I've been about killing myself this week because I am attempting to write my romantic suspense's first overtly "romantic" scene. I am frankly amazed at people who can make this kind of thing seem smooth, seamless, not melodramatic. I need a lot more work. (Can you tell I am not at all happy with this week's work?) So, all that said, here are my two sentences:
A tear dripped slowly down Callie’s cheek, the sparkling drop filling him with combination of vicious rage and savage frustration, both of which he forced down. She didn’t need his anger.Two sentences I read this week come from a BookEnds blog post on pseudonyms.
Would you be disappointed if you found out that Cassandra Castiglione was really Alfred Churchgate? [...] Would you be less likely to pick up a tough-guy military, Tom Clancy-style book if it were written by Candy Cane?
You may have noticed over time that my name in the sidebar here has changed from Laura Kramarsky to Laura (Kramarsky) Curtis. Chances are it will eventually become just Laura Curtis. I actually never intended to write under my maiden name, but when I sent out my beading cozy, I wanted to be able to capitalize on my platform, which was all acquired under "Kramarsky." But that's hard to remember, hard to spell, hard to find in the bookstore, so chances are it will be "Laura Curtis" who gets published.
What about you all. Have you any thoughts on the nature of names? And what about your two sentences?
Posts
16 comments:
Hi Laura,
Since I am staying at my daughter's house, here are the two sentences that I read THE MOST TIMES this week:
"We are having a race today," said Mrs. Connor.
The first graders loved races.
From The Counting Race, a Ready-to-Read Level 1 book by Margaret McNamara.
As to writing, I have nothing to report. Sob! Sob!
Terrie
LOL, Terrie! When I babysit my various nieces and nephews, I end up reading the same sentences multiple times. No sooner do we get to the end of that day's (or week's) "favorite book" than we have to turn back to the beginning and start again.
Hi Laura,
My understanding on pen names is J.K. Rowling is J.K. and not Joanna because it was believed that boys would not read a book with a woman's name on it.
Having said that, I think that is largely bunk. My son has read all the potter books but my daughter is resolutely refusing to do so and prefers to follow the movies. Both kids are fascinated by the characters and escapades and not the author's name.
As for a military thriller written by "Candy Cane," I'm not sure I would read any book by someone called that.
As for two sentences, what about dropping the "sparkling drop" and go with straight declarative? My two cents is the two sentences work fine, but the adjective phrase didn't add much. But if you want to keep the descriptive, how about the sparking tear ran down her cheek?
Alex -
I have to say, I wouldn't read a book by Candy Cane, either. Mostly because if she couldn't think of a better name for herself, I doubt she could think of a good story, either.
I often chat with people in the mystery/thriller aisle at our local Borders, and I've been told by several men that they won't read mysteries or thrillers by women. I am quite certain some of them have read books by women without realizing it, but that's what they believe.
(I always wonder whether the problem for people who say they don't read women or don't read men isn't actually the gender of the protagonist, not the author--if an author uses initials to mask his/her sex, and has a female protagonist, people assume the author is a woman.)
I don't know women who wouldn't read mysteries by men, but I certainly know some who wouldn't read romances by men.
I don't pay that much attention to the name on the spine, unless it's either so outstanding I can't avoid seeing it (like Candy Cane), or it's someone I've heard of.
everything I've read lately has been academic. here you go:
"Not all the cargoes delivered to Jamaica were divided into lots. Occasionally, the company received a small proportion of slaves out of cargoes delivered on private contract, these usually being those rejected by the contractor as being too young or too old to comply with the contract stipulations."
From Saltwater Slavery by Stephanie Smallwood. Thrilling stuff, no?
as to names--I love my name. I am the ONLY ONE. IN THE WORLD. and if you google my last name (which I am still not putting in the blogosphere) every person you get is related to me. it's awesome. go Ellis Island and your bad spelling!
I've been home with the kids (vacation here too) and so the things I read most are shopping lists and cook books. I haven't even had time to Look at my WIP lately! In front of me are:
"Don't forget! sweet potatoes, napkins, toothpaste, wheatabix."
and
"...add the eggs and cocoa to the mixture and stir well. Put in the oven and bake for 25 -30 minutes or until done."
Grace-
My maiden name is one of those Ellis Island one-offs, too! There are now about 3,000 of us in the U.S., all from one family whose name was bowdlerized in a particular (and not too mellifluous) way.
Because I'm so aware of all the name fakery that goes on, the name on the spine rarely decides me unless it carries a reputation. The implied gender of the author's name doesn't dissuade me, but affects my perception of the kind of book I assume something is. This may be because I read so much genre goodness, or is an artifact of my assuming, at this jaded stage, that marketing decisions (like Laura's) have already been made. If I were to pick up a spy thriller by Rick Ripstop, I wouldn't necessarily assume a man wrote it, but I'd know the readers they were targeting. The same for Emmeline Hightower's historical romance.
I read: "It was a blackened stump of a tower. It stood like an extrusion of magma from one of the more pestilential pits of hell, and it leaned at a peculiar angle, as if oppressed by something altogether more terrible than its own considerable weight."
-from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams.
I wrote: Maybe it was his solidity, his loyalty and affability, the way he smelled the truth of people but chose not to hold it against them. Perhaps it was simply the whiteness of Father Terry's collar against the black suit that always reminded her of a Burmese Mountain Dog.
Sam-
Now I've seen your blog to know you write erotic romance, you have GOT to give us two sentences you wrote on our next 2-sentence Tuesday!
Found you through Alex. My initials are BCD, (married name) and though I like Dornbusch as a last name better than my plain jane British "Hunt", I loathe, simply loathe my first name: Betsy. It's...well. Not me.
My husband calls me Mo and has for years, so I've thought about Mo Dornbusch. Or even M.O. Dornbusch. And a friend, based on my online moniker, thought I should go by S.X. Dornbusch. He thought my books would fly off the shelves under such a name.
As for your lines, sparkling struck me as too much for a male POV. But maybe your guy is artsy. I definitely have male characters that would use the word. The two lines intrigue me though--nice tension.
Oh, two lines from this week? Hmm, guess I should play. (Seems like a fun game.)
I wrote: Father Paul kept himself in good shape with walks around the city, but this had been a long day for an arthritic old man. He favored one hip, which hitched his strides.
I read (from a story I bought for our current issue):
"His buddies brought it in when they found him with it. Got fucking dead guy on it.”
Grace -
I'm the only one of me, too. And all the Kramarskys you might find on Google are related to me in some way. I'm first generation American.
Sam -
From your site, the best sentence I've read this week: "The Frog Prince and The Phallus from Dallas, at last in print!" I mean, how often do you get to make a statement like that?
Mo/Betsy -
I love the name Mo Dornbusch. I think the S.X. might be a bit much. (Speaking of masking one's gender with initials, are there women's names that begin with X? The only name I can think of at the moment is Xavier.)
Yeah, I thought SX was too much, too. You guys are making me rethink Mo now.
It's been brought to my attention (tx, Laura) that it's a Bernese Mountain Dog. I've been mis-saying it for years, but it's good to be once more on the side of the syntactical angels.
Love the Two Sentence idea...heard about you from Travis.
Here's mine:
"Be careful there. When we're indecisive, the wishes of others gain." -- from Shirley Hazzard's National Book Award Winner The Great Fire
"He'd administered her shots, prescribed antibiotics when she got ear infections. He also performed an in-office urine extraction, an embarrassing apex of Dorie's adolescence when she had a bladder infection in fourth grade and was too nervous to pee in the cup." -- from my novel in progress
Love the sentences, Britta!
Post a Comment