Anniversary Sale!

It has been a year since I launched Blood & Water and it will be on sale for 99 cents this week to celebrate. Last November, I was busy with the launch and this year I'm struggling through NaNoWriMo with my current work in progress. I hope to have an update for you on that soon.

NaNoWriMo 2018

Last year, I skipped NaNo because I was focused on launching my novel, Blood & Water. This year, I'm hoping to expand on my current work in progress. I've had the first chapter written for nearly a year.

Like the other times I've participated, I'll be a "nanorebel". I'm less focused on meeting the 50,000 word goal and more on setting aside writing time every day.

Looking back over previous blogs, I found these helpful tips for time management:

• Skipping the news: I'm kind of obsessive about this, so it is going to free up a lot of my time, but it's also going to be really hard. I'm alerting all those close to me that I'm going to need an email or phone call if some huge news event happens. I already don't have cable so I got all my news off the internet.
• Pajamas all day: Okay, not every day, but some days. I'm kicking off day one in my yoga pants... that I slept in.
• Easy dinners: I don't pretend to be a fancy cook, but this month I'm going even more bare bones. No cutting meat or chopping veggies. If the recipe requires more than 20 minutes of prep, I'll save it for December. 
• No more reading: I finished a book yesterday that I may blog about, but that's it. 

That's a good list to start. I just reactivated my account at nanowrimo.org and may have to limit the time I spend there. They have forums and twitter links and pep talks and notices for local events. It's like Facebook for writing nerds. You can connect with me there- I'm Katie78.

Book Review: The Baggage Carousel

Sometimes when you re-read a favorite novel from years ago, it doesn't hold up. That was not the case with David Olner's The Baggage Carousel, a novel I first read on a writing site before it was published. I believe the gist of my critique was: "Get this published!" I'm glad he decided to take my stellar advice. ;)

In this novel, the super-flawed main character falls in love on a back-packing trip to Africa. When the object of his affection makes promises and then proceeds to ignore his emails, Dan's heartbreak turns obsessive. In alternating narrative, the reader also gets to know Amber, who is on the edge of vapid, but still manages to be sympathetic. The two narrate different timelines so that the story unfolds as a puzzle and the missing piece isn't delivered until the very end.

Throughout, the quality of the writing stands out. Dan is darkly witty, his tangents from the main plot not only illuminate his character, but are fun to read. The way it's organized is especially clever and the ending comes together like a lightning bolt. Of course, you think as if you saw the twist coming, though you didn't. The ending is terribly satisfying, with just enough pain and the requisite growth from each character.

I highly recommend this book.

This Is How I Write

It was during my last semester of college that I was introduced to "creative nonfiction" and that was the bridge that led me to write fiction (after years of writing angsty, introspective poetry). People who know me well can find the sections in my novels that have been "stolen" from real life. The danger in writing autobiographical fiction is that people begin to make assumptions about the rest of the novel. All of my characters are created from fragments of actual people, but none of my characters are based on a single person. So if someone recognizes themselves in my fiction, the risk is that they will think everything about that character is based on how I think of them.

In my second novel, A Long Thaw, there's a section where Abby is creating a collage. It's an apt metaphor for the way I write:

This is her hobby. She pretends that it’s soothing to create collages on the covers of photo albums or journals. The truth is that she stresses over them, fitting the pieces together like a schizophrenic puzzle. A long triangle of a navy blue satin gown, the sun setting on a horizon, a pair of eyes clotted with mascara, a phrase usually from an advertisement for cosmetic surgery, something like be your best, disempowerment repackaged, out of context. She gives them as gifts, personalized.

It's funny; I didn't recognize the symmetry when I wrote this. It was not intentional. But this is the way I write, taking something true and repackaging it, changing the context so that it means something different in the story than it meant in my life.  

The other part of the metaphor is the way that I often present my writing as a pleasurable hobby -- and there is a significant element of pleasure that I get from it -- but the truth is more complicated. My writing is something I stress over, fitting the pieces together, peeling them apart, resetting the glue. The pleasure comes in fits and starts, sometimes only with the relief of having it done.

Right now, my current work in progress is eating at me. I think about these made up people all day. I decorate their kitchens and imagine their first heartbreaks and research their path through dental school. They're with me, always, nagging at me to finish their stories.

And on that note, I need to go write about a kitchen. While I'm working on that, join my newsletter for updates and giveaways!

Making an Audiobook

The first thing to figure out when making an audiobook is whether you have (or can get) the rights. Since my publisher, Kindle Press, owns the rights, I had to ask for a "rights reversion". Check your contract. Many publishers retain the audiobook rights for a shorter period of time than the other book rights. I sent an email and had them back within a week.

There are currently a lot of different options for audiobook platforms, as far as production and distribution. Every author needs to consider the pros and cons of each and decide what works best for them. Everyone is different. I can't tell you which option to choose, but here's a helpful guide that compares the most common platforms.

The publisher of my first novel, Monsoon Season, made an audio version in 2012, but this is my first foray into audiobook creation. Since I have several books, I might try a few different methods and compare the results, but for my first attempt, I chose the option with the least risk.

I didn't want to spend any money up front so I did a royalty split with the narrator. The website allows you to search for narrators based on various criteria: gender, accent, payment options considered, etc. You can listen to sample auditions, then email select narrators to ask them to audition for a section of your book, which you upload to the site. I chose a section that included several characters so I could hear the variation.

The narrator I chose, Kaitlin Chin, is fantastic. The process of making this book was so much fun and she made it a fresh experience for someone who has read the book a thousand times. Kaitlin embodies the two main characters so well and her performance is captivating.

I hope you'll check out the audio book for Finding Charlie.

Kindle Scout Sale

In 2015, I won the crowd-sourcing competition at Kindle Scout with my novel Finding Charlie. Since then, it has sold over 10,000 copies. Unfortunately, the program is coming to a close, which is a real loss to the writing community. Publishing is always changing and it seems like here are fewer and fewer opportunities for unagented writers to get discovered. I guess it makes those of us who made it quite an elite group.

This week, Kindle Press is having a 99 cent sale for Scout books. Here are a few.

Family life/ Women's fiction

It isn't like Charlie to stay out all night without calling, but maybe Olivia doesn't know her little sister as well as she thought. 
When Charlie vanishes without warning, the people who love her are worried sick. Even if the law considers her an adult at nineteen, Charlie's still the baby of her already broken family. Older sister Olivia is determined to figure out what's happened. She finds a lost cell phone, an abandoned car and a shady boyfriend she's never met before. And he's not the only secret Charlie's been keeping.
This disappearance feels uncomfortably familiar, reminding Olivia and her father of another loss years before. But this will be different, Olivia swears. Charlie's coming back.

Noir

John Ballard is a PI with a condition. One in a million born with a sensitivity. He absorbs the memories of whatever or whoever he touches, whether he wants to or not.  He's an outcast - one that's useful to the cops - but it makes for an isolated life.

Called in to consult on a gruesome and inexplicably artistic murder, it's clear that only someone with his gift can hope to solve it... But absorbing the memories of the body is going to send John's life spiralling out of control.

He'll cross every line. He'll betray everyone who trusts him. Because he doesn't just want to find the killer - he needs to find her - as the only thing that's clear about the woman behind the crime is that she's a sensitive too. 

And the more he learns about this mysterious woman that shares his gift,the more he's convinced he's in love with her, and will do whatever it takes to keep the police off her scent...

Fantasy

Welcome to Bettendorf. At first glance, it seems like a typical Midwestern town, but take a closer look and you might be surprised.
High schooler Jack Davies sees the darkness coming; he lives with it. Cold voices call out from the closet door; dead hands reach up from under his bed. Although he doesn't know it, Jack wields a great power.
Now, a smooth-talking preacher has come to town promising freedom and redemption for all who follow his words. But like Jack, this preacher has a secret. Those who heed his call find themselves pawns in his plan to awaken an ancient evil, long ago imprisoned in the dank caves of Devils Glen Park.
With the help of a widowed police officer, a babysitter, and a mysterious spirit called Ava, Jack must find the truth about his hidden power in time to battle the dark forces that have descended upon his town. If he fails, our world will be cast into darkness forever.

Romance

After surviving life as a POW for 6 months in Afghanistan, the thirty-three-year-old Highlander forsook his medical and military career in favor of running his family’s internationally renowned art gallery in London, The Blue Dot. When he meets Laetitia Galen, a powerful and sizzling attraction ignites between them. 
Laetitia fled hell on earth when she was sixteen. Now she works as a well-paid housekeeper in a remote country manor in Warwickshire and sells her paintings in an obscure gallery. To preserve her new life and hard-earned peace, she resists Tavish and The Blue Dot's offer of an exclusive contract. 
Laetitia becomes Tavish’s obsession—Tavish is Laetitia’s unattainable dream. Meanwhile, a man with a burning grudge plots his long-awaited revenge. He could destroy them all over again.

Mystery

Macey's first day in the college employee relations department ends with a knife at her throat. 
Macey is certain things can't get any worse. She's wrong. An angry employee vows to put her on an online hit list. When he turns up dead, she's a suspect--and on the hit list. 
To keep her secrets and her life, Macey partners with two unexpected allies who cause her pulse to race with steamy attraction--and exasperating annoyance. Vince, a handsome, driven lawman, digs up more than just clues to the brutal murder. Brett, a fun-loving pathologist with a deadly sense of humor, drives everyone crazy with his fart machine-will travel. Macey's supersized black cat Wikket, possessing courage, curiosity, and crankiness in equal portions, assists in his own grumpy, feline fashion, golden eyes open and claws extended.   

Psychological thriller

Everyone agreed Evelyn Marsh wouldn't hurt a fly, but they didn't count on a mother's ferocity, nor the fury of a woman scorned. Written in  the spirit of Patricia Highsmith (Strangers  on a Train; The Talented Mr. Ripley), Evelyn Marsh begins with the provocative statement that "Evelyn's first murder was an accident." The rest of the book exists to explain the implication embedded in that first line. A psychological character study, it's a why-done-it and how-done-it, instead of a who-done-it.

Book Review: Little Fires Everywhere

Celeste Ng's first novel, Everything I Never Told You, blew me away. It would have been hard for Little Fires Everywhere to top it, and it didn't, but it was still enjoyable and thoughtful and impressive in so many ways.

On the Amazon site, the book has been reviewed nearly 2000 times, and the vast majority are four and five stars. Even three star reviews are respectable, in my opinion. What's shocking to me is the 4% of reviewers who felt this book deserved one star. Have they ever read a one star quality book? I have and this isn't it. The one star review should be reserved for books that never should have been published in the first place, not a book you just didn't connect with. Celeste Ng is an amazing writer who couldn't write a one star book if she tried.

Rant over.

I saw Ng at the Tucson Festival of Books this past weekend where she discussed this novel, which is being made into a TV show starring Reese Witherspoon. Having loved her HBO adaptation of Big Little Lies, I'm really looking forward to it.

Little Fires Everywhere is set in the nineties in Shaker Heights - an affluent, planned community that prides itself on its liberalism. The major conflict centers around the abandonment of a Chinese baby and her subsequent adoption by a wealthy, white couple. Ng explores issues of class and race and motherhood in a way that challenges the reader to ask questions without supplying answers.

Tucson Festival of Books: Julia Glass

So, I'm pushing forty and this is the first time I've gotten someone's autograph. Julia Glass is in my top five all-time favorite authors. I've read all her books once, The Whole World Over three times.

In each of my own novels, I make reference to one of the writers I most admire. In Finding Charlie, it's this scene of Olivia reading in her back yard:

"I was reading the latest novel by Julia Glass. She was delving deeper into the lives of characters who had been on the edges of her earlier work. I liked this idea: we are all peripheral characters in someone else’s story and every peripheral character is the lead in their own."

This is the way I write too - standalone stories with overlapping characters. No one does it better than Julia Glass, who was one of several inspiring authors at this year's Festival of Books. (But again, the only one whose autograph I just had to have!)

LitChat. Part Two: publishing

Yesterday's post was getting too long so I split the interview into two chunks. What follows is more about publishing.

(These chats used to be archived. Mary Vensel White asked such good questions, I couldn't just let it get lost in the void!)

MVW: You’re what we call these days a “hybrid author,” meaning, you’ve published books in a variety of ways. Your first novel, Monsoon Season, was published by Canvas then you self-published A Long Thaw. Your third, Finding Charlie was published by Amazon as a Kindle Scout winner and with B&W, you decided to self-publish again. 

KO: actually, A Long Thaw was initially published by canvas. it was part of my original 3 book deal. when i got out of my contract with them, i rereleased it on my own. but since it had already been through the traditional editing process, all i had to do was get a new cover and put it on amazon. it helped me get a sense of what self-publishing is about, but I feel like Blood & Water is my first real experience launching a book on my own.

MVW: Do you think the publishing landscape has changed in recent years to allow authors more diversity and autonomy in the ways they put forward their work?

KO: i do. i still worry that the ease of self-publishing has flooded the market with unpolished work, making it harder for some writers to get noticed and make a living. but it has also made the process democratic, allowing consumers to decide what they're going to read instead of being told by publishing houses that might not be willing to take a chance on something not easily categorized. now writers are free to find their audience regardless of whether a publisher thinks they can. 

MVW: What was your experience like with the traditional publisher, Canvas, with your first novel? What were some benefits of being supported by an established publishing house? Were there any downsides?

KO: i was unhappy with my first publisher. i had very little control over the cover or how my work was promoted. there were long stretches of time when no one returned my emails and i assumed the book had tanked and the others might never be published- only to find out 6 months later, via an accounting letter, that Monsoon Season had sold 10000 copies. i was new to the publishing world and a lot of people thought i was crazy for getting out of that contract, but the lack of personal connection to people i’d trusted with my ‘babies’ felt wrong.  

i think the benefits can be more power behind you in sales, though it isn’t guaranteed and i didn’t get that with the 2nd book. the other benefit is some degree of respect. in a sea of self-published books, it can give you some credibility that you made it past the gate keepers.

MVW: How does an author take advantage of Amazon’s Kindle Scout program and what does publication with them look like? Do they assist with marketing and sales? Did you have any control over the final product?

KO: i think Kindle Scout is the best of both worlds. i got to design the cover and write the book my way; they provide editing, an advance and marketing. they even got me a Bookbub ad this summer. 2 years after publication, they’re still promoting the book and it’s done really well.  

MVW: You’ve returned to self-publishing twice. What do you enjoy about the process? What advice would you give to authors considering publishing their own work?

KO: i’ve found i like the marketing part better than i thought i would. it didn’t come naturally, but i’ve been figuring it out over the past 5-6 years. publishing is always changing and there’s new stuff to learn. i like the challenge but it’s time consuming. if you’re serious about doing the work to find your audience, it’s like taking on a 2nd job on top of writing.  

MVW: What are you working on now and when can we look forward to reading it? Will you continue writing books with these characters?

KO: i often go through a phase when i’ve just finished a book that i think i might never write again, but i just started working on something last week. i think it’s too new to articulate what it might be. if any of my characters decide they have more to say, i’ll be writing it down. the thing i’ve learned is that no story’s ever really over.

Please check out the first post in this series, on writing.

Litchat, Part One: writing

Last month, I participated in a twitter interview on #LitChat. I've attended these author chats before, but this was my first time being the interviewee. We talked about publishing and a bit about my latest novel, Blood & Water. Mary Vensel White conducted the interview and it was so fun I decided to post the content below:

MVW: Today we’re chatting with @katieorourke78. We’ll chat about her latest novel, Blood & Water, for the first half of #LitChat, and for the second half, we’ll discuss her experiences as a hybrid author.

Welcome, Katie! Can you give us a short summary of Blood & Water?

KO: when her life in NH falls apart, delilah takes off, driving across the country to her brother’s house in tucson, though she hasn’t seen him in years. the people she finds there, many of them strangers, become unwitting casualties of her early mid-life crisis, and end up helping her through it anyway.

MVW: What was your initial inspiration for the novel?

KO: i think the first scene i wrote is delilah beating a car with a baseball bat. the idea of an otherwise rational person being pushed into such an uncharacteristic extreme was interesting to me- how she got there and how she'd manage to right herself. the story grew from there.

MVW: I found it very interesting how Delilah and David came from the same parents but because of the age difference and other factors, it was almost like they grew up in two different families. Do you think siblings often have differing childhoods?

KO: i think when there's a big age span, you end up with parents who have different skill sets. parenting in your twenties is different than parenting in your forties, and that doesn't even take into account issues of alcoholism and recovery. there's an 18 year difference between david and delilah. in fundamental ways, they were raised by different people.

MVW: B & W is told in rotating POVs. How did you decide on this form? What benefits does it have?

KO: i always tell stories in multiple pov. it allows the reader to see the story from many angles and it means they end up knowing more than any of the characters. this story has 5 narrators who take turns in a sort of relay style. balancing five narratives so each character has their own arc and resolution while also contributing to the arc and resolution of the main story was probably the most complicated story construction i've taken on so far. by the time i realized how hard it was going to be, i was too far in!

MVW: B&W is your fourth novel—in your own words, a “family saga” with characters that overlap with your other books. Can you talk about this relationship between your novels?

KO: all of my books take place in the same fictional world, making it possible for characters from different books to meet each other, for a peripheral character from one book to have a leading role in the next. i don't write sequels, per se, and these books can be read in any order, but because all of the characters live in the same world, there’s an opportunity to revisit the past.

MVW: What was your writing process like for this novel, especially considering the existing links with your other books? Did you outline or just let it flow?

KO: i never know where a story is going. before i sit down to write, i spend a lot of time in my head just getting to know the characters, but i never know what the story will be or how it ends until i write it.

MVW: Your website calls your books “Contemporary Women’s Fiction.” You and I have been critique partners for years and I’d say B&W is your most literary work to date. Especially because this book was self-published, how difficult is it to settle on a genre when a book straddles two or more?

KO: i try not to think of genre while i'm writing. i do think this is more literary than my others, but i think the biggest difference is that my characters are older. because i'm older. it's about more serious things because i care about more serious things. since i'm the publisher, i don't have to let myself be pigeon-holed or told to write for a specific market. 

Tomorrow, I'll post part two of the interview, where we discuss publishing. Keep an eye out!

Book Review: The Promise Between Us

I first heard about this book when I attended a LitChat on twitter in January. Author Barbara Claypole White spoke about her inspiration for this novel: Can you be a good mother if you abandoned your baby?

The novel rotates between five narrators and tells a story about a young girl with OCD and the complicated family of flawed adults who put aside what they want in order to do what's best for her.

I love flawed characters and I love stories told with alternating POV. Claypole White's novel tackles the stigma that still surrounds mental illness, which (along with access to health insurance) can be one of the obstacles to getting treatment.

Incidentally, I liked how this book included the character's financial concerns. It seems like so many authors gloss over this issue, which makes for totally unrelatable stories, in my opinion.

As a writer of women's fiction, I appreciated her definition:

"Technically I write WF, yes, because I'm writing emotionally layered stories. . . WF is about the protag's emotional journey. Some argue protag has to be female: I disagree."

I'll be participating in my own LitChat on twitter February 26th when I will be interviewed by author Mary Vensel White.

WF is about the protag's emotional journey. Some argue protag has to be female: i disagree

WF is about the protag's emotional journey. Some argue protag has to be female: i disagree."

Book Review: All Systems Down

So I'm a slow reader and this is not the genre I typically read, but I blew through this is a little over two days. In All Systems Down, a cyber attack cripples America, and a group of strangers comes together to fight back.

On one level, it's just a lot of fun. It's edge of your seat, heart-pounding, cinematic entertainment. That level would be enough to recommend it, but I'm happy to say there's a deeper level.

The pacing is perfect, the dialogue is spot on, the writing itself is beautiful. It becomes clear early on that this writer knows what he's doing. This doesn't read like a debut. Boush is talented.

The cast of characters is ethnically diverse without making an issue of it. They challenge stereotypes; the female pilot and fierce mother are only two of the strong women who make up this story. There's a character who seems to be on the Autism spectrum, though it's never explained quite that way and the reader finds herself questioning who decides what behavior is "normal."

The story is told in alternating first-person narratives and the reader gets to know and care for each of these original characters deeply. What this story says about human nature is sort of heart-breaking: we're our own worst enemies. When the nation is under attack, the lawlessness of fellow citizens becomes one of the greatest threats.

A few chapters in, I began worrying about whether I have stored enough emergency water. This is a cautionary tale that seems so plausible, it will haunt you.

I enjoyed every moment of this fast-paced read and look forward to the next novel.

Here's my interview with Sam Boush for Today'sAuthor.

Sex in Literary Fiction 4

Here's my last example for this discussion:

"Have you been good?" she asked me.
I nodded. This would help. "I've been very good," I answered chastely.
She smiled and shrugged out of her utilitarian underwear. For some reason, when making love to my wife, I liked to retreat to a little boy persona and often came within ten seconds whenever she started cooing that I was a "good boy." "Good boy," she would whisper, as I thrust and pumped on top of her (or behind her, or underneath; Elaine was as cheerful as a cheerleader about assuming whatever position I wanted). 'Good boy," she would murmur into my hair. "Good boy." And she would sigh and draw a finger down my back.
"I want to be a good boy, I want to be a good boy. Which was true, which was all I'd ever wanted.
"Help me to be good," I would beg her. "Please, please, help me-" And then blast; it was over.
But tonight, after she'd sat astride me for all of five minutes, I considered attempting to fake it- did she really have to know?- and then to my surprise I sputtered out a small orgasm; satisfied, my wife climbed off me. She and I made love like the sexual revolution had never happened; my satisfaction supported her sense of herself as a woman, and even if only one of us came (that would be me), we could usually both go to sleep content. 

That's a scene from Laura Grodstein's A Friend of the Family. I'm impressed that a woman can so believably write this scene as a male narrator. I think this scene is great for the added dimension it gives of this control-freak narrator and the submissive dynamic he plays in bed which is the opposite of how his relationship with his wife plays out through the rest of the book. It's telling too, that his wife gets reassurance from his climax and neither one of them is concerned about hers. This is reflective of his character, and foreboding for their marriage.

The thing about each of these scenes that separates them from erotica is that they're not designed to titillate. It's fine if they do, but that isn't their purpose. Whatever graphic details exist are there for believability. These scenes give us a deeper understanding of who these characters are, and when a novel's main focus is the romantic relationship between two people, the sex is an essential part.

(To start this  series from the beginning, click here.)

Sex in Literary Fiction 3

This topic has become a series, I guess. I wanted to include a female narrator. Here's a passage from Sue Miller's The Senator's Wife:

"Upstairs they stand on opposite sides of the bed and move quickly out of their clothes. Meri crawls across the coverlet to Nathan. She lies down on her side, looking up at him, opening her knees as he reaches for her.
The air from the open window is cool, but Nathan's body is warm, he radiates heat. He's hard, and she reaches down to help him, to shift him into place. She feels a kind of relief as he enters her. This is what she wants. This is the way she feels honest with him, safe. Here, she thinks. Yes. As he begins to move in her, she whispers it: "Yes. Yes!"
They make love quickly, fueled by his urgency, and when he comes, Nathan cries out so loudly that Meri can imagine someone on the sidewalk below stopping, listening under the darkening trees." 

This time we have a couple of newlyweds and despite the somewhat titillating language, there's so much more than sex here. It's such a great example of the advice every writer has drilled into them: "SHOW; don't tell." It could take pages for Miller to tell us what she has in just three paragraphs. Coupled with the revelation from a few pages before, that Meri thinks they're an unlikely pair that ended up together because of the sex, this scene provides something necessary. To leave it out, or "fade to black", would be a cop out.

Sex in Literary Fiction 2

In my last blog, I promised an example of a sex scene from a literary novel that I think is done well. Here's an excerpt from Michael Cunningham's By Nightfall:

"He puts his lips to her left nipple, flicks it with his tongue. She murmurs. It's become singular, his mouth on her breast and her response to it, the exhaled murmur, the miniature seizure he can feel along her body, as if she can't quite believe that this, this, is happening again. He has a hard-on now. He can't always tell, he doesn't really care, when he's excited on his own and when he's excited because she is. She clutches his back, she can't reach his ass anymore, he loves it that she likes his ass. He circles her stiffening nipple with his tongue-tip, taps the other one lightly with a finger. Tonight it will be mainly about getting her off. This often happens, has for years--it reveals its form, on any given night (when did they last fuck anyplace but at night, in bed?), usually decided up front, by who kisses whom. This one's for her, then. That's the sexiness of it."

The scene goes on. It's actually about three pages towards the very beginning of the story and I think it does a great job of establishing who these characters are and their relationship to each other. There is a routine to their passion, but you get the sense that the intimacy is no less enjoyable for the familiarity. It will be important later for the reader to understand the intricacies of this long-married couple's love for one another and Cunningham has found a way to encapsulate it in three pages, right from the beginning. I think he manages to be graphic without being gratuitous.

But that's just my opinion. What do you think?

Sex in Literary Fiction

I recently read an article about how difficult it is to find quality sex scenes depicted in literary fiction. The argument is that the absence feels pretty conspicuous in a genre that prides itself on laying bare the internal mysteries of character. The author of the article suggests the lack may come down to simple embarrassment, in light of things like the annual Bad Sex Review, run by Britain's Literary Review.

As a writer myself, I'd say there are two main concerns when writing sex into my story. The first is: What will my family and friends think? As much as sex is a big part of human experience, it still doesn't get discussed in realistic terms even in some of our closest relationships. This is what makes it such great territory for a writer to reveal intimate parts of their character's nature, but it remains taboo. When I sent my dad a copy of my first novel, Monsoon Season, I blacked out all the naughty bits and in the margin I wrote: "REDACTED."

The second major concern for writers including sex in our books is: Is it gratuitous? We've all heard that "sex sells" and we don't want to be seen as using sex to transform an otherwise uninteresting story into a page-turner. Frankly, many of us don't want our work dismissed as a Fifty Shades knock off when we're trying to write something of literary value. But the "fade to black" approach can feel a bit cowardly.

It's a tricky balance. I notice when it's done well and think Michael Cunningham, Sue Miller and Lauren Grodstein get it right. Perhaps I will locate some of their well-written passages for my next blog.

Book Review: The Lights Went Out and Other Stories

This short story collection is beautifully written. As a novel writer, I was so impressed at how Hogan was able to get me invested in her characters in such a short space. Also impressive was what a chameleon she is in terms of style and voice. She writes men, women, teenage boys, vampires, dogs. She can write convincingly in different tense, genre, and POV. 

My favorites were Blood Orange and Twenty Years, which are both about the ferocity of new love compared with the fragility of long-term love. 

I am left thinking of many of these characters. Recommended!