Oh Yeah!
May
22
2006

Sword and Crown

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
30,000 / 35,000
(85.7%)

I kicked ass last night, wooooooot!

In other news, connected to the whole fangirl discussion taking place on various blogs, I will admit to being a Susan Elizabeth Phillips fangirl. I love that she writes heroines you don’t really like at first. She makes them so three dimensional that you fall in love by the end of the book. Sugar Beth, I think, from Ain’t She Sweet is the best example but certainly there are many secondary characters that she turns into main characters that would qualify.

What I like is that she consistently tells a non traditional romance story with unexpected characters and that is sooooo rare. I admire that, as a writer and a reader and I aspire to do half as well.

So when I got Fancy Pants I was all set to love it as I always do but I have to tell you, I just didn’t. It wasn’t awful, hell, most authors should aspire to do as well as this book. But it just didn’t do anything for me. I didn’t like the secondary character, Dallie’s wife and I had a really difficult time overcoming her presence. There was too much, a secret pregnancy, which I rarely enjoy and I didn’t this time either. I do like the way SEP handled the son, it wasn’t the usual have a kid and stash him off in a nursery somewhere while the parents went about life as if they didn’t have kids. But I just didn’t like Dallie. I thought he was an ass. I think, coming from reading two really wonderful SEP books in the last month (Match Me and This Heart of Mine), might have been an influence. Anyway, FP is long and it happens over many years and there are wonderful characters who I probably would have loved in other circumstances but I have to say Fancy Pants has been my least favorite SP since Breathing Room. Won’t stop her from being an auto buy for me though. I still think she’s an amazing writer and putting out books that keep romance interesting and worth reading.

Started Master of Wolves last night after I shut my laptop down. I love Angela Knight.

6 comments to “Oh Yeah!”

  1. Crystal Jordan
    May 22nd, 2006 at 11:04 am · Link

    Congrats on the progress, Lauren. Woot!



  2. Melissa Lopez
    May 22nd, 2006 at 11:42 am · Link

    I’m a fangirl of both AK & Susan Elizabeth Phillips! I’ve been reading SEP for YEARS! FP was one of my least faves, too.

    Mel



  3. Lauren Dane
    May 22nd, 2006 at 2:55 pm · Link

    Thanks Crystal!

    And yeah, I love SEP, Mel. It took me forever to read Ain’t She Sweet but after Idid, I was hooked.



  4. Nicole
    May 22nd, 2006 at 8:08 pm · Link

    Chiming in to say congrats on the progress too!

    I still need to read SEP one of these days.



  5. Shelley Munro
    May 22nd, 2006 at 9:27 pm · Link

    Wow, Lauren! You really are kicking ass on this story. It doesn’t seem that long ago when you first started writing!

    I haven’t read a lot of SEP. I know I read one last year, and I can’t for the life of me remember the title although I enjoyed it. It’s going to bug me now until I remember…



  6. Lauren Dane
    May 23rd, 2006 at 3:49 pm · Link

    Nicole – I just loved Match Me If You Can and Ain’t She Sweet – those are my two favorite SEP titles.

    Thanks, Shelley! Yeah, I’m usually faster with my novels but I’ve had to stop and start three times with edits and revisions of other books so it’s taken me a bit. But all I have left is about 2K, the final scene. Then I’ll clean it up and get it to my editor, making my June 1 deadline! Woo!