Delta Sierra

106 posts
Book-industry lifer.

QOTD: Ask a Former Harlequin Writer

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Once upon a time, long ago and far away, I wrote several Harlequin romance novels. How did I get into it? Like a lot of people, I had graduated from university and couldn’t find work in my field, librarianship. During school I’d heard about librarians being needed so I studied that, but had the misfortune to graduate the year after they (mostly, government and public libraries) had hired all the librarians they could afford. I worked in a bookstore for a couple of years, but it didn’t pay well and I had ambitions beyond that. So I thought I’d try writing Harlequins. They had an established structure, and you had to keep within certain parameters as regards the plot, which struck me as good training for a new and indecisive writer. We got to the point where my husband was making enough money that I could quit work and we wouldn’t have to eat cat food. I gave myself 5 years to produce a publishable novel. It took 3. Continue reading →

Care, Feeding, and Disposal of Books

Yes, disposal. Are you shrieking NO! NEVER!? Bursting into tears? Wondering where I live so you can bomb my house?

Let me explain, using trees as an example. Trees have life-spans. Certain types of maple live for about 75 years, then they die and must be cut down. Sometimes it’s wise to cut it down when it’s just very sick.

For books it’s not an exact comparison, but it does happen that eventually a can book get very worn, very dirty, very mildewed. At that time, you should put it in the paper recycle (read details for your local garbage collection, some places want you to remove the hard board covers of a hardback book). Continue reading →

Help Me Put Together an Authentic Southern Barbeque

Yesterday, this Canadian asked the denizens of CTalk for the elements of a proper southern U.S. barbeque. I really wasn’t thinking about an article about it, but I got so many good answers I wanted to put them together for my own later reference and then I thought, what the hell, might as well post them.

So here we have, according to Crass’s own southerners, a pick-and-choose list of potential dishes.  Continue reading →

Some People Seem to Be Able to Make Miserable Over Anything

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So I had a little to-do with the editor of the local rag here in my small town. I’ve been writing book-related bits for it for a couple of years now, usually author profiles, which are wonderful when I like the book and painful when I don’t. So far it’s been 90-10, guess in which direction.

Anyhow, I was asked to do a piece on our independent bookstore’s 15th anniversary. Nothing makes me happier than seeing an indie bookstore still alive, so I happily interviewed the owner and the manager and wrote up a nice optimistic piece about all their plans for the future. And sent it in to my editor. Who added just a tiny clause that was basically a shot at the owner. Very mean. Totally out of tone with the rest of the piece. I asked Ed to take it out. Ed said no, and made a couple of other nasty remarks about the owner. I thought screw this, and asked to have my name taken off the piece. (I don’t get paid for these, I do it in exchange for a one-line mention of a small business I have here in town.) Back and forth a little more, but I just insisted that Ed remove my name, and it came off.

Highly doubtful I’ll be asked to do any further writing for them but that’s fine. There’re only so many self-published novels, most of them written by retired gents wanting to relive their youth (the tell-tale: the hero is always a, erm, mature man with a toothsome young female sidekick), that one can stomach.

As a thank-you to any who have plowed their way through this tiny tempest in a teacup, here’s a book recommendation. The latest John Le Carre, Our Kind of Traitor. Le Carre knows his way around a keyboard, and uses all kinds of tricksy little techniques that a lesser writer would screw up terribly. Le Carre, of course, doesn’t. He keeps his narrative under complete and effortless control that rewards the close reading you need to give it.

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Delta Sierra