Tags
american romance author, Canadian Literature, Douglas Coupland, harlequin author, love inspired author, Midsomer Murders
I am currently on break. Sort of. I’m actually waiting for my manuscript from my editor, and when I hear from her, I’ll be full-on editing the book that will be coming out in October this year.
Until then, however… I am filling the well. I think I’ve told you before that I’m not very good at resting. I get antsy. But resting is necessary for good writing, so my hands are tied.
So far, I’ve been cooking, cleaning, puttering, watching Midsomer Murders on Netflix, and reading… Now Midsomer Murders doesn’t depress me, even with all those tiny towns filled with nasty people. I think it’s the British accent. It’s just cheery. And everyone drinks tea. It’s hard to get bummed out with British accents and tea. Besides, the actors playing the victims always breath or move, and that just makes it cheerier, still. Three teaspoons of blood and a visible pulse–that’s how I like my Whodunnits. 😉
My reading, however, has me thoroughly bummed out. Canadian Literature is depressing by nature. I studied it for four years in university, and reading a little Douglas Coupland (excellent author, by the way!) reminds me of why I write romance. There is no guarantee anything will be okay in Canadian Lit. Ever. Canadians are a bizarre breed. We’re known for hanging out together in donut shops and our politeness when we travel, but left unsupervised with a typewriter and we come out with dark themes of isolation and loneliness.
And that is why I write romance. I like a happy ending. I like beautiful homes and pastoral scenery. And I like a good old-fashioned proposal at the end. What can I say? Left to my own devices, somebody gets married. I’d be terrible at serious literature. 😉
That’s a really interesting reflection. I enjoy the occasional Midsomer Murder, but I find them boring after awhile because they’re SO unrealistic … the very thing that makes them not too disturbing makes them frustrating for me. People never seem to take the deaths all that seriously, and move on quite lightly from seeing their lover strangled or finding a body in the parlour. If I’m going to get interested in a murder mystery, I prefer something like Broadchurch, where they take two full seasons (tiny British seasons, but still) to explore the gut-wrenching impact of a single murder on a whole community, and at the end the justice system still hasn’t done what it’s supposed to do … that’s realism with a vengeance, British accents and all!
And I think that’s the same reason I don’t love either reading or writing romance (though you know if I do read and enjoy a romance it will be one of yours!). Because the outcome is always a certainty, I don’t find it realistic enough. If I’m going to care about the struggles that keep the hero and heroine apart, there always has to be a solid, believable chance that they WON’T end up together … otherwise I’m just reading along and thinking, “Yeah, but they’re going to overcome all these obstacles and have a happy ending sometime in the next 200 pages, so none of this really matters.”
I guess that’s why there are so many different genres of fiction — readers don’t all want the same thing!
I also think the gloom and darkness you attribute to Canadian literature is common to literary fiction everywhere, not just Canada. There’s plenty of dark, gloomy American and British literary fiction too (just read through the shortlist for any major literary prize in any country; it’ll bring you down!)
I prefer to avoid the realism of murder… I think I end up taking it too personally and carrying it with me. I have absolutely no filter for these things! If they pickle my brain and study it later, they’d probably discover that I’m missing some important chemical that let’s people say, “Good show! Back to real life now…” They’ll call it the Johns Syndrome. 😉
And yes, I don’t thing we’re alone in the gloomy lit! I find it kind of funny, though, how Canadians appear on the outside, and then how we express ourselves artistically. We’ll apologize to the chair we trip over, and turn it into a sonnet about death. 😉
I read romances for the HEA ending. Looking forward to reading your next book.
I like the HEA, too! And thank you–I have an American Romance on the shelves right now, and a Love Inspired coming in March! 🙂