I'm reading a story—I'm still not decided whether I want to reveal the author's name right now—which, I don't mind saying, is interesting. It's got me hooked, and, I guess, that's part of the job of any author of fiction. All her characters are special. At least, I started out thinking that they were special. Now I'm wondering: is that good writing, to make all your characters special? I've tried hard to make my characters sort of generic, but make the way they handle circumstances just a tad off the ordinary.
The author I'm reading does the opposite: she makes the characters super interesting, and the circumstance appropriately interesting as well, and—I guess—the story essentially writes itself.
OK, it's time to reveal the name of the author, and the title: Penny For Your Heart, by Season Vining. I guess our different approaches are reflected in the pen names we each have adopted: Kay Brown, a completely unremarkable name, and Season Vining, a preposterous name that could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be real, though I have a sneaking suspicion that it might be real, just so that I question my sanity.
The main character of the story (first person narrative) is an out and proud lesbian, who does not believe in being subtle. In fact, that's the driving principle in the plot; her love interest is restrained and proper, and unhappy. And, of Japanese parentage, rather stereotypically. In the literary world of today, stereotypes are almost a stock in trade; there are so many that it would be almost foolish to avoid them; they could be used as a crutch by indifferent authors (among whose number I ought to count myself).
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