Showing posts with label murder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label murder. Show all posts

Saturday 21 July 2012

Austen and Bronte Classics Turned into Erotica...

No, I couldn't believe it either when I heard it, but sadly it is happening.

The 50 Shades trend has now reached the literary classics: Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and Jane Eyre. :(

Now I've always thought there was an underlying sexual tension between the hero and heroine of these well-known novels; but that could just have been my imagination of course. :-)

And this isn't the first time that Jane Austen's characters have been given new lives in other genres.

There's been Mr Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange, and Vampire Darcy's Desire: A Pride and Prejudice Adaptation by Regina Jeffers.

Admittedly there's always been new stories or alternative versions of the original story- too numerous to mention.

Even P. D. James (Baroness and a best-selling crime novelist) had a novel featuring Darcy and Elizabeth, Death Comes to Pemberley (published in 2011) which takes place six years after Pride and Prejudice, and features Lydia Wickham arriving on the eve of the annual ball declaring her husband-the scoundrel George Wickham- has been murdered.

That I can accept. It's a new story-even though the characters were Jane Austen's invention.

But honestly, an erotic makeover for Pride and Prejudice is so wrong.

If you want to read an example- though the excerpts are quite tame- you should look at this piece from The Independent by Sherna Noah; and if you want to see the book covers, there's a gallery here.

I have to say the covers wouldn't be too out of place among many of the historical romances from US publishers.

Will I read any of them? I honestly don't know.
If I could read a longer excerpt first I might consider reading the rest.

It's sad that literary classics get mucked about with like this just to make money because erotica is the latest big selling trend.

At heart I believe books should be published because they are good and readers will buy and enjoy them. But as a writer who lives in the real world I accept that this no longer seems to be the priority.



Friday 5 August 2011

Murder Mystery and Thinking on My Feet...

For a few hours I was a potential murder suspect.
No, not in reality (if you haven't read my previous post) but as a suspect in a murder mystery event held on Wednesday evening (3rd) at the writers' club I attend.
It was not our usual writing related activities as August is the holiday month for many, so we have a fun social event for the members that are still available.

This year it was decided to do something different, and it was certainly different...

I'd volunteered to be one of the eight suspects- it gave me an excuse to dress up and put on full make-up (honestly you wouldn't want to see what my computer screen faces each day).

My character Florence was a former eye make-up model, so I concentrated on the eye liner, shadow and mascara. Honestly it looked good at the start of the evening but it was very hot in the room even with the windows open, so it smudged later...

My character's husband Donald- related to the victim- was also there.

The murder was set in the late 1930's and I actually had an outfit that would have been ideal, but it was too thick for the weather, so I opted for a long sleeveless maxi dress and one of my numerous wraps to give a general impression of an evening outfit.

suspect,dress,shawl,glasses
'Florence' relaxes

As we went along we were each given information- some that had to be revealed during the round, and other information about our own character that it was important not to reveal.
Then it was up to us, act and react...

By the end not only had at least half of the audience been convinced that Florence and Donald were the murderers, even I thought I was guilty! It had to be the revelation about the acrobatics...

But as it turns out, although I did make an attempt the plan hadn't been thought out enough and I gave up.

When the murderer was revealed there was only one person who'd guessed correctly, blogger Keith of  Dream it, then do it.

From a writing viewpoint it just confirmed that I should never be a crime writer...

Wednesday 3 August 2011

Up and Running, News and Murder...

Well I'm back in the land of computer access and what a difference Windows7 makes. Pages load instantly, images too.

I've still got to put a few programmes back on the computer yet, but I'm secure and able to access the web.

Unfortunately I can see it will take me some time to get used to finding where everything is- but luckily one of my teenage sons is acting as technical advisor as I go along...

Now for a bit of writing related news.

Short story magazine writer Vivien Hampshire has a three page article (in the September issue of Writing Magazine due in newsagents from tomorrow) on the responses she received from the editors of the assorted women's magazines.

It makes interesting reading and not all the news is bad...

Anyway I'm off to get the rest of my programmes loaded and while that's happening I need to read through my part for the murder mystery I'm taking part in tonight-I do know I am not the victim... :-)