An Experiment

I've decided to start a bookclub with a new friend, a fellow mom from my son's 1st grade class who, like me, doesn't like the idea of sitting around discussing serious, literary, often times dreary books with a group of women. We do, however, like the idea of having a couple of 'girls-hours-out' dicussing hip, modern, funny books we all enjoy. So, we're planning our first meeting in March. The book we selected (really I selected and then got approval) is The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne. I LOVED this book! (Yes, I've already read it). I wanted to suggest the sequel Little Lady, Big Apple but didn't as it is considerably less accessible. The libraries in our area don't have it yet, and it's only out in hardback. So I'm re-reading TLLA and loving it anew.

Ms. Browne starts with a little character bio, which I tend to do when I'm writing, and I think it works great (at least for her). When I get critiques on my work, people always tell me I'm not moving to the action quickly enough, but I don't get it. So many books start with little tidbits of information that are interesting and provide a hook without the every-popular dialogue or moment of action. Sometimes I think romance writers follow too many rules. And when you connect yourself to romance writers (really lovely people!), you find yourself getting nudged into following right along. At this point I'm trying to decide how to run with my opening paragraphs: alone or with the pack. Tricky, tricky.