Category Archives: Reading

Romancing the Genre

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dc1db2c008a0e700653ca010.LRomance books have changed a lot since I started reading them. I still remember the first one I read. Sandra Brown’s Breath of Scandal. My aunt gave it to me, knowing that I read like a fiend. At the time, my reading was pretty much confined to fantasies and science fiction. She thought I could use a “broadening of my horizons” and gave me something new. So, I read it and was hooked and I mean, hooked quick.

I moved through romance novels like I was drinking water. Sandra Brown, Linda Howard and Nora Roberts. I still read my fantasies and sci-fi’s, but now I was noticing something was lacking from the stories that I would like to see. A sweeping love story somewhere in the stories. Not even necessarily with the main characters, just somewhere. I still wanted those “otherworldly elements” too, but I wanted romance, a love story, and sex. It was rare, at that point in time (the early 90′s) for me to be able to find what I was looking for.

In today’s book market, that’s a different story. Over the past few years, books have taken being classified into a category to an organizational art form. A listmaker’s dream – or nightmare, depending on how you look at it. No longer is there just contemporary romances like those I started out reading where the Alpha male came along and swept the stubborn leading lady off her feet with little protest from her. Today, heroines fight back. They kick ass with a wide smile painted across their perfectly shaped and painted lips. Sure, those contemporary romances are still there. But now they’re cataloged on the shelf next to the likes of Jeaniene Frost, Keri Arthur, and J. R. Ward in sub-genres of romance.

img003No longer is romance, just a romance. There’s paranormal romance, erotic romance, sci-fi romance, fantasy romance, shape-shifter romance, etc. Historical romances aren’t just limited to ones that took place at some point in history that isn’t now. There’s Gothic romance, medieval romance, Scottish romance, Irish romance, Western romance, etc. I’ve even seen horror romance, though I’ve not personally read anything in that sub-genre. There’s even time travel romance and don’t be surprised when you see steampunk romance showing up on your shelves next year.

The basis is all the same – at the most basic, a romance novel tells a story, one with a HEA or HFN. (Happily Ever After or Happy For Now) Be it vampire, cowboy, space alien, dragon or Highland warrior all of these stories have the development of a relationship between the characters.

Of course, then there’s someone like me.

Flash of Dark, my first release, has vampires, the Tuatha Dé Danann (the Fae), humans, a mystery, loud music and rope (after you read the next line, I’ll leave you to figure out the “rope” mention… ;) ).

So, with all of these “sub genres” of romance, is that like a sub (paranormal) sub (fantasy) sub (mystery) sub (erotic) genre romance book?

Excerpt Monday Information and Current WiP’s Blathering

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The sickness seems to be leaving me slowly, taking it’s sweet damn time about it. It’s made being productive very tough, so needless to say, I haven’t gotten much done on the writing front. But in an effort to help out with that, I’ve decided to start participating in Excerpt Monday, starting on on October 12th. Follow the link to find out more about it and come back here to my blog on Monday the 12th to see what I have. Hey, anything that will make Monday a better day is alright by me!

In the meantime, I’ve dug back into my sci-fi romance (lovingly (I think) called sci-mance by hubs) that is currently a 27K short. It’s not enough to tell the story I want, so it needs expanding. Espesically since I jotted a bunch of stuff down yesterday that altered the back history I had for the main characters. This one probably won’t be my usual word count level (around 90K), but it does need lengthening to properly tell their story. This, of course, comes about when I’m trying to work on the next book in the Rebirth series. Isn’t that the way it always happens? It’s like my brain gets opened up working on something and something else just slips its way right on in. I’m not one to juggle multiple stories like that either, just like I usually can’t juggle multiple books to read – one at a time please. It’s not that I can’t focus on multiple stories, I just like to give my full attention to whatever it is that I’m reading and/or writing.

I see the RT Convention is open for registration. I’ve been entertaining the idea of going, but not sure yet. Still waffling more towards the “no” side, but, so far, it’s been changing hourly. It’d be a nine hour drive for me as far as driving goes – so that’s the biggest deciding factor, well that and call me silly, but I don’t want to go by myself. Rather have someone I know with me so at least I’d feel a little more comfortable, since I’m not – oh who am I kidding? I’m not very social at all. Had that displayed right in my face earlier this week at a work function I had to attend (where I was getting an award no less). The VP of my whole division sat at the table with me and aside from introducing myself, I didn’t say a word during the meal. Can you imagine if I had to speak?

That’s something I really have got to work on.

Someone Stop the Train; I Wanna Get Off

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Have not had as much time as I would have liked lately to write, but that’s the problem that exists when writing is something you have to do in your free time. One has to have the free time open first to make it happen. It’s not from lack of want, trust me. The biggest issue has been sleep. Yes, writing is important to me, but managing to grab at least five hours of sleep a night is a must if I want to be coherent throughout the day. (Though really, being coherent is a bit over-rated, right?) I did manage to plunk myself down at the computer last Saturday and get five hours of uninterrupted writing done. Other things had to be sacrificed for that to happen, but that’s the way of everything. It’s not that what I missed (daughter’s performance) wasn’t important, it was. Her dad was with her and I was in a groove. Something that both of us decided hadn’t been for a while and I should run with it. If there’s one thing that writing teaches you, it’s that there will be times where you feel as if you’re a marathon runner.

Most recently, this past week, I tore apart something I’ve been working on and have been in the process, in the little bits of time I have had, of piecing it back together. Also, I had time to read a post by Keri Arthur, over a the Deadline Dames. If you’re an aspiring author, like I am, you should check it out – wonderful advice.