Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Sarah is a nicer ref than I am—-I would have added at least a loss of down for being a total tool.  As for the author, he handled it way better than I would, but I suppose if you’re a man who writes for Mills & Boon you pretty much have to have a thick skin & the patience of a saint.

Yes, when I read the article (before being the umpteenth person to send it to SB Sarah), I was making bets with myself how much penalty yardage would be assessed. I’ll bet Mr. Sanderson was ticked off at the result of his patience with the interviewer!

““The heroine, at some point in the story, always looked in a mirror and admired herself, something a woman would never do as she would only see her flaws,” she suggests. “

Ouch!  I just admired myself in the mirror ten minutes before reading this article.  Guess I lose “woman” points…

It’s amazing to me how this article manages simultaneously to congratulate a man for “making it in a woman’s world,” and to denigrate the value of the “woman’s world” in which he made it.  You would think that the two would be mutually exclusive, but apparently not.

I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who took offense at “churned out”.  Which term he used twice.  The part that really sizzled me, though:

The broad-shouldered Yorkshireman goes weight training three times a week, mountain climbing at the weekends and enjoys a drink with friends at his rugby club in Waterloo, Merseyside.

Good heavens!  How very different from all the dainty ladies who wear lace and gloves while they delicately exist in gossamer and chiffon, spinning delicate stories from their silly, delicate imaginations.  Gosh-a-glory, heaven forfend that a romance-writing lady should weight train.  Or mountain climb.  Or drink.  Or belong to a rugby club.  I declare, I’ve never heard the like!

the path of breathy romantic fiction.

???????????
See, this is the stuff that always confuses me in ‘about romance’ articles ... is it the authors who are suppose to be ‘breathy’ or the readers?  I don’t think it would be polite if we were all ‘breathy’ together, would it?

The good news is that Mills & Boon sell a breathily written/read romance novel every 4 seconds and that this hopefully is my last Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh moment of 2008.

Aw hell. Not even half way through the article and the dinner I enjoyed is in danger of coming back up… What is so troubling?  These these people take themselves seriously. Scary. Really. Scary. *shudder* Obviously we have not come as far in the land of Neanderthals as I hoped.

Does anyone else think this guy Gill sans glasses bears a close resemblance to ‘Bert’ from Sesame Street?

I’m delighted to be able to call myself a friend of Roger’s, and he is a man with huge tolerance and a great sense of humour. Over the years, he’s had to be. He is also a Mills and Boon/Harlequin veteran and as one of the few male authors (the only M and B one, but aren’t there some male Harlequin authors?) he is regularly rolled out for interviews and suchlike.
I’d call the article “arch,” but the only thing I’d really take issue with is the “churned out” comment. He doesn’t churn out, he lovingly crafts.
Roger has turned up to the occasional Nationals, which he enjoys very much, he says. Gets lots of hugs. He says.

Cool article