I didn't read a huge amount over the holidays, but I'm just about done with Christine Wells new book, The Dangerous Duke. My favorite line? When Jardine says to Louisa,
"If I can't have you, I'll be damned if some limp cock of a smooth-talking bastard will have you, either. Good Lord, woman! Have you no discrimination?"
I have to admit that these two stole the show a little bit for me. I Googled around to see if I could find any hints of an upcoming book featuring Louisa and Jardine's story, but nothing so far. I'm sure Wells has a great story in mind for the two of them, though.
I also read Save the Cat by Blake Snyder last month. It's a screenwriting book, but has some great material for writers. I'm sorry to have missed his presentation at RWA last summer. After reading it, I spent quite a bit of time correlating his key story points to those over writers have described. I've been trying to hang the main plot points from my WIP, The Keeper, onto this framework and its been a helpful exercise so far. My favorite among Snyder's many insights is the "Whiff of Death" scene. It makes so much sense to me that in any kind of story--even comedy--the only way to make the storytelling truly meaningful and grounded in human experience is to have there be some contemplation of death at the climax. How can you have meaning in life without some acknowledgment that life is always bounded by death.
After Snyder, I dug into The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler, which I'd read about five years ago but wanted to revisit given that I feel like I've learned so much on the craft front. I petered out pretty quickly this go around. The time just isn't right for the lessons that book has to offer.
I turned instead to Writing for Emotional Impact, by Karl Iglesias, which is fantastic. I came across this with some random Google searches on writing emotion (can you tell I like Google?). This book is pure gold. It's so dense, that I feel like I need to go back and outline a couple of the chapters for future reference--sort of a smorgasbord of methods to generate different emotional reactions.
Seeing as my book club won't let me get away without reading some literary fiction, I also read Being Dead by Jim Crace this month. Beautiful prose, but not my idea of a love story. I guess I'm just not the type of girl who wants to better understand the depressingly realities of mediocre personal relationships. Or, for that matter, what happens to decomposing bodies on the beach.
The other thing I've glommed onto of late is Helen Fisher's research into the neurobiology of lust, attraction and long-term love. It's fascinating stuff. Jenny Crusie recommended her books during the Crusie Mayer Writing Workshop, and I finally got around to buying them. I've been focused on her scientific articles related to what happens when people break up with you (as this is relevant to The Keeper), but I'm looking forward to reading Why We Love and Anatomy of Love next.
Last up is the Anglo Files by Sarah Lyall. My mom, who is English, bought this for me for Christmas. She read it while she was recuperating from a cat bite that got terribly infected and almost landed her in the hospital. (Her words of wisdom after the fact, "If you ever see a cat and dog fighting, be sure to go after the dog.") I read most of this the day I got it. Lyall's journalistic style makes it a quick read, and she touches on so many great English cultural idiosyncracies. Drink as a social lubricant, lecherous members of the House Commons, bad teeth, hedgehog love and homoeroticism in public schools--it's all there.
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