Spies In Bad Mood Aren't Productive

I've fallen into a writing funk lately--been watching too much news and surfing the net. The news depresses me and the net is like a black hole, swallowing whatever hours I have left....

When I get like this, I try to get out of it by reading a good book. It has to be really, really good, so it can fire up my creative juices again. I have heard good things about Amy Fetzer, so I'm ordering her books today and hope I'll be cured of my slump!

What is a good book to you? For myself, the beginning has to grab me because I tend to skim if it doesn't. The first meeting between hero and heroine must also catch my attention. I also love a good meaty conflict between my characters, not just a "I want you" and "I can't have sex with you right now" scenes. I was just reading a book like that and it irritated me that the two just don't be lovers and get it over with so we can get to the story ;-). I know, I know, that's probably my depression interfering.

But most of the time, when it comes to sexual dynamics, I like my hero assertive and my heroine an equal. Meaning, she knows what's happening and the attraction is so palpable, there's no way she's going to play a teasing game with her man, even if she hadn't recognize that he's THE man at that point. I hate it when there are endless coitus interruptus scenes when I KNOW I wouldn't allow whatever to stop me at that moment, if it were me! ;-) It makes me go Arrghh! and takes me out of the story.

On the other hand, I hate it even more when there is sexual dynamics and the story doesn't deliver the romance. Why call it romantic suspense then? I want more than just the chemistry; I want the payoff too!

In the old romances (pre-eighties), everything sexual happened either behind closed doors or at the end AFTER the words The End. I remember thinking how did these people come to the conclusion that they really loved each other? Of course, the hero was always wayyyy too much older, so it was assumed that he knew so much more than the heroine. That was never enough for me. That might even have worked if the authors were giving the hero's POV, but back then, it wasn't the style. So this Male, this Old Male (hey, 38-42 is old to a 12 year old), this dominating Old Male, with no POV, who sometimes spanked the heroine as if she was still a child, who was always in control, remained a stranger till the end of the story. I was never totally in love with him like I can be nowadays with certain males.

There was no Joe MacKenzie. No Roarke. I mean, I say those names and most of us perk up, right? We know who these men are. I can't for the life of me name a hero from the old school, even though I did love those books, to a point. However, I think I was more in love with the idea of romance in a different exotic country (most of them were set in Australia or New Zealand, and I was a little kid in a Third World country).

Okay, so now my depression has turned into a nostalgic rant. But I guess I'm looking for a Joe and a Roarke to pull me out of my funk. I need to stop watching the news and put my head back into my story. It's so hard, especially when I surf the net and I get to see photos of the destruction, like these:

here

It's been difficult to know that I can help so damn little.

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