MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 2342 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) YA vs. "hard-core" by Laura Rossier ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2000 00:39:13 -0400 From: Laura Rossier To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: YA vs. "hard-core" Message-ID: <39616A71.C4BBFEC2-+AT+-ic.sunysb.edu> Songjewel wrote: >> I think what we may be disliking about her YA style is that she doesn't write as much about romantic or sexual relationships...in all the books people tend to love, there is some king of relationship like that. In O- and BB, there isn't really any hard-core stuff Keisha and Daren are together, but not in detail, << I've been wondering about this. Along with fantasy I'm an addict of many varieties of romance novels. I don't think that it's the sexuality that's missing from these relationships though, to me they're more missing a depth, an intensity, a 3rd-dimension. There's no real tension in any of the relationships in Owl*. I'd almost rather have authors leave out the sex or romantic relationships if they write them half-heartedly. Slightly away from Misty but an example...I recently read an epic-type fantasy by Laura Resnick. I then read a review of it on Amazon(?one of the book ones?) where a reader had criticized her of showing her romance-writer roots with hot and steamy love scenes. Which made me laugh and angry at the same time...the only "romance" scene in the book involved little more than hand-holding, one of the characters was recuperating from near-fatal injuries and was in love with another woman. But the tension in the relationships and the layers of emotions between all the characters (friendships, loyalties, and lust) of that book made many small scenes like that really powerful. I miss the layers and the passions in the characters of Misty's lastest books. I'm basically a giant sap who likes to fall in love and cry right along with characters. That's why LHM hooked me so much. It's why I love GGK's epics (Lord of Emperors is waiting when I get home from holiday). I don't require complete emotional catharsis from every book I read, but I do feel that it's been missing a bit lately. Laura ------------------------------ End of MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 2342 **********************************