Filming The Writer’s Block

I don’t do TV. I don’t watch it — haven’t had cable in 15 years and only use the television as a monitor for the DVD player — and I really don’t want to be on it. So when John Ronan called and invited me to be on his show The Writer’s Block I said, no, thanks, I don’t do TV. But John persisted.

John’s an interesting guy. I first met him at a SeARTS-sponsored performance at the West End Theater. We talked about the Hovey House Writer’s Group and he asked for my phone number. He called me about doing his show and I said no. Then he called me about working on his web site and I said yes. Then he called again about the show. By that time I knew My Last Romance and other passions was going to happen so I figured I better do it. Sigh.

Like a lot of writers I have mixed feelings about talking too much. I write — I don’t talk, I write. It’s safer. But if you get the right subject going then I can talk your ear off and John Ronan, who has hosted The Writer’s Block on Cape Ann’s Cable Channel 12 for seventeen years now, is great at directing the conversation.

I was a nervous wreck all day yesterday. I finally knocked off a thoroughly non-productive work day at 3 and just read trying not to think about the taping at 7. I do that — I take a lot of pleasure in torturing myself. It’s that old thing that if I heap enough stress and agony on myself that will act as preventive medicine and nothing bad will happen. Yes, I know it’s stupid. But it’s a tradition I don’t care to mess with.

So I get to the station and John is his usual charming, smiling self. It is a tiny production room with 3 cameras, 2 chairs, one director and lots of lights. John briefs me on how it will work and then it is SHOW TIME!

The twenty-five minutes went really fast. John’s such a pro that he knows how to keep the dialogue going and when to take control and what to ask. We talked a little about my background — he said I was too modest. I know a lot of people who will laugh at that. Then we got talking about books and writing and WHAM! I’m talking and I can’t shut up! Specifically we got talking about the difference between romance novels in a contemporary sense and the traditional romance novel which I am passionately in love with and what to reclaim. We talked about Hawthorne and Melville and James Fenimore Cooper, the ultimate romance novelist, and why we need writers like that in this world. He said that one of the things that impressed him when he read My Last Romance and other passions was that the characters were all ultimately likeable, that even the bad people were not that bad.

We talked about the sensuality in the book and the tradition in romance writing that the place a story exists in is as integral to the story as the characters. That it is the writer’s responsibility to create an environment that informs the action of the characters and the story itself. Then he asked the hard question, Where is the line between sensuality and eroticism and did you cross it? That’s such a hard question because it is a thing I struggled with. I teetered on the edge of eroticism several times but I kept pulling back simply because we live in an era where erotica has a stigma not unlike the stigma of contemporary romance. They may seem like fine distinctions but to me, in my writing, they are very, very important. I did my best not to cross that line. I want readers to experience the beauty, the passion and the energy of love without slipping into mere sensation. That’s my goal.

Well, it was fun. I didn’t faint. I talked to much. The show airs October 26 and November 2nd. Catch it if you like. I won’t be watching.

Thanks for reading.