This column has focused on writers, their books, their tips for writing, and their lives. But we’re interested in what readers have to say, too. After all, other than for our own satisfaction, readers are the reason we spin our tales.
This week, we talked to Rita H. of Conroe, Texas. Rita is a grandmother and works as a department store sales associate.
Welcome to The Examiner, Rita. Please tell us what was the earliest book you remember reading on your own.
The earliest book I remember was LITTLE WOMEN.
Louisa May Alcott’s book has been a favorite of women from girls to grandmas since it was first published back in 1868. It even contains our favorite element—romance! So what is your favorite genre of romance now and why does it appeal to you?’
I love the pioneer, early west, Indian genres. I was raised in back country Louisiana with much the same conditions of living as early pioneers: no electricity, running water or indoor toilets. My mom made her own soap. We preserved meats, washed on wash boards, bathed in wash tubs, drank cistern water and washed in well water. Pioneers stories tend to remind me of a hard-working time when life seems simpler and I can identify with that.
You’re a busy working woman. How often do you find time to read romance novels?
I read every day. It is my escape. I can lose myself in another life and another time. Any spare time I have, I read, if only for a few minutes.
If you had a choice between watching a romantic movie or reading a romantic book, which would you choose and why?
I would read. It’s more fulfilling to me to experience and put myself in the story and of life of the book’s characters than watch a movie. To read means to be in a more true to life situation as I can feel part of the character.
Do you prefer explicit love scenes or do they make you blush too much?
I enjoy explicit love scenes to an extent. If it is done with finesse as part of the extension of the character, it becomes part of life. I do not like dirty scenes or dirty talk just for the sake of sex. I just read a beautiful love story by Catherine Anderson, “Phantom Waltz.” Since the character was paralyzed, the search and experience in how to enjoy sex was part of daily life and a fulfillment to living an enjoyable life.
Who is your favorite writer? Please name one of her books.
Rosanne Bitner’s PRAIRE EMBRACE and the four Commanche series books. I love Madeline Baker, too: APACHE RUNAWAY and its sequel, CHASE THE WIND. I love Debbie Macomber’s NAVY BLUES. I loved those books—beautiful stories, beautifully written.
What book are you reading now and who wrote it?
Connie Mason’s TEARS LIKE RAIN. I want to read the other two in the series.
If you could ask your favorite writer to plot a book just for you, what would it be about?
I’d enjoy a continuation of conquering the hard life of the early nineteenth century: its problems and its joys. Those people enjoyed life without all our gadgets and inventions and lived life to the fullest without all these.
Comments
Wow, love the perspective of a reader, non-writer (I don't know if I've ever been that....a non-writer reader, as I wrote my first novel in 9th grade). I don't write about Native Americans....I don't know enough about their culture to do it justice, but I, too, enjoy the 19th Century era. Thanks for sharing your views with us, Rita.
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