Romancing the Blog | Romance Authors and Readers Who Blog

I made magic the other day–in other words, homemade bread. It was the first time I’d ever made bread, start to finish, from scratch. I had done it in a bread machine dozens of times, but for some reason, the simple act of making bread, of getting the yeast and warm water to react together seemed like too much. Too complicated. Maybe it was because I’ve never been able to master pie crusts (I know, I know. I can make about anything, except for pie crust).

But this time, I had gone into the store to buy a loaf of bread, and realized the price of bread had risen so high (pun intended) that it was just as cheap to make bread as it was to buy it. So I picked up some yeast, and went on home to bake.

To my surprise, I had fun. It was far easier than I had anticipated. I ran into a single snag–the recipe made three loaves and I only had two bread pans, so I ended up with one weird shaped loaf because it had to sit in a bowl and wait for the bread pan to be ready. But the entire process of making the bread by hand was so thereaputic. I realized how much I needed to be kneading, if that makes sense. I made three loves of honey-wheat bread and one loaf of a cheese batter bread that I probably won’t try again (you can read my recipes here on my blog, if you’re interested).

It was hard work (eight to ten minutes of kneading is a lot more work than it sounds, believe me) but it worked out a lot of my frustrations, and cleared my mind. I had just come off one deadline, and was starting a new book, and the simple act of pushing into the dough, turning it around and repeating the process cleared my mind as much as it worked my muscles. I was able to push out all the old characters and work in the new ones, turning around a new plot in my head. By the time the bread came out of the oven, I had the whole story worked out–and a great snack to eat.

So now I’ve got a jar of yeast, and two five-pound bags of flour, waiting for the weekend so that I can bake up a few more loaves. I’ve unearthed by big book of bread recipes (the one I bought years ago and never used) and I’ve got my whole family waiting for the rolls I’ve promised them for dinner. The only problem? I’m on deadline again

That means I’m going to have to recruit some extra helping hands for the kneading. Who knows? Maybe my kids will get some great ideas while their hands are in the dough!

I’ve been thinking a lot about titles recently – mainly because of James Bond.

The producers of the latest Bond flick recently announced the film’s title – “Quantum of Solace.”

Huh? What is that even supposed to mean? And more importantly, how they heck are they going to put that in the theme song?

“Quantum of Solace” is actually the name of a Bond short story by Ian Fleming. Now, I’m a huge fan of the Bond books and movies, but that title just makes me cringe. Try saying it out loud. It doesn’t flow off the tongue. Which is a major disappointment since so many of the Bond movies have great titles, like “The World Is Not Enough” and “The Spy Who Loved Me.”

The Bond title made me start thinking about other titles – book titles. And what does and doesn’t work. To me, a title is just as important as cover art when deciding what to buy and read. It’s another part of the marketing package that can elevate something from being put back on the shelf to making its way into my shopping cart.

Will a cool, quirky title make me pick up a book? Absolutely. Here’s one example – “I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You” by Ally Carter. Sure, it’s wordy, but it grabs your attention and definitely stands out from the crowd.

I also like the title to fit the book. If the word “dragon” or “monster” is in the title, I actually expect to see dragons and monsters at some point in the book. Example: “A Fate Worse Than Dragons” by John Moore. A dragon shows up in the first chapter in that one – making you want to know what could possibly be worse than that.

Linked or theme titles also catch my eye – when a series of book titles all have a similar word, cadence, or concept. Like Lisa Kleypas’ “Wallflower” series, which all feature seasons – “It Happened One Autumn,” “The Devil in Winter,” etc. Or Elizabeth Hoyt’s books – “The Serpent Prince,” The Leopard Prince,” etc. These sorts of titles also make it easier to remember which book I read last when I’m out shopping.

But perhaps my favorite is the tribute or homage title – when a title is a twist on some other well-known book, movie, or TV show. Like Kim Harrison’s books – “For a Few Demons More,” “The Good, the Bad, and the Undead,” etc. Most of Harrison’s titles are twists on old spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood. And nobody’s cooler than Clint.

Except James Bond. I recently finished writing an urban fantasy that features, you guessed it, spies. The title? “Live & Let Spy.” Martini, anyone?

What about you? What do you like and loathe about titles? What are some of your favorite titles?

The other day as I was helping my six-year-old get ready for school, he informed me I should not say “butt.” Apparently “behind” is the acceptable term and I’ve been fouling my son’s mind with my horrible potty mouth. Along these same lines while having lunch with some other writers I referred to someone as an “ass.” The woman at the table next to ours gave me “the look.” Uh, yeah, okay.

Now I really don’t think of myself as having a potty mouth. In fact I think I’m more sensitive than some. One example is the word fart. Where I grew up you just did not say this. So, when I moved to Wisconsin I was shocked (okay, let’s make that taken aback) when women who appeared to be upstanding members of society said it all the time–and to their children. That just was not used where I grew up. I have to admit I still kind of feel a twinge when someone says it to me…

My point to all this is that a word I find offensive may not be offensive to you, and you might say something that offends me with absolutely no intention of doing so. This has to be even more true on the Internet where people from a wide variety of backgrounds and geographic areas are roaming free on the same loops and bulletin boards.

This idea was driven home even more thoroughly when I was at a mystery conference a few weeks ago and a lot of terms I found insulting were placed in front of romance. However, in at least some cases the person using whatever term did not seem to intend to offend. They were in their minds stating facts.

So, I thought it might be fun to look at some of these terms and see who’s offended, who’s not, and who thinks they are actually based on fact…
(all definitions below were taken from Webster’s New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, unless otherwise noted.)

Trashy - “containing, consisting of, or like trash; worthless, offensive, etc.”

Hmm, maybe we should define “trash.”

Trash- “any worthless, unnecessary or offensive matter”

Well, maybe someone could argue romance is “unnecessary,” you think? Yeah, me neither. I think I feel the insult here…moving on…

Formulaic – (This one was bantered around quite a bit at the conference I attended, even by one author who was an RWA member.) “consisting of, or made or expressed according to a formula or formulas.”

Back to the dictionary…

Formula - “a rule or method for doing something, esp. when conventional and used or repeated without thought”

Okay, you could argue that The Writers Journey and other “methods” of plotting cause romance to fall in this category–but what about every movie made by Hollywood? And without thought?? I’m sorry, I’m putting this in the insult column too.

Little (as in those little books) – “short in duration or distance; brief; not long”

Well, certainly a 50,000 word book is shorter in duration than a 100,000 word book, but the term seems to be used for any and all category length books and some of them really aren’t–shorter in duration that is. I’m on the fence on this one. (Just from a dispassionate word choice POV.)

Porn – (have to go to “pornography” to find this one) “writings, pictures, etc. intended primarily to arouse sexual desire.”

Again, not horrible, but I’m thinking the “primarily” may be a sticking point for most “hot” writers.

So, what do you think? Insult or not? Intended or not? In some cases I’m sure it’s just the ignorance of the person dropping the term–some people really do think romances are written by formula. Mind boggling I know, but I’ve met them. And in other cases, it isn’t the term–like little–but the way it is said. “Little” drawing out the word to make sure you get the point.

Strangely enough I walk away from all of this feeling a mix of insulted and superior. People who make such statements almost always are people who have not read a romance–or read one in years. They don’t know romance–how sad is that?

So what to you think about book trailers? I started posting them on my website a couple of years ago with the publication of my first hardback. The trailer was fun to create and made the website interesting. I had a cool setting with an old mental asylum, so all in all, it was a success.

Since then, I’ve noticed other authors’ book trailers and did some comparing. So, I’ve done several since then, as has my sister, Nancy Bush. But now I realize that these trailers are more than just a fun piece of entertainment to be placed on my website. Now, they go up on myspace.com and utube.com, my publishers website and on and on. The more places, the better, right? All part of what I’ve learned is called viral marketing. (Sounds like something contagious that you don’t want to get too close to.)

The trouble is that I’m a perfectionist about the darned things. Because they’re about my books. Very personal. And, as the author, I have a special insight into the books. At least I think so. Therefore I’m a little picky about the trailers….well, make that a lot picky. My son who works with me insists that I want an I AM LEGEND movie trailer for the cost of a book trailer and he’s right. I like the I AM LEGEND trailer. I doubt if I can get it, though. So, come on, weigh in. What do you think? How important is a book trailer?

Lisa Jackson

http://blog.lisajackson.com

http://www.lisajackson.com

If the words “book tour” conjure one set of images for authors — reading their work before a packed audience of fans squeezed into every nook and cranny of a wave of bookstores across the country — they bring up different images for a reader. Part of the joy of reading is getting the chance to travel the world without ever leaving your comfortable couch, but it can also be fun to travel to the places you’ve read about and see them for yourself. Sometimes, reading a story, you just wish that you were there, experiencing that moment in that place. Enough that you might plan a vacation around your dream destination. For romance readers, that can mean trips to some pretty fabulous locations. Have you ever read a western romance and dreamed of spending a week on a dude ranch with a handsome wrangler of your own? Or sharing a kiss on the Eiffel Tower, inspired by your favorite heroine’s experiences? And who can’t imagine a road trip through Jane Austen country — the lakes that so thrilled Elizabeth Bennett or Bath, where so many drawing room intrigues played out in Austen’s world?

For writers, this can be even more of a draw. Not only do you get to share the scene you loved to read, but you can study how the original author plied her trade. It can be a wonderful lesson to visit a place that a writer has immortalized in a book. To see what they saw, and to take note of how they put that vision down on paper. What details were included to really set that scene, and how might you have done it better?

With books written about every corner of the planet, you don’t need an expensive vacation to go check out some of the locations of your favorite stories. Some writers choose fairly generic locations — the country, a suburb, a city — and work from there. Other writers make the most of the area where they live and introduce it to a wider audience. Think of Nora Roberts’s fondness for the Chesapeake Bay area and Ireland, or Jayne Ann Krentz’s love of the Pacific Northwest. Anyone who’s ever picked up a work by Anne Rice has felt her strong connection to New Orleans.

If you’re interested in making your locations sing, in really capturing the flavor of an area and giving your reader the sense of being there, take your own book tour. Find out if any novels have been set in your town or near where you live, and read them to see what characteristics other authors have played up. If not, check out local travel guides and pamphlets from your historical society to help you decide what makes your location unique. Take a walk through the center of your town and really look around, maybe with a camera so you can capture some snap shots of the buildings, monuments, and so on, to study the architecture further at your leisure. What is the town’s overriding characteristic? Is it a sleepy place with a single gas station and a few basic shops? Or a cookie-cutter main drag that has succumbed to the invasion of the mall stores, with Banana Republic and the Gap vying for space with Restoration Hardware, and Starbucks anchoring a corner at either end of town? How many banks are there? Law offices? Doctors? Several? One of each? Think about how the proportions of different types of businesses reflect on the demographic of the town. What does it say about the kinds of people who live and work there? Do people travel somewhere else for their jobs? Or do commuters invade your space five days a week and turn the town into a bustling mini-metropolis? What does it smell like when you walk down the street? Bread from the bakery? Coffee from the corner cafe? Exhaust from all the cars? Manure from the cows fenced in a half mile away?

This does not mean you need to write about your home town when you set out to write your novel; it can simply be an exercise. It does, however, give you a sense of the characteristics that make a place feel real — particularly important if you decide to go with a fictional setting you must build from scratch. You must be writer, tour guide, and city planner all in one if you want to depict your characters is a realistic setting, a place that will inspire your readers to murmur, “Oh, I wish that I were there.”

by Christine Wells

I’ve always loved words. Words are powerful. The ability to use words to trigger an emotional response in a reader is a valuable skill. Politicians and advertisers the world over know that what you call something can make a whole lot of difference to the way people perceive it. The emotive use of words is a romance novelist’s stock-in-trade.

Why, then, do we embrace the label ‘romance’ for our genre?

Think about it. What does the word ‘romance’ mean to you? I’m not talking about the label slapped on the kind of books we read and write. I’m talking about the word.

To me, romance means candle-lit dinners for two, hearts and flowers, champagne picnics and hot air balloon rides, the schmaltzy sweetness that drenches the air on Valentine’s Day. All very nice in its place. But you can enjoy a romantic evening with just about anyone you’re dating. He doesn’t have to be your soul mate, he just has to trot out a few time-worn cliches. And lest you think I’m entirely cynical, I agree that romance can go deeper than that. A thoughtfully planned romantic gesture can be a wonderful affirmation or communication of love.

But is that what authors of romance novels write about? Is that what makes a good romance novel?

I don’t think so.

When I look at my keeper shelf, it’s full of angst and passion and heartache and edge-of-the-seat black moments that make your insides twist and your throat close over and your eyes fill with tears. Heroes who would die to protect the woman they love, heroines who risk everything for the man they can’t live without.

The journey to happily ever after is often messy and dirty and politically incorrect. Sometimes it’s laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s never, ever smooth or paved with hearts and flowers. In a romance novel, the hero and heroine’s love is inevitable and impossible. They might come close to tearing each other apart before they work out their differences, and none of their problems can be solved with a bunch of roses or a piece of jewelry. Often, even saying ‘I love you’ isn’t enough.

Some of the most powerful and complex character studies I’ve read have been crafted by romance novelists. What better test of someone’s character is there than the process of falling deeply, irrevocably in love? In a romance novel, the journey is one of personal discovery and healing as much as it is a road to love everlasting.

Romance. Is that what we write? Is that what we stay up all night to read? Can we blame outsiders if they assume we’re all about hearts and flowers and fluffy bunnies and I wuv you vewwy mush?

Now, I know we didn’t ask for the label and it’s not going to change just because some jumped up historical romance writer belly-aches about it. Some might say a rose by any other name… But, humour me. What would you choose to call the romance genre? Should we even worry about how outsiders perceive romance?

I’ll confess right up front I’ve been sick as a dog and this day snuck up on me when I wasn’t looking. Instead of making a futile attempt at coherency in essay form, I’m going to take a stab at some very unscientific statistics.

Dear Author periodically posts the romance entries to the USA Today Bestseller list, and I’ve been wondering for a while how the subgenres stacked up. So I listed six subgenre headings, pulled up the sixteen random weeks ranging between 4/18/07 to 12/2/07 and started making slash marks.

Now it’s unscientific for several reasons. I didn’t include Nora’s reprints. I didn’t include Janet Evanovich’s Plum books since they don’t really fit a romance subgenre and the author considers them mysteries. I didn’t include the “Guiding Light” tie-in. I also, after a great deal of waffling and discussion with my inner reader, put Debbie Macomber’s significant offerings under Women’s Fiction. It’s just a vibe thing and you may disagree, so throw those numbers in with contemporary romance if you want. For some of them it was a judgment call.

All in all, I included 313 slots from those 16 weeks. NOTE: not 313 different books, but rather 313 slots on the list. For instance, of the four historical western slots, three of them were a single Linda Lael Miller book which stayed on the list for several weeks. Rather than specific books, I was looking for which subgenre was selling well that week.

So here’s what I came up with:

Contemporary: 52

Historical: 79

Historical Western: 4

Paranormal: 65

Romantic Suspense: 67

Women’s Fiction: 27

Urban Fantasy: 19

(As an aside, the title of the entry comes from the pie chart I made. It was too big for RTB, however, and I wasn’t sure how to add it anyway. I have the pie chart up on my blog, so you can take a peek if you’d like, then come back.)

I was a little surprised by how it shook out. I’d been under the impression romantic suspense was the strongest selling of the subgenres and that historicals, while making a comeback, weren’t as strong as romantic suspense or paranormals.

Totally non-scientific-ness aside, were you suprised by those numbers? It makes me very curious as to how an actually-scientific analysis of a full year would shake out. Any volunteers?

So again, I apologize for the lack of serious contemplation today, but I thought the results of my random curiousity were better than nothing at all.

Oh, and I’d really love to hear how others would classify Debbie Macomber (in recent years). I spent a lot of time debating that with myself.

Many years ago (I’m not saying how many) I decided to quit my nine-to-five job and try to make it as a full-time writer. It didn’t take me long to realize I was much happier and healthier without the stress of that job, and I vowed that no matter what it took, I was not going back on anyone else’s time clock.

But writing doesn’t produce the most dependable, consistent income. So over the years I’ve had to resort to various means of bringing in extra money to fill in during lean times. Here is a partial list of my money-making activities:

Copy-editor. At least this is writing related, but I edited really boring college textbooks, including an architecture tome written by a German man who didn’t speak much English. I had to get him on the phone to clarify a few things, like, “What exactly is an atomic ceiling?” After a long pause, his answer was, “I don’t know. Take it out.”

Graphic artist. Some of my more notable jobs–a catalog for forklift parts, and a brochure for a high-tech chicken-processing machine. Now I create covers and ads for an e-publisher.

Model/Actor. I graced the cover of a music store catalog and did voice-over for a drapery-cleaning commercial and an animated short film. I appeared in several episodes of “Walker, Texas Ranger” and once received hazard pay because they made me ride in a helicopter wearing a decontamination suit in 105-degree weather and I nearly passed out from heat prostration. But my most cherished role–a zombie in a low-budget horror flick.

Blackjack dealer. Not for a real casino, but for an entertainment company that put on casino parties. Also for this company, I sometimes worked as a hamster wrangler. (You probably don’t want to know.)

Antiques dealer. I had a space at an antiques mall. It sounded like a lot of fun, but I quickly realized the only way to make real money was to do it full time, which would have interfered with the writing, so I gave it up after a couple of years.

Clipping service. Back before the Internet, I subscribed to every romance review publication, and sent clippings of reviews and articles to my subscribers. This came to an abrupt end when one of the magazines threatened to sue me. They didn’t have a leg to stand on, but I couldn’t afford to defend a frivolous lawsuit, so I gave it up. (It wasn’t making much money anyway.)

Web Entrepreneur. Recently I started yet another business–selling hand-crafted, decorative, wearable notebooks–”Memo-Pause”. It’s my own invention, and it gives me a chance to express myself creatively in a different way than writing.

If I had continued to work full time (I was a magazine art director) I could have made a lot more money than I have as a writer (so far). But I wouldn’t have been happy or fulfilled. As crazy as some of these jobs have been, and sometimes downright distasteful, I’ve had an awful lot of fun. I’ve had to eat a lot of ramen noodles and peanut butter, but I don’t regret–not even for a moment–stepping off the corporate ladder. I can’t wait to see what the next twenty years will bring.

I tend to be very herocentric when it comes to romance novels. I want to know the hero’s weaknesses and flaws, I want a good look at his scars and the chip on his shoulder, I want the worst of him revealed, and I want to be convinced he deserves to be loved in spite of it. Most of my favorite books are favorites because the hero’s role struck a chord in me.

I want the heroine to be fully developed and relatable, of course, but unless she’s so weak I want to slap her into the next zip code, I can accept her as anything from soft and gentle to kickass and abrasive. Maybe I subconsciously feel all women are inherently lovable and therefore don’t need the heroine’s worthiness proven me to the same extent. Maybe I simply find the hero more interesting because of the mystery men represent.

There is one type of heroine, however, who can motivate me to pick up a book even if no other element of the story appeals to me. That heroine is the woman who has never before had a man treat her with the fiery passion that heats up the pages of the best romance novels. I can live without the old virgin widow setup (it’s not a lack of sexual experience I’m referring to, after all, but a lack of experience with passion, which extends beyond the physical aspect of a relationship), but there are any number of other reasons she may have missed out that do work for me.

• She’s a Plain Jane or overweight.
• She’s “one of the guys.”
• She’s nerdy or shy.
• She’s been focusing on her education, career, or family obligations to the exclusion of all else for a period of time.
• She may even be too tough for any of the men she’s known in the past to handle.

No deep introspection is required to tell me why I like that heroine. We have a bond from page one because she’s me in many respects. Of course I’m going to cheer for her when she finds the man who sees her in a way no one else ever has and gives her that long overdue, soul-searing love, without the condition she become something different to earn it. I consider her HEA a triumph (albeit a fictional one) for geeky tomboys everywhere.

Do you have a favorite type of heroine? Is she like you, or is she your polar opposite?

Not long ago I had a brief exchange with a longtime reviewer over reader perceptions and the ebook market. Her position was that readers are buying the books they want to read (my paraphrase), and that the market reflects this. My belief has long been that – for both ebooks and print books – that readers are buying what they THINK they want to read, and that publishers are publishing what they THINK readers want to read, but that the twain don’t always meet.

The success of certain authors, markets, and publishers certainly seems to suggest that readers are getting the books they want. But then there are books like Joanna Bourne’s (almost) debut historical, The Spymaster’s Lady, about which I’ve seen numerous readers say that if it weren’t for the buzz around the book that the ordinary title and cheesy cover would have kept them from enjoying a lush, complex, and refreshing read (including me!). And there have been numerous discussions around the hybridization of Romance and the way reader expectations (especially about the HEA) are being thwarted by books being marketed as Romance that many Romance readers don’t believe adhere to the main definition of the genre (especially in Paranormal Romance and Romantic Suspense). And, of course, there are the allegations of homogenization, especially within the historical Romance market, even as some insist that historicals – especially those accused of said homogenization – have been and are selling very well indeed.

My own answer to this question is mixed. I do seem to buy a decent number of books in which I’m disappointed for one reason or another. Sometimes it’s because the blurb suggests one type of book and my reading concludes it’s another. Then there’s the cover/title problem. While I would never refuse to read a book based on a title, I routinely skip over books with uninteresting or irritating packaging, and only return when I read a persuasive review or get a personal recommendation. And many times I don’t really know what I want beyond a good read, and it’s those times I really want to be surprised, which may be the most difficult conundrum for both reader and publisher. I mean, how does a publisher know what will please me on any given day? Will the book that surprises me arrive on a day I really want a comfort read, a same old, same old, know what to expect read? Or will I read that same old same old book on a day I really need to have my status quo challenged by a provocative read? And will that book provoke me in all the right ways?

I recently picked up a new Romance Suspense novel by an author whose books I took a hiatus from because of the over-the-top sadistic violence, and I had to stop reading the new book by chapter three, after meeting the sadistic Russian mob boss, a mutilated body, and a reference to killing a child to harvest his organs. While I’m not averse to reading about these things in Romance, I just couldn’t get past the feeling that the violence in this author’s books was eclipsing the more subtle conflicts and tensions and emotional complexities I appreciated in her earlier books. I’m glad other readers still love her books, but I’m no longer getting what I want from them, and I’m not sure where to find a good replacement for those qualities I’m now missing. When I’m already feeling disappointed, the chance that I’ll find what I want elsewhere seems smaller than it probably really is, and it makes me feel a bit defeated and cynical as I browse reviews and online discussions. On the other side of my disappointment, though, lies the promise of excitement I feel when I discover a great book I didn’t expect, and that anticipation ultimately buoys me enough to keep looking.

So here’s my question for both authors and readers: are you reading and writing the books you want to read? If so, what about the current market is satisfying your cravings, and if not, what’s going wrong? Is it titles and covers as we so often hear, or is it something different? What, in other words, seems to be keeping you from buying the books you really want to read?

And finally, what’s the book you really want to read but can’t seem to find? One of mine is a contemporary Romance between a woman who is unapologetically accomplished and sexually confident and sane and a man who doesn’t have to be taught to appreciate a strong woman. And who isn’t a super-macho super-spy who decides to turn in his Glock for a glue gun at the remote and beautiful cabin he and his woman populate with fourteen precocious and beautiful children. I don’t mind overly-cute animals and whacky relatives, but I’d appreciate it if all the characters remain in mostly human form, with mostly human-made magic.

So what about you?