act more crucial to the success of a story than many writers realize. Or maybe they simply forget now and then, like me. But no matter how well a book is plotted, no matter how unique and fascinating the characters, if the reader can't relate to them on an emotional level, it all falls flat and the author has failed. One good point I picked up in an article I read recently is to avoid writing the emotion. To show it instead. To create even a short scene of grief, pain, extreme joy or relief, abject fear, or even boredom, without using the actual words--pain, joy, relief, etc.--is an exercise that can only strengthen an author's writing. After more than thirty years of writing, of taking countless classes and workshops, of devouring how-to books and articles, I tend to think I already know it all and that it's right here in my brain just itching to jump to the fore when I need it. Or maybe its an instinct I count on my fingers to use as they work the keyboard. Either way, to expect that knowledge to kick in automatically with no input from me is sheer foolishness. College professors, lawyers, even medical doctors read continually to keep up with the latest developments in their fields and to make certain they have that intelligence prominently lodged in their brains, ready to draw on at any given moment. A writer can do no less. So, this weekend, instead of playing WWF on my Kindle, I'm going to dig out the old how-to books. Hopefully my efforts will show in the next edit of my work.

Open Road Integrated Media

Can anyone out there give me some information about Open Road Integrated Media? They appear to be a publishing house connected to book stores and other publishers, but their site doesn't explain how it all works.

City of Ash Review

Just finished reading City of Ash by Megan Chance. I've always liked Chance's writing, but this book was a little different from what I've read before and I liked it very much. Not only does it give the reader a good look inside theatre life in the nineteenth century, it also give a vivid depiction of the fire that burned Seattle to the ground and the fortitude of the survivors to begin again.
The relationship between the two competing heroines, Bea and Ginny, is fascinating and very well done. Overall an excellent read.

Shakespeare

As a Shakespeare fan, I'm not sure how I feel about this new movie that promotes the idea that Shakespeare never really wrote anything. I guess I'll have to go see the movie.

Finding Motivation

Help! I desperately need some way to motivate myself to write. Every day I tell myself, ok, today I'm going to write. And way too often I go to bed that night mad at myself because I didn't accomplish anything important. Someone, tell me how you get yourself to sit down and get to work.

Blogging Can Be a Detriment to Writing

They say blogging is one of the best ways to get your name known and to collect new followers. What I'm finding, to my dismay, is that blogging and all the other social networking required of authors these days, Twitter, Facebook, following other bloggers, etc., keeps me from doing what is most important--writing. How do successful authors find time to do all this networking and still write quality books? Of course, one way would be to hire someone to do it all for you. But how many of us can afford that? I'm betting not many. The question is what to do about it. I hope someone out there as a good answer and will share it with us.