Reader Interview: Mary Ruth P.

Reader interview: Mary Ruth P., from southwest Missouri!

 Thanks so much for joining us here on E. Kaiser Writes-A-Blog!

M.R.: Thanks so much for having me again! I had so much fun with the writer interview, and I'm looking forward to this one too!

E. Kaiser: As a reader, I know there are a lot of personal opinions involved in what you enjoy, and what you hate, and I do love a good, established opinion. (Especially if it's personal. ;-) )
 So, tell us yours!

M.R.: Wow, that's a loaded question! Let me start off by saying that I have very eclectic tastes in what I read, and (contrary to a fairly common misconception) I'm actually very easy to please. For me, it's very easy to tell when a book was written simply because the author had something they couldn't keep inside, something they just had to say because they loved it and believed in it. I have a wild aversion to reading books where I can tell that the author had some ulterior motive, or that they were writing just to appeal to a certain audience. If a writer has written a story just because they had to tell that story, I can pick that up in the writing, and if the story is exciting chances are I'll like it regardless of genre.

E. Kaiser: That's a very good point.
What's your range of favorite genres? Can you introduce us to the why's of that?

M.R.: Historical fiction is my first love - my mom introduced me to that at age eight, with the Dear America series and later, the Royal Diaries series (both of which I love to this day). I think the reason I love the genre so much is that, even though human nature doesn't change, you get to see it in so many interesting applications in the different situations of history. Plus I love reading a well-researched historical novel and getting to see a faraway place in a long-lost time through a characters eyes.
  I also love fantasy. I read The Chronicles of Narnia when I was ten, but didn't really get into the genre until I became friends with author H.A. Titus as a teenager. She was already a fantasy nut, and it didn't take long for her to recruit me to the cause! I love the opportunities fantasy offers to go all the cool directions history didn't go. I love swords and amazing architecture and long, gorgeous dresses and armor and the challenges (and blessings) of a world where technology doesn't do everything for you.
  The only other genre that I think I can consider a favorite is science fiction. I'll admit, though, I'm a little harder to please in the science fiction department than in other genres. A lot of the same things about fantasy that appeal to me are present in science fiction - the room for imagination, the opportunities to see human nature in unique applications - but a lot of science fiction stories focus too much on the science and technology itself and let the plot drift to the sidelines. That I dislike. I like science fiction as long as the science part is merely a factor of the plot - not the other way around.

E: Among all the basic threads that just about all stories borrow from, what're your favorite story lines?
M.R.: Hmm... I like stories where the hero is reluctant to get involved in whatever the conflict of the story is, has to come to the realization that it's the right thing to do, and then throws himself into it with all he has. I also like stories in which a central character struggles to know or decide which side he or she is on. And of course, any story in which an ordinary little person gets pulled into something far bigger than themselves and becomes a hero is great, too.

E: How about your worst pet peeves? Let us have 'em!

M.R.: Book teasers that give away the story. Romance novels of all kinds, Amish and vampire romance in particular. Melodrama - i.e., shrieking, wailing, gnashing of teeth, weeping, and vomiting over things that really aren't that big of a deal. Over-the-top cliche-ness - "Can Kate and Jason overcome their mutual dislike for each other long enough to solve the murder... and find love along the way?" - seriously, just put me out of my misery!

E:  Ha! I'm totally on that page with you, there!
Okay, how about that Thing-You-Can't-Stand-Above-Anything-Else.

M.R.: Sappiness. I review books for several publishing houses, and one time I accidentally got my name on a list to review this Christian historical romance novel. I almost gagged multiple times. I mean, I've been around guys that I've thought were handsome, but I've never felt "overwhelmed by his masculinity". And although I've never kissed a guy, I find it rather difficult to believe that doing so would make a girl "worried that her bones had turned to dust". I'm very much an action-oriented, keep-it-real kind of girl, and all the pining and wistfulness and mush and gushing emotions in sappy novels just really disgust me.

E: Glancing quickly backward over your reading history, what stands out as the moment that melted your heart, all warm and puddle-y?

M.R.: Well... in spite of how emotional I can get over books, I'm really not a 'warm and puddle-y' kind of person. It's just not the way I'm wired. So I'm afraid I can't think of a single moment that made me feel that way. : )

E: Same thing, what's the first-to-mind scene that fired your emotions?

M.R.: The first thing that comes to mind is the end of the Dear America book Voyage on the Great Titanic. I was... oh, maybe eleven or twelve when I read it, and it's the first book that I remember crying over. The main character had become really good friends with one of the cabin boys, and she got off safely but he chose to go down with the ship and his fellow crewmen. At the time I was pretty sure I would never ever get over it as long as I lived, but I've managed to piece together a normal life since then... barely. ; P

E: ...Made you so mad you couldn't see straight?

M.R.: I was reading The Sword and the Flame, the third book in Stephen R. Lawhead's 'Dragon King' trilogy. The main character (who I had loved in both of the previous books) watched one of his best friends be murdered, so he murdered his friend's killer (who had dropped his weapon and surrendered already) and sort of went mad for the rest of the book and just sulked in his quarters while everyone else was running around trying to save the kingdom. And then all of a sudden, 'poof!' he gets over it and everything goes back to normal after everyone else has been running themselves ragged trying to keep it all together through the whole book. It made me so mad at him that I actually put the book aside for a few months right in the middle. The only thing that brought me back to it was the fact that I cared about the rest of the characters too much not to find out what happened to them.

E: What is your favorite trait in a character, and why do you love them?M.R.: I absolutely love it when a character expects to fail in a task or quest, but does it anyway simply because it's the right thing to do. I love self-sacrifice, protectiveness, and loyalty.   Protectiveness and loyalty in a character appeal to me because they're so central to the way I was raised. From the time my siblings and I were tiny our parents taught us that you look out for the people you love, you look out for people who can't look out for themselves, and you stand with your friends and family no matter what. If they're in the wrong, you correct them, but you don't stop being loyal to them. Self-sacrifice is a part of that too, in a lot of ways, as well as being part of doing the right thing even if and when it costs you. That's a trait I want to possess myself - being able and willing to do the right thing no matter what it costs, and to know that the cost is worth it - so I like seeing it portrayed well in fictional characters.

E: Good one! I like the way you explained that. Very true.
  So, what most makes you  most hate the villain?

M.R.: That's kind of a tricky question, since there are only so many villain-making traits and they're pretty close to universal (e.g. cruelty, self-centeredness, lust for power, corrupt desires, etc.). I guess the thing that makes me hate a villain most depends on how well he's written. Writing a truly evil villain requires a deep understanding of evil itself, and I think a lot of writers either don't have that or are uncomfortable with delving into the understanding they do have. In cases like that, you usually end up with the cliche 'kicks-kittens-and-tortures-servants-for-enjoyment' kind of villain, which bugs me to death. True evil is, quite often, far more subtle than that.
  So I guess, in order for me to really loathe a villain, he has to be realistically evil. The exact details of how that evil manifests itself don't matter nearly so much to me as being able to believe that the villain is truly evil. And of course, the more I love the protagonist, the more I'll hate the villain for hurting him or her. ; )

E:   What was your favorite "switch" that caught you completely off guard, but you loved the result!

M.R.: The first thing that comes to mind is the revelation towards the end of Angela Elwell Hunt's novel The Immortal. There's a moment when the main character and the readers all realize that 'Oh... Asher's immortality wasn't a curse... it was a gift! And I've been missing that for the last 200 pages of the book, but he's been missing it for the last 2,000 years!!!' That moment is a total game changer in the book, but the result is heartrendingly beautiful. In fact I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it! : )

E:  What small things do you especially like to see included?

M.R.: I love it when books talk about the food the characters eat. The Secret Garden and the Redwall books are particular instances that come to mind. The food in those books always sounds so delicious! Of course, I always end up having to put the book down and go find something to eat because just reading them makes me hungry, but it's a really nice detail to include. I think more authors should write about food in their stories. There's a special kind of happiness that really good food makes people feel, and weaving that into the happiness of loveable characters and exciting adventure just adds another layer of delight to a good book. : )

Thanks for joining us, Mary Ruth!

You're so very welcome, Elizabeth. This has been a lot of fun and I've really enjoyed it. Happy reading, everyone!
~Mary

Reader Interview: Kelsey Bryant!

 
Reader interview: Kelsey Bryant, from Texas! 


E. Kaiser: Thanks so much for joining us here on E. Kaiser Writes-A-Blog! As a reader, I know there are a lot of personal opinions involved in what you enjoy, and what you hate, and I do love a good opinion. (Especially if it's personal. ;-) )
So, tell us yours!

Kelsey: Thank you so much for putting out the call for interviews! I've never been interviewed before ... it makes me feel ... *special*. ;-)
Oh, good, permission to be opinionated! Sometimes I try to soften my opinions, but it is terribly unfair to expect people to suppress their opinions about the books they read. It's such a personal experience!

E: What's your range of favorite genres? Can you introduce us to the why's of that?

K: My favorite would have to be the classics, followed by non-modernized historical fiction. (You know, where the author writes in a respectful, authentic historical style.) A close third is fantasy that has a real, historical feel. I love history. There's something about leaving behind your day-to-day existence and "traveling" to learn more about the world and what's been important for centuries. It elevates you and teaches you far more about living life than you can learn just by limiting yourself to the present. I enjoy books where I learn information and facts. And, I really like a great escape. : )
Two quotes come to mind: "The heroes of Thermopylae have been an inspiration to humanity for centuries. What squabble around a ballot-box will ever be that?" - L. M. Montgomery, Emily of New Moon
(This one I heard from you!) “Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!” - J. R. R. Tolkien

E: Always glad to help pass along great lines! Glad you liked it too.
Among all the basic threads that just about all stories borrow from, what're your favorite story lines?

K: I looked up a list of basic plots to help me pick out my favorites. I would have to say my favorites are a quest; a riddle or mystery; an underdog who triumphs; a young person who matures in an admirable way; someone who rises in life; and someone who sacrifices him- or herself for a person or a cause. Combine those in various ways, and I would really like that book! Oh, and I enjoy a sweet and honorable romance. Most of all, though, I enjoy the "plot thread" where a person who doesn't seem special - particularly to himself - grows into an incredible individual within the book. He still isn't aware of how he's grown, but everyone else around him is! I love having someone like that to root for!

E: How about your worst pet peeves? Let us have 'em!

K: Ooh, a chance to be really opinionated! If we're talking about storylines, I'd say stories that have a pessimistic worldview - the ones that keep spiraling downward and end worse than they began. Sometimes I want to shake the author and say, "Wake up! Life doesn't have to be like that. Those who are God's children don't have to dwell on unhappy endings!" I also dislike it when a romance is thrown into a story that doesn't need it. I think our culture dwells on romances too much - especially the forbidden ones.
 If we're talking about smaller chunks within any given book, please can I bring these culprits to the bar: mean children, cruelty to animals, and the death of a child, young adult, or animal. Okay, those are things that authors sometimes have to include, because, let's face it, they're real life. I can make myself stand them if they contribute to the story.

E: Okay, how about that Thing-You-Can't-Stand-Above-Anything-Else.

K: Ohhh ... the Thing that makes me skip part of the book or close it altogether?! Too much information within a love scene or a pseudo-love scene. Ick. I don't need that.

E: Glancing quickly backward over your reading history, what stands out as the moment that melted your heart, all warm and puddle-y?

K: When, in the first book of the Boxcar Children series, the children set up house in their boxcar! I didn't always love practical things like playing house with my dolls, (I was 50% adventurous tomboy and 50% domestic doll-player) but I really enjoyed reading about people doing it for real. That vicarious enjoyment, like I was doing it myself, was definitely an early-on heart-warming moment!

E: Same thing, what's the first-to-mind scene that fired your emotions?

K: Um, the scene that made me cry so much that I think my eyes were puffy the next morning? Masouda's death in The Brethren by Henry Rider Haggard. I loved that heroic, fiery girl so much, and she was in love with the wise, gentle Godwin D'Arcy, and she sacrificed herself for him, and he didn't realize he loved her, too, until he held her lifeless body in his arms ....

E: ...Made you so mad you couldn't see straight?

K: Grrr ... it was at the end of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Archdeacon Claude Frollo had just succeeded in betraying Esmeralda to the gallows. After all she had been through, after almost escaping, after starting to finally hope again ... Frollo's fate, on the other hand, was satisfying.

E: What is your favorite trait in a character, and why do you love them?

K: I love talking favorite characters! Wait a moment while I bring to mind all my favorite characters and think of why I loved them ... hmm, above all, I probably love intelligence, humility, and un-self-consciousness. Elinor Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility), Anne Elliot (Persuasion), and Molly Gibson (Wives and Daughters) really stand out to me. There are lots of other loveable traits, but I think those three traits are necessary for me to latch on to a favorite.

E: What makes you most hate the villain?

K: I find it easier to hate a villain whom I don’t understand, when his motives aren't logical - he just hates, loves to be cruel, and/or doesn't understand the protagonist. (Enter Claude Frollo.)

E: What was your favorite "switch" that caught you completely off guard, but you loved the result!

K: Oh, fun question, but that's a hard one ... I love mysteries, so there are a lot of marvelous switches in those kinds of books, but I don't want to go into any of those in case I give something away - you know, there might just be somebody out there who was just about to read that one mystery I might mention and poof! there goes the suspense. Oh, I know! This can't be dangerous because surely everyone's familiar with this one. The Scarlet Pimpernel - (SPOILER ALERT - if you haven't read this book, don't read the rest of my answer!)
when Sir Percy Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel, whom the bad guys were looking all over for, turned out to be the "Jew" who had supposedly been leading them to the Scarlet Pimpernel. After the bad guys were gone, he revealed himself to Marguerite his wife with, "Zounds! but I'm as weak as a rat!" That surprise still has me tingle sometimes!

E: What small things do you especially like to see included?

K: Mmm ... that sets my mind off in all sorts of cozy, comfort-food directions - I like it when there are big families in a story, and all the children's unique personalities are described; when special houses are described; when children play imaginative games; when smells and taste and food are described; and when the protagonist has times of quiet reflection. There may be others ... but those are obviously important ones because they came to mind first!

E: Thanks for joining us, Kelsey! 

K: Thanks for having me! This was so much fun. It makes me want to grab something else off my shelf - say, The Three Musketeers? Middlemarch? Cranford?

Reader Interview: Heather McD!

 And here's the first in a series of Reader Interviews, getting the perspective of those wonderful, imaginative folks who delve headfirst into book-worlds and come out the other side with definite opinions on what they just experienced.
 For our first bold reader, we've got Heather McD. from Missouri with us today.
 
 Thanks so much for joining us Heather! I love the fact that even though you're currently a "young adult", you've got a lot of thoughts on what you do or do not appreciate in your reading fare. Good for you for being a "thinker"!
  Okay, we'll jump right in.

E. Kaiser: What are your favorite kind of books?

Heather McD: I tend to prefer action-packed books overall. Mainly fantasy and sci-fi, but from time to time I will read other genres.

E: How about your worst pet peeves? Let us have 'em!

H: Hm. Well, one of them are a good guy character feeling betrayed by another good guy. Now, I'm not talking about “You handed me over the enemy” sort of betrayal. I guess it's more like the trust was broken between the characters. Generally speaking, it's over done. Instead of feeling sorry for the betrayed character, you wished they'd get over it. Move on! All because they didn't tell you they came from a different world twenty years ago doesn't mean they're on the wrong side!

E: Oh, good one. I can't get what the authors are thinking on that one, either. Just "What?!"

 Okay, how about that Thing-You-Can't-Stand-Above-Anything-Else.
H: When everybody dies. Or when a few minor characters die. You get my drift.

E: Ouch. You're right. That's a major depression trip...
  Glancing quickly backward over your reading history, what stands out as the moment that melted you heart, all warm and puddle-y?
H: Well, I don't know about my heart melting, but I remember a scene I read in a novel my sister, Shannon, is still in the process of writing. A young man was giving a sad, for lack of better terminology, history lesson that was deeply related to him. It's more touching than that, but I can't tell you exactly because I'd give something away.

E: All right, we'll let you keep secrets.
Same thing; what's the first-to-mind scene that fired your emotions?

H: Oh, there have been lot's of scenes, but the one that comes to me first is a scene in Never the Bride, by Cheryl McKay and Rene Gutteridge. It's about a girl who's in her mid-thirties, and all she wants to do is to get married. But the scene I'm referring to is near the very end, when she's extremely disappointed by a prospect. Being hurt and angry, she runs to the beach yells at God. Face-to-face. You'd have to read it yourself to completely understand.

E: So... what is your favorite trait in a character, and why do you love them?

H: Two traits I like: quirky and a good sense of humor. Quirks, even little ones, makes the character more interesting. A good sense of humor because I love to laugh.

E: What most makes you most hate the villain?

H: To make the villains seem real to me, he has to be intelligent, not boasting in front of the good guys, doesn't lose his temper whenever he hears bad news, and doesn't kill unless he thinks he needs to. Villains like Hopper from A Bug's Life or Mother Gothel from Tangled. Now those villains were scary! And they did it without needlessly killing two or three characters!

E: Oooo, Mother Gothel was definitely scary.
 What was your favorite "switch" that caught you completely off guard, but you loved the result! 
 
H: The very first thing that comes to mind was some mystery book I read a while back. River's Edge, by Terri Blackstock. She picked a person I wasn't expecting to be guilty. And, as most people know, if you read enough of mystery books, they can be awfully predictable.

E: Too true! It's nice when there's a little mystery added back into mystery stories.
What small things do you especially like to see included?

H: I wish authors were less descriptive about violence. It bothers me when they dwell on it. I also would like it if authors wouldn't kill their minor or not-so minor characters so much. 

E: Aha! I think I know what you mean! In fact, I agree very much on the violence-turning-just-gory subject.
 As for the character killing issue, I've got a post coming up on just that topic! I'm on that same page with you there, too. (And I hope you'll stop by and post your comments on next week's post on that subject!)

 Thanks so much for visiting, Heather! I loved your responses, and I'm sure there are a lot of other folks out there that think along the same lines.

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Want to let your thoughts be known? 

Send me an email at ekaiserwrites-at-hotmail and we can get you lined up! 

The more the merrier, you know. ;-) Join the conversation!