Guest: Janet Mullany

Please welcome Janet Mullany to the convertible today!  

Why do we read what we read?

Thanks for inviting me to guest blog today!

I find it alarming that we are called upon to defend our reading matter, or, as a writer, what we write. The first time someone said to me “When are you going to write a real book?” my jaw dropped.

What wasn’t real about the books I’d written? Well, you see, they were the poor stepsister of mass market fiction, floundering beneath the weighty literary tomes of horror and mystery—romance. You know, those books with the gleaming male pecs and/or flowers and/or strangely photoshopped babies (or strangely photoshopped just about anything) on the covers.

Not real books. Now, the standard argument is that the poor stepsister turns into Cinderella when you look at her numbers—the vast industry that is romance, outselling all other genres. However, I always bear in mind H.L. Mencken’s observation that nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. Just because something—anything--sells well, what does that really mean? Hostess Twinkies, hot dogs, strange lawn ornaments…take your pick.

I’d like to challenge another standard argument that romance helps you get away from the terrible drudgery of everyday life. What if your life isn’t that bad?

Romance celebrates love and relationships and that can’t be a bad thing, although novels have been exploring love and relationships all along, with or without strange covers.

I read a lot—too much, some might say, particularly unlucky family members who fall over my books on the bedroom floor or have sneezing fits from the dust on the bookshelves. I usually have a book for the commute to the day job, and another to read in bed at night and I read fairly widely, mostly fiction but not only romance.

In trying to find out what I define as good fiction, I went to the last of my very infrequent reviews on Goodreads.com where I wrote this about The Magicians by Lev Grossman: Scary, moving, exciting, dangerous. This is a book that enchants you and fools you, at first reading like a Harry Potter for grown ups and then becoming something much more profound about the nature of fiction and the imagination and the modern world. I'm still in a state of shock from this book which I've devoured on my commute. Toward the end it became extraordinary painful to read but still compelling. This is what fiction should be, a transformative experience.

None of this has anything to do with the marketing, the hype, the (possibly embarrassing) cover, the subgenre. I prefer to think of my reading matter in terms of Duke Ellington’s definition of good music: If it sounds good, it is good. Does it have that transformative power to make you see the world differently? If you spot a perfect stranger reading the book, do you engage them in conversation? Will you tell your friends about it?

That’s what I call a good read.

My latest not-real book is Improper Relations, a Regency chicklit about annoying relatives and finding love where you least expect it. You can buy it with free shipping worldwide at bookdepository.com and you can read excerpts, hear soundbites, and enter a contest at janetmullany.com.

 Must a lady always put her husband first?
 After losing best friend and cousin Ann Weller in marriage to the Earl of Beresford, sharp-witted Charlotte Hayden is even ruder than usual to potential suitors. Introduced to Beresford’s wayward cousin, Shad, Charlotte may have met her match in witty repartee–but he’s hardly husband material. Caught in a compromising situation, Charlotte and Shad are forced to wed, resigning themselves to a marriage of convenience. And they aren’t the only ones with marital problems… Have both Ann and Charlotte married in haste to repent at leisure? And where do their loyalties really lie? With their husbands, with each other, or somewhere else entirely?

And if you leave a comment here, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a signed copy [winner announced on Thursday]. Tell me what your definition of a good read is, and what book has knocked your socks off recently!

Janet

Visit Janet at her website.