Tag: Monica Stoner

STORIES THAT DO MORE THAN ENTERTAIN (and a few of my favorite books)

by Monica Henderson Stoner, Member at large

Romance writers write romance. Sometimes they write romance with a twist or hyphen. And sometimes they write romance with a subtle message, one that might stop the reader mid paragraph, and have them thinking about other than boy meets girl.

I’ve come across these books in the past, and taken away something more than just a story. One of the first was Kathleen Korbel’s JAKE’S WAY, about a man who gives up his own dreams to help his family, who never realize he can’t read. Korbel whammied me again with A ROSE FOR MAGGIE, about a charming baby with Down’s Syndrome, and then A SOLDIER’S HEART, reminding me PTSD wasn’t just for the men in the field. She wrote about the agony of anorexia in SOME MEN’S DREAMS and about overcoming deep seated fears in both WORTH THE RISK and PERCHANCE TO DREAM.

Suzanne Brockmann faces issues head on. Dealing with Alcohol or drug dependency started with HEART THROB and continues right through the Troubleshooter books. Who can’t love Jules, gay and proud of it, who wanted a partner he could walk with in sunshine? People doing the right thing for the wrong reason, and people doing what has to be done even when no one else realizes what they’ve done, come alive in her books.

Then we come to SEIZE THE FIRE, a heart wrenching story of dealing with the horrors of war in a time when an officer and gentleman was supposed to keep a stiff upper lip and soldier on. FLOWERS FROM THE STORM, a stroke bringing a genius down to near disaster; THE SHADOW AND THE STAR, a young man overcoming a depraved upbringing. Laura Kinsale makes me think while enjoying her stories.

None of these authors hit me over the head with their MESSAGE. I’ve seen and tried to read books with a THEME, sometimes a worthy theme such as racism or man’s inhumanity to man. All valid high concepts but when your theme gets in the way of your story, sometimes people stop reading all together.

More recently, I learned from a fellow LERA member about Best Buddies International: http://www.bestbuddies.org/ a non-profit organization dedicated to establishing one-on-one friendships for people with IDD (Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities). Their goal is to ensure these people have friends to call them. Gabi Stevens wove IDD into her newest fantasy romance AS YOU WISH, which I’m looking forward to reading.

For myself, I’m polishing TEACH ME TO FORGET, about a woman overcoming a depraved marriage and making something of herself, then learning to trust.

Happy reading and writing!

Are we WRITERS? by Monica Stoner Member at (very) Large

What defines us as writers? Some say the act of writing, of pulling words from our heads and putting them on pages, defines a writer. If that’s the case, when we don’t write, do we cease being writers?

We all agree publishing of any sort does not define us as writers. Publishing is the public acknowledgment of our writing. The same as hanging a painting in a gallery, or selling sculpture recognizes a large step in an artist’s life. However, creating that artwork has already identified that person as an artist. When asked, they can point to the sculpture, the hand thrown bowl, the oil painting, as an affirmation of their identity as an artist. When not currently producing, they still have that proof of their creative spark.

How long after we cease to torture our bodies by sitting for hours in front of our computer and cudgel our minds for just one viable idea can we continue to call ourselves writers? Is there a specific length of time, or maybe one day we just wake up and decide it’s time to move on to something else? If, after a span of time, we plan to take up the challenge once more will we be still writing, or writing once again? Do we call ourselves once and future writers?

Teachers and nurses retire; pilots retire; and certainly soldiers and policemen retire. Once they have made that change in their lives, they are former teachers, pilots, etc (except Marines – I understand once a Marine, Always a Marine). Do writers ever retire? Or do they plan to be found, pen in hand, yellow pad on their lap, jotting down one final thought? Maybe writers are the Marines of the cerebral world – once a Writers, always a Writer?

Where is this leading? I’m not really sure. I just know by the act of dragging these words out of my head and into my fingers, I’ve gone from not writing to writing. So I guess I’m still a writer. And next maybe I’ll discuss wonderful writing data bases and why they don’t work for everyone.

Monica Stoner
tsent@ix.netcom.com
We’re only given a little spark of madness; we mustn’t lose it.

Romance in A Time of Tragedy by Monica Stoner Member at Large

How many of us wonder, as we’re pounding out the lives of our hero and heroine, if there can be justification for Romance writing such times as terrorist attacks in war zones the tsunami in the Indian Ocean or the earthquake in Haiti. Can we justify spending so much time at our keyboards with, to be honest, very little hope of remuneration? Shouldn’t we be doing something?

The same questions come up for anyone deeply involved in what some might call a non productive hobby or career or avocation. And we who feel deeply worry the most about our place in the world. We each do what we can in our own way.

Spinning tales out of mid air is a time honored method of dealing with difficult times. “Tell me a story,” whispers the frightened child, looking for distraction from the sounds in their closet. “Tell us a tale,” commands the King when a new Bard comes to visit. “Make our heroes bigger and braver, our villains more evil, and our princesses even more beautiful.” Tell us a tale, and take us away, if briefly, from our every day world. Give us something else to think about, if only for the next few minutes.

I know I’ve certainly thought this more than once, and said so to someone whose opinion was very important to me. She asked back: “If you stopped writing or showing dogs or riding horses would those tragedies go away?” She did have a great way of cutting an issue down to basics, and also reminding me very few people are so important their actions influence the world. A lot of people might think they are that important but that’s a matter for another time. None of us can stop the ocean or earth from expressing themselves.

Andre Norton wrote of heroes from the unlikeliest backgrounds, mostly what might be considered “throw away” people in the slums left over from horrific intergalactic wars. I wonder if this was her method of dealing with the lost children and lost people after governments have rolled over top of citizens? Certainly her “ordinary people” did extraordinary things, once they recognized their own value. Could some of this also have to do with why some of us create characters who can stop the ocean and who can communicate with the earth to convince her not to shrug so hard, or in such a vulnerable place?

We each do what we can, in our own way, to deal with tragedy. Whatever we do, we also reach out to each other, to the other spinners of tales, for the comfort of at least a few hours of relief from the unrelenting worry. And perhaps our words are read by someone who needed that particular story at that particular time. Hug your loved ones.

Monica Stoner
tsent@ix.netcom.com