spill (for clarification)

[digitalusrex.livejournal.com]

in incubus dreams, i got about halfway through before i began unofficially counting the number of times miss laurell used the world "spill" (or "spilled," "spilling," etc). unofficially, i counted maybe 8 or 9 "spills" before i started officially counting. 32 after that.

having started re-reading danse macabre, in the first 160 pages or so: 11. [EDIT: 16 at 314 pages. EDIT EDIT: 21 at 383 pages (also, 4 times on one page!)]

i know i have favorite words that i like to use, but this goes above and beyond. now, while reading danse macabre, i've tried to decide if other words could have been substituted and stayed true to the original meaning of the passage. yep.

a LOT of things annoy me about the series, especially the last 4 books, but this "spill" nonsense is what is bugging me this week. if miss laurell had an editor with ballz, perhaps it would have made a difference?

have you all noticed this overusage of the word "spill"?

Comments

[panicqueen.livejournal.com]

She tends to overuse dozens of words, but yes, that's the most overused word of the bunch.

When I was reading the first Charlaine Harris novels, I noticed she liked to use the phrase "pleased as punch." I counted three or four in the first couple of books. I've finished the fourth book (fifth? I can't remember) and I haven't seen it since the second one.

If only Laurell could have done the same, with soooooo many things.

[digitalusrex.livejournal.com]

is charlaine harris good?
i've been looking to try other "supernatural mystery/romance" authors to see if i like the genres. i've read some kim harrison and she's alright.

[panicqueen.livejournal.com]

I absolute love Charlaine Harris. I liked her first book, really liked her second, and by the fourth I'm just...I can't put them down. They're amazing and they just get better and better.

And her sex scenes are well-written, steamy without being stifling, and incredibly...real and sensual. And she doesn't overuse them. Sookie Stackhouse isn't always on her back just getting sexed up. She's a wonderful protagonist, and she's not a Mary Sue. She's great. I really, really like her and identify with her well.

Plus, Harris' writing is much, much better than Hamilton's.

[panicqueen.livejournal.com]

Brainless fluff? I didn't get a brainless fluff vibe from her, though she is a little more focused on the romance aspect of love rather than the sex, which is...ah...refreshing, after wading through the filth ofreading LKH.

So far, Dead to the World is my favorite, but even so, I have a hard time considering it fluff. Brainless, considering that yeah, you can sort of pick out what's going to happen, but not really fluff.

[alex-lebeau.livejournal.com]

I couldn't even read it for brainless fluff. X_X I gave my SFBC copy to Half Price Books, and I so rarely give books away -- it's a cardinal sin, for me.

Somewhere I saw reference to her possibly writing the first books as a sort of sarcastic rebuttal to similar "paranormal chick" books, and it was meant to be read as such, but I honestly never noticed as I thought they sucked on their own. "I'm pretty. I have nice boobs. I also have internal dialogue that manages to be more boring than watching paint dry. Did I mention I also have nice boobs?"