Saturday, May 26, 2012

Preconceptions and Misconceptions with Mona Karel


Well, it's Saturday, and here in the States, it's the start of a holiday weekend. And here in Seattle, it's uncharacteristically sunny. I can't think of a better way to wrap up a crazy busy week than by welcoming a guest to the blog. I'd like you to meet Mona Karel, one of my fellow Black Opal Books authors. Mona is celebrating the recent release of Teach Me To Forget, her second book with Black Opal. She's got an interesting spin on how a books jacket blurb can give you the wrong impression....
;)


The Blurb for Teach Me To Forget reads like this:

Her past was behind her...or so she’d thought.
Bethany Acton has come a long way from the day she was an abused child-bride of a dissolute jet setter. Now divorced and single, she writes for a lifestyles magazine, lives out of her motor home, and answers only to her boss—when he can find her. She has overcome her horrendous past and taken control of her own life. But when Jonathan Merritt, a rising star in wildlife photography, enters her world, she learns control is a tenuous thing.
His past was despicable, but it hasn’t affected his future...until now.
Jonathan knows he has met the woman with whom he wants to spend his future, but first he must admit his role in her past. Afraid the truth will turn her against him, he tries to gain her trust and affection before confessing. But the longer he hesitates, the harder it becomes to tell her. Can Jonathan gain enough of her love and trust for her to forgive what he did—or will his past indiscretions destroy his only chance for happiness?

***
            I feel so fortunate to have Black Opal Books to help with the blurbs!  I can come up with the basic information but Lauri has a way of polishing the words until they sparkle and grab attention.  My late husband’s cousin was putting out the word on Teach Me To Forget, and shared this comment from a friend of hers (reproduced here with permission)


“So there are lots of steamy scenes, and then Jonathan tells her his secret, and she's shocked and hates him and throws him... and then discovers, when he's gone, that she loves him and needs him? (Is that close? lol)”

            To which the cousin said “No, not in the least,” and left all of us laughing.  But also set me to thinking.  The cousin’s (male) friend had formed an opinion based on his knowledge of romance books and for a lot of books he got pretty close to the truth.  Romance books all too often do (at least loosely)  follow a set pattern.  Is this lazy writing, or is it writing the book people want to read?  We often praise a book for being “different, outside the norm.”  But too often the success goes to the book that is “the same, but different.”
            And people wonder why writers are strange?

Nah, we're not strange, Mona. Are we?
Heh.
I think Teach Me To Forget sounds awesome. Thanks for telling us about it.
Peace,
Liv

Teach Me To Forget is available from Amazon and Black Opal Books.

6 comments:

  1. Hi Liv, thanks for letting me visit. It's windy in the high plains but this seems like an exceptionally rough spring. I'm watching someone's topsoil fly by at 30mph, and very glad for a well built house!

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  2. That's crazy! The houses had better be well-built or they might blow away too.
    ;)
    Thanks again...

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  3. Excellent post. I think we all build in preconceived ideas about so many things--not just romances. We have to have something familiar to get our attention, then we can notice the twist that hooks us. Good post. Thanks so much for the inside view.

    Joanie

    leftbrainedwritebrained.wordpress.com

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  4. Hi Mona and Liv, I think the blurb sounds great and I can't wait to read it. Good luck and Happy Memorial Day weekend.

    Debbie

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  5. Love the post, Mona! Lauri helped with my blurb, too...Just couldn't get it down right..

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  6. Great post Mona! Teach Me to Forget sounds awesome! Already got my copy and can't wait to read! Love the blurb.

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