I was a bad little blogger in November. (See the archives list over to the left?) Okay, not bad. (‘Cause, you know, I thought my Thanksgiving post was kinda nice.) Inconsistent, that’s the better word.

Then December came. And – in addition to buying Christmas presents, putting up Christmas decorations, traveling to see family and friends, making Christmas goodies, attending church functions, participating in both online and face-to-face writing groups and yes, filling in the holes in my novel and writing a proposal! – I fully intended to become a busy bee of a blogger.

Hasn’t happened yet.

But hey, many of the listed items above have come to fruition, and I got my faithful Taurus’s oil changed, to boot!

And…I made a quick trip to the Windy City…which is 50% of the inspiration behind this blog-to-be. The other 50% is a novel I started reading last week. (Yeah, I listed all those December to-do’s above, but no to-do list ever keeps me from at least a minimal daily intake of fiction! I’d say “good fiction,” but in this case…well…read on…)

So, Chicago. It’s fun. It’s diverse. Lots of lights. Lots of people (my favorite being my friend Laura!). Wasn’t my first time there and definitely wasn’t the biggest city I’ve ever spent time in. But it still made an impression on this small-town Iowa girl. And the Shedd Aquarium, awesome!

In proper bookworm/ever-prepared fashion, for the trip I brought along the novel I was in the midst of reading last week. Which, funny enough, was about a big city lady who ends up in small-town Iowa – opposite of its reader’s current state at the time of its reading.

And I have to tell you, for all the enjoyable aspects of the novel – the skill of the writer in getting inside the POV character’s head, the funny anecdotes, the wit – the storyline felt so incredible stale. It goes like this: Big city girl has bad attitude about small-town life. Spends seven-eighths of the book bemoaning the fact that she’s in said small town. Gets into all kinds of rural scrapes. Goes back to big city. Misses small town. Goes back to small town.

Oh, and of course, she falls for a small-town guy. (I’ve not finished the book yet, but so far, the guy in question hasn’t turned out to be anything super-special. Usually, in stories like these, the guy turns out to be out-of-this-world and nothing like the small-town stereotype Miss Big City assumes him to be. I would bet money that by the end of this story, we find out Mr. Rural Guy has a very special skill or some hidden charm or a scintillating past that shows Miss Big City he’s not so backwoodsy after all. And then, she’ll decide she likes him.)

And that, right there, is why I’ve been so annoyed by this book. It’s so same-old, same-old. Granted, I’m still reading. As I mentioned, the wit and the voice are pretty sweet. They’re what has me turning the page – not the plot.

Thing is, this book had the potential to be something special instead of a repackaged “Sweet Home Alabama” meets “New in Town” piece. The characters (except for, at this point, Mr. Rural Guy) are interesting. The dialogue is fresh. The setting, great. (Yeah, that’s my rural bias speaking.) But the sarcastic to-be-expected attitude of the POV character is ruining it for me.

What if a city girl came to the country and liked it?

What if a city girl was portrayed as sensitive? No pant suits and brief cases and high heels that cause her to sink into the snow? What if instead of spending the whole story bemoaning her circumstances, she threw herself into her rural adventure with excitement and ready-for-anything abandon?

I suppose some might not see the potential for a riveting story there.

But then, they haven’t read my story.

Boy, that sounded over-confident, didn’t it? Which, I’m sure, is dangerous territory for a author-hopeful who hasn’t even sent out a proposal yet.

But, I hear over and over that while, sure, writers need to write for an audience, keeping the market in mind, agents/editors/publishers are also looking for fresh stories. Things that haven’t been done yet.

That’s, I hope, what Georgia’s story is…an untold story of a Chicago book agent who ends up in Iowa on a quest to finish her now-dead best-selling author’s half-completed manuscript in order to save her job. She’ll get into her rural mishaps, sure. And she’s in for some surprises. There’s a story there, I promise.

Just not one that should remind anyone of Hollywood’s (or the publishing world’s) latest urbanite-faces-rural-life-with-disdain tale. Georgia White’s got a personality and story all her own.

Now, if I could just finish writing it…

*****

p.s. I sound harsh, don’t I? Thing is, I don’t hate all city vs. country tales. When I was a little kid reading picture books, I remember loving Town Mouse, Country Mouse. Read it over and over! And while I didn’t find the storyline of New in Town very captivating, I couldn’t stop laughing at the Minnesota potrayals – very overblown and stereotypical, but hilarious! And the characters in Sweet Home Alabama were absolutely lovable. See, I’m a moderate critic at best! 🙂