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November 3, 2006
Teacher Knows Best!
But maybe not all of the time…
Way back when in the not-too-distant mists of time, when I was in high school (and thanks to my completely wonderful grandmother) I discovered the general wonderfullness of…
The Romance Novel.
At the time I was studying Albert Camus and Emile Zola (for French literature), and Gunther Grass and Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (for German literature), and Shakespeare, Chaucer, and many more wonderful writers (for English Literature), but I just wanted something different to read. You know – something romantic that would carry me off to far away places. Something, you know - just different?
Enter my grandmother (Nan) and her Harlequin Mills & Boon romances! I ate them up!
One day our English language teacher set us a homework. It was to write a short story. It could be any genre we wanted, and it could be any subject we wanted. It was then that I wrote my first romance (albeit a short one).
I was excited, I was thrilled, it was the best thing I had ever written. I was so euphoric when I handed it in. During our next English language lesson I received my grade. I got a B. I was gutted.
“Michelle, it was really very well written and entertaining,” my English language teacher told me. And then she followed up with the kicker. “If it hadn’t been a romance for a womens magazine kind of story, I would have given you an A.”
Being a very quietly rebellious kind of gal I decided there and then that one day I would write a romance novel.
Shortly thereafter I was thrilled to discover that my school library had a romance section. Go My School on having a romance section, thought I! I quickly began to eat up all the romance novels there until one day, whilst I was checking out my latest stash, Another English Teacher (who just happened to be administering the desk that day) TOOK MY STASH OF MILLS AND BOONS AWAY FROM ME!
“Michelle,” she said to me in a very caring, concerned way. “Romance books are all well and good, but you really need to expand your range.”
But. But. But. My range of reading at the time also included Sylvia Plath, William Carlos Williams, Arthur Miller, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Fyodor Dostoevsky and many other authors. Why not expand my range with some romance, too?
Of course, I didn’t say that to her. It just reaffirmed my conviction that one day I would write a romance novel.
In the meantime, here is one of my very favorite poems.
This Is Just to Say, by William Carlos Williams
Michelle
PS. Thank you for my romance plums, Nan.
This blog was brought to you by Whitney's new book, Testing Kate, a novel about surviving law school, finding love in unexpected places and turning your luck around.
Posted by Michelle at 1:44 PM | Comments (4)
Comments
I too am a huge romance fan. I love to read most anything but put a box of romance books in my hands and I have a reading marathon. I have been picked on by husband and friends alike for my inability to put my books down. If there is one that I haven't read, I have to read it immediately. Friends that also read romance books will loan them to me before even they have read them because they know they will get it back in just a few short hours.
My compliments on taking it to the next level and actually writing a novel!!
I have only made one attempt and that was about ten pages before I thought, I don't make up stories nearly as good as the books I love.
Posted by: Jo at November 3, 2006 3:13 PM
Michelle! That's my favorite WCW poem, too!
And have I mentioned that your writing style often reminds me a bit of Virginia Woolf? Except, you know, happier and more fun.
The LC Eileen
Posted by: Eileen ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.literarychicks.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 3, 2006 3:26 PM
Those teachers were on a MISSION, weren't they? Well, fortunately for you -- and for us! -- they failed. :-)
Until I read your post, I had completely forgotten about an eleventh grade writing assignment that sounds similar to yours. We were supposed to write a chapter that sounded like one of the authors we had been studying, which were the Transcendentalists and their contemporaries. I decided to write a historical romance -- but in the voice of James Fenimore Cooper. ::shakes head::
I'm lucky my mother isn't a packrat. :-)
Posted by: Lynne at November 3, 2006 8:33 PM
Very late commenting, I know, but I'm just going through and catching up on your posts.
I hope you sent them both autographed copies of one of your books with clippings of your excellent reviews. /;+)
Posted by: ZaZa at April 4, 2007 5:37 PM
