Readers lost another memorable author this year: Janet
Dailey. She was a romance novelist that
I favored some time ago when I devoured similar books in the 70s and early
80s. I cannot say that I outgrew her
books but my current interests lean toward historical novels, biographies, autobiographies, mystery, crime
or police dramas, etc. This is not
diminish Dailey’s talent but just shows how ones interest may expand over time
to include other writers and writing styles.
Like many people, she overcame scandal but had many
faithful readers and followers during that difficult time. With the thousands and thousands of writers
who may be veracious readers as well, it
must be difficult to keep ones writing style “pure” and at the same time
consistent without the flavor of another writer blending in by accident or by
design. Personally, I did not keep up with
whatever the facts might have been at the time but I do appreciate the fact
that she survived to write another day. This
speaks “volumes” about her personally as well.
What I choose to remember is that she admitted to the “infractions”,
lost a publisher, but kept on writing. I
am a fan of the other author too but this is not about her but the life of an
author worthy of recall.
The writings of Janet Daily are and were great for those
who relish in the escape to romantic novels BUT who in real life might not
tolerate the actions of the men in these novels. Just like boys will be boys, some men are men:
good, bad or indifferent. However some are worth the time and trouble it takes
to find the love that for some can only be or best found in books. Just saying….
While sharing my personal thoughts about Janet Daily, it
brought other fond memories to mind when things were quite different for me. My
next door neighbor and I probably read everything offered by this author as
well as those by Barbara Cartland, who passed away back in 2000. We swapped books with each other to save
money and to avoid interruptions in our reading pleasures, our favorite
pastime. We were both young mothers and
any spare time (which was truly minimal) was spent reading and sharing these
“loving” stories with each other. While
at the time, life seemed so complicated with the money never quite stretched
far enough, our home was literally failing down around us, our choices in
clothing were from second hand stores (there were no Wal-Mart or Target stores
back then), Christmas shopping was by necessity on layaway plans with one or
two gifts at best, what I remember best was the fellowship shared with another
woman and that I still had my reading pleasure to escape from the realities of
ever day living.
Books with their plots, characters (real or imagined) are
one of the many blessings that life has offered me and millions of others just like
me. My situation may be much changed but
some things thankfully have not changed, that being my appreciation and love
for printed words.
Life is full of facts and fiction so why not enjoy some
reading to complement our life, expand our knowledge, increase our awareness or
provide the distractions that are so needed in our task of living, not just
existing. No, I do not believe in the
happily ever after in fairy tales but I do believe in possibilities that
reading creates in our mind that feeds a goal that produces a plan to develop
the life we want for our self or more importantly for others.
Reading, it’s what’s for ….. (Now you fill in the blanks)
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