tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post8315288670498509727..comments2024-03-27T07:25:07.401+00:00Comments on Grumpy Old Bookman: The power of negative thinkingMichael Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11338398159818400930noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-39633526423212109012017-06-22T10:38:08.094+01:002017-06-22T10:38:08.094+01:00What's up, nice internet site you have got in ...What's up, nice internet site you have got in here.<br /><a href="http://antibiotichelp.com/buy-keftab-online-au.html" rel="nofollow">http://antibiotichelp.com/buy-keftab-online-au.html</a><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13025561518456818167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-9681919949259161752007-05-30T22:56:00.000+01:002007-05-30T22:56:00.000+01:00As an author of romantic suspense and historical r...As an author of romantic suspense and historical romance, all I have to say is thank you. I've grown very annoyed with comments such as, "Research? You don't have to do research for those, do you?" and "I couldn't believe it. Here, it was romance, and it was actually (insert gasp) *good*."<BR/><BR/>Gee, thanks. I think.<BR/><BR/>Ironically, I blogged about this topic ("Oooh, Girl Germs!") earlier this week, before reading your brilliant post. Hope you'll stop by.<BR/><BR/>http://boxingoctopus.blogspot.com/2007/05/oooh-girl-germs.htmlColleen Thompsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18398127184158098008noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-57977701340903995592007-05-10T10:18:00.000+01:002007-05-10T10:18:00.000+01:00It's absolutely true that romance writers end up b...It's absolutely true that romance writers end up being apologetic for what they write. I respect any writer for being able to create a world out of his/her head. And though relationships may be termed as Catherine noted, those are the stuff of life and it's not easy to deal with them in life and even in writing.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the post.<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://bluerectangle.com/" REL="nofollow">BlueRectangle Books</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-59842214293910460492007-05-10T10:01:00.000+01:002007-05-10T10:01:00.000+01:00Many thanks -- the mention is (again) greatly appr...Many thanks -- the mention is (again) greatly appreciated. <I>Ansible</I> readers seem to have become sensitized to <A HREF="http://news.ansible.co.uk/others.php" REL="nofollow">"As Others See Us"</A> quotations, and now send them in vast numbers. I worry that my coverage may make disdain for SF seem more universal than it is, rather as figures for some kinds of crime can be boosted merely by more attentive reporting....Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10189997901927369195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-19195255308373758402007-05-10T04:58:00.000+01:002007-05-10T04:58:00.000+01:00I have a friend who wrote an intricately researche...I have a friend who wrote an intricately researched historical romance. She was at some party and someone mentioned her book. <BR/>"What is it?" said some guy.<BR/>"Well, it's a romance..." she started to say.<BR/>And he shook his head and said, "Liz, Liz, you could do so much better."<BR/><BR/>See what I mean?<BR/>I do something that might be called magical realism, but I don't say literary fiction because I'm afraid it sets up a tone of superiority that I don't want.Bastethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15031109621488847594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-19974713194872976702007-05-09T21:48:00.000+01:002007-05-09T21:48:00.000+01:00Bravo! Michael. You are one in a million!Bravo! Michael. <BR/><BR/>You are one in a million!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-45365282655401235582007-05-09T19:29:00.000+01:002007-05-09T19:29:00.000+01:00Joyce Carol Oates has frequently appeared in fanta...Joyce Carol Oates has frequently appeared in fantasy/horror genre anthologies and magazines, <I>Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine</I>, for instance. I'm not terribly fond of her work, but if she's been ashamed of the writerly company (or genre audience) she hasn't been ashamed enough to use a pseudonym. She also writes genre mysteries (originally under a pseudonym tho they're now being issued as JCO "writing as").Glenn Ingersollhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10674475308395975995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-82086303257531004172007-05-09T16:49:00.000+01:002007-05-09T16:49:00.000+01:00I agree entirely. De gustibus non est disputandum....I agree entirely. <I>De gustibus non est disputandum</I>. There are no absolute standards in art, only individual appreciation and reception history. <BR/><BR/>As for J.C. Oates, I didn't like what little of hers I've read, but funnily she has made appreciative statements about H.P. Lovecraft.Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05799391349111994914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-12837005581630802942007-05-09T14:55:00.000+01:002007-05-09T14:55:00.000+01:00hurrah, hurrah.As a long time member of the RNA wh...hurrah, hurrah.<BR/><BR/>As a long time member of the RNA who is about to have her first novel published, the more people who come out in favour of the romantic novel the better in my view.<BR/><BR/>After all... where would our classics be without, Jane Austen, the Brontes, Dr Zhivago. etc etc...<BR/><BR/>I've never been particularly embarrassed or felt belittled by writing romantic fiction, tis the stuff of life after all. But then I started out working in children's publishing, which pre Harry Potter was really the bottom of the heap!Jane Henryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17514534117777707886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-57458175832105118212007-05-09T14:12:00.000+01:002007-05-09T14:12:00.000+01:00Many years ago during a divorce I was packing for ...Many years ago during a divorce I was packing for a solo camping trip when someone tossed me a thick book to take along. I spent the next few days by a fire, reading and thoroughly enjoying it. Little did I know back then that it was--horrors--a romance novel.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-37995369912044731272007-05-09T10:25:00.001+01:002007-05-09T10:25:00.001+01:00You're so right. I've lost count of the number of ...You're so right. I've lost count of the number of men who've said to me, 'I don't read romantic fiction but I loved your novel...'. In which case, I feel like saying, you <I>do</I> read romantic fiction. <BR/><BR/>It's the labelling that's so reductive, and the apparently irresistible impulse to class things, once labelled, as higher/lower or better/worse or literary/genre.<BR/><BR/>The fact that my novel <I>The Mathematics of Love</I> was longlisted for the RNA Award of which you were a judge, GOB, <I>and</I> shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers and Goss First Novel awards, says to me how ridiculous this either/or thing is. Why can't we be both/and? <BR/><BR/>And once you acknowledge that things can be both/and, then labels no longer have the power to constrain us: writers can write what they write best without shame, readers can read what they want without apology, and a book can be itself, whatever that self is.<BR/><BR/>EmmaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-68622805271807022112007-05-09T10:25:00.000+01:002007-05-09T10:25:00.000+01:00Three cheers! What a hero you are to say it - and ...Three cheers! What a hero you are to say it - and do so agree with you. Have always wondered why women writing about relationships are so often dismissed as 'romantic nonsense' while certain male writers committing their angst ridden prose to paper are so often lauded for what is essentially an exploration of the same territory, from a young male point of view. My own 'Curiosity Cabinet' was dismissed by one reader as a 'guilty pleasure' - she (sadly, it was a she) enjoyed it but felt that she shouldn't have! A quick browse through the websites of the vast majority of Scottish publishers will show you what a desert we inhabit up here. Unless you write detective stories, or cutting edge literary fiction, your bum is well and truly - as they say up here - oot the windae. This has been the subject of intense discussion between a group of us recently - mostly female, all professional writers with good track records, all in despair. And yet we are readers too! We can't all be wrong.Catherine Czerkawskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14554969254207924049noreply@blogger.com