In Defense of Romance Novels

I write romance. It’s more than romance, there is suspense, there is mystery, and in many cases, there’s a touch of the supernatural to give my stories a little bit of extra flavor. I’ve had people I work the day job with snicker when they find out what I write {wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more}.  I’ve had people be shocked and horrified. “I keep imagining this is you in the story.” For the record, it isn’t. My characters are made up. Fiction. The things they’re going through are made up. Fiction. This is not an autobiography. That isn’t to say I don’t include one small piece of my life experience into each of my books. Like walking in a French market in Aix-en-Provence (Heart for Rent, with an Option).

Part of any author’s journey is using those life experiences. How can we write about pain if we’ve never felt it? The loss of a loved one if we haven’t lost someone? We have to draw on our very human emotions.

Another thing that often makes me uncomfortable is talking with people and admitting that I’m on husband number two. I was raised to believe divorce was never an option. Until I got divorced.  I won’t bore you with all the details, but I will tell you I didn’t want to fall into the same trap a second time. For the people who thought my first husband was a good choice, he never was. For those people who didn’t understand what I saw in my second husband, maybe you don’t understand me. He does. I’m living my happily ever after. Is he perfect? A story book hero? Heck, no. But then, I’m not a Disney princess, either. Or maybe I am. Maybe we’re more like Shrek and Fiona.

via GIPHY

A romance novel does not give you unrealistic expectations, as much as people would have you believe that. Women might want a Prince Charming, but along those same lines, men are also looking for their perfect Barbie doll. It’s an ideal that doesn’t exist, and I think everybody knows that. Romance novels empower women to grow, to be who they are, and if a handsome hero happens to show up, all the better, as long as he gives the heroine room to be herself and to grow. A healthy relationship. Romance novels provide strong female main characters. Wonder women, even if they are only a wonder in their own small world.

When I write, my goal is to remind women we don’t have to be afraid of who we are, and not to settle for less than we deserve. Prince Charming isn’t always wearing a crown. Sometimes he’s a big, green ogre who is waiting for someone who can see there’s more to him than Fe-Fi-Fo-Fumming. That’s the realistic side of romance.

Creating a Hero in Six Easy Steps

I've started work on my next in series!

One of the first things I do is to create a "picture" of my characters. What do they look like? Since this is Kathleen's book, I already know what she looks like from her appearance in EPITAPH. And the hero? I'd originally given her one in EPITAPH, but turns out that relationship didn't work out, so I had to create a new man in her life.

How to create a hero in six easy steps.

1. What does he look like? I had an image in my mind, and as I started to describe him on the page, I wanted to check what people would "see" when I described his skin tone, so I Googled it. As a reader, I can see an olive complexion, or a creamy complexion or even bronze. When I Googled the color I chose, it returned pictures of skin abnormalities. Macules or signs of a disease. NOT the results I'd expected. First correction in the new book!

2. What does he do for a living? Many men are defined by their career choice. Are they ambitious? Driven? Biding their time doing what they have to do until they can do what they want to do? Do things come easy to them and, therefore, they don't have to put much effort into it? Did they get where they are due to nepotism or some other relationship and never had to prove themselves? These all help to define his personality traits - who he is.

3. What is his fatal flaw? His Achilles Heel? And/or what secrets does he keep? Nobody's perfect. Maybe blind ambition means he runs over other people in his goal to reach the top. Maybe he has a hidden secret in his past that could ruin his future. Does he rush to judgment, or act before he considers the repercussions of his actions? On the other side of this coin, what makes him Heroic? And maybe he has to overcome his fatal flaw to get to that point (all stories should show how your characters have evolved). Heck, maybe he has a hero complex which makes him both heroic and flawed at the same time.

4. What makes him stand out in a crowd? Why do you notice him? Is it a physical attribute? The way he dresses? The way he speaks? The way he walks? What draws you to him rather than every other man in the same crowd?

5. What is his "go to" gesture? People tend to have tics, or tells. Do not overuse the gesture. I had one early reader of THE MIRROR who said she was starting to worry about Garth's neck. He massages the back of his neck when he's nervous or tense or anxious - Thanks to her input, I fixed the overuse. In TOUCHED BY THE SUN, Dominic had a tendency to tick his fingers off against his thumb. This gesture shows us their frame of mind without telling your audience. It's the old "I can see something is bothering you."

6. Don't forget his backstory. It doesn't have to be dumped on the page, but you need to know how he grew up. Was his family close? Was one or both of his parents neglectful or abusive? Does he have siblings that might shape how he interacts with people? Does he have a role model outside his family who has influenced his life? And just as a random added extra, I read an article once that said you can judge a lot about a man by the way he treats his mother. That isn't always a two-way street, so be mindful of the psychology behind what shapes his personality. Much of this backstory will never make it onto the page, but it is essential for how he responds based on how he is programmed, and as the author, I need to know that.

Catch up with the EPITAPH series. Book 3, THE MIRROR went live yesterday and is now available at all your favorite booksellers!

Starting Over

In case you didn't know, Epitaph 3: THE MIRROR, releases next Tuesday. I got the blessing from my editor, did my final passes, and its now officially done! You can pre-order it anywhere you would normally buy a book and it will automatically show up on your device or ship to you on Tuesday. (TODAY, July 12, You can get $5 off the paperback version at Amazon during their prime days! Details are at the link.)

Normally I've already started the next book, but because this is the third release this year, I decided to wait until this one was done. I was running close to my deadline and didn't want the distraction of "which characters are these, again?" Now that it's "put to bed," its time to move ahead. I have done some preliminary outlining, a starting point, an idea to run with, but since I'm still parked in the starting gate, I thought I'd reach out to my readers for what they want to see.

I envision the next in the Epitaph series as Kathleen's story, but I've also been thinking about the Northwest Suburbs series, a book to follow COOKIE THERAPY. Remember Yolanda from the bakery? What do you think? Do you want to read more ghosts, or do you want to revisit the family of friends in Hoffman Grove? Leave me a comment - I'd love to hear your opinions.

In the meantime, here's a teaser from THE MIRROR

Pre-order your copy of THE MIRROR (e-book or paperback) at:

Kobo

Smashwords

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Google Play

Apple iBooks

Who said writing is easy?

Can't tell you how many people think being an author is an easy job. You make stuff up, you write it down, easy peasy. Right?

Wrong.

I've been working on comments from my editor for THE MIRROR and I'm exhausted! And I'm still not sure I got it right. We'll have to see after I get the next round of edits back.

The word for today is characterization.

When I wrote RETURN TO HOFFMAN GROVE, I challenged myself to make an unlikeable secondary character likeable by turning her into the main character. That took a lot of work, and I spent a lot of time studying personality traits and psychology and emotional history. And then, when I wrote COOKIE THERAPY, I challenged myself to do the same thing with a hero. Those were some of the most fun books to write. I was stretching myself and I created three-dimensional characters with character flaws along with endearing traits. So I should know what I'm doing by now, right?

When I started THE MIRROR, I envisioned secrets and flaws and all kinds of things, and then I got caught up at the day job and had to set it aside. That was probably the best thing that could have happened, because when I came back to writing, I realized what I'd written wasn't very good. So I started over, and I thought I'd done a much better job the second time around. Unfortunately, some of the first draft problems carried through into the second draft, and most of what's wrong is that the unlikeable heroine I sought to redeem is still unlikeable. She has plenty of psychology and background to justify her personality, but I didn't bring that forward soon enough. Basically, she's a hot mess.

Rule #1. Main characters need to be likeable. If they do something UNlikeable, they need to have a reason. Maybe its something from their past that shaped the way they see the world today. Experience. Maybe its family history. Whatever the reason is, a good author needs to build sympathy for that unlikeable character early on. Consider the movie REAR WINDOW. Jimmy Stewart is a peeping tom. He spends his days with binoculars watching his neighbors. Not very neighborly. Even his girlfriend thinks he's a bit off. But we can excuse him a little because of his ennui, sitting alone recovering from a broken leg. And then we can excuse him later when he uncovers a murderer. He brings his little apartment community together at the end of the movie where all the neighbors watch out for one another. Who knew happiness was waiting right outside their courtyard windows?

And so I'm busily addressing editor comments so that the book will be ready for publication on time.

Fingers crossed!