Romancing the Blog | Romance Authors and Readers Who Blog

by Maverick

There are very few things I love more than falling in love with a compelling romance novel hero. The best ones are always bigger than life. They’re aggressive, dominating, devilishly handsome, more than a little arrogant, and….(*sigh*)….totally, completely, obsessively in love with me. Er…I mean the heroine. And it seems like the badder they are, the better we love them.

It’s a funny thing, because before I started dating, I believed that the best real relationships were modeled after those in romances. I compared the guys around me to romance novel heroes, and needless to say I was single for a long time. But when I actually started getting into serious relationships, I was shocked and amazed to find that the qualities that made me fall for romance heroes were not the same ones that make me fall for real guys. And now that I’ve had some experience living with a boyfriend, I realize that some of my favorite alpha-male traits would be impossible to live with in real life.

They’re richer than Croesus. I admit that I love it when the hero is wealthy. And it’s very rare to find one who isn’t. From my head to my horribly unenlightened toes, I am absolutely thrilled by the fantasy of a rich, powerful, gorgeous prince taking me away from my mundane life and sweeping me off to a world of glamour, romance, and luxury.

In real life, I’ve found that dating wealthy guys can be fun, but I’m actually much more comfortable with men who make about as much as I do. There’s no tension about money then. I don’t feel like I’m taking advantage because he always gets the tab, and I don’t worry that his friends think I’m a gold-digger. When living with a guy, I like it when I contribute financially as much as he does. It feels like we’re building a life together—and that I’m more than just along for the ride.
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I love how the Google age has affected my reading. E-books, electronic publishers — books available to me in so many different formats. And the accessiblity of my favorite authors? They are literally at my fingertips via webpages, forums, and blogs.

Sometimes though, authors and writers don’t behave as nicely as they (sh)(c)ould. That’s the downside to such advanced technology. Authors behaving badly are only a click away too.

While such behavior makes me shake my head in disbelief, I sometimes can’t get enough of it. I visit blogs that advertise the trainwrecks happening across blogland. You know the ones.

I have to wonder if too much information and too much accessibility to authors will ever turn me off from reading their work. Blogs are great for craft, for a laugh, for promotional updates, for sharing news, but do I really want to know every nook and cranny of a writer’s life?

Do you ever look at actors or actresses that you see on television, in movies, or even people that you see in day-to-day life at the bank or the market, and think that they would be ideal as the character in a book? Or maybe you watch a program or movie and think that it would make a great book? I find myself doing this frequently. Could this be a sign that I read too much? Maybe I’m thinking too much about what I’ve read for far too long.

I remember watching my favorite movie, The American President with Michael Douglas and Annette Bening, when it first came out and thinking what a great book it would make. Hope Floats is another favorite. Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick, Jr. would be ideal characters to picture while reading. Both are attractive and charming, and the story rich with deep emotion and personal triumphs. I would love to have delved into this story much deeper than the movie did. I’m wondering how often authors get book ideas from something or someone they’ve seen on television or the big screen?

What about real-life scenarios – have you known people whose situations are book-worthy? A few years ago a young, single woman moved onto our court with her newly adopted baby, followed by the adoption of another baby two years later. She then met a guy, fell in love and married, and her new husband adopted her two children as his own. I always thought their story would be especially sweet for a book. Of course, I realize that children in a romance are an instant turn-off for many readers.

When I read Alison Kent’s GOES DOWN EASY I remember thinking that Jordis Unga, a contestant in the Rock Star reality show, would be perfect as the heroine, Perry Brazille. Is anyone familiar with Jane from Rachel Gibson’s SEE JANE SCORE? I have a cousin whose wife fits the bill perfectly. Most dark-haired heroes that I read about are played out (in my mind) by Carter Oosterhouse – he is simply too scrumptious for words – and I picture a younger Richard Dean Anderson for those fairer-haired heroes. No Brad Pitt for me, thank you.

I’ve seen commercials for hair care products where a model’s hair looks just like satin, shiny and shimmering, and I’ve thought *that* is the hair I picture when reading about a hero running his hands through his lover’s hair, perhaps twisting it around his hand while he pulls her head back to trail kisses down her throat. There are magazine ads for hand creams or nail polish with hands so soft and beautiful, looking as though they’ve never done a day of work; *those* are the hands that I picture caressing the face and body of a hero. Or maybe it’s a pair of long, silken legs in hair removal or shaver advertisements that make me think of a heroine’s legs tangling with the hair-roughened, muscled ones of her hero. I suppose if I were a reader of Sports Illustrated or Men’s Health, I would have no problem finding the perfect male legs also.

What about you? Do your thoughts unavoidably turn to reading while you’re watching television or flipping through a magazine? Please don’t tell me I’m the only one!

I finished final edits on Miss Lonely Hearts last week and the first thing I did when I had the final, final, final approved version back from my editor was to open up the book’s folder and dump the twelve hundred prior versions, empty my recycle bin, and wave bye-bye forever to the particles.

There are many ways to write a book. Many ways to write each book. Some of them aren’t wrong, they just don’t quite do what you want them to do for one reason or another. With this book, I had 3 alternate beginnings. One started at a central event in the story as a prolog, and then jumped back in time with chapter one to the chronological beginning. I rejected this for multiple reasons, the main two being that I didn’t want to disorient people by jumping around in time if it wasn’t strictly necessary, and by doing so I also ended the first chapter in the wrong place, on a downbeat, which is bad.

In another alternate version, the heroine was the bad guy. Yeah, that was dark. Not so good in a romantic comedy. Delete. In yet another version, the heroine was too much of a victim. Also not funny. Delete.

In the end, I went with chronological order, no prolog, ending the first chapter on an up note while piling on the complications, and the heroine on her way to get her happy ending without being either victim or villain. Was it the right way to tell this story? I think so. Could I have found yet another way? Sure. But sometimes it comes down to gut instinct and aesthetics when you have to decide on a version of events.

Lawrence Block talks about the transition from writing with a sort of tunnel vision that only sees one possibility to learning to navigate the maze of multiple possibilities in Telling Lies for Fun and Profit. The first time I read that book, I remember being dumbfounded by this. “What does he mean, there’s more than one way a book can go?”

In a lot of ways I miss the early “how else could it happen?” days of innocent ignorance. Now I am painfully aware of alternate versions of my fictional reality. I could do this, but…I could go there, but…every choice has consequences and some of them lead the story a place that isn’t right for that book or those characters or this theme or even the genre.

Sometimes I explore a version because I’m not sure. And once it’s down on paper, I can judge it better. “No, this is wrong. Too much backstory. That’s wrong, it puts the emphasis in the wrong place.” Whether an idea works or doesn’t work, having it down in black and white will make it plain.

Sometimes I write an alternative because the direction I’ve chosen to go presents difficulties I’d like to avoid. Wicked Hot is in first person, a choice I struggled with. I even went so far as to write the opening chapters in third person to make sure that wouldn’t work just as well and allow me to do an end-run around the limitations of first. Thinking about it didn’t answer the question. Putting it down on paper created certainty. Third person didn’t work. First person did.

When it comes to romance, there probably are more than fifty ways to meet your lovers and get them to happily ever after for each book, but only one final version in the end. That final version might be the tip of the iceberg in terms of total pages written (and dumped), but all the rest belongs under water, as far as I’m concerned.

When you read, do you ever wonder what would have happened if the book had taken a different turn? When you write, do you ever hang onto previous versions?

I’ve spent the last 2 months too busy to do much more than work and sleep. This is a huge change for someone who has spent the last several years reading and blogging pretty much whenever I wanted.

The blog is on an unofficial hiatus, but I’ve managed to finish 3 books this week. I was becoming incredibly cranky and nobody needed that, least of all my husband and little boy.

This week I realized it’s okay to admit…

I need to read.

I need to read everyday to be happy.

At some point reading became as important as eating or breathing. And, really, of all the habits out there this one’s not so bad. But, I’m left wondering how many of us live such busy lives that reading gets pushed to the bottom of our “to do” lists.

For those too busy, it’s time to move reading up from the bottom of the list. Readers forget about the laundry, the dishes, the job, the kids’ homework, for the authors out there forget the WIP, the edits. Forget the guilt and the reminders that you probably have something more pressing to get done.

Indulge yourself, pick up a book and read, enjoy the simple pleasure of getting lost in a good story. You’ll feel better, believe me I know.

A friend of mine told me that she doesn’t hang out on the internet much beyond doing her blog. Part of me couldn’t imagine not blog hopping. You get to see what everyone is up to, catch the latest gossip, connect with friends, etc. Lately though, I’ve started to wonder if my friend was onto something. Between the bickering (reviewers vs writers), organizational divisions (RWA vs a quarter of its membership), and the genre smack-downs (my genre is better than your genre, nah, nah, nah), blog hopping is becoming tiresome.

I’m not saying that it’s all bad. There are some positive, educational and entertaining blogs out there. But more and more I find myself skipping and deleting my feeds without reading them. They add nothing to the quality of my life and they certainly don’t help my writing.

I realized something when the latest romance hoorah hit the fan. I don’t care if someone doesn’t like romance. Yes, I said it. You heard me. Seems strange coming from someone who writes romance among other things, I know. I used to get into heated discussions any time someone bad-mouthed the romance genre, but not anymore. Those days are over. I honestly don’t give a…(fill in the blank).

Here’s how I see it, if someone doesn’t like romance, then it’s THEIR loss. Period. End of story. If they can’t take a good look at the genre and realize that there is more to it than hot shirtless men on the covers, then they are the ones missing out—not me.

Their opinion is not going to change my reading or my writing preferences and my opinion is not going to change theirs. Frankly, fighting about it is a waste of my time and energy.

I think it’s really easy to get caught up in all the online drama. That’s the number one reason my friend doesn’t hang out a lot online. I think it might be time to follow her lead and rein things in a little.

What about you? Has your online time become a dragon that needs slaying?

Sitting on my desk, for the past month, is my annual renewal for the Romance Writers of America. Every year, I respond to their request for my dues with decreasing alacrity. It isn’t that I object to paying the money, it’s that I wonder why I continue to belong to the organization. Today’s post is all about therapy for the wishy-washy.

By any account, the RWA is a very large writer’s organization. Possibly the largest. It is something along the lines of 9,500 members (there is probably an exact number; too lazy to find it). Members range from New York Times bestsellers to people who are taking their first baby steps as writers. There are writers who are seeing their careers on the decline and writers on the ascent. In ten years of RWA membership, you can see the rise and fall of entire nations, in a manner of speaking.

By and large, the members of RWA are mostly women. Women who write the type of fiction that is persistently denigrated (“When are you going to write a real book?”). It’s possible that some got into the genre thinking they were doing it for the money, but you don’t stay because you’re going to get rich by writing. You stay because you’re a writer who wants to get better. Writing romance is not easy.

Being a member of RWA will not get you published. There is only one way for that to happen, and the organization — if it does anything very well, it’s
this — offers support, guidance, and even chocolate. Now, personally, I don’t get the chocolate thing, but every writer knows this: humanity has an amazing ability to take something you’ve created and bash it into bits. Over and over again. Chocolate helps. So does a really good w(h)ine.

But being a member will not unlock some secret door.
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by Donna Lea Simpson

A lot has been said and written in the public forum about those evil writers who ‘jumped on the bandwagon’ to write paranormal romances just because they were becoming popular. It seems that though quite a few readers appreciate the flood, some bemoan it. I understand that if you dislike paranormals, the last thing you want to see is your favorite writers joining the fad, but the implication, it seems to me, is that as writers we should eschew anything that smells of a trend.

But… don’t those folks who protest get it? Writers are in a highly competitive business, and any edge we can get – anything that will make us appeal to editors more – many of us will take it and fly. Or at least I will, speaking for myself. Because I’m one of ‘those’ writers. I never thought of writing a paranormal book before the market began to heat up. Oooh, bad writer!

I’m being facetious, but let me give you a little background: I had written Regencies for Kensington/Zebra for a few years, all the while knowing I wanted to break into writing long historical romances. I tossed around few ideas. I came up with a bang-up proposal with lots of angsty and unusual details: virgin hero, experienced heroine who has been the mistress of the married villain, etc. My agent shopped it around, and what we got back was that while lots of editors really liked my writing, it wasn’t quite what they were looking for right then.

About that time I got the distinct feeling that Regencies were on their deathbed, even though everyone in the industry – even my own editor – issued staunch denials. This sharpened my anxiety to move on, because I do this thing where I write for a living, you know? (All right, I’m being facetious again) Trust me, living on Regency advances wasn’t easy to do, but I’m frugal and live a pretty simple life; my tiara is paste and my feather boa is all chicken feather, baby!

So though I write a lot of proposals, they take some time and thought. I wanted a little extra insurance that editors would be interested in my next idea. I looked around, and saw the beginning of what is now the avalanche of paranormal and thought “I wonder if I can do that?” I knew I couldn’t do vampires, but I started to consider werewolves, Not monstrous icky eight-foot-tall monsters with big snouts and glowing red eyes, real wolves.
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One of my very favorite authors recently had a new book come out. Normally a cause for celebration, right? Well it was, until I found out this author, whose contemporary stories I have loved, chose to write a paranormal.

I’m genuinely happy for paranormal fans that their sub genre of choice has enjoyed a massive rebirth. However, for me personally, it has been met with much trepidation. While I am capable of enjoying darker paranormals (paranormal = bad and gothic atmosphere), I reached my breaking point with them several months ago. While reading this new book by one of my very favorite authors, I finally figured out why.

How many variations on the vampire myth can there be? How come all werewolves have to have a “mate?” And no matter how an author writes them, when I see “fairy” I immediately think of that obnoxious Tinker Bell. Frankly, after a while, it’s hard to not sound derivative.

I know this is an unfair criticism. Other sub genres in romance suffer from the Derivative Factor. How many Scarlet Pimpernel-like plots must Regency fans endure? Was every woman in the American West a mail-order bride? How come every hero in a romantic suspense novel seems to be a burnt-out cop who blames himself for his partner’s death?

The fact is that these replayed elements in genre fiction are more noticeable when it’s a sub genre you’re not wild about in the first place. It’s easy to pick apart the stuff you don’t like, while the recycled elements in the sub genres you do like are defended as being “comfort reads.”

What say you? Have you ever reached a threshold regarding a sub genre? Ever burn yourself out on a certain type of book? Ever whine incessantly when an author shifts gears and the transition fails to move you? And how do you overcome the perceived abandonment?

People dislike first-person books.

That’s the conclusion I’ve come to in recent weeks. Seriously, I’ve seen it on message boards and loops far and wide. Letters in Romantic Times. Book reviews. Blogs. And in every other place and form you could think of — lots and lots of people just don’t like first-person books.

Until I joined RWA and started checking out industry blogs and magazines, I had no idea there was a stigma attached to writing in first person. That there was anything inherently wrong with it. But, according to some people, there is. Some folks will not deign to pick up a book written in first person. If they do so by mistake, well, that book goes back to the store ASAP.

As a writer of first-person tales, this attitude makes me worry about my job security. As a reader, it makes me scratch my head and wonder why.

Because, if you think about it, all books are really written in first person.

Think about your favorite romance author. Think about your favorite book by her. Is it written in third or first person?

I say it doesn’t matter – it’s still first person.

Even if the author is telling the story in third person, she’s still the one writing it. The story is still springing from the depths of her imagination, not anybody else’s. The book is still her idea, her perspective, her opinion of how her characters would react in a given set of circumstances.

If that’s not first person, I don’t know what is.

Now, folks claim first person doesn’t give them as much of the hero’s perspective, especially when it comes to the love scenes. Okay, I’ll agree with you there. But with first person, you get an intimacy with the heroine (or hero) you don’t necessarily get in third person.

Are there some books that would be better told in third person? Sure. But there are some stories that would benefit from being written in first person too.

Six of one, half dozen of the other, I say.

I want to start a movement. Let’s forget about first person vs. third person and concentrate on what matters the most – the writing. Let’s support the authors who touch our hearts, who make us laugh and cry, who take us away to another world where true love really does conquer all – no matter what perspective they write in.

Because a good book is a good book, even if aliens from the planet Za-ban are the ones doing the narration in a language consisting of chirps and ear wiggles and baseball-like finger signals. (Any author who could pull something like that off and make it readable, whatever the perspective, would definitely knock my socks off.)

If you don’t like first-person stories, I say give ‘em a try. Pick up somebody new on your next trip to the library or bookstore. You might be pleasantly surprised. The same thing goes for you people who only read first person.

Because, really, isn’t it all about the writing?

What about you? Do you loathe first person? Love it? Inquiring minds want to know …