All Writers Were Once New

There is a saying that all music was once new.

This is true.

All writing was also once new.

But I'll go one further. All writers were once new.

Who knows when the next King, Rowling--or whoever your favorite author is--will come along and knock down the conventional doors of writing?

So, with this in mind, I write on. And blog when I can.

I wanted to sort of review some of the books I've read this past winter.

Lately I've been really into Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books. These are fun to read--a blend of fantasy, romance, and mystery. Charlaine isn't the only one doing these types of books, but for me, these are the ones I personally like, out of any of the other writer's I've read.

Harris' last book All Together Dead, I thought had been her best, in as far as bringing all her elements together--the mystery,the danger, the romance--creating a romantic cliffhanger for her heroine over which man she'll choose. I can't wait until her next book, but I really can't afford a hardbound book. So, I'll have to bide my time and wait until a year from now, when it should be out in paperback.

Basically, her vampires have come out of the closet, as they say, because of the new "synthetic" blood developed by the Japanese. This enables the vampires to blend into society, and be accepted (as far as they can be).

The sometimes funny things that happen along the way, and the different characters that she introduces in every story, is what gives these stories their magic, and keeps the reader interested.

This was her seventh book, her eighth one is due out next month.

I was curious about Laurell K. Hamilton, and unfortunately I didn't know she wrote porno (erotica in writing terms, but a manager of a bookstore said flat out that it's unabashed porno, and I had to agree). Thus, this is all I'm saying about the one I tried to read, Incubus Dreams, but I truly became sick of the multiple menage a trois, throughout, and what I was told was an interesting premise in the very beginning turned into an ugly beast. Her character doesn't do any vampire hunting, as far as I can see. Most of her time is spent on bathroom, bedroom, office floors, in a bed occasionally, on a desk once, and the back seat of a Jeep. Well, I'll be honest. Every now and then she was on top. But it was always with two men. If this is your fantasy, be my guest, check her out in the fantasy section. You have a who array to choose from. I personally don't care to have nightmares about sex, thank you. So, I put it down and couldn't finish it.

I then went to the other end of the scale, chose Lynsay Sands' Vampire, Interrupted, and found it very tame compared to Hamilton. It is a romance, and thus nothing really happens at all. As in all romances, the basic plot is easy (easy to figure out who's going to go to bed with whom), and so, I became easily bored, sleepy, and couldn't finish it in a week, as I do any of the Harris' Dead books. This kept me in reading material until All Together Dead went into paperback.

The one thing I didn't like about Sands' vampire explanation was that their ancestors came from Atlantis, thus were advanced scientifically, and used something called "nano" technology, and bioengineering, and to stay alive forever they feed on blood, I guess, to become "immortals". This part for me was okay. But her other premises just weren't in the vampire mode, such as women (vampires) aparently can give birth at any age, and in this book, they were able to go out into the sun. So, why did they need to do things at night? I haven't a clue. I couldn't get their being able to attain blood (in plastic bags, like you find in blood banks, hospitals, etc.). It was a total turn off reading about them sucking blood from the plastic bags.

Sands' books are probably okay, if you don't get into the usual vampire fantasy thing. If you want to read romance with a vampire or two in it as the main characters, but you want more of a romance-read, Sands gets my vote.

Personally, I like the whole fantasy creation, and true vampires who are somewhat evil, or at least bite during sex. I don't know why, but the mild erotic eliment of this is just pushing the envelope just enough to be naughty but not something that gives me nightmares.

As far as the Dead books by Harris, she has her Sookie character dating vampires as well as Weres. It makes for a good mix that isn't boring at least, her characters feel real. She doesn't try to gross you out in crutial points (it's why I quit reading King. That was pure horror, and I fell away from it years ago).

Okay, that's all for me. I'm looking forward to checking out a different writer, one that Harris mentioned in her blog the other day. Karen Chance. Touch The Dark, is her first book. I just want to read it, because her main character is a clairvoyant, as is my character I'm writing about in Were There's Blood. I need to make sure I'm not copying an idea. But mainly to see what my other copetition is doing.

Happy Spring!