Happy #NationalBookLoversDay everybody! But are you really a book lover, or just a book flirt?
Luckily I have a handy quiz to help you out...
A friend buys you a book 'they know you'll love!' but you already have it. Do you:
a) ask for the receipt
b) accept it, but re-gift it later
c) shout "Woo-Hoo! More books!! MORE BOOKS!!!"
In a bookstore you and another customer both want the last copy of the same book. Do you:
a) let them take it
b) toss a coin for it
c) rip out the last page and scream "You'll never have it! NEVER!!!"
You see an attractive person in a bookshop browsing the Modern Fiction section do you:
a) admire them from afar
b) strike up a conversation with them about modern fiction
c) secretly admonish the books for looking at someone other than yourself
You visit your local public library. How does the librarian greet you?
a) "Hello, can I help you?"
b) "Nice to see you again."
c) "FFS! Do you not know what a COURT ORDER is? Miriam, release the hounds!!"
How do you like to arrange your bookshelves?
a) in alphaberical order
b) by genre
c) by priapic response
Do you consider yourself:
a) a bibliophobe
b) a bibliophile
c) a bibliobimbo, as your most recent tattoo - "613.96" - confirms
So how did you do?
Mostly As: you're a book prude and should stick to watching telly
Mostly Bs: you're a book voyeur at best and probably just like to look at the covers
Mostly Cs: congratulations - you are a book lover and today is your day!
Happy reading...
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Today in pulp: how do you write a novel in two weeks?
Pulp writing that has to work within specific constraints, which in turn shape the nature of the story. And speed is the biggest constraint of all: you have to write quickly!
But there are ways to make it work for you...
Today a prolific author may write a book every year, but in the 1950s and '60s pulp writer sometimes had as little as two weeks to complete a 50,000 word story and have it ready for print.
That’s 25 novels a year: but at least they got Christmas off!
Writing that quickly is hard, but surprisingly liberating. Pulp writers had to go with their first ideas and had to make them work. There wasn’t time to ‘kill your darlings’ - instead you had to toughen them up and send them into battle!
Today in pulp I'm taking a look back at the Regency Romance series from Signet Books!
Signet's Regency Romance series started in the late 1970s and ran until 2006. Like its rivals Harlequin and Mills & Boone, Signet Regency Romance published a number of titles each month, often to the same formula...
Most (but not all) Signet Regency Romance covers were by Allan Kass, and I can heartily recommend Rhonda Whiting's wonderful blog about this artist, featuring hundreds of scans of his work allankass.blogspot.co.uk
What are the pulp archetypes? Pulp novels are usually written quickly and rely on a formula, but do they use different archetypal characters to other fiction?
Let's take a look at a few...
The Outlaw is a classic pulp archetype: from Dick Turpin onwards lawbreakers have been a staple of the genre. Crime never pays, but it's exciting and trangressive!
Some pulp outlaws however are principled...
As Bob Dylan sang "to live outside the law you must be honest." Michel Gourdon's 1915 hero Dr Christopher Syn is a good example. A clergyman turned pirate and smuggler, he starts as a revenger but becomes the moral magistrate of the smuggling gangs of Romney Marsh.
Given the current heatwave, I feel obliged to ask my favourite question: is it time to bring back the leisure suit?
Let's find out...
Now we all know what a man's lounge suit is, but if we're honest it can be a bit... stuffy. Formal. Businesslike. Not what you'd wear 'in da club' as the young folks say.
So for many years tailors have been experimenting with less formal, but still upmarket gents attire. The sort of garb you could wear for both a high level business meeting AND for listening to the Moody Blues in an espresso bar. Something versatile.