Friday, March 4, 2005

Money for nothing

I'm cranky this morning because the baby had me up all night, so I'll break my usual rule against ranting. Ranting is great fun when you're already in a lousy mood:-). So a rant follows:

It's amazing to me how many people think writing romance novels is an easy way to get rich. Wanton Hussy (see link above) rants about how awful romance novels are, apparently based on her reading of them from the early eighties-- her description of the heroine as "always about 15 when the book starts... no older than 18 or 19 when she meets the hero...a hoyden, a spitfire, a hellion" is kind of a giveaway, to say nothing of her statement that the hero either takes the heroine roughly or "rapes her outright because he thinks she was cheating on him, and only realizes she was a virgin when he sees the blood on his thighs later." Obviously Wanton Hussy hasn't read a romance for many long years.

And the really annoying thing? She comments, "Somewhere around my sophomore year of high school, it occurred to me that I could probably write romances; they're so formulaic, all you have to do is write one, and then change bits and pieces and names forever, and you're got yourself a series. Even now, I sometimes contemplate writing them; it would be so easy. But I just can't bring myself to sell my soul to that particular devil, since I hate them so much."

Uh... sure, hon. Go ahead and write a romance novel based on those romances you remember from the eighties and try to sell it to a publisher. Wait for those offers to roll in. You'll be waiting quite a while, I'm afraid.

And Husband Anon (http://husbands.blogdrive.com/archive/89.html) talks about how he's stalled on his novel (on the dedication page). He says, though, that he COULD always "write trashy romances under a pseudonym." Oh, sure. If you can't write anything of consequence, just sit down and write a trashy romance in a weekend and then send that puppy out to publishers. Go ahead and try it, dude. I dare you.

Thanks to Maili (http://mcvane.blogspot.com/) and Emma (http://mcvane.blogspot.com/) for the links.

3 comments:

  1. Good grief. That's all I can say. Good grief.

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  2. Me too Larissa. Grr. I know eveyone's entitled to thier own opinions but at least get the facts about romances straight before you go bashing them.

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