Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 136

This is a Good Book Thursday, January 16, 2020

. BookBub sent me a “Books recommended by Romance Authors” e-mail and I thought it was time I tried new romances so I bit. And then I spit a lot of it out. I know I’m RIDICULOUSLY picky about what I read, but when I can’t get through the entire book because I’m so annoyed, I start to wonder if maybe I’m not being ridiculous, I’m being insane. People really liked these books, some of them people I know and respect. WTF? Then I read a good one, One of Us Is Lying, and I felt better.

I also read The Princess Diarist which left me feeling vaguely depressed with flashbacks to my own nineteen-year-old romance bad choice (Reader, I married him); then I read the reviews/commentary on it and felt even more depressed. The book is good, the writing is strong, dear god I’m so glad it’s not 1975 any more.

My newest book buy is Cleaning Sucks which is actually a journal. I think. I haven’t opened it yet.

What did you read this week?

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Working Wednesday, January 15, 2020

. I’m still crocheting like a madwoman, but now I’m chuffed about Lee’s plan for a daily art something in February: “I’m organizing DailyFeb2020, and thinking about what to do for a month is making me happy, and I hope you’ll join me!” (Click the link to see Lee’s post.) I’m pretty sure I’m going to get back to drawing. Very low bar, as Lee suggests, but at least some structure if I have to something every day. It’s been so long, I’ll be awful, but I might get some of my old skill back (that BS in Art Education was a looooong time ago).

But mostly it’s crochet while I watch my latest British TV discovery, the Agatha Raisin mysteries. (Tried the books, couldn’t do it, possibly because I watched “The Quiche of Death” first, in which Agatha is an annoyingly forthright and very competent middle-aged bottle blonde with no boundaries, only to find that in the book she’s frumpy and dull-haired. Just wasn’t the same.). Also, the Brokenwood Mysteries are back for Series Six although they’re being parceled out a week at a time which is just annoying. But thanks to the bounty of streaming TV, I’ve made five hats and four scarves and finished my Forest of Dean.

So what are you working on? Big plans for a new year of Make?

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New Year, New ReBoot

I think change is good. Reinvention is good. Especially when you don’t have any other choice.

So I’m looking at my writing and thinking, “I’ve done that.” I’m proud of what I’ve done (most of it), but I did that. I don’t want to be an imitation of what I used to be. It’s been ten years since I’ve published, people have forgotten what I used to be. I’m a new author again.

So I’ve been thinking about where I want to go next, aside from the half dozen books I already have started. Thinking about trying something new, maybe inspired by the stories I’ve loved, like Pushing Daisies. Except I just watched a series I swear was modeled on Pushing Daisies and all I could think was “This is just like Pushing Daisies except not as a good.” So I think trying to write magic realism would be a bad idea for me, a kind of “This is just like Water for Chocolate except bad.” And anyway, I already tried that in Bet Me and my editor made me tone down the magic realism so I’m probably lousy at it.

Plus there’s the whole imposter syndrome I’m already dealing with, the “I must really suck at this” working on me while I try to figure out what’s wrong with Nita. I like that book. There are parts of it I adore, parts that make me think I’m a genius. And there aren’t any parts that make me think I’m awful. And yet many people in NYC said, “Nope.” Well, two agents said, “This needs work” and an editor said, “Nope.” It’s quelling, that’s what it is.

So I’m thinking once I get Nita out the door which must be soon because my god I can’t stand this any more, I need to start thinking outside the box. Assuming I have a box. Why would I want a box? Just so I have something to think outside of? A jar in Tennessee I can knock over? Forget the box. I don’t need no stinkin’ box.

I’ll think of something.

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Happiness is a Good Earworm

I’ve had soft rock in my head for the past two weeks, Stephen Bishop’s “On and On,” to be precise. Generally, earworms drive me nuts, but I’m getting into this one. It’s good for dancing through the house, and even though it’s a little bit sad, it’s not tragic. There’s a lot to be said for a good earworm. I told Krissie and she said she’s got “Baby Elephant Walk” stuck in her head. So I’m happy I don’t have that.

What made you happy this week?

(Here. Have an earworm:

You’re welcome.)

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Cherry Saturday, January 11, 2020

Today is Milk Day.

Which means it’s also hot chocolate day, and chocolate pudding day, and milkshake day, and cream gravy day, and . . . the list is endless. Milk: it does a recipe good.

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This is a Good Book Thursday, January 9, 2020

Looking back over my Kindle list for the past couple of weeks, it’s been all crochet and murder. I must branch out. Probably into cooking and art theft; I do love a good heist.

What did you read in this fine new year?

ETA: I just read a really good new book: One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus. Alternating first person PoVs, solid characterization, and a nice twisty plot.

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Working Wednesday, January 8, 2020

This week, I’m making hats. Because hats are fast and I need immediate gratification. I don’t think immediate gratification gets enough credit, although as Carrie Fisher once said, sometimes “immediate gratification takes too long.” This week, the hats are doing it for me, five at last count, three from a pattern I lost my grip on and two from a scarf pattern that I jury-rigged to become a hat pattern. I’m finishing up a shawl, too. You know what I’m not working on? Anything I’m SUPPOSED to be working on. Still, hats.

So what did you work on this oh-hell-the-holidays-are-over-got-to-get-back-to-work week?

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Happiness is a New Year

I love a new year. I get two, the one in January and the one in September (new school year) and I always feel so hopeful. This year will be different! Everything will be new! And it usually is, just not in the way I’d intended. That’s okay, change is good! New experiences build character! (I really feel I have enough character at this point, but I’m sure I can polish the edifice I’ve already built.). Nothing but good times ahead!

Happy New Year, Argh People, with an emphasis on the “happy.”

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Cherry Saturday, January 4, 2020

Still dumbfounded to be typing “2020.”

Today is Spaghetti Day.

I have mixed feeling about pasta. If it’s high fiber, it’s good for me, but if it’s whole wheat I don’t like it, so it has to be the high-fiber-but-it-doesn’t-look-or-taste-like-it kind, and that makes me suspicious. On the other hand, there are many delicious pasta recipes, especially if you include noodles, which I do because I’m a noodle-loving fiend.

I think I’ll go make stroganoff. I have high fiber noodles.

Here’s everything you need to know about Spaghetti Day.

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So, What Do You Think About Series Books?

I’ve been thinking about series. I recently read six books in a series, but I read the last five because it was a series, not because the first book was fantastic. They were fine books, but they’re not anything I’ll read again, and the first one wasn’t great enough to make me seek out the author–perfectly good but not great. So it had to be that I just wanted to see that community again.

Is that why most people read series?

Of course, there are series where the individual books are so good, you’d read them anyway (like Discworld, for example) but even then, there are duds (nobody’s excellent all the time) and I read them, too. Of course, I’d read Vimes doing almost anything (including reading a book to his kid), so it’s also character, but I really think it’s the community that brings me back.

As to why people write them, I can see the lure for writers–one set of world building, reusable–but I can also see the pitfall. If a great story is about the most important event in the protagonist’s life, then the sequel is about the second most important event, and the third book is . . . . Declining stakes, is what I’m saying. People have asked for sequels, but my stuff really isn’t set up for sequels, so I’m pretty sure anything from the past would land with a resounding thud. But in the future, there’s the Paradise Park/Monday Street books, and I have this three novella idea that starts with “Hot Toy,” and the Liz Danger books were always planned to be a four-book series, so it’s not that I’m averse to the idea. It’s just keeping reader interest. And my interest. (Very short attention span here.)

So what I’m trying to figure out is, (1) why do people keep reading sequels, and (b) is that something I want to mess with in 2020? Not for any of my previous books, although come to think of it, the Alice and Nadine books are kind of sequels (but not really). I really want to write outside the box in 2020, since I have no knowledge of the current box (dating in 2020) and I’m a lot more interested in the stuff around the romance in these books–magic (the prestidigitation kind), butterflies, art crime, writing romance novels (that’s Liz), painting, magic (witches), ghosts . . . my research shelves are full of amazing books.

As you can tell, this post is not organized or well thought out, it’s just me wondering about series in general and as an option for me in particular (I have a VERY short attention span). The odd things is that I’m thinking in series now, like I have ideas for a second Nita book. Change is good.

What do you think? About series, I mean. Well, about anything. It’s that kind of day. I’m making shrimp and penne for lunch. How’s by you?

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