Facebook flog - Jan 24 2014

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: Jan 24 2014, 14:06
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's Facebook. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.

I know my characters. If I could draw I could give you their faces. If I could magically let you feel what I feel, I know the difference in their skin when my character runs her hands across their bodies. I would know the smell of Micah's skin, as separate from Nathaniel's in the dark. I could hug most of them blind-folded and tell you who it was by the way they would fill my arms. I know the taste, texture, smell, of them the way I know real life lovers, and in some ways better, because my characters don't hide, or withhold like real people can. I know that special smile Nathaniel has the way I know my husband's, it's not the same smile, but it's special to both of them; the real and the not so. (Please do not let that last contribute to the rumor that Nathaniel is based on my husband, Jon, because it's not true, but I know my husband better than anyone so he springs to mind for such analogies.) I know the way Jean-Claude turns his head, how his hair falls when he looks down, how he fusses with the cuffs of his shirt when he's nervous. I can "see" the movement of it in my head, to the point where it seems almost wrong that they only exist in my imagination and in my books. There are moments when I think if they reached out and touched me for real, I wouldn't be scared, it would almost be a relief, a "oh, there you are," moment.

Thanks to Michelle Belanger, another author, whose comment on Twitter helped inspire this post.

Comments

[jeza-red.livejournal.com]

But all of these things you describe here are NOT SEXY in any way!>:O My lover has to appeal to me physically and smell nice, why would I need more from them and care for their, what was it again, character!

*LKH's part was read by Morgan Freeman*

[rebootfromstart.livejournal.com]

Silly me! I shouldn't be putting effort into character traits, all that matters is hair and eyes and darkity dark (but not too dark) pain that can be solved by Anita's magical healing cooter.

[jeza-red.livejournal.com]

See, now you get it!

Apart from that, this whole post reads as one great, awkward as hell begging for attention, doesn't it? As if she just awoke to the fact that she's a hasbeen and can't believe it.

[rebootfromstart.livejournal.com]

It really does. Her constant "no, Nathaniel is TOTALLY NOT BASED ON JON" honestly always reads like she's trying to fuel the rumours, too. If she just didn't mention it, it'd fall by the wayside eventually and nobody would care. This reads like an "I'm a great writer, really, look at how well I know my characters! I will write something vaguely titillating about how well I know them!" attention gambit.

[jeza-red.livejournal.com]

I get a bit of other thing from her too - as if she finally figured out that the characters she luurves so much have reached their end, there's nothing more she can pull out of them plot(sic!)-wise and instead of killing them off or replacing them or, dunno, making them interesting, she seeks validation from her fans that no, she doesn't have to. That her babies are okay the way they are. All that creepy love smells of desperation.

[rebootfromstart.livejournal.com]

I can see that, yeah. Honestly, her reluctance to have bad things happen to Anita's "sweeties" has been dragging the series down for a long time, because there's no tension. It's like watching a disaster movie with The Littlest Cancer Patient (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LittlestCancerPatient) - you know they're not going to kill off the sick kid who's there to tug at your heartstrings, so you're not actually worried about them.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

I'd kill the sick kid character and I've got the fics - fan and original - to prove it.

[rebootfromstart.livejournal.com]

You're ballsier than Hollywood, then :P