Rock Reading Tuesdays

Welcome back to Rock Reading Tuesdays and welcome new readers!

This week is romance week, so I have not one, not two, but three romance novels. These novels are not suited for anyone under 18 due to sexual content, explicit themes, and dubious consent. If have an issue with any of these themes that are being explored in these books do not read them, next week is music week and will cover a few artists. Now onto the reviews.

Private Property by Skye Warren is a romance novel that pushes the boundaries set by society. You have a 19-year-old girl from the foster care system in Texas who has taken a job to be a secret billionaire’s nanny for his 7-year-old niece who’s lost her parents in an accident. Skye Warren makes her novel very engaging by keeping readers guessing on where this story will go. If you have read one romance story you have read them all is the feeling most get when they see romance novels covering rich wealth men. But this book provides a different take on this trope in so many ways like the secrets of the attic or the reasoning for the once famous party boy disappearing from the public eye without a trace. The touch of will they or will they not, mixed in with the struggles and fears of a traumatized little girl trying to adjust to her frigid uncle and peppy nanny. We see the main characters each struggling and battling their own demons even the side characters are in a state of turmoil in some way shape or form. This book as it unfolds will keep you guessing until the last page. This is book 1 of the series the second book should be released sometime during the summer you can pre-order your copy through amazon.

The second book is The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires by Molly Harper, this book covers paranormal love. Vampires and humans have been at odds with each other for hundreds of years. Wars were had and treaties were made now vampires and humans are trying to learn how to coexist in harmony. New businesses are popping up everywhere trying to profit of their new population creating different gadgets, creams, and medicines for the vampire community. That is where our main protagonist comes into play because she started her own delivery service for vampires, anything the undead community needs dry cleaning, vet services, blood, she brings it to them for a fee. But when she goes to greet her newest client, her mundane world is turned on its head. Molly Harper has a habit of making characters and worlds that are so immersive it feels as if you are right there with the characters as the action goes on. She keeps a level of mystery within her writings and plot twists that point the reader away from forming any foreshadowing predictions. She alludes to anything being a possibility good or bad and it is refreshing to read her works, she does the expected and unexpected beautifully.

Our third and final book for this week is The Unclaimed Baby by Sherryl Woods. This book oozes classic cowboy southern love story, the setting nor the world around it is not exciting at all. It is a sleepy ranch town not much to see or do, and most importantly everyone knows everyone else including the biggest successful ranch farm family that live a few hours away. But what this author does is make the characters dynamic, you get absorbed in the story and the emotions of the other characters. Cliché love at first sight suddenly becomes a battle of will they accept their love or will they continue to deny themselves. You begin to wonder what else these characters are hiding between their bright happy southern smiles and hospitality. Alcohol abuse and child endangerment a lot happens within this sleepy town. Which is why I recommend this book, it has personality, and it tells an engaging story. Using its tropes to pivot the story into a tale that will keep you guessing in new and unexpected ways.

Hope you guys will read and enjoy some of these romance novels in your spare time. See you all next week!

Thomas Benke: Looking Around In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott, in the Chapter “Looking Around,” says this: Now, if you ask me, what’s going on is that we’re all up to here in it, and probably the most important thing is that we not yell at one another. Otherwise we’d all just be barking away like Pekingese: “Ah! Stuck in the shit! And it’s your fault, you did this …” Writing involves seeing people suffer and, as Robert Stone once put it, finding some meaning therein. But you can’t do that if you’re not respectful. If you look at people and just see sloppy clothes or rich clothes, you’re going to get them wrong. She goes on to speak about empathy for other people and also, as an extension empathy for yourself. So, in a sense as you try to write believable, relatable characters, you will come to forgive people their trespasses—because no one believes they are the villain of their story, so you have to write “bad,” or “evil” characters from a point of view where they rationalize what they are doing in such a way that it is the right or only way they see is possible. By extrapolation, then, if you begin to forgive and withhold judgment from your less-than-desirable, or annoying characters, perhaps you can extend the same courtesy to yourself and forgive your own trespasses and sins. This, for me, starts to enter the realm of “writing as therapy,” and though I am a firm believer in that—I practice it to this very day—I think I would caution anyone who thinks that simply writing through things is going to lead you to a place of light and love. I am not saying it can’t by any means. What I am saying is I have wrote through my thoughts and my problems and my desperation and depression for decades and I still had enough baggage on my shoulders to supply an army platoon with rations for a year. In any case, when thinking about craft, it is very important to step into the shoes of all of your characters, especially those characters that you see as antagonists and villians. I believe there are very few universal maxims in writing but one thing is virtually certain: every character you write is your version of that human being. Confucius said “everywhere I go, there I am,” and that is never more true than when you are writing. So if you are writing a character that is distasteful to you, it might be effective for you to ask yourself why that is the case. I wrote a blog for Obscura last semester titled, “The Puppy Had It Coming.” The gist of the article was to pose a puzzle to writers. How can you write a scene where an adult human kicks a puppy across the room and the reader at least understands why. I am not saying there is any way to justify the action or for the readers to be on the human’s side unless they are sociopaths. I am saying you need let the reader know how dark the place is in the character’s mind that he is capable of doing that.

Rock Reading Tuesdays

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