Has Terry Prone ever claimed to have class or given any hint that she aspires towards it - in the Charvais shirt kind of way (fur coat and no knickers, as my Granny used to say)?
In my opinion Prone is a business woman who makes money out of words. You may not like her, you may not think much of what she writes but she is certainly successful.
I would have described her as a nuts and bolts woman who gets on with the job of churning out the words in the way that people are willing to pay for hearing/reading. She's a hack and a very, very good one.
On my bookshelf is a title by her called 'Write and Get Paid For It' and sadly it's now out of print but it's well worth reading. To be honest, I borrowed mine from the Library, 'lost' it, had to pay for it and miraculously found it again. You may never borrow it. It does exactly what it says on the tin with zero bs and zero sentimentality.
It's not a personal story - more of a manual with some personal references thrown in. The overwhelming picture is of a woman who is utterly determined and unstoppable. She makes the point at the beginning which illustrates this well: her mother told her not to write the book because other people would steal her ideas and thus her income stream but she decided to anyway - because most people won't have the determination to get off their behinds to do most of what she suggests. It's an immensely practical book that demystifies writing in the most blunt of ways.
There's also an interesting reference to a very bad car accident she was in, after which she couldn't name things and took several years to plod back to writing by sitting at her machine day in, day out writing whatever crap came into her head - but writing until she got herself back to the stage where she could make a living out of it again. That takes guts and patience and determination and I don't care what colour her kettle is, hers is a experience worth learning from.
I'm not sure that I like her very much, but I have great admiration for her.
Portal 