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Hi Lisa! Two authors immediately popped into my mind reading your blog:

First, and foremost, Jane Austen. I mean, really. The characterization, the language, the mastery of sly wit. Does anyone do it better? Not IMHO.

Second, Lydia Joyce. Every time I read a book of hers, I’m struck by how evocative the language that she uses is. She manages to paint mood, setting and emotion with every sentence she writes. She takes situations and turns them on their ear, so that you are always wondering what will happen. I trust her utterly as a reader because even though she writes with twists and turns, I know without a doubt that she will give me a suitably wonderful HEA.

For me it would have to be Tom and Sharon Curtis (Laura London).  If I could just be 1/4 of the writers they were, I’d be happy forever.  I recently re-read one of their little Regency gems--LOVE’S A STAGE.  During the near seduction scene, I nearly fell off the couch in a frenzy of lust, joy, and envy.  To me they were simply the best to ever play the game.

Hi Lisa

The authors that come to mind are Judith McNaught and Suzanne Brockmann.  I am obsessed with their books, have re-read them all several times, and still feel that emotional pull like it was the first time.  I am in awe of that ability.

In my profession, which involves dealing with the public, I am humbled by those who never get upset and can manage to handle difficult situations with patience, calm, and even a smile.  I just don’t work that way LOL.

I’m not going to mention you Squawkers, because that’s a given and why the hell else am I here all the time?

But I must agree with you on Judith Ivory, Lisa.  And yet she’s somehow economical with her use of language, in addition to original and sensitive. 

A big dose of purple more-ness doesn’t always do it.  She’s amazing and leaves me breathless….and at times fills me with self-loathing

Another one that does it for me is Anne Rivers Siddon, though sometimes she’s a little inconsistent.  Two books of hers I adore are:  Colony (set mostly in Maine, if I remember correctly), and Hill Towns (set in Tennessee and Tuscany). 

Her settings are characters in and of themselves, as much an integral part of her characters as their own sense of morality, or humor. 

And her descriptions are so effortlessly juicy and sharp and feminine, I find myself rereading paragraphs just for the pleasure of it:

Just to give a taste.....

“There are to me no mountains on earth so beautiful as these.  They are among the oldest in the world, smoothed now to the curves of a sleeping woman’s body.  They roll across the middle South in symmetrical soft, misted waves.  Morgan’s Mountain sits a little apart from the rest, a last convulsion that marks the dying of the Appalachian chain...”

This is a description of the Cat (I know it’s of the mountain, but to me, it seems more about Cat) She’s the heroine from Hill Towns who suffers agoraphobia insofar as leaving her mountain is concerned.

While there are many great writers and wonderful books out there, the only writer who has me in awe just by how she writes is Paullina Simons.

It’s not just her characters or descriptions, but the way she strings together those little inconsequential thoughts that go through all are minds on a daily basis. Her novels arre almost poetry to me.

Oh, I get that Lisa G!  No one can put me into an almost hypnotic reading state quicker than Paullina Simons.  I was absolutely obsessed when I read THE BRONZE HORSEMAN for the first time.  Didn’t want to eat, write or get out of bed.  I only wanted to read.

Aren’t the “humbles” well...humbling? In no particular order:
I second Jane Austen, also, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe, and all the Brontes..
also..Phillipa Gregory, Barbara Kingsolver and JK Rowling..Diana Gabaldon..
I have to wander around looking dazed when I look at Monet’s or Georgia O’Keefe’s work, and wonder if I should still paint at all!

MaryKate… I am so going to pass on what you said about Lydia Joyce’s writing to her parents!  (I know them - my husband works with her father.) I’m sure they will pass it on to her and will also enjoy hearing it.  They are extremely supportive of her.

And my list of humbles is sooo long… I don’t know where to begin…

Oh Sarah - I wish you would, I find her writing to be so delighful. I’m a very fast reader, but I find that it usually takes me a couple of days to read her books because they’re so rich. You know? Kind of like eating a really rich choclate dessert, you eat it slowly and with a small spoon so that you can really savor it?

Anyway, please do pass on my comments to her, I really admire her work!

I just re-read a Mary Jo Putney regency and just wallowed in how complete her characters are.  And not just the main characters but all the peripehral ones too.  I get totally lost in the story.

Personally, there is a co-worker who I’m sure does twice the work of anyone else here.  She’s always totally devoted to whatever she’s currently working on, but there’s always a million different projects, meetings, etc that she’s also working on.

Lisa, are you trying to say you don’t want to go to lunch with me? 

I have writers whose prose I wallow in, but the writers who really give me the humbles are the ones where I don’t notice the words at all because the story is so real and so compelling, I’m not reading it, I’m living it.

Right off the top of my head:
WALKING AFTER MIDNIGHT by Karen Robards
SON OF THE MORNING by Linda Howard
Once I was reading a book by Amanda Stevens and I forgot to go pick up my daughter from Middle School. And lest you decide I’m a bad mother, that’s the only time I forgot to go pick up one of my kids from school. Fabulous!

Attempting to be an aspiring writer is exhausting because it seems to me everything I read gives me an debilitating case of the humbles.

To me, the authors that give me the humbles are David Eddings.  I’m big into fantasy, and I’ve red hundreds of fantasy books by dozens of authors and none stand out more to me than his.  His descriptions although elaborate and inspiring, are not >that< remarkable.  What does it for me are his character developments and the development of his world.  When a certain character rolls their eyes and and mentions a certain aspect of that world, you understand it.  You get to know the characters so intimately that you can dissect their personalites and create psychological profiles of each and every one of them.  Their interactions are priceless and I haven’t read anything that comes as close as those characters.

Here’s a taste - One of my favorite quotes that made me laugh for hours:

“Silk!” Garion exclaimed, catching the little man’s arm in relief.
“What was that?” Belgarath asked, coming back around the corner.
“Brill,” Silk replied blandly, pulling his Murgo robe back on.
“Again?” Belgarath demanded with exasperation. “What was he doing this time?”
“Trying to fly, last time I saw him.” Silk smirked.
The old man looked puzzled.
“He wasn’t doing it very well,” Silk added.
Belgarath shrugged. “Maybe it’ll come to him in time.”
“He doesn’t really have all that much time.” Silk glanced out over the edge.
From far below - terribly far below - there came a faint, muffled crash; then, after several seconds, another. “Does bouncing count?” Silk asked.
Belgarath made a wry face. “Not really.”
“Then I’d say he didn’t learn in time,” Silk said blithely.

Robin McKinley - who can do no wrong .

Joss Whedon, of course .

Diana Gabaldon - I don’t always love (or understand) her plots, but I love the way she writes.

Norma Johnston, Madeleine L’Engle, Diana Wynne Jones…

As mentioned, Ivory, Kinsale, Chase, etc.

All of you make me humble.  I work in the financial services industry, and anything beyond a page or two with occasional bullet points is beyond me, so I’m in awe of all of you who manage plot, characterization, and dialogue for hundreds of pages.  I love several of the authors already mentioned and would like to add Diana Norman.  She somehow places me in situations (e.g., in England during the American Revolution in “Taking Liberties") and is so good that just like her characters I don’t know if this will turn out to be a War of Independence or merely a colonial revolt.  And she is also wonderful at weaving larger concepts seamlessly into the fabric of her stories.  For example, in TL the issue of political liberty is clear in the struggle of the colonies for independence, but there’s also the issue of personal liberty within the larger context:  slavery and within male/female relationships, for example.  Her books flow, and it is only afterward, in thinking about them, that I realize I’m thinking about them both as stories and as springboards to deeper discussions, without ever feeling that her books are “work” or “lessons”.

I must mention my better half.  No one I know is quite so thoughtful of others as he is.  I think he was born that way.

Susan/DC said…
All of you make me humble.

I agree with Susan whole heartily.  I have come back to this page a half dozen times since I got to work this morning.  You are all amazing and I see that more and more everytime I read one of your books and/or blogs. 

What you have to put together to make such a great story is remarkable.  It’s usally at those times I put away the thoughts of maybe, possibly, putting together a book someday.  I’ll remain a loyal reader for now.

Teresa--especially when I re-read (and re-read and re-read) her Whisper of Roses, Once an Angel or Heather and Velvet.  Her gift for description is something I am keenly aware I’ll never be close to.

Sherrilyn Kenyon--her gift for dialogue and world-building...and sensual love scenes. 

Eloisa--she always writes the best rakes.  She doesn’t fear making heroes less than good at something, even sex.  She doesn’t fear making her characters unlikeable--because she makes us fall in love with them anyway.  You do feel like you’re hanging out with your girlfriends…

And well, there are others...lots and lots and lots of others.  There is something to be gleaned from any author, I think...something where you go, “Gosh, I wish I’d written that!” And whoever wrote Shakespeare in Love--what a great idea!--and so clever too!

Barbara Samuels aka Ruth Wind’s In the Midnight Rain—sighhhhh totally evocative.  Her use of setting as character, and to set the emotional tone of the book is extremely humbling.

Karen Robards is another who uses the setting as character and emotional tone. 

Linda Howard—all i can say is her books ooze sensuality

Susan Elizabeth Phillips—she can have a totally unlikeable character type, but after just a few pages in, you’re rooting for that character to win so badly you just can’t stop turning the pages fast enough.  How DOES she do that? 

I notice more historical authors than contemporary listed in the posts.  Is it maybe more difficult to get that deeper level of “humbling” in a contemporary? Do we just get swept away with our preconcieved notions of the period in historicals, as opposed to “knowing/living” about contemporary flavors

ps… my confirm word was method79… oh yes please share the methods! LoL

Anyone who writes leaves me awestruck.  Creating characters, places, dialogue and putting it all together to make a story seems amazing to me.  And then to have someone want to spend their money to read what YOU wrote has to be an incredible thing.

Authors that can blend humor and tragedy are the ones that humble me.  To have me laughing one minute and crying the next really impresses me.  Susan Elizabeth Phillips is one that comes to mind.  Sly wit also gets me - Jo Beverley, Mary Balogh, Julia Quinn.

I also agree with those who stated authors who can introduce you to a less than likable character and then have you rooting for them within pages - Eloisa James, Lisa Kleypas, SEP.

As I can’t imagine how flat my life would be without the joy of reading all of my favorite author’s works, I am Humbled on a daily basis! There are a few authors, though, that make me catch my breath when I read them. Robin McKinley makes me feel like I have been swimming in chocolate. I have to be careful not to drown. Lois McMaster Bujold can create characters so real, so damaged, yet so lovable, that I want stand in front of them with my arms out and yell “ no one will EVER hurt him/her again!” Peter Beagle always makes me cry.
In real life- my friend’s late mom, who fought breast cancer with spirit, dignity and love, and who advocated for other women with cancer who were not lucky enough to have a strong voice. I Humbly draw strength from her memory.

Ursula K. Le Guin...and Dr. Seuss

They are who I’ve always wanted to be when I grow up.

Something had to be special about Dr. Seuss when a five-year old memorized the Cat in the Hat and dazzled those teachers trying to “place” you for reading ability. 

And Ms. Le Guin...a consummate storyteller.  My bulletin boards have always been covered in quotes from her books since I was a teen.  They made me think and believe in both the beauty and ugliness of the human condition.

*Feeling a severe case of the humbles coming on*

Oh thank you mshellion!  It just so happens that I’ll be blogging on A WHISPER OF ROSES tomorrow

And what I meant to say was that just being in Christina’s company humbles me.  Yeah...that’s it...that’s what I meant to say...really…

Teresa Medeiros said..."For me it would have to be Tom and Sharon Curtis (Laura London).  If I could just be 1/4 of the writers they were, I’d be happy forever.”

Rest assured, Teresa, you are 1/4 of the writer they are. 

For writing, it’s Jane Austen, and Carla Kelly. Everytime I think I could write a little gem of a regency, I reread a vintage Kelly, and am overcome.

I work in a library, and there’s one librarian who knows everything. Absolutely everything. I manage to beat him to an answer maybe once a year, and I cherish the occasion until the next rare occurence.  This year I recognized The Desiderata before he did, but only because I was old enough to remember when it was so hot back in the 70’s.

martha

*groupie squeal* Are you really going to blog on that book!?  I’m serious that’s my all time favorite DIK book!  I wore out the covers on my original and had to buy a new one to replace it.  No one is as dreamy as Morgan.  He is the epitome of the perfect Highlander…

Albert Einstein and Steven Hawking. . . not to mention all those 11 year old PhD science majors who win their respective major science fairs with their projects that will change the world and fix it one day.  Sigh.

Lois

Hush Christina!  I can’t use all of my energy becoming 212/156 of the writer you are!

I agree about A Whisper of Roses...it was your best novel, Teresa!

I always get the humbles when I read F. Scott Fitzgerald. His insight into the American spirit is genius. And of course Austen, Poe, and the Brontes. Speaking of the Brontes.... (I know this is off the topic) did anyone else see the conclusion of Jane Eyre last night?? Fantastic! We need to discuss it, Christina!

I just ran across this quote ... seemed to fit the topic today

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
-Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

My friend’s dog digested my copy of Stephen King’s THE SHINING once and it really upset me

This person has nothing to do with writing.  He is someone I work with who is truly one of the strongest, most honest, most compassionate people I know.  He has a very strong faith and he lives it without proselytizing.  He has had to deal with a lot of hardships in life that would have broken many people, but not him.  To look at him you would think he was a pushover, but he has a backbone made of iron.  It is an honor to know him.  To be that kind of person who makes other people better simply by knowing them humbles me.  He is that kind of person.

As far as writers, all the Squawkers humble me.  I wish I had some writing skill, but I don’t.  To be able to transport a reader to another world and make them really care about fictional characters is a gift.

Teresa Medeiros said..."I can’t use all of my energy becoming 212/156 of the writer you are!”

I’m pretty sure there’s an insult in there somewhere, but I’m too tired to do the math.

Yes, Emily, I saw the end! They made a few changes I thought diminished the story (why in heavens name didn’t she hear Rochester call her so clearly that she answered him?) OTOH, I would have never had the strength to get off that bed and leave him. Ho-ly smokes! For my money, those two were the best Jane and Rochester I’ve seen.

Of course, I haven’t seen them all yet ...

And oh Ms. Hellion, didn’t you know?  Christina wrote SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE! 

Oh wait a minute--she wrote THE GREATEST LOVER IN ALL ENGLAND at least 1-2 years before SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE came out.  But there were marked similarities and they were both wonderful!

Christina said:

“OTOH, I would have never had the strength to get off that bed and leave him. Ho-ly smokes! For my money, those two were the best Jane and Rochester I’ve seen.”

You said it.  When he’s caressing her--what’s that hollow called at the base of the neck?--and then asks if she’ll leave and she still says “yes”...well I just died. 

I loved him especially.  Where the heck has he been hiding?

I watched the rest of Jane Eyre, too, and after that scene, I would have followed Rochester anywhere.  No way would I have run off to the moors!  I can’t say that I remember that scene in the book but embellishment can be a good thing!

I, too, am in awe of published writers.  I have so many stories dancing around in my head and so many false starts that I’m totally humbled by anyone who completes a book, especially in the numbers produced by the current company!  In addition, they are books we eagerly look forward to reading.

I’m also a huge Jane Austen fan.  I’m so impressed with the authors that have withstood the test of time - writers like JA that describe human interaction so well their books transcend time and place.

I have been rereading parts of Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead today for the upteenth time, and my awe for the clarity, lyricism, and sheer power of her prose increases with every reading.

One of my favorite quotes: “I can’t believe that, when we have all been changed and put on incorruptibility, we will forget our fantastic condition of mortality and impermanence . . . In eternity this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets. Because I don’t imagine any reality putting this one in the shade entirely, and I think piety forbids me to try” (p. 65).

I could name others --William Faulkner, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, to name a very few.

As for romance writers, I am humbled by the different gifts of all my autobuys (the six Squawkers included) and also by the gifts of some yet unpublished writers (some on this board) who do things with language that I know I can never do.  My list would be far too long, so I will name only two wonderful writers whose work I think is consistently underrated: Kathleen Gilles Seidel who can take ordinary people and create a world I long to revisit time and again and Deborah Smith who is one of the best storytellers around and whose books have an emotional intensity that few can match--plus she gets Southern right!

Jude Deveraux.  I have been a huge fan of her work for blah-blah-blah number of years. She is the only author I have ever re-read.  There are so many books out there that I want to gobble them up, but Jude has transported me through the ages.  I have been loved and hurt, rejoiced, lost myself, found myself, felt thoroughly lusty and quite naughty too.  Jude has made me laugh and laugh and laugh and try to hold back tears.  I rush to the store when I learn about a new book.  Plus, she is a mystery.  I don’t know very much about her and that keeps me curious about a person who can take me away time and time again. 

I just turned 36 on the 7th, but my word for the day it “really25”.  I have to remember to embrace my inner twenty-something year old.

Deb

The gifted chickens...that goes without saying.  Then Ursula Le Guinn, particularly for The Left Hand of Darkness which for me is one of the greatest love stories ever written.  Barbara Samuel aka Ruth Wind writes beautifully, elegantly and so intimately of being human and creates such gorgeous males. Linda Howard who can make me laugh, lust and cry with perfectly judged style. And Ellen Kushner for Swordspoint, which is both perverse and stylish.

Oh, Lisa, you give me the humbles!

And I’m oh so glad to hear you get the humbles.

I just started reading the Wallflower series, starting with SECRETS OF A SUMMER NIGHT.  I am humbled by your ability to conjure up the perfect word...simple words, that I wonder if I would think to use in that context.  Perfect.

The good thing about being delayed in reading the series is that I do not have to wait to read the second book in the series.

*grins* I of course have “The Greatest Lover in All England”.  My top four favorite Christina books (though I hear her squawking, “Four?  Only four?  Is she kidding!?” then scratching me off The List) are the 2 Knight books (hysterical and my mom loved them too); the GLIAE book; and Move Heaven & Earth (just beautiful!)

But I see now who I should credit with the Shakespeare in Love.  My mistake...my many humble apologies, Christina…

J Perry asked, “When he’s caressing her--what’s that hollow called at the base of the neck?”

I don’t know, but I want his finger in mine.

So to speak.

Thank you, Teresa. Thank you, MsHellion. Yes, indeed, GREATEST LOVER came out years before Shakespeare in Love. I love it when I get a letter reproaching me for stealing the plot. I get to be haughty which, as you know, seldom happens when you’re 5’2”.

Have you tried standing on a box and looking down your nose?

you know I have.

Without a doubt, Alessandre Dumas does it for me.  My list, in fact, is quite ecclectic; thereby, paralyzing my own writing on a fairly regular basis until I hit a line and go.....did I really write that?  Who was I channeling?!  Well, geez, look at my list of Humbles generators!!

The Squawkers - without a doubt!
SEP and Jennifer Crusie
Jane Austin - ‘natch!
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Loretta Chase
Joseph Campbell
Mary Balogh
Tolkien
Mary Jo Putney
and many of those mentioned here......

I find I must re-visit Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre.  I’m older now and won’t be so upset at the cards Jane was dealt.  Right?....

Oh and Janga - I’m picking up Gilaed ASAP!  I just finished Housekeeping --- again!

And just off the writing sphere for a bit.  I’d like to say that Dorothy Day elicits The Humbles.  She is no longer with us but her legacy lives on in the work she has inspired in others.

Rudyard Kipling—not many people remember him as a great writer today, but he was. And, one thing that always gives me the Humbles is a great writer who achieves at a very young age.

You see, when I was a young teen (13 or so) my favorite Kipling stories were the SOLDIERS THREE stories. The hero of those stories was Terence Mulvaney, a battered, world-weary Irish soldier who’s been hurt many times, is still tough as nails but incredibly tender hearted. Think Sean Connery—or Jamie Fraser.

Now the thing that always gets me is, when you read the SOLDIERS THREE stories Mulvaney is obviously a middle aged man. He has the regrets, the perspective, the compassion, the tolerance that come with years of hard living. (Now that I’m 43 I know exactly how that happens.) But Rudyard Kipling wrote these stories when he was—are you ready?—21 years old.

Of course, on one level, you can see “how” Kipling did it. In the stories, Mulvaney is telling all his stories to a young journalist who is obviously a very young Rudyard Kipling. So part of great writing is just good reporting, being a good listener. But still, when you read it you feel Kipling must have “lived” every moment of Mulvaney’s life, it’s as if he feels everything the tougher, older man ever felt. That’s real talent, a writer going into life experiences he can’t possibly understand and opening himself up to them. That’s what gives me the Humbles!

FYI, the screenwriter for “Shakespeare in Love” was Tom Stoppard.  When you think about the fact that English isn’t even his native language, the accomplishment becomes even greater.  And his “Arcadia” is my favorite 20th C play, with an ending that is both incredibly romantic and completely heartbreaking.