Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 41

Happiness for $16.99

My oven timer was thwarting me, so I ordered this from Amazon:

You bop the panda on the head to turn the timer off. It’s pretty; it’s easy to use; if I want to go someplace in the house where I can’t hear the oven, I can take the panda with me; it never lets me down; I like bopping the panda; but the best part is that I smile whenever I see it. Happiness for $16.99.

How did you buy/find/rent happiness this week?

Your Argh Post Thanksgiving Tradition

I’m late on this, so I’m copying a post from ten years ago. Note the irony at the bottom.

Thanksgiving is over, and it’s Christmas time, so here’s your Argh tradition:

(Full disclosure: it’s Dec. 26, 2015, as I type this, but I forgot to post this in time this year. It’s not going to happen in 2016, you betcha.)

(Fuller disclosure: It’s Dec. 1, 2023 as I type this and I thought for sure I had set this to post months ago. So once again, I apologize for my lateness. My daughter, my therapist, and my best friend think I have ADHD. This is starting to seem like a distinct possibility.)

(Note: While this is a Christmas song and I full realize not everybody celebrates that, this is just a damn good song, beautifully sung, so think of it as a Happy Holidays song. And have a fabulous multi-colored holiday this year.)

This is a Good Book Thursday, November 30, 2023

This week I realized I’d never read Loretta Chase’s Dressmaker series (except for the last one, so long ago I can reread it almost like a new book) so I went headfirst into all four books. I love Chase’s work and reread Mr. Impossible at least once a year, so I think I’m going to binge that whole series next (Last Night’s Scandal is a particular fave). You cannot go wrong with Loretta Chase.

What did you read this week?

Working Wednesday, November 29, 2023

I was up late last night working on Anna–Bob went through and rewrote Nate and made him a much stronger character–and I forgot today was Wednesday, so I apologize for the late post. He’ll shortly be sending me his newest pass at Very Nice Funerals, so I need to get Anna revised with new scenes and back to him. And I need to clear out enough stuff that hasn’t been unpacked yet so I can get my car in the garage so the local maintenance people can plow the drive. One thing after another.

So what did you work on this week?

Happiness is a Nap

I don’t know why napping is always better in cold weather. I mean, let’s face it, naps are good any time, but when it’s cold out, they’re just better for the happiness thing.

And a big thank you to We Rate Dogs for this series of dogs napping:

What made you happy this week?

A Ramble About Titles (Not a Rant)

I was reading through BookBub and saw a lot of On-The-Nose titles. You know, The Billionaire’s Secret Ranch Baby (not a real title) (I hope). The upside of those is that you know exactly what you’re getting, which is good. I mean, I would probably buy A Hot Hockey Romance Where the Hero Looks Like Wentworth Miller. (I would totally buy that book.). But it also seems like it cheapens the book somehow. Not the content, there are probably many great books behind OTN titles. But just the reductive-ness of it. I mean, they didn’t call The Mummy, Indiana Jones Set in Egypt (was that set in Egypt?) And Loretta Chase did not title Mr. Impossible, My Version of the Mummy with a Brilliant Bluestocking and a Hot Aristocrat (that book, by the way, is fantastic) although I would have bought it for that title. Well, I would have bought it because it had “Loretta Chase” on the cover, but you know what I mean. OTN Title Marketing works.

And I thought about our books. Take Rocky Start. Bob and I both like RED, a movie about retired spies who fight back against the bastard who’s trying to kill them (GREAT movie). And I liked the idea of Outsider Art and a second hand store full of junk. Bob liked the idea of a little hidden town full of lethal spies. And he wanted a 55-year-old hero. I liked all of that, too (and I’m noticing a lot of middle-aged romances lately–is that a new thing?–if so YAY). So what would our OTN title be? Middle-Ages Spies Falling In Love Under Fire Surrounded By Junk. No. For one thing, my girl isn’t a spy (middle-aged, yes). I had a great title early on that Bob nixed: The Spy Who Liked Me. I still love that title. Maybe The Middle-Aged Spy Who Liked Me? No, lacks punch. Bob’s favorite rejected title was Middle Prong. Yeah, I have no idea what it means, either, except that I suspect it’s dirty. But Middle-Aged Middle Prong has a nice ring to it. (No, Bob, we are still not using that.)

The whole title thing is really important. I’ve had titles forced on me that I hated, Manhunting and What the Lady Wants being the top two–one sounds predatory and the other sounds greedy–and I don’t think I’ll ever do an OTN title, but I can understand their appeal to marketing. Other titles quirks (mine): Single words (you need more than one word to create meaning) and obscure meanings (Middle Prong).

So titles. What do you think? What are the best ones you’ve seen? (I still love Expecting Someone Taller.) What titles led you astray? Ever met a title you hated? And how do YOU feel about OTN titles?

This is a Good Book Thursday, November 23, 2023

It is also American Thanksgiving, a day of turkey and relatives, which often means more turkeys. My favorite book for today is Thanksgiving 101, which taught me to make great gravy, but today I am ignoring th holiday and reading whatever I want. Already finished Murderbot, scrolling through my Kindle now. It’s gonna be a good day.

What did you read t his week?

Working Wednesday, November 22, 2023

For the first time in decades, I am not making a Thanksgiving meal tomorrow. That means I can organize my office, work on Rocky Start, clean up the kitchen, and crochet. Good decision, I think.

What did you decide about work this week?

Exploiting You: The Bar in Rocky Start

I think we need a bar in Rocky Start. Bob says it’s too small a town to have a bar. I say there is no town too small to have a bar. A town may only have two houses, but there’ll be a bar. So remember when you all came up with spy/covert names for businesses in Rocky Start? We didn’t do a bar. We need a bar name.

Have at it, Arghers.

Starting the Second Book

Writing a series has been eye-opening in many ways, but the biggest surprise is how fast the second and third books go. Well, went. This is just our second series, so stay tuned.

The thing I’m realizing now, as we start Very Nice Funerals, is how this has shifted the romance plot for me. Writing stand-alone, the lovers meet, work out a relationship, and commit. That worked for me until I did the Liz/Vince series and realized that the interesting stuff happens after the okay-let’s-do-this ending. Now they’re together. The hard stuff starts. I had a great time with that in the Liz/Vince books, showing how they tentatively got in deeper with each other, trying to navigate their issues and their needs. It was so much more interesting that my standard romance plot (although I really do not know how I’d arc that further in a second Liz/Vince series, so I’m still cogitating on that.)

But the Rose/Max relationship is even more off the wall than Liz and Vince.

The first book only lasts a week, and during that week Rose has her life turned inside out, not just by Max who restarts her libido, but by events that change her life so radically she can’t (and doesn’t want to) go back to the way things were. Max has taken some hits to his certainties about life, too, and he’s coping with that. They each have so much to deal with that their romance isn’t a priority for either of them. I like that. And it makes the negotiations they’re going to have to make with each other in Very Nice Funerals a lot more interesting. Neither of them is expecting a relationship HEA, they’re just trying to figure out how to get a personal (solitary) future that’s satisfying and secure. They like each other just fine, but they have bigger fish to fry than a love affair. So the arc in VNF has to be getting some of those fish fried and moving them closer to considering the romance more than a fling.

Of course, the reader has to be ahead of them there, seeing how well they work together, how much fun they are together, how they’re denying the thing they’re both wary of, the whole this-is-real decision. Considering they’re dealing with a serial killer in VNF, I think it’s plausible they don’t have time to deal with that, even if it’s clear on the page.

And then, of course, they have to figure it out in the next book, The Honey Pot Plot, which is about women and vengeance and a lot of other crunchy stuff, but mostly for me about Rose taking control of her life and going after what she wants. I don’t know what it’s about for Bob, but I’ll find out when we get there. It’s that push and pull between the two character arcs that make writing with him so interesting. And fun.

But first, the romance arc in VNF. The thing I’m finding really interesting about it right now is that she’s okay with Max leaving and so is he. They really like each other, but they have these separate lives with a lot of important stuff going on, so it’s pretty much “Thanks for the good time, give me a call if you’re ever back this way again.” And then the killings start.

But at least Rocky Start is finished. There’ll be more rewrites on that as we work our way through the next two books, but it’s solid right now. I think. Aaaaaaargh. Writing is hard.