What Turns Me Off or On in a Book by Lynn Lovegreen

I have pretty eclectic tastes in reading, so I’m up for almost any genre or format. But there are some things that turn me on or off a book. 

To start with turn offs, I read to be inspired or entertained, not to be brought down. So I don’t like it when protagonists are killed off or the book ends in total devastation. I also won’t read about women or children in great danger—my imagination is too vivid, and I get enough nightmares without that kind of stimulation. I admire people who can write harrowing suspense, but I’m not your target audience.

 On the other hand, there are many genres I love to read. I often dip into nonfiction history and biography. I enjoy novels that entertain me and teach me something, so give me your historical fiction or cozy mysteries about interesting people, places and professions. I also love romance, and books about teens finding their place in the world. And as a retired English teacher, classics and spin offs on Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, or other literature favorites will catch my attention. I also want well-developed characters that feel real (at least on some level). Authors, if I love your characters, I’ll follow you through any of your books!

Knowing my preferences, it’s no surprise that my current writing project is a young adult romance series set in Alaska during World War II including riffs on Shakespeare plays. In the future, I hope to share it with readers who have similar tastes in reading!

Lynn Lovegreen has lived in Alaska for almost fifty years. She taught for twenty years before retiring to make more time for writing. She enjoys her friends and family, reading, and volunteering at her local library. Her young adult/new adult historical romances are set in Alaska, a great place for drama, romance, and independent characters. See her website at www.lynnlovegreen.com. You can also find her on Facebook, Goodreads, and Pinterest. 

Dissecting a Book by Paty Jager

This month at Romancing the Genres we are writing about what we like and don't like in a book.

The books that catch my attention and draw me in are ones that have engaging characters either the main characters or secondary. I have to like and want to be in the company of these characters throughout the length of the book or story. Nora Roberts and LaVyrle Spencer were the first romance authors I read that pulled me in with their characters. I loved and still love the Irish Sister Trilogy  Born in Fire, Born in Ice, Born in Shame. Not only did the characters pull me in, but the setting (Ireland) captivated me. With LaVyrle Spencer her characters were real with real life problems. That's the type of historical and contemporary books I like to write.

An intriguing plot will also draw me in. I just purchased a book because an excerpt that was posted on Facebook had the character traveling to an area near me where I've been. I wanted to see just how much of this area would be used in the book and it helped that the title was The Archaeologist and the Spirit Catchers by Randy Brown. Yes, the spirits piqued my attention. I wondered if it would be Native American spirits or... So far it doesn't appear to be Native American spirits but the characters have kept me reading. They are unique in their heritage of "discovering trapped spirits and setting them free".

The other thing that will keep me reading a book is learning something. A different culture, a historical occurrence,  or a good mystery that I want to discover how it is solved.

What I don't care for in a book are flat characters or over the top characters. If they are paranormal I still want to see the humanity in them or a sense of humor. Something that makes me think of them as personable.  I also and this is just my opinion- I don't like alpha main characters. I think it comes from being pushed around by my father who wanted to prove he was alpha. I don't like that in a hero. But again, it is my preference. Others LOVE them.

My other stop reading flag is if I encounter more than three instances of wrong facts. Calling the withers on a horse the fetlock, the wrong Indian tribe or anything that I know is wrong. The instance of using shoot for chute in a contemporary western. Those little things will cause me to not finish reading the book and not trust another book from the same author. Typos if there are only a few in the whole book don't bother me. If there are more than two per chapter, I get annoyed that they didn't make sure it was their best effort and will stop reading.

That's about all I can think of that for my likes and dislikes when I read a book.

Book 2, Love Me Anyway, of the Tumbling Creek Ranch series is available by pre-order and will release this Thursday and starting July 9th, book 1, 8 Seconds to Love, in the series will be only $0.99 for the month to celebrate the release of Love Me Anyway.

Love Me Anyway

Book 2

Tumbling Creek Ranch Series

Melanie Trask ran away from an abusive husband and is hiding at a remote dude ranch. When she and the ranch owner can no longer deny their feelings, he offers to help her divorce her husband. But she has one more secret she hasn’t revealed…

Brett Wallis has fallen hard for the quiet, competent woman who landed at his ranch when he needed help. But will he be able to choose between Melanie or the ranch when he discovers the truth behind her secrecy?

Universal buy link:  https://www.books2read.com/u/mgLl7q 

8 Seconds to Love

Book1

Tumbling Creek Ranch series

Lacey Wallis has put blood, sweat, and tears into her dream of making it to the National Finals Rodeo and isn’t about to let an injury stop her. However, she didn’t expect the ER nurse to be the man she had a crush on years ago, or to discover that crush hadn’t been one-sided.

Jared McIntyre lived through loving and the death of one thrill-seeking woman, and wasn’t about to let that happen again. Especially not to Lacey. But that would mean he’d have to allow himself to love again.  

Which will it be, a life-long dream, or the love of a lifetime?

Universal book link: https://www.books2read.com/u/b5M1Ep

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 32 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters.This is what Romance Junkies has to say about the Tumbling Creek Ranch series: “There are twists and turns to the story with a nice flow and a depth to the characters. The vivid scenic descriptions made me feel like I was there… I hope to return to Tumbling Creek Ranch over and over again.”

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Photo source: Depositphotos

I was lost...

...and now I'm really lost!

by M. L. Buchman

I love the world of the book. I slip into it and time disappears. I love the comfort, like an old pair of slippers.

FLUNKING OUT OF THIRD GRADE
I nearly flunked out of reading because of this habit. When I hit third grade, I was still reading Winnie the Pooh. Regrettably (or perhaps fortunately), the teacher was a friend of the family and knew how smart I was. The fact that I'd been reading about Pooh's adventures on my own since I was four was beside the point. I had entered the happy world of the Hundred Acre Wood and never wanted to leave.

By the end of that year I had left Pooh and entered into the world of Jack London and Herman Melville and never looked back. Yes, I read Moby Dick when I was ten and I'm here to say..."It's a story...about a whale." (If someone can remind me what musical I stole that from, I'd really appreciate it, btw.) I reread it years later, and it was still a story about a whale.

Maybe it as jumping over so many children's books that made me not see symbolism and allegory. I read a book and that's what it's about. Or maybe I'm just that kind of guy.

Anyway, Mrs. Kaye changed my entire world. And I did have the opportunity decades later to thank her for that gift of showing me my own potential.

FLUNKING OUT OF MUSIC 101
It didn't mean that I was free of the book curse. Not one bit.

I had gotten an extension on my Music 101 final across Christmas vacation because the teacher was kind and my Geophysics bachelor's thesis had been kicking my behind hard all that fall of my senior year. The day before it was due, I was wandering through the library stacks to get a final bit of research for my music paper. (I wasn't the least bit musical, no matter how much I love it. And I still find a paper about music to be rather ironic.)

Anyway, there I was, innocently wandering the stacks, when I spotted an old friend: Hell on Ice by Captain Edward Ellsberg. One of the most chilling and best writing biographies of the Arctic explorers.

on Amazon

I sat down right there in the aisle and was lost for six or seven hours. Sometime after I'd missed two meals, my professor happened upon me sitting on the floor of the nautical stack and he managed to not quite snarl as he asked what I thought I was doing. Yipes! I rushed off, found my research, and made his deadline with less than an hour to spare.

FLUNKING OUT OF WRITING
Thankfully I'm over this now. Now when I reread a book it's because I'm studying structure, characterization, pacing...yeah, right!

Anne McCaffrey, Nora Roberts, Susan Wiggs, Susan Brockmann, Arthur C. Clarke, and, yes, my old friend Captain Ellsberg can suck me right in. They make me want to lie back and kick my feet in the air like a happy puppy dog.

The biggest danger is that I love my own stories just that much. I'll dip back in to check some research for a series I'm working on...and I'll reemerge on the backside of never and realize that a whole chunk of a writing day just slipped away from me. ARGH! I guess it's better than hating my own writing, but it has its hazards.

MY REAL GOAL?
Is to write for readers who are just like me and will plunge again and again into my world just so they can sit and revel in being lost...lost in a good book.

M.L. Buchman started the first of over 50 novels and as many short stories while flying from South Korea to ride across the Australian Outback. All part of a solo around-the-world bicycle trip (a mid-life crisis on wheels) that ultimately launched his writing career.

Booklist has selected his military and firefighter series(es) as 3-time “Top 10 Romance of the Year.” NPR and Barnes & Noble have named other titles “Top 5 Romance of the Year.” In 2016 he was a finalist for RWA's RITA award. He has flown and jumped out of airplanes, can single-hand a fifty-foot sailboat, and has designed and built two houses. In between writing, he also quilts. M.L. is constantly amazed at what can be done with a degree in geophysics. He also writes: contemporary romance, thrillers, and SF. More info at: www.mlbuchman.com.