Howard and Heyer

Fiorella has been concentrating so much on her writing lately that she hasn't done much reading, which she decided was as a mistake, so she revisited at couple of her old favorites--Linda Howard and Georgette Heyer.  Linda Howard wrote contemporary and Georgette Heyer wrote historical--in fact, she was the mother of the historical romance genre. But Fio digresses.  What she wants to tell you is that, now that she reads more analytically, she realized how much her own writing style has been influenced by Howard's use of inner dialogue and Heyer's subtle humor.

For a a good read, pick up a copy of these ladies' romances.  They've stood the test of time.

Why Write?

You've probably figured it out--Fio is a compulsive writer.  Whether poetry or prose, it flows right out of her (poetry or prose/out of her it flows), Why?  Sure, she read, read, read from childhood on, but a lot of people read, read, read, but never write, write, write.  So why does Fio have file cabinets stuffed with story ideas, clever lines, and golden words?  Why has she produced essays, reviews, articles, songs, sonnets, novels?  Why does she write a daily blog?

The only answer Fio can come up with is that somewhere along the way, a computer key in her brain got held down way too long..

Refill

Fiorella has discovered an old friend--reading.  She's often said that she's spent half of her life reading, and now she's pouring it all back out in her books, but somewhere along the line, she got depleted.

Time to stoke the coals again.  Yes, right now Fio's devouring every book, romance or not, that she can get her hands on because she needs to feed the fire.

Act Now!

When she goes to an opera or a musical, Fiorella wants to sing along.  She'd rather write books than read them.  And her favorite part of the trip the family took to England years ago was walking through Harrod's, turning her ankle at Castle Urquhart, eating fish and chips in the rain at Greenwich and again at Bath, and encountering a group of exuberant school children yelling for echo effect as they ran through the tunnel under the Thames.

For all her artistic eye, Fiorella is a doer rather than an observer.

Formative Years

Fiorella's RWA chapter loop has started a thread in which members write down the fifteen books that have "stuck with them" the most.

Now, first of, all, please note how well Fio has mastered (mistressed?) such technical terms as "loop" and "thread."

Then notice that she did not say she is volunteering her own list.

The truth is, her own list would be totally embarrassing compared to the lists that have already appeared: Great Expectations, A Wrinkle in Time, Little Women, Lord of the Flies, stuff like that--really good literature. The stories that have stayed with Fio are less exalted. In fact, many of them are downright trashy.

One of the most influential books she ever read (second grade)was the story of a girl rabbit who persevered and became an Easter Bunny despite motherhood and rampant rabbit sexism. Another book, the title of which is also forever lost in the cobwebbed labyrinths of Fio's so-called mind, was about a family of eight children who got marooned off the coast of California in about 1900 and survived until they were finally rescued by doing such things as cutting the oldest girl's long hair and braiding it into a rope. She also adored the exotic-ness of the twin series--the Dutch twins, the caveman twins, etc.--which her mother sneered at. But then, Mother sneered at the Anne of Green Gables series too.

In other words, the books which have really stuck with Fio are not the great literature which she read as an adult, but the ones that her own weirdness related to in her early years--anything by Edgar Rice Burroughs (fourth grade), Nancy Drew (fifth grade on up), that Andre Norton book about a mutant teen who communicated telepathically with the panther (junior high).

Psychologists out there, analyze as you will.