My Summer of Putney, Part One




I like for my summer reading to have a theme, and most often that means some sort of schooling myself in the classics of historical romance. This summer’s focus is Mary Jo Putney.

While I do prefer a book that is complete in itself, I had set myself a broader study of collecting and reading the first books in many seminal (no puns, kthanx) historical series. Many of those were not intended as series starters, but the spirit or the market moved, and companion volumes followed. In pure business terms, my goal was to find out what made those founding books successful.

No such survey would be complete without Mary Jo Putney’s Fallen Angels. When I found a copy of Thunder and Roses in the UBS, I snagged it, and there it sat in my study shelf until I heard its call and soon snagged the rest. Also the Bride trilogy, as I count that as connected. The Bargain and The Rake are also in that shelf, with the Silk trilogy, and her return to the straight historical, Loving a Lost Lord, is the tippy top of my TBR mountain…after I finish The Bartered Bride. Phew.

Accordingly, I dub this my Summer of Putney. For the last couple of months, my default “don’t know what to read next” book has been a Putney, going through the Fallen Angels and then the Brides in order. (For those who don’t know me, I must read linked books in chronological order, or mountains will crumble, puppies will die and *your* celebrity crush of the moment will wake up ugly. But really, I do it for the puppies.)

More on that later, but for now, I am insanely delighted to have found this in my vault; Mary Jo Putney's one and only western novella. Extra points for having an Anita Mills title in the same volume. (Anita, if you're out there and ever want to come back to historical romance, you can bunk at my place.)

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Happy mid-July. This is the month that marks mid-summer in our family, and a good time for changes, but you may have guessed that from the presence of a new post, the new look of the blog and the new title. Or the old title. I'll explain.

A previous blog of mine was titled "Typing With Wet Nails" because I usually was, and my inner polish diva has resurfaced, bringing with her a desire to get back to the basics of how I create. Which spotlights something I've ignored for a while. I like pretty things. Normal for many girls, appropriate for a romance writer, and a part of me that deserves to be indulged. Plus I flat out like the title, so it is back.

The focus will be shifting as well, with less real life talk and more about the romance genre in general, and my contributions and observations in particular. My first exposure to historical romance was reading my mother's copy of The Kadin by Bertrice Small, and found what I would be reading and writing for the rest of my life. Mumblecough years and four e-books later, that love of the romance genre is still strong and getting stronger.

I love alpha heroes and equally alpha heroines, history and romance that depend on each other and a heap of angst on the way to a well deserved happily ever after. The same as I love closing a book with a happy sigh that things ended right, I also love typing "the end" after telling such a tale of my own. Romance is the genre where the woman always wins, and I consider that a very good thing. If I can spend a few hundred pages exploring other times and places, then even better.

As with all changes, it takes a while to get things settled, so please pardon my dust (but it's pretty, sparkly dust) and drop by as you please. Welcome to new readers and welcome back for those who have been checking in. I hope you'll like it here, because I certainly do.

Thursday Thirteen: Favorite Ben Folds songs, not neccessarily in order
1)Brick
2)Cologne
3)Army
4)Carrying Cathy
5)Still Fighting It
6)Family of Me
7)Landed
8)Best Imitation of Myself
9)Effington
10)Late
11)Songs of Love
12)The Luckiest
13)Gone

Thoughtful things on a Monday afternoon.

First, I hope all who celebrate Easter and/or Passover had a lovely and blessed season. Our church had an unusual celebration, gathering for brunch at a local hotel, with only a short meeting, and when we went to pay the bill, were told it had been taken care of already. Whoever our benefactor was, that was a lovely gesture, much appreicated, and it got me thinking (hence Jacqueline's thoughtful pose in today's picture.)

Since I've been known to pull from widely diverse reference sources, I'll start with a paraphrase from Dr. Phil. If what you're doing isn't working, do something else. Or, as Benjamin Franklin put it, the definition of stupidity is to perform the same experiment the same way and expect different results. Both gents are quite right and their advice works well when one hits a writing wall.

Next piece of the puzzle: the Ben Folds song, "Carrying Cathy" and the movie Love Actually. I'll have stretches of time when I get strongly focused on one thing that inspires me, and have to examine it from several different angles, to see why it resonates that strongly with me, and what I'm to do with it. Current object: song mentioned above. Particularly this bit:

Woke up sad from this dream I've been having
The last couple nights or so
With her father and brothers we're all at the funeral
Carrying a box through the rain

That image refused to leave my mind, and being the Anglophile that I am, the movie in my head had the men carrying the coffin at shoulder height, in British tradition (which brings in the funeral from Love Actually...and Four Weddings and a Funeral, come to think of it) instead of the American tradition, though Mr Folds is American and one might presume the song is as well. What can I say, I'm hardwired for British historicals.

So why is this random idea monopolizing my brain when I have a contest entry to get in, agents to query, and a schedule to make sure my ms is polished and ready to submit? When I'm also ripping apart a shelved story idea to see if it can be saved, if it's part of another partial idea, and ack, I have to research for the next historical once the time travel sails off to its requested appointment?

Because ::deep breath:: I haven't written for fun in a while, and if one doesn't enjoy one's work, it's going to be harder. I did not remember this before now, why? Hmm. Yes, writing is a job and a career and needs professionalism and dedication, but there needs to be the joy of it as well. Not that writing has been joyless of late, but a bit of a reminder, and sometimes it's in the playing around that the best ideas present themselves. Guess what I'm doing today.