Splutter cough hawrk

[erastes]

I'm a little better today.  This has been a very nasty cold. I am not going to exaggerate and say it was flu because it wasn't, but it does seem that this particular cold has innocuous symptoms and then pole-axes people—which it certainly did me.  Yesterday I could hardly stand up without leaning on the kitchen worksurfaces to recover my breath—and going upstairs takes a while as I have to stop every three steps.  However, I woke hungry, which made a change, scoffed everything in sight, and now am thinking about braving the outside again as I didn't expect I'd eat all I got yesterday!  LOL.  But other than a very nasty cough, and the weakness, I'm over the worst of it. Thank you every one of you who left a note on twitter or livejournal.

i'll be back in the routine tomorrow, at Dad's and hopefully getting on with the new wip which is actually starting to excite me. i need a name—at the moment it's tentatively called Gentleman of Fortune, but i'm not in love with it.

Something I've found interesting in the early reviews of Mere Mortals is that a few people are nervous about reading it, because they aren't told up front who the main Romance is between. I find this very strange—almost as strange as wanting to know what the ending is. I suppose it makes sense, when you think about it, because many romance readers read romance specifically because they already know how the book is going to end.

All I can say is that 1. yes, it's a romance and 2. there's no threesomes. I can't say who the romance is with because it's a mystery and I don't want to spoil. If you really really really really want to know, email me directly and I'll let you know.

Comments

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Oh Noes, it's Coffin Henry!

Hope you get the rest of this cleared up soon.

It does amaze me sometimes that so many readers want to know the precise formula of a book so they don't have to risk being surprised. (I do like to know that the heroes are both alive and likely to stay that way--so I'm not entirely immune, either.)

I remember being surprised by an ending of a book I read when I was about 12 or 13... I think the title was "Watch the Wall, My Darling." Gothic romance, the first I'd run across (up to then it was books about dogs, horses, and Sherlock Holmes). It had the usual twist at the end and the heroine wasn't rescued by the one I'd expected to be the hero. Had to go re-read it to find that the hints had been there all along.

A memorable book, obviously!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's because I never really read romance--and by that I mean I don't read it BECAUSE it''s romance. For me, it's all about not knowing, and not wanting to know and guessing and being wrong - the twistier the journey the better. I read Christie from a very early age and I'd rather die than ayone telling me what happened. I can't stand any sort of spoilers either - even something as innocuous as "in the last book, harry potter rides a dragon."

That's why I adore the Fire and Ice Saga so much - not only because you don't dare get attached to anyone because he slaughters everyone indiscriminately, hero-type or not--but because of all the conspiracy theories and hints he's put in that may or may not turn out to be true. I do dislike knowing how a book is going to end.

However I'd never not read a book just because the blurb doesn't say who the pairing is!! that's what seemed the oddest.

[markprobst.livejournal.com]

The rigidity of the Romance "rulebook" continues to baffle me. In "Prove a Villain," I didn't have any clue which man Hugh was going to end up with until the end of the story! And quite frankly, I guessed wrong!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

LOL - me too. I seriously didn't think it was going that way, I thought that history would kick in, if you get me (without spoiling) but so glad it didn't!

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

I like being surprised, and surprising readers, in stories.

Glad you're feeling better.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

me too! - and thank you! *spluttercough*

*koff* *koff*

[aunty_marion]

It's a Bloody Awful Bug, inni'? It took me two stops each way this morning to walk a quarter of a mile up to the newsagents and back. I've been making myself eat, but my nose has gone funny and insists that the world smells of rancid grease/oil/perfume or something. Ick.

Re: *koff* *koff*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I'm at the "can't taste, can't smell" anything stage which is horrible. Get well soon, you!

[josephine-myles.livejournal.com]

Glad you're feeling a better now - sounds like you've had an awful time of it.

Wanting to know who the romance is between? I suppose surprises are just not welcomed by some people. Seems a shame, but perhaps they don't want to find out that the one they really like doesn't end up as part of the romantic dyad. It would be wasted emotional investment, or something. I like surprises.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

i wonder if it's a cultural thing? perhaps being raised on christie makes the brits more amenable to surprise.

I loved The Phoenix, for example, because it was self pubbed, Ruth didn't know she should market it as a Romance and so i had no guarantees of the ending - it made it delicious to read.