Squawk Radio
Monday, April 25, 2005
Eloisa's Brief Career as a Contemp Writer
I think the kind of pressure that Elizabeth talks about is rampant in publishing. Let's say you have a modest career going as a historical author and suddenly all the readers are buying contemps. There is no question but that your editor and possibly your agent are going to ask you how you feel about switching periods. Part of this comes from a lingering feeling in New York City that romance is a "product," and if you can write "to formula," what the heck does it matter what period you write in?
My experience is rather like Elizabeth's, except I got a little farther. The publishers at my previous house thought I should give contemp a try. So I did. I happen to love baseball and sports heros (Susan Elizabeth Phillips is a hero of mine). So I wrote 100 pages of a great baseball story. My hero was a baseball player and at some point he got hit on the head by a ball and after that he could only speak in verse and so he asked the heroine to marry him by singing "When I'm 64." I KNOW this sounds crazy! OK, it was crazy.
At that point I was switching publishers, and everyone who was bidding on my work read the 100 pages and all said politely, "well, if you really really want to publish it, we will do it." I finally realized that I had written it for the wrong reasons, and that I don't have a contemp voice. All that freedom that Connie talks about in a contemporary setting just made me come up with crazy stories about men who sing their proposals.
On that note...back to writing a story set in 1807. Or thereabouts.
My experience is rather like Elizabeth's, except I got a little farther. The publishers at my previous house thought I should give contemp a try. So I did. I happen to love baseball and sports heros (Susan Elizabeth Phillips is a hero of mine). So I wrote 100 pages of a great baseball story. My hero was a baseball player and at some point he got hit on the head by a ball and after that he could only speak in verse and so he asked the heroine to marry him by singing "When I'm 64." I KNOW this sounds crazy! OK, it was crazy.
At that point I was switching publishers, and everyone who was bidding on my work read the 100 pages and all said politely, "well, if you really really want to publish it, we will do it." I finally realized that I had written it for the wrong reasons, and that I don't have a contemp voice. All that freedom that Connie talks about in a contemporary setting just made me come up with crazy stories about men who sing their proposals.
On that note...back to writing a story set in 1807. Or thereabouts.
Eloisa James, 3:54 PM
6 comments
