When It's Time to Let Go...
I am having a really hard time right now. I recently bought a book by a favorite author that I'm nearly finished with and no lie it's bringing me to tears… and not in the good way.
Of course I'm not going to name this author directly - I mean who am I to cause a Google alert to pop up somewhere and that says someone diss'ed your work. What I will say is that the author is successful, well respected in the industry and even if I did name her I know my comments won't matter to her current fans. But the truth is she's breaking my heart a little.
I have loved this author for years. A personal triumph of mine is that I have every single category book she ever wrote under every name she wrote them even the ones that NO one knows about. I have this four book continuing romance series that might as well be gold sitting on my keeper shelf – I'm sure it's that rare. When she took chances I was there. When she switched genres I was there.
When I pass her in the halls at RWA conferences… I have this tendency to want to bow.
But lately it's just been harder and harder to read her newest releases. Her most recent – I'm sorry but it is a hot mess.
The story is all over the place, the sex is boring and you can tell she just wants to get through the scene rather than really explore what's happening emotionally and physically. Emotion – heck there is no real emotional development between the characters at all. They're just suddenly in love. The dialogue is clunky and while these should be contemporary characters they do not sound like anything remotely resembling a contemporary person living in 2011.
This woman was my inspiration. She's the reason why I wanted to write romance. This author in particular for me I put ahead of Nora because I found her first. I felt like the smartest person alive when I picked her off a shelf of all the other "red" books and then she went on to become famous. I said… "That's right… I know talent when I read it."
But now my heart is broken because I don't know how I can keep reading her. These last books of hers that I've read… well, they are just not for me anymore. Maybe you get to a point where you can't read an author anymore. That tipping point where they've told you every story they have as many times as you can handle it.
She was my comfort read. My go to buy. My never let me down author. And now I feel like if I read her anymore I'll start to forget how great those older books were.
I think I need to let go. I feel strangely bereft. Yes, there are new authors out there to find but this woman is my reading history. And just once more I would love to capture the thrill of what it was like to read her best work. I guess that's why I keep going back. Maybe this time will be different…
Does that happen to all of us? Are we all headed to a period in time where some innocuous blogger somewhere might say… "Yeah that last Stephanie Doyle booked sucked. It's the same story over and over again. I'm done with her."
Of course… this means someone would actually have to read a Stephanie Doyle book.
Anybody else have this kind of experience?
Of course I'm not going to name this author directly - I mean who am I to cause a Google alert to pop up somewhere and that says someone diss'ed your work. What I will say is that the author is successful, well respected in the industry and even if I did name her I know my comments won't matter to her current fans. But the truth is she's breaking my heart a little.
I have loved this author for years. A personal triumph of mine is that I have every single category book she ever wrote under every name she wrote them even the ones that NO one knows about. I have this four book continuing romance series that might as well be gold sitting on my keeper shelf – I'm sure it's that rare. When she took chances I was there. When she switched genres I was there.
When I pass her in the halls at RWA conferences… I have this tendency to want to bow.
But lately it's just been harder and harder to read her newest releases. Her most recent – I'm sorry but it is a hot mess.
The story is all over the place, the sex is boring and you can tell she just wants to get through the scene rather than really explore what's happening emotionally and physically. Emotion – heck there is no real emotional development between the characters at all. They're just suddenly in love. The dialogue is clunky and while these should be contemporary characters they do not sound like anything remotely resembling a contemporary person living in 2011.
This woman was my inspiration. She's the reason why I wanted to write romance. This author in particular for me I put ahead of Nora because I found her first. I felt like the smartest person alive when I picked her off a shelf of all the other "red" books and then she went on to become famous. I said… "That's right… I know talent when I read it."
But now my heart is broken because I don't know how I can keep reading her. These last books of hers that I've read… well, they are just not for me anymore. Maybe you get to a point where you can't read an author anymore. That tipping point where they've told you every story they have as many times as you can handle it.
She was my comfort read. My go to buy. My never let me down author. And now I feel like if I read her anymore I'll start to forget how great those older books were.
I think I need to let go. I feel strangely bereft. Yes, there are new authors out there to find but this woman is my reading history. And just once more I would love to capture the thrill of what it was like to read her best work. I guess that's why I keep going back. Maybe this time will be different…
Does that happen to all of us? Are we all headed to a period in time where some innocuous blogger somewhere might say… "Yeah that last Stephanie Doyle booked sucked. It's the same story over and over again. I'm done with her."
Of course… this means someone would actually have to read a Stephanie Doyle book.
Anybody else have this kind of experience?
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