Tag Archives: romance writing

In Defense of Clean Romance

29 Friday May 2015

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Romance novels get a bad rap. They’re accused of being “pure fantasy,” or giving women false expectations when it comes to real relationships. But I don’t think those accusations are completely fair, especially not in the inspirational and clean categories, and I’ll tell you why:

Holding_Hands_shadow_on_sand1. Romance novels don’t show easy relationships!

If the complaint is that romance novels show love being unrealistically easy, they couldn’t be more wrong. It takes an entire novel to get these two people together, and they have to overcome a lot of personal issues and external pressures in order to get there. Real life is actually a lot easier for some people: Boy meets girl, they date for 2.5 years, he finally proposes on her birthday over a nice dinner, and they plan their wedding for a year and a half in the future. Romance novels have the time span significantly shortened, but that doesn’t make it easy for the characters. If anything, the road to love is that much harder.

2. Real men really are as appealing as romance heroes…

Some worry is that women will want a fictional character over a real, flesh and blood man. What’s most appealing in a romance novel, however, is the connection between the characters, and that connection has nothing to do with him being an earl, a cowboy or a cop. The romantic tension is what makes a reader’s heart go pitter pat, and that romantic tension happens in real life, too. I have to say, on the writing side, romance novels have given me a new appreciation for my husband’s manliness. Things that might irritate me without the right perspective, make me realize how male he really is. Men talk a certain way–or don’t talk, for that matter. They express their desires a certain way. They have a lot going on under the surface that they don’t put into words. Writing a romance hero helps me to see the hero in my own man!

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3. Romance novel tropes hide something deeper

The marriage of convenience, the amnesiac trying to put his life back together, the single mom who wants to do it on her own, the abandoned baby… Yes, these tropes are used over and over again, but they are used for a good reason–they go deeper into issues that readers care about. The marriage of convenience explores what makes a marriage work. Does community support make a difference? Does enforced time together make something deeper blossom? The amnesiac is a great way to explore who we really are when you strip away everything we’ve built up around us. What makes us loveable–our carefully constructed life, or something more elemental? Single moms can’t only think about themselves, and parenthood complicates a romantic relationship. How do you navigate love with kids in the mix? These tropes are used repeatedly because they hit upon our deepest desires and insecurities, and they let us get right into it without a lot of preamble.

Are romance novels fluffy and fun? Maybe! And why not? There is nothing wrong with some enjoyable reading. We do that in other literary forms, too. Fantasy is an elemental part of the reading experience, being whisked away to another life and another experience. But pure fantasy? Those are strong words. Love and relationships are alive, well and challenging in our real lives, too. And nobody–least of all a romance author!–said that love was easy.

 

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An era I can get behind

10 Wednesday Sep 2014

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About ten years ago, I published my first historical novel set in ancient Judea at the time of Jesus. I went on to write three more in that time period, and I learned something important: if you stick to one time period, every book gets easier because you are building on a foundation of knowledge from previous books. You also get pretty good at it!

So when I decided to try my hand at some historical romances, I needed to choose my time period carefully. Which time period would I find interesting enough to devote several novels toward?

I had a few options that I discarded:

John_Wayne_-_1961Old West–I always thought they’d be fun to write, but they’d been done and done again. I wanted something a little fresher.

 

 

363px-Style45_Lady's_WaistVictorian–I enjoy the dresses and the pregnant pauses in the parlor scenes. The civil backstabbing is delicious and the dresses… did I say the dresses? But again… done.

 

 

 

Viking–Fun! But hard to mesh with Christian romance. (And harder than you’d think to find a copyright-free image for, too!)

Photo by: Southend Museums Service

Photo by: Southend Museums Service

I headed off to my fridge (something I do when I’m grumpy at the creative process) and thought to myself, “I wish I could just watch some Downton Abbey. When does the new season start again?”

And then I knew my time period–Between the Wars, 1918 and on, just after WWI. It’s perfect: fresh, ripe with romance and possibilities for the female characters. It’s a time period full of upheaval and change. Now that’s an era I can get behind!

Plus, the dresses, the jewelry, the soldiers returning home in uniform…

I’ve found my era.

(For historical novels, at least. You’ll still have my contemporary novels coming your way!)

Sunburn

27 Sunday Jul 2014

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I’m one of those people who burn. Badly. I wear sunscreen in SPF 60 or higher. When I’m driving and I forget to put on some sunscreen, the sun shining on my skin through the window actually hurts.

My husband is originally from Africa, and when we met he had no idea what I meant when I said, “I burn.” This was a completely foreign concept to him, and it was only after we were married that I got a really nasty sunburn on my shoulders. It swelled up, it blistered, about 2 mm deep of flesh slipped off. The doctor said it was a second degree burn and he gave me appropriate medication for it. My husband stared at me like I was some kind of alien, and ever after has been very cautious about keeping me in shade. Lest I melt.

When we walk together down a street, I’m on the shade side and he’s on the sun side. Before we go out in the summer time, I spend about ten minutes slathering up with sunscreen before we go out, and if I forget, we GO BACK.

This is an old meme, but it makes my point. I’m “the other one,” I’m just not Irish. 😉

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I’m enjoying my summer! It’s spent slathered up in sunscreen, hidden away in shade and air conditioning, and it’s been wonderful so far. Isn’t it lucky that my talents are in writing and not say… beach volleyball? It’s almost like God made me this way–a pale, creative type. Who needs melanin anyway? 😉

 

 

Pragmatic Romance

17 Monday Feb 2014

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Valentine’s Day is over, and if it’s not your favorite time of year, remember this: chocolate is now on sale!

Photo by: Nieuw from nl

Photo by: Nieuw from nl

I’m a romantic, but I’m also pragmatic. The only thing I asked from my husband for Valentine’s Day was a love letter. No flowers. No chocolate. No stuffed animals. Just a piece of paper (any paper!) with his words on it. And he delivered! His love letter was the best gift he could have given me. I melted.

Over the Valentine’s weekend, I also made good use of my time and submitted my nanny story to Harlequin American Romance. This one, I finished in record time because I had some revisions to my Love Inspired manuscript that needed to be done by a deadline, and I didn’t want to stop writing on the American Romance novel. So I poured it on and finished both. Both are now submitted, and the waiting begins.

Waiting might not be the fun part, but I’ve got another book idea percolating, so I’ll survive. This one, I’d like to aim for Harlequin Heartwarming. Heartwarming romances are sweet, but they’re also a little longer, so this book will take more time, more planning, more thought. Percolating a new story is pleasant–it’s like the scent of coffee wafting through the house. It’s not in the cup yet, but anticipation is sweet.

Photo by: Jason Walsh

Photo by: Jason Walsh

Uneasy feelings

03 Monday Feb 2014

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I’m editing right now, and it consumes my waking hours. It might not be my favorite part of the job, but it does need to be done right. By the end of the day, I’m wiped, but I can’t actually say the work is done. I lay in bed at night, thinking things like, “I don’t know why but I feel uneasy about that scene…” And then dream things like this:

800px-Derkovits,_Gyula_-_Sleeping_WomanI’m sitting down to dinner when my parents walk in. This can’t be because they live across the country, and I wonder if I’m dreaming. I notice my mom looks 35 again, and that is also suspicious. I notice that I look 20 again, and I find that even more suspicious. My sister-in-law walks in in a dreadful state, and I know that she’d never go out in public looking like that, so I’m even more suspicious that I may in fact be dreaming. I start serving dinner to my now very full kitchen.

Then I wake up, and as I’m waking up, I feel utterly victorious–I called it! Total dream! I knew something was off with that!

And then when I’m all the way awake, my mind goes back to that scene I was editing before I went to bed–that scene that made me feel uneasy. It isn’t right somehow. I’m missing something.

I grab my laptop and turn on the light. My husband grumbles something about needing sleep and pulls the blanket over his head, and I hunker down, telling myself, “I’ll just go over that scene one more time…”

While I wait

07 Monday Oct 2013

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I’ve posted before about the quandary of what to do with myself while I wait to hear back from editors. It isn’t their fault that I’m one of those writers who cranks out manuscripts faster than they can deal with them, so I’ve had to find ways to occupy myself in the meantime.

I tried a hobby.

I failed at that. Apparently, I can’t drum up the interest in something else, so I decided to do something I’ve been wanting to do ever since my degree in English Lit–write something literary. At the moment, I’m focusing on short stories, and in between romance novels, I’d really love to get some short stories published in literary journals if I can. Talk about fun!

Don’t worry–Love Inspired novels will still be coming your way. I’m not that easily distracted, I promise. But this does mean that my longsuffering editor will get a break from my pestering while I work on something else until she gets back to me.

I think everybody wins here. 😉

 

Photo by Richard Bartz. This really has nothing to do with my post, but what a picture!

Photo by Richard Bartz.
This really has nothing to do with my post, but what a picture!

Staving off “Writer’s Paranoia”

03 Monday Jun 2013

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I finished up a rewrite for my longsuffering Harlequin editor, and I emailed it off. No better feeling!

But that’s also when the Writerly Paranoia sets in. It feels good to get the manuscript off my desk and into my editor’s inbox, but that also means that it’s off my desk. It’s out there—waiting for judgment.

Did I get it right? Will she like it? Will she hate it? Has she read it yet?

Is she reading it now?

Taking a writer who spends hours every day all by herself, cooped up with a computer and a preschooler (so not technically alone, but definitely free of any adult, calming company), and then fill her overactive imagination with questions like these, and the outcome tends to involve comfort eating.

So I stave off the inevitable Writerly Paranoia by starting a new story. This one isn’t brand new—it’s the firefighter story. I’ve done research and decided on my basic premise, so it was a matter of plotting the novel, and getting back into first draft writing. It keeps me occupied. It gives this creative imagination of mine someplace else to wander.

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Much better.

A Truthful Post

22 Monday Apr 2013

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I’ve read a lot of articles by moms berating Mom Blogs for making their days seem shiny and perfect when really, their days are no better than our days. Perhaps their cameras are a bit better… and their mental editing of the details.

I think we authors fall into that same trap. We post about the kind of writing life we wish we had: the photogenic kind.

I’m a full time writer and for the last several years have produced from two to four novels each calendar year. So I do get the work done–it’s just not always done in pools of mid-morning sunlight. I decided to post my real morning for you today in pictures.

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This is my sink filled with dishes–the sort of thing that occupies me around here this time of day. Glamorous, no?
Confession: I had to squirt some more soap into the sink in order to refresh the bubbles for this picture. I’d already wandered off and forgotten about the dishes once this morning.

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This is a pile of library books my son and I were reading in bed after my husband left for work.

Confession: I pulled the comforter over my unmade bed. I’m not dressed yet. (I’m writing this on Saturday morning before 10 am, so I’ll make myself pretty later on… after the dishes.) Don’t even ASK to see my hair before I’ve gone at it with the straightening iron this morning. 

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This is the tea that will keep me going. It’s an absolute necessity. My breakfast consisted of a bowl of leftover potato salad and tea. I wish I could report something prettier–like a muffin with a perfect smear of blackberry preserves, or an egg over easy with a strip of crisp bacon. Nope. A bowl of leftover potato salad, eaten while standing, waiting for the water to boil for tea.

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This is the view outside my window. The snow is mostly melted, but there hasn’t been time for greenery. You can’t see it in this picture, but it’s snowing these stubborn little flakes that aren’t sticking on the ground, but still count as snow. Inspiring? Not for me!

And in the background, Super Grover is “releasing the power of observation” on a Sesame Street episode. Ironic! And effective, because my 5-year-old is happily watching TV while I do a blog post for Monday. I really want to get to work on this next scene in my book, so there is going to be a lot of Sesame Street in the background. Sesame Street lessens my Mommy-guilt while I focus on my novel-writing. At least it’s educational!

So that is what my day looks like. Truthfully.  Tomorrow can be prettier.

The soothings sounds of my husband doing laundry

08 Monday Apr 2013

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It must sound like I’m constantly sick around here. I’ve got another flu-like thing going on again.

Yesterday, my sweet husband stayed home from work to take care of me. It’s remotely possible that he was trying to protect our home from another flu-induced kitchen fire… Regardless, he let me stay in bed while he got up and took care of the house end of things for the day.

As a mom, you wouldn’t believe how soothing it is to listen to my husband doing the laundry! When your preschooler has wet the bed, you can’t exactly rest in your own bed while you think about the soaking urine in the other room, so when I heard my husband stripping the bed and doing the laundry, I felt this wave of relief.

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I could finally rest.

I have to say, a few years ago, the sound of laundry wouldn’t have comforted me in the least. Back then, I might have preferred the muffled sound of a television or the sound of traffic outside my window. But that was before I became a mom and felt this overwhelming, personal responsibility towards our linens.

Lots of things are soothing, and I indulge in them when I’m feeling under the weather:

Soup

My fuzzy and unattractive red bathrobe

A good book

Tea with honey

Listening to someone else fiddle with the washing machine

What comforts you when you’re sick?