Other Author Weighs In: Armintrout

[naeko.livejournal.com]

As a response to Hamilton's delightful blog about how all other authors are doing it wrong, Jennifer Armintrout had some things to say.

Barfing On My Keyboard

"Bleeding On My Keyboard" begins innocently enough with Laurell lamenting how difficult it's been for her to work on her latest manuscript. Fair enough, I've been there. I can get on board with feeling like your own writing is trying to straight up murder you. In fact, I would wager that pretty much every writer has felt that way now and again.

Laurell disagrees with me:
Some very successful writers don’t seem to feel that emotional connection to their work, or at least not to the degree I do. I used to envy them until I realized the price of that cool distance. They write like they feel with less depth, less of themselves on the page. It is a safer way to write, less frightening, less hurtful, less pain for the writer, but the writing shows that.

This is where it all starts to go a little wrong. As a writer, I resent the implication that unless "I’ve screamed at my computer, cursed other characters, fought and lost to them," I haven't managed to make a connection to my work. I love my job. I wouldn't love it if it constantly frightened and hurt me, and I don't think it needs to.

(More at the link, of course)


This has been brought up elsewhere, but not here, yet, so I'm relaying it for those of you who haven't seen it. I personally think Armintrout has made some good points, and I like to see when other professional authors calls LKH out on her shit. She likes to put up a wall of, "haters gonna hate" and just assume that all the people who don't fall at her feet and worship what she writes are just not intelligent enough or just don't get her, or whatever other excuse du jour she's using. I like seeing another professional, published author take issue with her words. To me it seems like she might be at least slightly more likely to take them seriously.

Then again, she's not listened before, so maybe I'm wasting perfectly good hope.

Comments

[fangedsekhmet.livejournal.com]

They know that the skin of let’s pretend is there, always, they never let themselves sink past a certain point, or perhaps their world, their muse, their imagination is more shallow than mine.

D:D:D:

The ego, it burns!

[lilitu93.livejournal.com]

Armintrout's been in my TBR pile for a while now, and I think she just moved up a bit higher.

Hmm, I wonder who this earlier post (http://jenniferarmintrout.blogspot.com/2009/07/public-service-announcement-you-are.html) could be about.

[moonbeamdancer.livejournal.com]

It's nice to see that we aren't the only ones who think LKH is a bit nuts sometimes. It's very nice to see that someone else can see the fucking crazy for what it is.

[devilmet67.livejournal.com]

We had a nice little soiree about this over on Amazon, complete with a token troller, until Armintrout herself stopped by to say hi.

http://www.amazon.com/Jennifer-Armintrout-on-LKH/forum/FxA39DYXK3USRB/Tx3D7Y0DRM4B6W6/1/ref=cm_cd_tp_ft_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&asin=0425234339

[tooimpurenangel.livejournal.com]

"3. I didn't write the blog out of professional jealousy or "cattiness". I would love to have the word "catty" removed from any discussion of female authors from now on. When Nicholas Sparks routinely slams the romance genre, no one calls him "catty". They call him "outspoken" and "opinionated". "Catty" is a word we use to describe women who aren't acting like sugar, spice, and everything nice, and it's bs."

I think I love this woman.

[putana.livejournal.com]

Will have to check her out - funny that I'm now finding authors to read from people who call LKH on her idiocy. ...but then again, it is damn hard to find decent fantasy/paranormal (I refuse to use 'urban romance') books these days.

[putana.livejournal.com]

From her Amazon discussion reply -

I didn't write the blog out of professional jealousy or "cattiness". I would love to have the word "catty" removed from any discussion of female authors from now on. When Nicholas Sparks routinely slams the romance genre, no one calls him "catty". They call him "outspoken" and "opinionated". "Catty" is a word we use to describe women who aren't acting like sugar, spice, and everything nice, and it's bs.

Oh, I love <3

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

Holy shit. When worlds fucking collide, man.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

I think I did an inner SQUEE while reading this.

[cekhmet.livejournal.com]

I love Armintrout. Her Blood Ties trilogy was really, really good and her blog shows off how awesome of a person she is. She's also written about LKH before, though without naming her. I'm glad an author is calling out Ms. Snowflake.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Wow, someone came in looking for her books yesterday evening. Worlds colliding!

[amosby.livejournal.com]

When did she become Ms. Snowflake? I've been away from the world of LKH for months now and I guess I missed some things? I like this Armintrout chick's sass. Can I still say "sass" without setting women back??? I swear I use the same word for men.

LKH,:sigh:, the ego on this woman makes me want to do violent things hahaha. Ugh I blame the fans...or the Troos (am I using that right?) because the amount of ass-kissing they do is mind altering I tell ya.