Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 109

Working Wednesday, December 2, 2020

So here it is, December. Normally, I’d be dealing with Christmas, working on the buying and wrapping and baking; this year I’m just looking forward to 2021, which won’t be nearly as much fun to type. That’s about best thing I can say about 2020: It was fun to type. I cleaned half my bathroom–there’s a lot of stuff in my bathroom, most of which does not belong there–and did a surface clean in my bedroom. That is, I cleaned the surfaces: the bay window, both (big) bed end tables and the bureau. If there is a surface, I will dump something on it, so that took some time. Big plans for the rest of this week? The other half of the bathroom and the bedroom floor, which is really just more surface, only lower.

What did you do this week?

The Re-Readables: A Theory

I’ve been reading a lot of contemporary non-supernatural romance, and I’m noticing that while there are always books that I close after two chapters because I can’t take any more, there are a lot more that I finish. Those finished books fall into two categories: the ones I liked but that I doubt I’ll ever read again and the Re-Readables.

I’m pretty sure that everybody’s criteria for re-readable is different, but I’ve been looking back over the things I’ve re-read lately, some of them over a dozen times, like the Murderbots, the Rivers of London, some of the Ivy Years, some Pratchetts, some Heyers, some Stouts, some Francis, some MacFarlane, and others, and I’ve narrowed it down to four things:

1. The characters, especially the protagonist. Series protagonists ar especial catnip; at this point, if Murderbot’s in a book, I’m reading it. I’ll follow Peter Grant anywhere. If Susan Sto Helit show up, you have me. But in the stand alones, too, the protagonist is the one who’ll draw me back in. I love Mhairi McFarlane’s put-upon heroines who never give up, Pratchet’s confused but driven heroes who zigzag through his plots, meeting setbacks with exasperation and pushing on through. The same with Heyer’s heroines, caught in a time when women were pretty much goods to be traded, steadfastly remaining true to themselves while society hammers them in an attempt to make them an alien ideal, their strength and their determination bringing great men to their knees, the good ones with a ring in hand. It’s not what happens in the plot that makes these books so good, although it’s nice when that’s there, too, it’s these people dealing with what the plot throws at them, acting as only they would and can.

2. The community. Beyond the protagonist, I want to hang out with the group. If it’s Peter Grant, there better be Bev and Nightingale and Molly and Tyburn and Abigail, not to mention Seawohl and of course, Guleed (I really want to know more about Guleed and her master swordsman boy friend). If it’s a Rex Stout, I want Wolfe and Archie, but also Cramer and Stebbins, and there better be some Lily in there, too, plus Saul and the rest of the PIs (has anybody ever used minor supporting characters better?). If I’m reading Pratchett, I really need Vimes to show up somewhere, and Carrot and the Patrician make everything better. I want to be part of that world. One of the things I loved about a book I read last week, The Boyfriend Project, was that both Luc and Oliver had such great friend groups. Luc’s were slightly strange middle class misfits, and Oliver’s were slightly strange upper class misfits, but their groups were sold and supportive, true communities, and it didn’t hurt that they were all funny as hell. I will spend time with those people again, because that book is definitely a Re-Readable. I like the analogy that a story is a party; you have to invite people in and entertain them, and that’s infinitely easier if the other people at the party are fascinating.

3. The setting. I never talk much about setting, but as I looked back at my re-reading, I realized that setting plays a big role. I love Ben Aaronovitch’s writing, but his October Man left me cold. The book was well-written, well-plotted, but it didn’t have Peter Grant. Well, that made sense, I attach to protagonists. But then I realized I wasn’t as happy with Foxglove Summer as I had been with the earlier books, and that book is all Peter Grant. Why not? I think it’s because it’s not set in London. I want Peter doing his obsessive architure lectures, commenting in passing on the history of a place he’s trying to connect to supernaturally. Having now read Foxglove Summer three times, I’ve become used to it and I like it better now than when I first read it, so that part of the countryside is now another Peter Grant setting. But it’s still not London. Rex Stout wrote a terrific mystery that sent Wolfe and Archie back to Wolfe’s county of birth, Montenegro, but I want Wolfe in New York, behind that big desk, sending Archie hither and yon for fresh meat of both the human and butcher shop kind. Dick Francis’s heroes have a wide variety of occupations and I’m fine with that, but there better be a horse in England in there somewhere and we better spend some time on a racetrack or that book is not re-readable. I think it’s because the setting in a really good book informs so much of the protagonist’s character, but I could be wrong about that. Maybe I just like the new stories to play out across a familiar backdrop.

4. The author’s voice and world view. This is definitely one of the reasons I re-read, but it can be trumped by a lack of any of the first three criteria. Obviously all these authors keep the same voice and worldview throughout their books. The point is that a book can have a solid protagonist, a well-constructed community, and a vibrant setting, but if this author’s voice is a drag or the ideals underneath story are distasteful to me, it doesn’t matter that the first three criteria are met, I won’t make it through the first chapter.

You’ll notice that “plot” isn’t up there. It’s not that I don’t think plotting is important, it’s that I’ll read a lousy plot to keep company with the story people I love, and that a great plot will not hold my attention if the characters are flat or off-putting. In the best of all possible worlds, you get a great plot, too, but since I’ve re-read a lot of books with endings I could see coming a mile away or with plots that follow a pattern so well worn there are ruts in it, just to spend time with those people again. It’s not what happens that matters, it’s how the people in the story get there.

All of which leads me to believe (about my own work, not about anybody else, this is not advice or a rule or anything that might apply to another writer, just me) that I have to quit fruiting around trying to make plots work and just make sure the people are moving on every page, arcing as much as possible, involved and interesting in every move they make, surrounded by a fascinating community against a vibrant setting backdrop. And then make the plot make sense in the rewrite. Argh.

Or as Bob would say, “Forget the money laundering, write the romance.”

So over to you all. What makes a book a Re-Readable for you?

Happiness is Not Going to the Mall

I realize that people still went out on Black Friday, evidently feeling that death was a small price to pay for a cheap TV, but most of the people I know nestled back into post-holiday stupor and made other plans for gift buying and receiving. Don’t get me wrong, I love shopping. But I gave it up pretty easily when it became associated with a future on a ventilator. And I think that the social distancing/quarantine has changed the way we look at things, possibly permanently. When I asked my daughter what the grandkids wanted, she said they weren’t sure. They’ve been at home so long surrounded by their books and toys and games that it’s soaked in that they’re pretty much stocked up. There’s something about being surrounded by your stuff 24/7 that makes you realize that you possibly have enough. More than enough. Too much. And the idea of buying more is just kind of ridiculous.

That hasn’t stopped me from burning up online buying, of course, but I’m not risking my life doing that, and it’s curiously targeted, not based on my usual “Ooooh something shiny” response to actually being next to the thing I’m impulsing. I’m not going to say I’m happy about the virus, that’s an ongoing, escalating tragedy. But good can come out of bad, like not feeling compelled to overspend on the holidays because I’m not someplace with “Santa Baby” blaring on loudspeakers and a lot of cranky but determined people too close to me. I’m happy I’m home today.

What made you happy this week?

Argh Tradition Because We Need Stability In Our Lives

We’ve been doing this day-after-Thanksgiving post for ten years. At this point, it’s the only stability in my life. Plus it’s the Drifters. With reindeer. Happy holidays, Argh People, whatever it is that you celebrate. I’m celebrating the election and the glorious possibilities of a new year in America. With leftover pie.

This is a Good Book Thursday.

. I’m feeling cranky. (I know, what else is new?). Bob just told me that three million people are traveling for the holiday (I have no idea how he knows this, but I definitely believe it) because evidently they all want death for Christmas. Mona’s not feeling well, which means I have to get a vet appointment on a holiday week. And the only romances showing up on BookBub are either alpha billionaire werewolves or Christmas stories with lots of sugar (both confectionary and verbal). I did read a good book last week: It Ended Badly, the story of the thirteen worst (according to author Jennifer Wright) break-ups in history. Henry VIII gets two–Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard–but Nero’s in there, too. The only one I couldn’t read was Oscar Wilde. That one is just heartbreaking. Also, Norman Mailer was a terrible person.

What did you read this week? (Also Happy Thanksgiving, American Argh.)

Working Wednesday, November 25, 2020

I’ve been worthless for most of November, but I have BIG PLANS to work in December. BIG PLANS. Also, Bob and I have decided to take some time off from HWSWAA for lack of interesting content. (Do not say we could have done that a couple of weeks ago, please. We know.)

What have you been doing the past two weeks? (Sorry about blowing off last week, I was busy doing . . . uh, nothing. Note to self: Improve blog skills.)

Happiness is a Fat-Assed Raccoon

Fat-Ass has won. He (she?)showed up again last night–Emily hasn’t for three days, I’m worried–and somehow managed to climb over piles of books and papers to reach the bag of cat food, toppling it and him onto the floor, after which he shrieked with rage and left, never to return. So far. It was the first time I’d laughed in weeks or at least it felt like it. And now I’m kind of hoping he comes back tonight. He went to all that trouble to spill a pound of cat food on my workroom floor, he should at least reap some kind of reward. Also, since Emily has evidently been adopted by someone else–I refuse to believe anything horrible–Fat-Ass may be my new pet. I have to admit an affection for his little bandit face as it peers up at the red lights of the camera, probably wondering “What is that thing?” and “Can I eat it?”

Happiness is screwball wildlife.

Note: He came back and brought a friend, so our relationship is over. If he’s going to see other people . . .

What made you happy this week?

ETA: And Emily came back. SO happy that she’s all right. Must trap her inside the house this week because it’s going to get cold here. Also because there are too damn many predators out there after a disabled stray cat.

HWSWA: Talking About Characters in Shane and the Red Wedding

This week at HWSWA we talked about Bob’s cast of characters in Shane and the Red Wedding. One of the hardest things to do in fiction is to corral your cast so that they and their actions make sense on both the surface level and the deeper, unstated, thematic level. So I asked a lot of questions and tried not to make too many suggestions (HA!) because it’s Bob’s book, not mine. Fortunately, he’s good at ignoring me.

This is a Good Book Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020

I missed Working Wednesday, and I wasn’t even working. I was reading new adult romances. Since I am an old adult, that was research. So really, I was working.

Rationalizations are us.

What are you reading?

HWSWA: More Brainstorming Anna

Anna’s plot was all over the place so we talked it through in the latest HWSWA. Then Bob sent me a long doc in e-mail spitballing the simplified plot and I annotated it and sent it back and he annotated it and I did a couple of diagrams and things are better now. Still not great plotting but so much better. The best thing about all of this is that all the what-the-hell-did-I-write-this-for scenes now are crucial. The Girls win again.

Tomorrow we’re talking about romance in Bob’s book. We’ll probably both have to drink for that one.