Love Letter from Genre to Literature

... cuz you know they just can't quit each other.

I love that Horror and Fanfic write their own letters in the comment thread.

Commenter at 7:56 pm 12/14/2011 says,  "The important distinction among books is well-written and poorly-written. [Philip K.] Dick et al. have been adopted into the wider canon because they can write well."

I just picked up the recent literary best-seller Her Fearful Symmetry,  and it is a flat-out ghost story -- definitely well-written.

And this gets us to the question, Just what does "well-written" mean, anyway?   Page-turner?  Rich use of language?  Surprising ideas and/or emotions embedded in the action, descriptions, and dialogue?  Plot and character developments that startle but feel organic?  Authentic "voice" in the narration and dialogue?  The sense of a world?  I've picked up "best-sellers," even stuff from Oprah's book club, that had at best two of these elements.

In the news, we lost Russell Hoban last week and now Vaclav Havel.  I has a sad about that.

More happily, the local indie book store has sold out of Yu: A Ross Lamos Mystery, and will be ordering more for me to sign -- because friends who recieved my e-mail realized that they want to give the book as a gift!

Yay!

This Face, That Face

It's a wonder how much online writing is required to market a book. There's this blog, blogs at several different literary social sites, the book's Facebook page, and I suppose I will soon have to be Tweeting, although I feel topped up with technology.

It makes me look at my writing in terms of triage. Which "face" should this writing come out of? I don't want to forget how to form long, full thoughts in tight paragraphs. I don't want to forget how to stretch and luxuriate in the music of language and ideas.

Most importantly, I don't want to sacrifice the kind of writing that is more like composting: the journaling, meditation, and solitary noodling that pulls up the night soil of the unconscious, to enrich the growth of fiction.

And then there's the fiction writing itself. The balance of day job, Mom care, volunteer work, book marketing, and creative writing has gotten tricky.

So please don't take offense if my door is closed sometmes. I'm inside, trying not to log on to Facebook.