Pain-in-the-Neck Novelist
I think Kristin simultaneous likes the fact that I don’t do the obvious and is driven nuts by it. Most medievals are post-Norman invasion and have castles. Mine is pre-Norman Anglo-Saxon, which means there are no castles. She keeps telling me that I’m being too big a stickler for historical accuracy and that I should just have a castle. Everyone can envision one of those. The Anglo-Saxons had giant wooden halls, and it takes a lot of description to give the reader a good image.
I’m not switching to a castle. I’m moving the action around more so that I can break the description up instead of giving it to the reader in large chunks. That’s just going to have to do. I can handle the occasional anachronism, but I can’t have a whole building that just wouldn’t have been there for another sixty or more years. Plus, my hero is transported back in time from the ruins. It’s so much more dramatic if I’m accurate, because Anglo-Saxon ruins aren’t much to look at. He doesn’t go from seeing a tumbledown castle to a full-fledged one. He goes from an empty hilltop to an enormous hall built of massive oak timbers in the blink of an eye!
The thing is, I like to learn from the books I read (even the romances), and especially from the books I write. I don’t care if everyone expects a castle and can imagine one easily. I think I can spin a good story and squeeze some real history in at the same time. Kristin says editors don’t care whether I know my history—they just want what sells. I say that I want to transport my reader—really transport them—to a time and place that were real, even if the characters and the story aren’t. Surely there are readers out there who want something other than the usual fare. I think different and accurate can sell. I got lots of kudos in reviews for going 17th century Caribbean in my last books, mostly because it was different.
I started reading romance back in the 70’s—back when they really were bodice-rippers with the requisite rape scene and everything. Say what you will about them, they were historically accurate. I learned a great deal of history from Jennifer Wilde (whose real name was Tom Elmer Huff—yup, a man) and Valerie Sherwood. Whenever one of my highly impressed history teachers asked how I knew so much, I smiled smugly and said, “I read.”
One of these days, I’ll have to do a blog entry in defense of the old-fashioned bodice-ripper. In the meantime, I’m just hoping that I can defend an unconventional medieval sans castle.
Paula:
I think you should go with that you have a passion for. That's where your
creativity is and if that's unacceptable, you may need to see new editors.
The Capt.
Your description of Kristin brought to mind a female Larry Tate. Just
bring in the business Darren!!!
Nah, Kristin's great. She really has helped my writing, and I couldn't
have sold without her. I'm just going to have to get ornery about the
heroine's abode.
Jennifer Wilde was a guy, WTF, was he/she a anonymous author or something?
I read Jennifer Wilde, she/he was GOOD. They all did used to have those
requisite rape scenes didn't they? I read an old romance a few years ago
and it was in the old style that included the forced rape, I'm glad they
don't make that a requisite plot device anymore.
When we were in Cyprus on UN duty stuck out on some Godforsaken sweaty
patch of dusty sheep pasture for months on end we read a lot. The books
were collected by the wives and sweet hearts and sent to us via the company
headquarters. Of course the officers and sergeants picked through them
first and the guys on the outposts got the Romance novels and the Nurse
novels. When you are bored out of your skull you will read anything.
The romance novels were a pleasant surprise in that they were quite well
written but the Nurse novels were so much dreck.
Pre Norman England was a very interesting place and I await
your novel with, dare I say it, breathless anticipation.
It sounds like Paula-the-writer has the same integrity that we've come to
know in Paula-the-blogger. I love that you're sticking to your guns (or
should that be swords?) on the historical accuracy and the unconventional
time period. I guess we can't blame the editors of the world for wanting to
make sure that stuff will sell, but the artists of the world have to hold
out for their visions of things too. It's the continual push and pull, and
with any luck something really wonderful can be created in the process.
Hmmmm, what do you think a good female pseudonym would be for me?
I despise editors who can't stick to spell checking.
Actually, Kristin is my agent. I have to say, I made most of the changes
she asked for on my first 3 books, and then after that, my editor made no
changes at all, so I'd say that's a sign that she knows her stuff. I dug
in my heels on one thing and left it to my editor to decide which of us was
right. He went with my way. :-) Still, Kristin's advice has been pretty
good so far. It was her idea that I change the ending of Into His Arms so
that I could write a trilogy (it was originally a stand-alone novel) and
she landed me a 3 book contract as a result. I'm still standing tough on
the castle/hall thing, though.
Paula,"the requisite rape scene" is this really neccesary? I just can't
correlate Rape to Romance. Perhaps I'm too old or too dense. ThoughI can
imagin Aethelswulf(839-858) whacking his hair-dresser, then having his way
with her.
Neddy, the "requisite rape scene" goes back to the romance novels of the
70's and early 80's. It was the whole resist, be forced, and then end up
liking it thing. I really think it was a product of women from that time
breaking through the sexual repression of the 50's. You'd never see
anything like it in today's romance--a little light bondage in erotica,
maybe, but not a traditional romance.