Comments on: Women’s Fiction Weekend Forum

By: Stella MacLean

Stella MacLean — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:10:24 +0000

Hi Kate,
Although I had wanted to write most of my life, something always seemed to get in the way. Finally, I started writing to fill in the long hours of convalescence about twenty years ago. I haven’t stopped since. I write for Harlequin Super Romance, with my next one out in August 2010.
I’m writing a book that is women’s fiction, titled Clouds Across the Sun. It’s going to be a LONG session as the story has some pretty difficult life issues to deal with, but I love it.
I also have a story called Nursing Sisters which is another women’s fiction book based on my experience as a nurse.
Stella

By: Grace

Grace — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:49:34 +0000

Nancy Drew when I was a child. I read them all. Then it was Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney, etc. I still love The Devil on Horseback. Then it was Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. Oh, and somewhere in there was Gone with the Wind, Sweet’s Folly,and so many more. If there’s no book available, I’ll read the cereal box.

By: JoAnn Ross

JoAnn Ross — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:43:17 +0000

Count me in as a Louisa May Alcott fan; in fact it was Jo who convinced me I could actually be a writer when I grew up.

Then, Pat, I think it’s so ironic you mentioned Anna Karenina. That was the book that, although I read it every year for ages (I always find something new), had me quit writing fiction for about three years. Because I knew I could never top it.

Then I finally realized that the world had already had a Tolstoy; they didn’t need another one. And went back to writing and sold that year.

It’s probably because of my lit major background, but when I used to think of women’s fiction, I’d think of Kate Chopin, Marilyn French, and Virginia Woolf, since they dealt with women’s issues. I also adored the Bronte’s. (My honor’s thesis was The Brontes as Feminists.) Then I discovered Mary McCarthy’s The Group and became a more commercial women’s fiction reader which led me to Alice Hoffman,Ann Tyler, and Toni Morrison. I actually can occasionally feel drunk when I read Morrison because of the richness of her prose.

Oh, and Maeve Binchey! Since I grew up in an Irish family, I was beyond thrilled when a reader sent me a photo of one of my Irish WF books in a dump with Binchey’s at the Shannon airport duty free shop. Though I did keep thinking of some American impulsively buying my book as a last souvenir of Ireland, then reading the bio on the plane back home and saying, “She’s from Arizona???” LOL

By: Pet Aubol

Pet Aubol — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:13:51 +0000

Although I was big on Ann Tyler at that time the book that sent me to the keyboard only by a stretch could be called women’s fiction. I was in the hospital recovering from breast cancer surgery when my brother sent me a paperback of Larry McMurtry’s first novel after the Lonesome Dove series, Texasville. Laughing so hard my stitches near popped, I instantly decided that the Maryland and New York characters I worked with in the small market radio business were even funnier than McMurtry’s fictional ones. They HAD TO BE satirized. Maybe if I hadn’t just come to the realization that a chance existed that I wouldn’t live forever, I would have thought my decision through. Even before I finished reading the book that started me writing I got to work on my first novel, DRIVETIME.

By: Therese Walsh

Therese Walsh — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:58:05 +0000

The first women’s fiction novel that struck me as being the ideal blend of angsty wf with romantic elements was The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch by Marsha Moyer. Such a great book.

By: Patricia Rice

Patricia Rice — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:56:39 +0000

I’ve been reading and writing romance since elementary school, so I don’t think I can cue in on any one book to blame for my sins. I read the Alcott and Austen books. I read cereal boxes. I wrote haunted house books in 4th grade and tragic teenage romance in 7th. Read Zane Grey and Agatha Christie. Trixie Belden and Cherry Ames. Let’s just blame in on Anna Karenina….

By: Kathy Holmes

Kathy Holmes — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:46:48 +0000

There were 3 books I read about the same time that were similar in style and may not qualify as WF because 2 of them were written by men: “The Notebook,” “Bridges of Madison County,” and “The Gazebo.” I’d always wanted to write and had told myself that some day, when I was no longer working full-time, I’d do it. I had a window of opportunity in-between technical writing contracts and I took the plunge, hoping I could write a book like one of these. I’m still working on that.

By: Kathleen Irene Paterka

Kathleen Irene Paterka — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:46:39 +0000

Liz, I’m right there with you. Louisa May Alcott’s LITTLE WOMEN is to blame for turning me on to Women’s Fiction. And I love how you put it: Miss Alcott’s women … were strong and smart–long before it was acceptable to do so.

I also absolutely love Elizabeth Berg; Jodi Picoult’s works will make me cry, every time.

P.S. Speaking of strong and smart women, my favorite WF book: THE FROG PRINCE, by Jane Porter.

-Kathleen

By: Kate Austin

Kate Austin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:46:39 +0000

Marilyn – I’m teaching a short story course right now and I can’t tell you how many times I tell my students to look at romance writers and how lucky we are and how diverse we are. In a single week, romance books or stories or novellas come out that deal with every single thing under the sun (and lots that aren’t – like vampires:) -

By: Kate Austin

Kate Austin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:45:13 +0000

JoAnn – I love the dying mallard. That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard and who cares about timelines anyway?