I refuse to believe that SOL members are as illiterate as is claimed. My own readers, at least the ones who write me, are often able to string coherent sentences together. Of course, it's sometimes like a child draws a house - window, door, window. Noun, verb, object.
'Dear Paige, I like Pilar.'
A couple of readers, knowing what an ace plagiarizer I am, ask me what I'm reading when I pen one of my stories. Crime novels and thrillers, of course. But those of you with with a bit of Sherlock in you could make some pretty educated guesses.
If, in a current Winter story, I use a word like 'shibboleth' or 'epidemiologist' or a Latin phrase like 'pacta sunt servanda', you can be pretty confident I'm reading Alexander McCall Smith.
If there's a Winter-action scene involving some violence, I'm probably reading Robert B. Parker or Lee Child. Someone like that.
Snappy dialogue - Elmore Leonard. Quirky plot-line - Ross Thomas. Oddball character - Donald Westlake.
Of course for you readers who are unlettered … well, never mind.
Paige