Books By Fern Michaels

I happen to have in my possession 20 books by Fern Michaels. These 20 books focus on a group of women who have decided to go vigilante on a number of Karma Houdinis who ruined their lives in one form or another. Don't worry, these women only give those people a Fate Worse than Death, and those people are such Complete Monsters anyway.

The group is composed of Myra Rutledge, Charles Emery, Nicole "Nikki" Quinn, Kathryn Lucas, Alexis Thorne, Isabelle Flanders, Julia Webster, and Yoko Akia. Myra is a wealthy woman who owns a Fortune 500 candy business. Charles Emery is Myra's British companion, houseman, head of security of her business, and her Love Interest. Nikki is a defense attorney who thinks of Myra as a mother, and helps Myra to form this group of vigilantes, as well as act as the legal counsel. Kathryn is a Fiery Redhead trucker who was raped in front of her husband by three bikers. Isabelle worked in a business and lost it because one of her employees caused a family of three to be killed in a car accident and pinned the blame on her. Alexis worked at a brokerage firm and spent years in prison for a crime that her employers committed. Julia Webster was a plastic surgeon whose husband cheated on her and caused her to get HIV. Yoko's mother was brought to the U.S. by her father under false pretenses and made a prostitute out of her. Myra had a daughter named Barbara who was killed by a hit and run driver with diplomatic immunity.

Some interesting bits of information I'd like to point out. Yoko is apparently Chinese, even though her name seems more Japanese. Is this an example of Did Not Do The Research? Yoko is also a Yamato Nadeshiko (I say this because the character is Asian, and I don't know what the name of the trope for a Chinese Proper Lady would be). She also engages in Spock Speak or Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness, and I don't know if Chinese people talk like that in English. She is 90 pounds and she engages in Muscles Are Meaningless martial arts, like crushing a metal thermos beneath her foot like a pop can. Is this an example of Waif-Fu?

So, have any of you read these books?

edited 24th Oct '11 1:22:34 PM by TiggersAreGreat

Oh, and here's a website you should take a look at:

http://fernmichaels.com/series-characters-sisterhood-series/

It should help you know more about the characters Fern Michaels has written!

My mistake. It turns out in the book Free Fall that Yoko Akio is Japanese. This is in spite of the fact that Yoko said "We Chinese" at one point in the book Weekend Warriors. The author sure made quite the blooper there!

Okay, I've been reading these 20 books carefully, and, well, the author has certainly made a number of bloopers!

• In the book Weekend Warriors, Fern Michaels writes down Charles Martin as Charles Emery at one point. It seems that she was confusing Charles for Jack Emery.

• The author spells out Yoko Akia as Yoko Akio at one point at least.

• In Weekend Warriors, Kathryn Lucas's dog Murphy is labelled as a Belgian Malinois. After that book, however, Murphy is labelled as a German Shepherd. Maybe Murphy died after the first book, and Kathryn bought a German Shepherd and named that one Murphy. If that's not what happened, then I have no explanation for this blooper.

• When Bert Navarro is introduced in the book Free Fall, the author spells out his last name as "Navaro" at least once. Considering that his name has been consistently spelled as "Navarro" for the most part, perhaps the author was trying to figure out which spelling she preferred and pick one after Free Fall.

• The book Deadly Deals introduces us to a lawyer named Baron Bell. However, the book Home Free refers to that character as Bryan Bell!

• One character named Joe Espinosa gets introduced around the book Fast Track. His name doesn't suffer from any problems...until the book Home Free. There, his last name is spelled as "Esposito" a couple of times before it reverts back to "Espinosa". That is a jarring blooper if ever I saw one!

• As at least one reviewer on http://www.amazon.com/ can attest to, the book Lethal Justice has 5 spelling mistakes, which can be found on pages 79, 85, 90, 112, and 151.

As you can see, there are quite a number of bloopers in this series. In fact, I sit back and wonder, "Is there no spell-checker? Is there no editor?" In fact, that one reviewer I mentioned said that the author should find another publisher. If she doesn't have a spell-checker, then she should get one. If she has one, then she must not be using it. If she doesn't have an editor or publisher, then she should get one. If she has one or the other, then she would do well to fire that person!

Has anyone ever seen a situation like this?

Hoo boy, you guys are going to love this! On Fern Michaels' website, there's a section where you can contact her. Using this, I sent FM a laundry list of 20 questions. These questions were about the bloopers in the series. Also, they pointed out the Plot Holes, Did Not Do The Research, Critical Research Failure, Jerk Sues, Derailing Love Interests, and so on. In other words, the signs of Bad Writing. Some of these things, I didn't even notice until I read some of the reviews on Amazon.com. I wanted to see what FM had to say about all that.

This is what I got, word for word:

To answer your questions>>>>> I write what I do because I can. This is fiction. If you don't like my writing why did you continue to read the series? Oh, that's right, because they were entertaining. I rest my case.

Characters are human just like the rest of us mortals. Again, this is fiction. I make it a point to never defend my writing because . . . I write fiction. Fiction is make believe, in other words, it's whatever the author wants to make it.

Thank you for taking the time to write and offer your opinions and your insight.

FM

I really did find the series entertaining. Of course, I had to ignore all those bloopers and signs of Bad Writing to do so. I would also like to point out that when I read a series, I try to read it to the end because I made a commitment to do so the minute I start reading it. That, and I can't make effective reports and criticism to share with everyone around me if I didn't continue to read the series, regardless of how much I liked it.

I find that comment about characters being human like the rest of us mortals interesting. Clearly there's supposed to be a connection between a character and being human. Maybe her characters seemed a little too perfect, and that's why their being human came off as rather jarring. What do you think about that?

I agree with her that it's fiction. However, that does not negate the fact that her work contains signs of Bad Writing. In fact, the whole "I can write whatever I want!" attitude is not a good mentality to carry around when you engage in Bad Writing. After all, there have to be standards when it comes to writing!

I would also like to point out that Fern Michaels is a Southern 79-year-old woman who will turn 80 in April. I point this out because I believe her age and background may have an impact on her writing.

edited 14th Jan '12 5:14:59 AM by TiggersAreGreat

Obligatory link.

edited 14th Jan '12 7:42:28 PM by feotakahari

I would like to thank you for pointing me to Dear Negative Reader. I didn't even know we had a trope like that! Well, Fern Michaels has now been added to that list. Boy, and I wondered if I was the only one who cared!