What’s In A Name?
In front of Fortitude, one of NYC Bryant Park Library’s iconic stone lions, just after donating a copy of Two Over Easy All Day Long. Check it out (literally)!
(Pardon me while I go a little author-dorky on you, for a moment. The rest of this newsletter returns you to your regularly scheduled programming: Two Over Easy All Day Long news, a book review, and a celebration of Women’s History Month.)
Writers like to obsess over things like
story arc, character development, and genre.
Readers just like to read good books.
Image by Bowie15 from Getty Images (text added)
I am both writer and reader, so I get to obsess, and then be annoyed with myself for the obsession. Not nearly as much fun as having your cake and eating it too, but what’re you gonna do?
Apologies to those of you who are readers but not writers—this newsletter takes a short dive into the somewhat neurotic preoccupation with genre.
The title of this newsletter, What’s in a Name?, is part of a famous quote from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet:
What's in a name? That which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet.
Having spent a little time in the rarefied air of authors, publishers, librarians, and booksellers, living and breathing conversations about titles and genres,
I have to ask: Would it? Would it smell as sweet?
More specifically for my purposes, is a book only as appealing to you as its genre-label? Did you buy (or borrow from the library, or from a friend) Two Over Easy All Day Long because it was labelled a mystery? Would you have picked it up if it was simply labelled “contemporary” or something equally generic? What if it had been labelled, courageously, “genre-bending” or “defies conventional genres”?
I am by no means the only writer grappling with these issues.
At the end of Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred, a Critical Essay by Robert Crossley (University of Massachusetts at Boston) contrasts Kindred with stereotypical science fiction. “Butler herself has repeatedly insisted that Kindred should be read as a ‘grim fantasy,’ not as science fiction, since there is ‘absolutely no science in it.’ She has also remarked that such generic labels are more useful as marketing categories than as reading protocols.”
In her March 2025 newsletter, Louise Penny makes a similar statement about her Three Pines series. “I think part of the challenge with STILL LIFE [the first book in the series], and all subsequent Three Pines books, was that the series defies convention. While proudly a crime novel, Still Life is not really about the crime. That is the vehicle to explore all sorts of issues. . . . [T]he books are about decency. About honour and the courage to be kind. To stand up. They are about integrity, and friendship, and goodness, and belonging, and community. They're about terror and they are, in the end, about love in all its forms.”[i]
I am no Octavia E. Butler or Louise Penny—though as they say in the movie City Slickers, “Day ain’t over yet.” But I struggled with the same issues when sending out queries for Two Over Easy All Day Long (thank you, Golden Antelope Press, for loving the story in spite of its genre-ambivalence!), when sending out queries for the Looser Island Dogs series, and most recently when sending out queries for Jaysus, MooMoo, and The Immortal Woos. And the issue pops up when someone finds out I have a published novel and asks, innocently, “Oh? What kind of book is it?”
If only they knew what soul-searching I go through every time that question is posed!
Labels like “mystery” seem inapt. I intentionally did not use the traditional format of a mystery, with red herrings and clues, and of course there’s the fact that the dead body doesn’t even show up until Chapter 5.
Whodunnit? is not the central theme of the book.
“Cozy mystery” is even less appropriate, given Walt’s (and Nancy’s) foul mouth, and the occasional references to sex, some of which are somewhat explicit.
Two Over Easy was described by one well-known reviewer (who shall remain nameless, such is my frustration with their assigned genre) as “a comic novel.” Though they did add “with heart.”
Say what? It starts with the death of a child.
There are parts of Barbara Kingsolver’s Pigs in Heaven and The Bean Trees, and Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry that are hilarious, but I’d never describe them as “comic.” Similarly, Rufi Thorpe’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles (review below) is wickedly funny, but it is not a “comic novel.”
The central message of Two Over Easy is redemption, the transformation possible through created community and learning to see the world from another’s perspective. The “point” of the book is that people can change for the better, and sometimes, miraculously, against all odds, they do.
So I can’t help but bristle at calling my book “a comic novel,” though perhaps my feelings are much ado about nothing (thank you again, Bill). I leave it in your hands, sweet reader. If you feel so inclined, drop me a note in the comments or by email and let me know what genre – what “name” – you’d ascribe to Two Over Easy All Day Long, or any of the other novels mentioned above, whether there are other books you’ve loved that seemed mislabeled, or any other thoughts you’d like to share.
And now, back to your regularly-scheduled programming . . . .
Two Over Easy All Day Long News
NYC Library: The photo for this newsletter is me standing in front of Fortitude, one of the iconic stone lions in front of New York City’s Bryant Park Library, shortly after donating a signed copy of Two Over Easy All Day Long. If you live in the area, or know someone who does, check it out (literally)!
Reader’s House Interview coming soon! Check out their issues here.
Playing with audio books: Spoken Press recently launched a program to make audiobook versions more widely available to authors and readers. Check out Chapter Two (read by “Eric”) and an excerpt of Chapter Three (read by “Sarah”) here. Vote with stars or comments if you have a preference. You can also let me know if you prefer to hear the author read his/her/their own work – and you can hear me read an excerpt on my YouTube channel, for comparison.
Goodreads Giveaway: Signed copies of Two Over Easy All Day Long will be sent to ten winners. Open until 3/30/2025. Enter here - entry is free!
Already have a copy? Why not enter anyway? If you win, share with a friend, or donate a copy to your local library. If you donate, be sure to tell the librarian what you loved about the book, and why you think it should be included in their collection.
Book Clubs: I’ve now had the pleasure of appearing, virtually or in person, at a handful of book clubs. I absolutely love participating in those discussions, so please feel free to reach out to me if you’d like me to join your conversations, in person, remotely, or by email. As I’ve mentioned in previous newsletters, Golden Antelope Press is a small (but mighty!) independent publisher, and there is no army of PR folks between me and my readers, which means you can email requests to me directly at sharilaneauthor@gmail.com.
Book Review
I know I tend to gush over every book that makes it into my newsletter, and Rufi Thorpe’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles (William Morrow 2024) is no exception. It’s also an excellent example of the queries posed earlier in this newsletter.
The novel follows a nineteen-year-old whose college professor seduces her but disavows all connection when she gets pregnant. Margo, our protagonist, decides against abortion without any inkling what parenthood entails or any plan for financial stability (or resources to develop a plan).
[SPOILER ALERTS - skip the next sentence if you like!] Margo loses her job, then her roommates (who share the rent), navigates her father’s heroine addiction and her mother’s legacy of poverty and dependence on men, starts an OnlyFans[ii] account to support herself and her baby, and because of that endures a legal custody battle and public “doxxing.”
The story is about female empowerment and smashing the societal taboos placed only on women. It includes explicit descriptions of pornography, and viscerally painful descriptions of parenthood and childhood trauma. That it also manages to be wickedly funny is a triumph. So it was almost shocking to see it described on Amazon as “heartwarming,” “laugh-out-loud,” “feel-good,” and “lovable.”
Not until I got to the end of the Amazon blurb did I find a more accurate description, and even then I had to meander through “fluff” descriptors to get to this:
“ . . . filled with sharp insight, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a tender tale [about] . . . struggling to wrest money and power from a world that has little interest in giving it to her. [An] . . . honest examination of the art of storytelling and controlling your own narrative, and an empowering portrait of coming into your own, both online and off. A wholly original novel. . . . Thorpe is both poetic and profound in the way she brings her remarkable story to an end.”
I heartily, highly, and enthusiastically recommend Margo’s Got Money Troubles. And if you read it, write and tell me what you thought, how you’d describe the book, or any other little thing you’d like to share.
Women’s History Month
Image by imaginaryparty (text added).
In honor of Women’s History Month, I’d love it if you’d share your favorite female author/author who identifies or identified as female.
I’ll start, and since my obsession with—I mean passion for—reading started as a child, I’m going for children’s authors first: Madeleine L'Engle, E. Nesbit, J.K. Rowling. Next up, authors of adult books: Barbara Kingsolver (of course), Emily Dickinson, Ruth Ozeki, Emily St. John Mandel, and Louise Penny.[iii]
Your turn!
Footnotes
[i] I just have to wax enthusiastic about the fact that, when I wrote to Louise Penny to ask for permission to use this quote, she, or rather her executive assistant, actually wrote back! Granting permission! What a thrill! (Okay, done with the excessive use of exclamation points. For now.). Her marvelous newsletter is available here: https://www.louisepenny.com/newsletters.htm
[ii] This dinosaur had to research the term. According to Wikipedia, “OnlyFans is mainly used by pornographic creators . . . . As of May 2023, OnlyFans had 3 million registered creators and 220 million registered consumers. In 2023, creators earned a mean average of nearly $1,300 per year. A study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found that ‘OnlyFans users were predominantly white, married, males who identified as heterosexual, bisexual, or pansexual.’” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OnlyFans
[iii] There are so, so many others! Also, in case you followed the events related to J.K. Rowling’s comments about trans rights, I want to say this: I will neither defend those comments nor apologize for including her in this list. The Harry Potter series brought joy to so many, and her books championed diversity and inclusivity, acceptance of each person on his/her/their own terms, forgiveness, and taking a stand against evil. Her contributions on those issues should not be cancelled, even as I acknowledge that I share concerns about her statements and actions related to trans people.
