Random Monday things

[jmc_bks]

~  Haven't synched Ignacio in awhile.  No good reason, just laziness.  Am transferring all recent iTunes purchases (hello, The Constellations, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and AI cast recording).  Then backing up.  Then upgrading to 4.1.  Am nervous, very nervous.  [ETA:  2 hours to download?  Even by broadband?  WTH]

~  It feels like summer again, which is pretty cool for a holiday.  One last hurrah before fall and winter arrive in earnest?

~  Peanut butter bars were a big hit for the birthday dinner on Saturday, and the leftovers went home with them or to my neighbor.  I can NOT have a pan of those in my kitchen, because I'll take just one little bite.  Then another.  And then another.  And eventually I'll be in pain and ill from the sugar rush.

~  How much sugar is in Panera's green tea?  I always order it, then remember why I shouldn't.  The first few sips are okay but the rest of the glass is too much.

~  Read and loved Meljean Brook's The Iron Duke.  Bought an ebook edition, and after I was through wished I had a paper book in my hands.  As much as I love ebooks, there are times when I prefer paper, especially when it comes to randomly picking up and reading.  The book rocked.  I stayed up insanely late/early to finish reading it -- until 4am Saturday morning.  My only real criticism of the book is the family background: Mina's mother did something horrendous and damaging when she was born, something that symbolizes rejection in the most fundamental way...yet we are never shown how/why that rejection changed to love and acceptance.  Was that edited out (its a fairly dense book for romance)?  

Comments

[meljeanbrook.livejournal.com]

It wasn't edited out, but it might have been one of those times that I should have been explicit and "say" it rather than trying to show something.

(Long and spoilery comment to follow.)

There was never any rejection of Mina -- and Mina does say directly to Rhys that what her mother did was never about her (Mina), but what the Horde did to her (the rape). From the writer side, that was the end of the issue for me. Mina knows and accepts what happened to her mother and how her mother reacted, but she also knows that it wasn't a rejection of her (Mina) personally. And since the family was loving and supported each other fiercely, I didn't see it as an issue. What Mina said was true, and that was it for me.

But there are two perspectives at work here: Mina's (and her family's) and any outsiders (and this might include readers). Mina is aware of the outsider perspective, and she knows what people assume about the relationship between her mother and herself (which is why she expects the ladies at the ball to start looking around for her after they've seen her mother's eyes for the first time). And it's also why she's so pissed at Trahaearn when he makes that boorish comment about her mother not loving her. It's not because it hurts her feelings, but that she assumes Rhys is trying to be cruel (and I do state this later when Mina is thinking back to his comment and why she decided that it was a cruel statement rather than a thoughtless one -- now, of course, I wonder if I should have mentioned that in the scene in the examination room instead of letting her relationship with her mother speak for itself, but...yeah. Some things you just don't realize until you read feedback.)

And the issue might have been followed up on had Rhys been any other character, because any normal person would still have been thinking: Uh, your mother gouged your eyes out? That didn't affect you?

But he has no concept of a mother/daughter relationship, not really. Scarsdale is the one who had to explain to him why it was so hurtful in the first place (and Scarsdale is also operating under the assumption that her mother rejected her, because who wouldn't? But Scarsdale wouldn't pursue the question with her either, because it would be akin to asking Mina about the Frenzy. Yasmeen would have been rude enough, but she never met Mina's mother, and she wouldn't have cared about Mina's relationship with her mother, anyway.)

So, Mina was right when she said that the eye-gouging had nothing to do with her, and everything to do with how horrifying their experience beneath the Horde was. I anticipated that showing their relationship would back that perspective up, but I see now that I should have resolved the issue through another character (except there wasn't one) or had Mina explicitly observe that outside expectations of their relationship was always different from the reality (if the book is ever reprinted, I might be able to add this line in -- a few of my galley changes didn't make it, anyway, so it'll just be another).

I realize this won't change the expectation of there being more to the issue, and wanting more resolution, but I did want to say that nothing was edited out.

Thanks for letting me ramble,
Meljean :-)

[meljeanbrook.livejournal.com]

Sigh.

Your mother gouged *HER eyes out.

Not Mina's.

Sorry.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the clarification, Meljean. If I had been a better reader, I probably would have read more thoughtfully and caught that -- your explanation makes perfect sense to the characters and situation. My fault for consuming the book like a glutton who's about to be forced on a diet. :)

[meljeanbrook.livejournal.com]

Or if I had been a better writer :-D I do have a habit of doling out information in little pieces (when maybe they should be big pieces.) So even though the information is there in the book, and it does fit the characters, the fact that I just had to take so many paragraphs explaining it might suggest that I could have done a little better in the text.

But I'm glad you enjoyed it, anyway! Ha. That's always the most important thing. If you walk away feeling you didn't waste your time/money, I think we both did okay in the being good writers/readers department.