Lyrics Selection

If you wish to review my two volume novel, Palma de Mallorca Mystique you should first contact me and ask my permission. If I approve of you I will invite you, unless you are impotent, sorry, I meant impudent. Thanx , Raymond Crane. Check Amazon Kindle - Booksie.com - Goodreads.com A broader sense of Romance? Let’s say most readers of novels would think of Romances as being like a typical Mills and Boon story about two people who fall in love, with some complications, and eventually live together happily ever after. Let’s say that most novels of whatever genre contain elements of such a basic scenario. We as readers or writers almost always expect a novel to have Romantic elements even if only as a secondary plot. Let’s say the plot of a basic love story could go like this – A meets B and they fall in love. B meets C and is seduced into leaving A. B and C don’t get along so when A re-attracts B, B returns to A and they live happily together for ever after. There would be little character development in a basic love story and almost no social comment. A basic love story may have elements of other genres such as crime, S/F, or history or adventure. For an extended love story we can see Jane Austin’s stories of Romance which show character studies and social comment as well as a complicated plot. If an author or reader were to look at any of my novellas the focus is on a simple plot line with some social comment. Sure a basic love relationship is central to these stories but there is little character development. To take a wider view of Romance one may look at that epic work, The Odyssey by Homer. Going on a long voyage in which many and various events happen to the main character can be called Epic Romance. There is no basic love relation going on throughout the novel, it is not like Mills and Boon stories at all. One could say that it is the first great lifestyle/adventure Romance because the main character loves his life, whatever happens. My French New Roman novella, - Devils’ Playground is more like a short Epic Romance. There is no basic love relationship but many and various events happen to the main character including much extended travelling. This novella is told in the first person with much interior monologue. It is so very different from all my other works that one may be excused if one thought it was written by another author. Taking my Opus Grande, two volume postmodern Romance novel, - Palma de Mallorca Mystique here we find exquisite and evocative descriptions of the environment and in-depth character studies, lot’s. This work allows for social comment and a great slice of cultural commentary – dialogue is predominant. The themes of love and romance are explored in depth. Some young writers write sex novels these days and call that Romance. Would you say that sexually themed stories are Romances, or only pornography? I would be delighted if anyone would comment on my points of view and perhaps offer some points of their own. Thanx - Raymond Crane My favourite books Imagine going into a Spanish second-hand shop where they did not value books highly. An old man of seventy who proclaims himself to be a follower of Karl Marx comes to serve. I say, do you have any English books, he says, no, they don’t sell, but he could get his hands on a big box of such by the next day. I go back and sort through the big box of books, there I find - An autobiography of J. D. Salinger Thus bad begins - by Javier Marias, a recent edition The complete Catherine series by ? A day in the country – a collection of short stories by Maupassant The novel and Society – a text book The Europeans by Henry James The story of Philosophy – by Bryan Magee How fiction works – by James Wood Studying the Novel – by Jeremy Hawthorn . . . and the old man bows graciously and says €5 Euros. – I’m in heaven! Thanx - Raymond Crane Raymond Crane, author, A note concerning my two volume novel, Palma de Mallorca Mystique - One may compare my writings with that of Jane Austin, after all we are both Romance writers. The comparison is short for as Jane Austin is a great apologist for the newly arrived middle-classes, as pictured in her portrayals of professional males, doctors, lawyers, and sea-men although the latter had to be Admirals to figure in her stories, I accept fiction writers, political researchers, film directors, and fashion designers as though they were just the latest thing, in every way respectable. Whereas Jane Austin would feel that many of her characters may not meet the mark of respectability, that is, as members of the nobility, my characters are as they are, take them or respect them, they are what they at first appear to be. I am after all writing in a new age, and despite the respect given to Jane Austin I demand just a little respect for portraying characters that are all of our current time. Thanx – Raymond Crane YA TWO VOLUME ROMANCE NOVEL – A PRIZE A BLOGSCAPE BY RAYMOND CRANE – AUTHOR A personal critique of Palma de Mallorca Mystique by the author – Raymond Crane. I would like to point out numerous writing styles which feature in my two volume Romance novel. I shall first list three writing styles provided for your enjoyment. The first, is the surreal element, explicated technically in Franz’s and Sebastian’s witnessing of a wild, fiesta, party, in Franz’s dormitory in the first volume. The event didn’t happen but the main characters felt that it did. That is... they imagined that the Andalusian waiters who shared his dorm actually were having a riotous party. In the second stylistic element worthy of mention is the farce or farcical incident when Franz encounters the fictitious and absurd Baron of Upper Slowdownia. This racy scene is told with an extreme sense of facility so that the reader would be highly amused and captivated by the recounting of the episode. The third stylistic element which stands out all too humorously is the meeting of Sebastian with Gretchen in the private study, where she pulls a gun on him. It is highly absurd and also highly melodramatic. The attitude of Gretchen, her demands, are very hyperbolic and his responses very antithetical, and very humorous. It is scenes such as these which lift the story out of the ordinary mode of a story, or rendition, and these elements give the reader such an amusing, enjoyable entertainment. THANX - Raymond Crane