I quickened my step toward the lovely village ahead. Smiling people with perfect teeth, fabulous hair, and elegant clothing welcomed me. Glancing down at my ragged jeans and coffee-stained shirt, I cringed.
Ducking deeper into my coat, I searched for lodging.
Down “Contemporary,” shops displayed designer clothing and sleek cars lined the street. On “Historical,” people dressed in period clothing, mostly Regency and Victorian with the occasional cowboy. Despite the horses, the street was surprisingly clear of… refuse. In the shadows of “Paranormal”, I saw several suspicious-looking gents in wifebeaters and shitkickers. A flash of fang made my heart hammer against my ribcage. I really wanted a taste… Rather, I wanted to investigate further, but I really needed to find my own spot.
Except I still didn’t know which street to take. Straight and narrow, never crossing, every street led to a gleaming palace lit by halogens bright enough to singe my eyeballs.
Even “Romantic Suspense” led straight to that put-Disney-to-shame castle dominating the hillside. What were a few serial killers when you had a strapping cop–FBI agent–ex-SEAL–at your side and a mansion waiting ahead?
I muttered, “Does everybody end up in the castle?”
A lady in a frilly pink gown with a magic wand in her hand flitted down beside me. “This is Romancelandia, dear. Of course everyone ends up at HEA Castle.”
“Even the fantastical characters? Like werewolves–”
“Paranormal,” she chirped brightly.
“Unicorns, centaurs, fairies, witches, demons–”
“Paranormal!”
Apparently everything “weird” got mixed in with the blood-sucking vamps. “What about stories like King Arthur and Guinevere and her love affair with Lancelot?”
Taffeta rustled with her agitation. “Oh, not in Romancelandia, dear. Only one hero for each genteel lady, unless you want to visit…” Glancing about furtively, she whispered, “Erotica,” with a delicate shudder. “They’ve taken over the lower levels, but we pretend they’re not here.”
“How can Guinevere not be allowed in Romancelandia? Her tale is one of the great classic Romances!”
Her lips tightened into a grim line. “It’s not allowed.”
“What if I take some elements from this street and mix it with another?”
Her eyes bugged out and she smacked me over the head with the wand. “Don’t bring that cross-genre filth in here! There are no mutts in Romancelandia!”
I yanked that wand out of her hand and said the unthinkable. “What about stories where–gasp!–the hero dies?”
She grabbed her heart, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed into a Pepto-Bismal pile on the pristine street.
Whispered curses chased me down the narrow streets. The serial killers targeted me. A werewolf sounded his hunting howl. Down stifling streets, they drove me toward HEA Castle.
Instead, I ran away.
I wasn’t afraid of werewolves, who wouldn’t really eat someone in Romancelandia. Nor the vampires, because they were heroes and couldn’t hurt anyone either. Certainly not the debutante brandishing her parasol.
I was afraid of myself.
There was something feral pacing in me, lashing out at the rigid streets and perfect people. I wanted to be with them so badly… I wanted to sit in an elegant tea shop and wear a smart little Regency hat. Or seduce one of those wicked vamps. But my heart… rebelled.
I longed for imperfect people who did bad things sometimes. Maybe they loved where they shouldn’t, hurt people who didn’t deserve it, yet they cried out for redemption. I wanted true Evil to crawl through the streets and their souls to quiver on the edge of the Dark Side. And oh, how I wanted them to sacrifice for their love.
What did these perfect characters risk to reach HEA Castle?
I don’t know how this story ends yet, because the journey continues. I love romance, but I find myself on the outskirts of Romancelandia just as often as I roam the Wild Woods and Enchanted Realms beyond.
Do you chafe at the rules sometimes? Do you break them, proudly? Do you blend those genres to create your own “mutt?” Please share your experiences! I really want to know I’m not the only lonely traveler struggling to find my place in–or out–of Romancelandia.
*For information on how you can submit to Open Blog Night, click here.
[...] Check out her wonderful OBN post at Romancing The Blog: Romancelandia. [...]
by So Many Drollerie Press Releases…which one is the lucky winner getting? « miladyinsanity July 22nd, 2007 at 8:35 amyour fantasy is just as off the wall as thinking a GUY could write romance.
by John July 22nd, 2007 at 8:54 amI don’t mind any rules being broken in romance
EXCEPT for the HEA.
I consider that the only real definition of romance.
No HEA?
Then its women’s fiction or some other as worthy genre.
With that easy alternative,
I consider publishers smacking a romance label
on a novel without a HEA,
trying to “trick” the reader.
I don’t like to be tricked,
by Kimber Chin July 22nd, 2007 at 9:59 amespecially where my dollars are concerned.
My mutts and I are traveling down a similar unbeaten path, wearing the “wrong” clothes, hanging out in the “wrong” places, breaking the rules and making “mistakes” right and left. We trip and fall and get rejected a lot, but we’re sticking to our route.
I hope you do too — because it sounds as if you’re writing the kind of books I like to read.
by Jena July 22nd, 2007 at 10:11 amThat is a fantastic post. Really fantastic.
by Eva Gale July 22nd, 2007 at 11:46 amJohn; Guys don’t read/write romance! Do we?
Anyway, the only structure that makes a romance a romance is the monogamous HEA. That said, you can find staunch defenders of all sorts of rigid rule sets for what can and can not be in a romance. And as for crossovers…
Well, I’ve got a paranormal Regency erotica inspirational I’m working on ….
Fun post, btw.
by KeVin K July 22nd, 2007 at 12:12 pmI’m with Kimber. For it to be a romance in my mind, there has to be some kind of happily-ever-after implied. If there isn’t, then it’s women’s fiction. (Particularly if you kill off the hero or heroine.) I’d pretty much toss the book if that happened, especially if the spine was labeled romance.
As an aside, my werewolves aren’t so predictable.
by Jordan July 22nd, 2007 at 12:27 pmMy characters get a HEA, but they break a lot of rules on the way to their HEA. Great post and great timing–right now I’m in editing hell and trying to decide how many rules one can really break in the same manuscript :). Good luck!
by wavybrains July 22nd, 2007 at 12:56 pmJohn, I think guys can write romances, definitely.
Kimber, Some of my favorite books don’t have a HEA. They haunt me for that very reason. I do have many books on my keeper shelf that do end happily, though. I don’t care much how the book is labeled as a reader, but I can understand the disappointment a romance reader would feel if someone died.
Ah, Jena, I’m right there with you!
Thanks, Eva Gale!
Kevin, there does seem to be more allowances for crossovers. I hope so–I really like them myself. From a marketing standpoint, I understand there’s difficulty, then, in figuring out which shelf to put the book on. I’m sitting on the fence between fantasy and romance myself.
Jordan, if it were labeled romance, yeah, I think the romance readers would be upset. But when you’ve been reading a lot of George RR Martin and wondering if even one Stark will still be alive at the end… Killing a few characters can definitely up the stakes. I remember the first time I read PBW’s StarDoc, and thinking, oh, no, she’s going to do it. This isn’t romance…. And I loved it. I guess I can’t bring it to Romancelandia, though!
Wavybrains, good luck with those rulebreakers! Sometimes they work. I enjoy stories that take risks.
by Joely July 22nd, 2007 at 1:50 pm[...] P.S. I have an Open Blog Night entry up at Romancing the Blog. Come talk about Romancelandia with me! [...]
by Joely Sue Burkhart » Blog Archive » Sven is going to Beat Me Up July 22nd, 2007 at 3:20 pmSome of my favorite books don’t have a HEA. They haunt me for that very reason.
Yes. The romance that didn’t work out, or the “so close and yet so far”, can be the one that really sticks with me. Much like my own relationships–when I get maudlin, it’s the one who was so right but not right who always comes to mind
Sometimes an equivocal ending fires my imagination even more–it looks like the h/h are going to try to make it work, but there’s no guarantee. Or the chaste kiss at the end of an old Gothic, where we don’t see into the future at all. Maybe it won’t last, but maybe it will.
I enjoy secondary romance plots in other genres for the same reason. Not as much is spelled out because the romance isn’t as central. It leaves more for my imagination to play with.
by RfP July 22nd, 2007 at 4:17 pmRfP, I agree, the somewhat “foggy” endings work very well for me. I want the ending to be satisfying, but it doesn’t have to be happy. I admit, I rewrote the ending of Gone With the Wind a thousand times in my head, but that’s also why it’s one of my favorites!
by Joely July 22nd, 2007 at 6:00 pmYou take care there, young missy. There’s an alley that leads to a little blue door, beyond which are other genres… you’re skirting those with that kind of people-against-goodness-and-normalcy talk. Once you open that door…well, people have been know to “go missing” from the romance community
Yeah, I was struggling with this, but now I’m looking at it as my fall adventure. Pull out all the stops and see where I end up, and whether it’s in Romancelandia.
And guys who write romance are welcome to contact me because I’m hosting a male writer day on my loop :o)
by Ciar Cullen July 22nd, 2007 at 6:22 pmIf it’s romance then it had best have the HEA. I don’t want to waste my time reading a book that I think has a HEA that doesn’t. It’s fine for other types of books, but for me HEA is what reading a Romance book is all about.
by Sara Thacker July 22nd, 2007 at 6:49 pmThe HEA, for me, is not negotiable in genre romance. It’s the very definition of genre romance. That aside, the rules can be somewhat restrictive. For example, someone on another thread mentioned that she tosses the book if the heroine does something stupid. I know that smart, empowered women are all the go now, and I like that, but smart, empowered women do downright idiotic stuff all the time, especially in the context of their love lives.
I like writers who bend the rules. Let smart people do stupid stuff, and vice versa. Like in real life.
by Liane Spicer July 22nd, 2007 at 7:03 pmNice, more condescension about the HEA requirement in this genre. And more assumptions that proponents of this requirement do not also have wide and varied reading tastes, with endings both happy and unhappy.
Surely, the romance genre deals with enough book snobbery as it is.
Pass the Pepto.
by A reader July 22nd, 2007 at 7:19 pmExcellent post!
Gwyneth
by Gwyneth Bolton July 22nd, 2007 at 7:44 pmThanks for the discussion, everyone! Condescension is not my goal, that’s why I said I do love romance. However, I often find it difficult to write within the strict genre guidelines and I find myself more satisfied as a reader when the boundaries are challenged.
by Joely July 22nd, 2007 at 7:47 pmI don’t mind reading “mutt” stories at all. I love it when authors mix it up, EXCEPT there absolutely has to be the HEA, and that includes that neither the hero nor the heroine die, in their book or in any upcoming story (well, unless they are 95 years old and lived a long and happy life together). That is the worst betrayal.
by Stacy ~ July 22nd, 2007 at 8:09 pm“Kimber, Some of my favorite books don’t have a HEA.”
Some of mine too.
by Kimber Chin July 22nd, 2007 at 8:10 pmThey simply are NOT romance.
Stacy, 95 years indeed! I don’t see a romance sustaining for so long, but it’s an interesting idea.
Kimber, note taken. Perhaps I should say I enjoy “love stories” because one of the themes I like to explore is a love that endures beyond death. Imhotep says “Death is only the beginning.” Speaking of The Mummy Returns, the look on his face when he sinks back into the pit gets me every single time. Now THAT was love, albeit doomed!
by Joely July 22nd, 2007 at 8:18 pmI read all sorts of different books, but when I pick up a story labled romance, it better have a HEA. I would feel very cheated if it didn’t, just as I would if I picked up a mystery and didn’t learn ‘who-done-it’ by the end of the book.
by bungluna July 22nd, 2007 at 10:17 pmJoely says, “However, I often find it difficult to write within the strict genre guidelines and I find myself more satisfied as a reader when the boundaries are challenged.”
I confess to ignorance regarding author contracts. What is preventing you from writing outside of genre constrictions? If you want to write a love story with a tragic ending, write it. It’s my understanding that fiction has no such constraints. Or is it your desire to write without requirements, while still targeting the romance genre community, which is a huge market?
by A reader July 22nd, 2007 at 11:32 pmTo “a reader”: Generally, a book already meets whatever the publisher’s requirements are before they buy it. Book first; contract second. After that, an author generally sells on proposal (usually a synopsis and the first three chapters, or just a synopsis); but again, the contract is contingent on the publisher’s parameters being met.
Nothing prevents anyone from writing her story any way she likes; finding a market for it (publisher and readers) is something else again. We’re *all* subject to the whims and trends of the marketplace, newbies and experienced authors alike; we all have books that don’t “fit” what anyone’s looking for. Sometimes a book’s finding a home is a matter of patience — what’s dead today might be the next hot thing tomorrow. Perhaps a niche publisher is the answer.
But the genre’s never really as stagnant as it might seem. Parameters continually shift and grow and expand; the blends of romance and paranormal, or romance and suspense, weren’t around ten or twenty years ago. Now they’re everywhere. So a writer has two main choices: Write what she wants and keep knocking on doors until someone says, “You know…maybe this would work,” or molding what she loves to write with what agents are representing and editors are buying.
It is, however, hugely important to consider reader preferences when you’re targeting a *specific* market. For good or ill, Romance, as a genre, has come to mean “happy ending” in the minds of the vast majority of its readers. Doesn’t mean they won’t, or don’t, read other types of fiction, just that when they pick up a romance, they do so with the expectation that they’re going to be smiling at the end. The HEA is probably *the* defining characteristic of the genre romance, one grown directly out of reader demand. And I can’t see any romance publisher monkeying with that.
I honestly feel that continually submitting work to *romance* houses in which the couple doesn’t end up together at the end of the story is an exercise in futility. Instead, wouldn’t it make more sense to fit those works to publishers who actually handle mainstream love stories?
That said, if the genre is to continue to evolve — and I happen to think it has, enormously, within the last ten years, since it now includes elements and storylines you couldn’t have sold if your life depended on it when I climbed aboard this crazy train twelve years ago — it’s up to writers to keep plopping those new ideas on editors’ and agents’ desk. There are no guarantees in this business, heaven knows, except one — that an editor can’t buy what s/he never sees.
by Karen Templeton July 23rd, 2007 at 1:02 amLiane Spicer Says:
The HEA, for me, is not negotiable in genre romance.
What about HFN? Sometimes, I find HEA a bit too syrupy for my liking. And too unrealistic. But an HFN will satisfy me.
by Kaz Augustin July 23rd, 2007 at 1:08 amThis is a great discussion, and I think Kaz Augustin brings up an excellent point: when I read books in the romance genre, I expect a satisfying ending that promotes optimism and hope. It doesn’t necessarily have to be HEA; I tend to be content with HFN–especially if it’s done well.
There’s a fine line, though, demarcating the place where women’s fiction and the romance genre part, and I think this is it. Romance readers are often specifically seeking the HEA…and goodness knows, one isn’t likely to find it anywhere else in our current culture, where the recent trend seems to be to kill off the character to whom the reader/viewer has become most attached.
I read all kinds of fiction, but I pick up a romance when I want to be able to count on a HEA or HFN ending–I can get “realism” anywhere. And who’s to say that misery or tragedy is more “real” than happiness, anyway???
by Kacie J July 23rd, 2007 at 7:49 amGreat answer, Karen! As writers, we must be mindful of the audience. When I started out, I wrote whatever the heck I wanted with no knowledge of marketing, genre, etc. After four years, I’ve learned a bit. I think we all need to balance market constraints and writing “what we want” to our best advantage. Sometimes I will write true romance, either HEA or HFN, whatever serves the story best. While I can’t always promise a HEA–and won’t call it romance!!–everything I write will likely have some “love story” in it.
Kaz, I totally agree. I get tired of the full syrupy HEA, married, pregnant, bliss. HFN can be a perfect and perhaps more realistic ending, but again, whatever serves the story best!
Kacie, I think we all need a nice big dose of happiness sometimes! In a world of so much unhappiness, divorce, etc. a HEA can make the world a brighter place.
by Joely July 23rd, 2007 at 8:30 am:grin:As a reader, the constraints of the genre don’t bother me because I read outside it and all over the place too. As a writer, the story I’m working on now and the one before it had mixed endings. The main plot was HEA, but there was a secondary plot that was not. That’s where I am right now. But, the next story does have an HEA and is a Romance. I think we evolve as writers.
I do think the HEA is non-negotiable for the Romance genre, just as it is in Real Life for me.:wink: It’s all about faith.
It does occassionally bother me that we can’t get away with an ending lke Titanic in which the hero dies sacrificing himself for the sake of the woman he loves. To me, that’s the ultimate act of love. But, that’s okay. Like I said, I read widely. Besides, isn’t there a category for the RITAs called ‘Best Novel with Romantic Elements’?
by Kimber An July 23rd, 2007 at 9:10 amExactly, Kimber An, that is a perfect example of a “love story” I love! Sounds like you have a nice mix in your wip!
by Joely July 23rd, 2007 at 9:39 amKaz Augustin says:
What about HFN? Sometimes, I find HEA a bit too syrupy for my liking. And too unrealistic. But an HFN will satisfy me.
HFN satisfies me too. The HEA is just implied most of the time, anyway.
by Liane Spicer July 23rd, 2007 at 9:25 pmWell, I just had a women’s fic mansucript that was described as a great, fun read, but ultimately rejected for being “genre straddling.” Not the first time it’s happened either. The editors have no idea what to do with me and I have no idea what I’m going to do, since those are precisely the stories I long to read and lean towards writing.
Luckily, within the YA parameters, I’m able to feed my jonesin’ a bit, since genre straddling/bending/morphing seems more acceptable.
Thank goodness, because otherwise, I’d be up that proverbial creek without a paddle.
by Barbara Caridad Ferrer July 24th, 2007 at 10:32 amWhat a fantastic piece, and a very interesting follow up discussion! My first novel fits the “mutt” bill more closely than anything else, and I’m finding this to be quite a problem as I try to build a readership.
Acutally I’ve been shying away from calling Out of the Ordinary a romance at all, not that I don’t love (and read) them, but because the love story in my book is only part of something bigger. I always thought it would fit better under Romance/Suspense or Roimance/Action/Adventure, but I do have the HEA, so Romance may, in fact, be the right genre after all.
Thanks for getting us all talking (and thinking) about this topic!
by Susan August 1st, 2007 at 8:24 pmS
There’s an easy answer to this one. If you feel uncomfortable in Romancelandia, step out for a bit. Go travelling where you do feel comfortable. Read outside the genre, write outside the genre. No country fits all. And you can always come back for a holdiay, or to stay for a while again.:wink: I like to think those borders are pretty open, and that no one is being forced to comply with the local HEA government.
by Loreth Anne White August 3rd, 2007 at 4:38 pmAnd those who do travel always come back with exicting new vision, right?