NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS

A group blog featuring an international array of killer mystery, suspense, and romantic suspense writers. With premises and story lines different from your run-of-the-mill whodunits, we tend to write outside the box. We blog several times a week on all topics relating to romantic suspense and mystery, our writing, and our readers. We welcome all comments and often have guest bloggers. All our authors can be contacted separately, too, using their own social media links.

We find our genre delightfully, dangerously, and deliciously exciting - join us here, if you do too!

NOTE: the blog is currently dormant but please enjoy the posts we're keeping online.


Julie Moffet . Cathy Perkins . Jean Harrington . Daryl Anderson . Nico Rosso . Maureen A Miller . Sandy Parks . Lisa Q Mathews . Sharon Calvin . Lynne Connolly . Janis Patterson . Vanessa Keir . Tonya Kappes . Julie Rowe . Joni M Fisher . Leslie Langtry

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Is Nothing Sacred?


Am I the only person who’s tired of settling down to watch evening TV and being faced with ads naddering on about erectile disfunction?  Take this, take that--when the moment is right.  Until then, sit in two bathtubs and look at the ocean.  But, and this is a big but, if you have an erection lasting more than four hours, call your physician.  Four hours!  I guess I’ve led a sheltered life.

My point being, is nothing sacred?  Sex with the partner of your choice is glorious, but do we have to hear about sexual malfunction over our nightly ice cream (sometimes with a brownie)?

            The tampon ads aren’t too much fun either.  Laxative ads are on that list, also.  Diet pills are a little better, except when I’m polishing off the ice cream.  Give me a good lite beer ad any time, maybe with a studly athlete touting the brew.  I love hearing about all those hops.

Maybe my antipathy for life’s grungier moments shows in my writing.  Now don’t get me wrong.  My murder mysteries (the Murders by Design Mystery Series, thank you very much) have shooting scenes--people get plugged right between the eyes--chase scenes, muggings, fights In a story I’m currently revising, there’s a harrowing birth scene, a poisoning, a stabbing, so I’m not avoiding the dark side of existence.  Not at all.  But those dark scenes are dynamic, life-changing events that are important to the plot.  In them, my heroes are always ready to perform, there are no scatological references (well, only one ladies room stalking scene in Rooms To Die For), nobody’s constantly constipated, or ever for that matter, and the heroine never has her period at a critical point in the plot.

Why not, you ask?  Because fiction imitates life only up to a point.  It doesn’t duplicate every aspect of it. That theory can be opposed, of course, and there are works out there to prove it.  However, in IMHO, fiction’s deepest reality is a fantasy that cherry picks its truths. Which means an author doesn’t necessarily have to emphasize what we all, on some level, would probably rather not read about.  E. D. no.  E. F. yes!  Comments welcome.

Jean Harrington’s latest Naples-set murder mystery, Rooms To Die For, is currently available on Amazon.  The next book in this tongue-in-cheek series, The Design is Murder, is due for release on November 17th.  You’re cordially invited to check out excerpts at www.jeanharrington.com.

  

6 comments:

Elise Warner said...

Fun post. I think the worst ads are the ones that recommend a pill. Great until the disclosure comes--those pills will kill. I'll stick to public television and lose myself in Masterpiece Theatre or mystery.

Marcelle Dubé said...

Or the toilet paper ads! Ye Gods, if I see another blue bear shaking its butt, I may have to shoot the television set!

Anne Marie Becker said...

LOL, Marcelle. There's one that says something about "we all have to go - why not enjoy the go?" Say what?! That one bugs me. But as I get older, it doesn't take much to bug me.

Interesting post, Jean. The ED ads are annoying, for sure. And I never did understand why drug manufacturers are even advertising on TV. It's not like I've ever seen something that made me think "Gee, I'm going to go ask my doctor for that pill right away." I'm hoping my doctors are savvy enough to recommend them to me if I need them.

J Wachowski said...

Oh Jean, you really need a Tivo. Or a strategically placed paused/mute button! Haven't watched commercials in YEARS. Except during the Superbowl. ;)

jean harrington said...

For all of us who are published electronically, one TP ad is priceless. The husband insists that paper communications must go. Everything should be digital--notes, homework, grocery lists, bill paying. One day he's trapped in the loo without any TP. He calls for help and his wife slides his iPad under the door with the digital image of, you guessed it, TP. Terrific punch line. Or, I guess I should say,"hook."

CathyP said...

I knew there was a reason I refuse to bring cable into our mountain cabin. ;)
Back in town, I noticed the ads have even invaded the music video channels. Ugh, the "reality" shows could use extensive editing - as in edit them right off the screen!

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