A billion Wicked Thoughts

In the upcoming book A Billion Wicked Thoughts, neuroscientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam studied thousands of romance novels looking for clues about social expectations. 

After analyzing 15,000 Harlequin books, they came up with the most popular professions for heroes in romance novels. The complete list follows below–what do you think?
1. Doctor
2. Cowboy
3. Boss
4. Prince
5. Rancher
6. Knight
7. Surgeon
8. King
9. Bodyguard
10. Sheriff

Okay, so now I'm trying to think of my writing (published and unpublished to think of what my heroes do).
Human with a Twist he's basically an antiques deals (but not her boss)
Redemption's Kiss he's a police officer (is this close enough to Sheriff??)

What does the occupation of our favourite heroes tell us about ourselves. Of course studies like this need to be read with a critical eye - after all, any one who reader Mills & Boon/Harlequin know they are heavily skewed to certain tropes (& hero employment choices). But just because one is reading with a crietal eye - doesn't mena it's not interesting. They also say...

"While modern radiophysicists have discovered black holes and developed the means for communicating with extraterrestrials, scientists studying desire still struggle to identify basic differences between the sexual interests of men and women… Quasars don’t close the curtains out of modesty or suspicion. In contrast, most of us are unwilling to let curious scientists photograph us as we tumble between the sheets. Radio waves may be invisible, but they don’t try to deceive curious physicists and they’re incapable of self-deception. Humans are guilty of both."

They don't stop with what our heroes do, they look at how we describe them as well:
"...We analyzed the text of more than ten thousand romance novels published from 1983 to 2008 to determine the most common descriptions of the hero’s physical appearance.

Here are the seven most frequent masculine features:
Cheekbones
Jaw
Brows
Shoulders
Forehead
Waist
Hips
And the seven most common adjectives used to describe masculine features?
Lean
Handsome
Blond
Tanned
Muscular
Masculine
chiseled

...no synonym for penis appears in the hundred most common physical descriptors used to describe the romance hero. If we wished to describe the ideal-looking hero, we could use the most common two-word physical descriptions: the perfect hero boasts “blue eyes,” a “straight nose,” “high forehead,” and “square jaw” together making a “handsome face.” His head is framed by “dark hair” which accents the “white teeth” in his “sensual mouth” curved into a “crooked smile.” He stands tall with “broad shoulders,” a “broad chest,” “narrow waist,” “flat stomach,” “strong arms,” “big hands,” “big feet,” and “long legs”—though the heroine’s eye might ultimately be drawn to his “powerful thighs.”"

Mmmmmm, he sounds nice :)

Follow this link to read an excerpt from the book. 
And yes this stuff fascinated me so expect a couple more blog based on their material :)

Fables and reality and cynisism

Telling stories is all about the fine balance between reality and fiction. You need to tell a story in such a way you take the reader out of their reality and at the same time make them believe your created reality - your unreal reality. It's a balancing act. If things are too unbelievable your reader will be thrown out of the story, on the other hand if your story is too real what is there left to tell. The following takes on fables throw a large enough dose of reality to completely douse the story.

Music/film industry parallels with publishing

Blog on the Harvard Business Review about the film and music industry after reading it I couldn't help thinking about how the comments could be applied to publishing as well.

"Innovation has emerged as a key means by which the US can pull itself out of this lackluster economy. In the State of the Union, President Obama referred to China and India as new threats to America's position as the world's leading innovator. But the threats are not just external. One of the greatest threats to the US's ability to innovate lies within: specifically, with the music and movie business. These Big Content businesses are attempting to protect themselves from change so aggressively that they risk damaging America's position as a world leader in innovation."

 Sound familiar?And this...

"Many in the high technology industry have known this for a long time. Despite making their living relying on it, the Big Content players do not understand technology, and never have. Rather than see it as an opportunity to reach new audiences, technology has always been a threat to them. "

I've, and many others, have posted on eBooks, DRM, electronic lending, ePublishers vs print etc...  Technology is something that publishing is struggling with. It's facing challenges that film & music have been facing or years - the question is whether they learn from what's gone before & deal with better... or not.

I won't post the whole article, but it is definitely worth reading.

How to get published...

So many people are looking for the easy answer on how to get published (heck, I'd like an easy way too), unfortunately there is no easy way (unless you happen to be some kind of celebrity of course).  There may be no easy answer, but Kate Hart has a wonderful flowchart that at least breaks the process down and makes that a little easier :)

"Remake" the Classics

Do the classics need to be changed/updated to make them more accesable, or is the beauty of the language timeless? BBC Radio 3 is introducing swearwords into its adaptation of Wuthering Heights to give the book a more contemporary feel. And this isn't the only change lately, how could we have missed the popularity of Pride & Predudice & zombies, admitedy this is a parody rather than the real thing. Movies have been doing this for years - is it time for book to take a turn? Personally I'd rather read the real thing, although it might be fun to read a "remake" after the genuine article just for fun.

A few fun suggestions from the article: Why not apply the same treatment to the first lines of other classics:

A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the time when everything was totally, like, crap."

Ulysses: "Stately, porker Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of cocaine on which a mirror and a razor blade lay crossed."

Anna Karenina: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is fucked up in its own way."

The Portrait of a Lady: "Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as a top afternoon shag."

Sons and Lovers: "'The Arses' succeeded to 'Shit Hole Row'."

Moby Dick: "Who the fuck are you calling Ishmael, pal?"

Short stories

I read an article the other day titled: Is the Short Story Really the Novel's Poor Relation?

I have a mixed relationship (as a reader & writer) with short stories so this topic kinda fascinates. I often feel short changed by a short story, I want to know what happens next, I want more (my penchant for long fantasy series is indicative of my greed).
However, when time is limited, short stories also give a complete escape. I can read one then go on to do something else without wanting to get back to read/writing a story I was in the middle of. Also the market is changing I think, eBooks are driving more readers to short stories because they are hard to find in paper print, so as a writer they are an opportunity, and as a reader they are getting ever more plentiful.

"JG Ballard sees short stories as "the loose change in the treasury of fiction, easily ignored beside the wealth of novels available, an over-valued currency that often turns out to be counterfeit"."

"Steven Millhauser knows whereof he speaks, having written novels as well as some outstanding short fiction, and begins on familiar ground: "The novel is insatiable - it wants to devour the world. What's left for the poor short story to do? [...] The novel buys up the land, cuts down the trees, puts up the condos. The short story scampers across a lawn, squeezes under a fence."

But he quickly subverts the idea of the "poor short story" and its modest ambitions. The novel, obsessed with containing the whole world, is doomed to fail, whereas the short story can see "a world in a grain of sand": "In that single grain of sand lies the beach that contains the grain of sand. In that single grain of sand lies the ocean that dashes against the beach, the ship that sails the ocean, the sun that shines down on the ship, the interstellar winds, a teaspoon in Kansas, the structure of the universe. And there you have the ambition of the short story, the terrible ambition that lies behind its fraudulent modesty: to body forth the whole world."

But for me this quote summed it up for, because depending on time, mood and a host of other things, we want to read, what we want to read right then, not have our choice dictated to us.

"As Richard Ford once told the Paris review, "Forms of literature don't compete. They don't have to compete. We can have it all."

How do you feel, do you have preferences for novels vs. novellas.
Never read a novella - heck, why don't you try mine :) Redemption's Kiss

Recreated covers

Totally forgot I hadn't done a post this week - mea culpa.

As apology I thought I would do a post about covers (it's a while since we've had one).

An artist has set about recreating some old Mills&Boon covers.

Can't say I love these old covers, the colours and poses are so dated now - and while some come across as retro-cool, these don't fall into that category (IMO).

Especially creepy is the guy who looks like he's strangling her.