I can’t believe it’s Sunday again already! This week has flown by, but I’m really excited to be posting my six this week from Only Scandal Will Do, my WIP currently completed and out with agents.
The scene is London, the time March 1761. These are the opening six where we meet the heroine:
“Put her back in the carriage, now.”
Her assailant’s gravelly voice next to her ear sent a shiver of fear through Lady Katarina Fitzwilliam. Violent hands seized her and tossed her back into the carriage.
Now she was gagged, her hands pinioned behind her back, and her ankles bound together. Trussed like a Christmas goose, she could only lie in a cramped bundle on the hard plank floor of the dim carriage, her diaphanous Grecian costume in ruins, and scheme how to get out of this predicament. The horses jerked forward and the uneven cobblestones of the London streets jounced her already aching body.
There are my six for this week. Hope you enjoyed meeting Lady Katarina. If so, check out more authors as they post their six sentences or join us next week at
I want to begin this post with a question to you: Do you, as romance readers in today’s society, only want to read about plucky, spirited heroines? Women whose attributes of courage and positive self-worth are established from page 1 and do not waver throughout the novel? Or does this not get old after a while? I have noticed this trend in the books I read and it has given me some concerns.
I am planning to revise a WIP this summer, set in medieval England and France, where the heroine is young (another drawback I’ve been told) and begins as a very traditional woman for the time period. Not exactly meek, but certainly not a sword-wielding Amazon either. But by the end of the novel her character arc has taken her from young and passive to mature, strong, and fearless.
I’ve been told women do not want to read about this type of heroine. I wonder, however, how true that statement is. My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that it is just as interesting to see the journey from weakness to strength as to see the journey from strength to…well, strength. More interesting, in fact, to see the heroine truly grow into the character she is meant to be. Of course the seeds of the end product must be sown in the first chapters—the potential for change must be there. But having set that up, I would hope that readers would be excited to see how the heroine makes that transition.
One book that uses this trope is Kathleen E. Woodiwiss’s The Flame and the Flower.
When the book opens Heather, the heroine, is a veritable dishrag of a 17 year old girl, but by the end she is the competent and adored mistress of a huge plantation, with her volatile but devastatingly gorgeous husband wrapped around her finger. How did she do that? Read the book to find out.
Two movie examples also come readily to mind: The Terminator and Romancing the Stone.
In the first Terminator movie, Sarah Connor starts out as a soft-spoken sort of party-girl type—rather milque-toast in my opinion.
Yet by the end of the movie she is tough as nails and ready to take on the world. In Terminator 2 she’s become capable of doing just that—a force to be reckoned with.
In Romancing the Stone, Joan Wilder, romance novelist (!), starts out as a woman scared of her own shadow. Through the trials of her adventure in the South American jungle, she gains the confidence to believe in herself and becomes the feisty heroine she’s always written about. Her transformation is visually stunning: after Joan’s identity as a romance novelist saves the day for her and her hero, she blossoms from the repressed-looking spinster into the vibrant adventuress.
These three examples, all from the 1970s and 80s, make me wonder if this scenario was popular then because the second wave of feminism was sweeping the country at that time and women were fascinated by the prospect of becoming more than they ever dreamed possible. Today’s romance readers have grown up in the post-second wave era with the idea that women are strong, are the equal of men, and can do anything they set their minds to. Does that sensibility, then, preclude them from identifying with a woman who is not any of those things, but who has the potential to be? Would you not want to cheer her on to her ultimate destiny?
What is your preference? The strong, plucky heroine who is a steadfast character throughout with minimal change, or the shy, meek mouse who turns into the lion? Would you read both?
Good Morning! This is my first week participating in Six Sentence Sunday and today my six sentences are from my historical romance short story “Heart of Deception,” which is under contract and will be available shortly from Books to Go Now.
In the story, Celinda Graham—young, naïve, passionate—is head-over-heels in love with Andrew Finley, and insists on marrying him. Unfortunately, Andrew’s family has been feuding with Celinda’s for generations. When her father refuses to allow the marriage, however, Andrew has a plan:
“Celinda, I have an idea of how we can get your father’s approval for our marriage, and quickly, but it’s rather daring. I don’t know if you would agree to it.” His eyes glinted with a roguish flare. “I don’t know if you should agree to it.”
As if an icicle had been drawn down her spine, gooseflesh rose on Celinda’s arms. She could barely whisper, “What is it, Andrew?”
Hope you enjoyed this teaser from “Heart of Deception.” If you’d like to read more great snippets or join in the fun, check out the Six Sentence Sunday site:
I am sorry I have not posted since March 5 but the past couple of weeks have been full of expectation, high hopes and exciting news. This past week has been a true red letter week. As this blog is about a writer’s journey, and these are all milestones along the way, I thought I’d share my “red letters.”
This magical section of my journey began with an online chat with Mary Murray, editor for Lyrical Press that ended with an invitation to send her my manuscript Only Scandal Will Do. After polishing it, Monday morning I sent it to Mary and to an agent who had requested a revision.
I also entered The Knight Agency’s Speed Dating 2 contest—put your name on their blog between 12 and 1 pm and if you are randomly chosen, you send in three pages. And lo and behold, I won that lottery! I sent in my 3 pages, bit my nails for three days, and made the cut to Round 2: a request for 10 pages.
On Friday, March 11 I also submitted an HR short story, “Heart of Deception,” to Books to Go Now! They have a two week turnaround, so I was not expecting the email I got at 11pm on Sunday night: the offer of a contract for the story. Walking on sunshine at midnight!
Less than 12 hours later another magical moment: I made it into Round 3 of The Knight Agency contest: request for three chapters. A request for a partial! Things were getting scary good, though I kept remembering Harvey Keitel’s line from Thelma and Louise: “Brains will only get you so far, and luck always runs out.” Meanwhile, my crit partners were telling me to buy a lottery ticket!
The bubble burst on Thursday when I got the email that the Knight Agency had determined my work was not a good fit for them at this time. Looking at their website I tend to agree. They seem to not handle much historical romance, making us not a good fit. But apparently my writing impressed them enough for them to take me to Round 3. I’d like to think that at any rate. I started out as one of 466 people who left comments and ended as one of 15 participants from whom they requested chapters. Although I’d have liked to have continued, I’ll take the ride I was given and say thank you.
But that’s not the end of the story. Last night I sent out five new queries for Scandal and within half an hour I had a request for a partial and synopsis. The absolute cherry on top of the Red Letter Week.
So the rollercoaster continues. Will anything come of the queries or requests I have out? I have no idea. That is part of the life of a writer. It is a constant pull between feast and famine. But despite the ups and downs of the process, you have to keep trying. The week before Red Letter Week was Black Letter Week- depths of despair, nothing happening, nothing going to happen. Let’s have a pity party tonight.
Okay, break’s over. Get back out there and make it happen. No one can do it but you.
Have you had Red Letter days when nothing could go wrong? How about Black Letter days, when it seemed someone was dumping the sewer down your shirt? Please share a comment about how you cope with either/both of these writers’ experiences.
Most readers today think of romance within the current conventions of the genre. What we don’t realize is that in the beginning of the romantic movement the expectations were very different. When viewing or reading a classic romance, such as Les Miserables, the reader will probably be struck with how dark these works are. Not the dim lighting, but the dark nature of the works themselves.
Last of the Mohicans, The Three Musketeers, House of the SevenGables, and Les Miserables are all novels from the romantic period of the 19th century, all include great love stories. None have an HEA.
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, was turned into a legendary musical in the late 1980s, whose several intertwined love stories end only in death and sorrow. Yet it was one of the most moving experiences I have ever had, hearing the incredible music, seeing the exquisite performances in person Wednesday night.
It made me wonder, why do current romances not have a darker vein to them? Why can we not have that undertone of tragedy along with the assurance of the happy ending? Some of the great romantic novels have had such undertones: Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre most readily come to mind. But of the current romance novels I have read only one has had any kind of tragedy in it: Samantha James’ Just One Kiss. It may simply be that I have not stumbled upon those in the historical romance genre. I know the paranormals can be rather dark, but do they incorporate tragedy into their stories as well?
Back to Les Miserables: The two love stories that end badly, Fantine’s lover who abandons her with a child, and Eponine’s unrequited love for Marius, inspired me last night. The songs these women sing, “I Dreamed A Dream” and “A Little Fall of Rain”, are achingly poignant and got me to wondering how I could incorporate their scenarios somehow into a romance with a happy ending. During my four hour drive home, having nothing better to think about, I came up with at least skeletal outlines for each story. Both set during the time of the Napoleonic Wars just around Waterloo.
Perhaps, like the true romantics, some good will come of their tragedies—or as Eponine sings, “Rain will make the flowers grow.”
A third outline was inspired by the name of the restaurant my daughter and I were supposed to dine at but didn’t have time. The Alewife is now the title of a Restoration revel, a tavern notorious for assignations in a time when assignations were the norm. I have the outline for this racy romp perking merrily in my head. It may even turn into erotica—I was also inspired by Johnny Depp’s The Libertine (R-rated with good reason!).
Below is the trailer for the 25th Anniversary Tour of Les Miserables—I hope the trailer will inspire you to look beneath the happy ending—for each HEA is founded upon someone’s sacrifice.
What is your favorite romantic story? Not necessarily a genre romance. Some romances don’t have happy endings. Case in point Gone with the Wind. Does romance benefit from a darker tragedy lurking somewhere in the story, making the happily-ever-after more sweet because the H/H won through while others did not? Please share your thoughts.
At my last local RWA chapter meeting, our invited speaker took us through the Myers-Briggs Personality Type evaluation. This tool, which helps you understand your personality traits or psychological type, is a fun way to understand your normal behavior and responses to everyday situations.
I discovered I am an INFJ: Introvert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging. This means I think before acting, am imaginative and creative, seek consensus and popular opinions, and approach the outside world with a plan.
I can see these traits not only in my life but in my writing as well. As an introvert I can’t just sit down at the computer and dash off something—chapter or blog. I have to think about what I want to say, and make sure I am getting the correct message across before I commit it to the screen. And then I go back and revise at least twice before publishing it.
Imagination and creativity make perfect sense for a writer who is an intuitive person. It also means I look for overall patterns, symbols, and images and make connections from a very wide perspective. I’ve found this trait very prevalent in my writing, but not always in a good way. One profile says “What they see is so clear and obvious to them they are often surprised to find that others cannot see it as well.” This happens all the time when writing about my characters’ motivations. I consistently get the comment “Why is she/he doing/wanting this?” And I think “It’s so obvious.” But unfortunately only to me.
The Feeling part of me wants harmony—I find this also most notable when getting critiques: I have an overwhelming desire to make corrections for every crit I get in my work—a trait I’m working to break because I do understand I can’t please everyone. I still keep trying.
The Judging trait comes out in my work as the part of me that must work from a detailed outline. I can and do change the outline as I write, but I can’t start a work without some idea of where I’m headed in the end. Yes, I am a plotter to the Nth degree and can’t understand how pantsers exist. LOL (I actually applaud their creativity and ability to jump in feet first and just write.)
Our workshop also touched on the subject of using the Myers-Briggs typing in romance writing. Do your characters fit these personality traits? Can you write the characters with these traits in mind? I believe Myers-Briggs is a tool we can use to help define our characters and to make us perhaps understand them better and why they do what they do.
Most likely we, as writers, have observed these behavioral traits in their many combinations. We instinctively put them together in our characters because that is the way we see people act. I don’t think we go into a story saying, “This hero is going to be an ENTJ.” But we may think “My hero is going to love a challenge, is going to be direct and honest, and not have a tolerance for anything that gets in his way, but he will love justice and have a good sense of humor.” (Actually this describes the hero in my current WIP and I started that project long before knowing about Myers-Briggs.)
So will knowing that Rafe is an ENTJ change the way I write him? Perhaps not. But I think I will check out his personality type and maybe round him out a little using these traits—remember, anything that helps me make connections or patterns within the work makes me very, very happy.
If you would like to explore the Myers-Briggs Personality Test for yourself, see what your type is, the following link will be helpful.
Because I cannot send you chocolate for Valentines’ Day, I thought I would send you another kind of “candy” instead. Welcome to my rogues gallery of hot, hunky, heroes from fiction and film.
Granted these are my personal faves, but let’s be candid ladies—we all have images we are particularly fond of. Mine may reflect a taste in older men—always have thought the older the violin the sweeter the music. But that’s not to say I won’t take a long pause to savor a sweet young thing either.
But I don’t know that my taste in men comes across in my writing. So far my heroes have been youngish (early 20s to early 30s), well-built and mostly athletic, around six foot tall (one towers at 6’4”) and a rainbow of hair colors ranging from dark, walnut brown to ash blonde. Strangely none of them have had my favorite auburn colored locks.
Writing these men has been challenging: how do you make them handsome, sexy, intelligent, witty, charming, and still realistic? Let’s face it, romance writers are writing about fantasy men—the men we all wish we would meet or be rescued by. So if they are a fantasy, why not make them perfect? Endow them with everything our hearts (and our readers’ hearts) might desire?
Because perfection, quite frankly, is boring. Even perfect looks can, after a while, pall. (I must admit, this has not happened when I think of any of the men pictured below, but then I don’t have to live with them. *Sigh*) But a less than perfect visage will often be more arresting, show more character, than the perfect “prettyboy” picture.
And because perfection is boring, heroes also need flaws. Something for the heroine to fix, something for him to struggle against, something for the reader to hope he can overcome to achieve his HEA. These obstacles, that come only from within the hero himself, give your story all or part of its conflict and interest. How your hero deals with what life has dealt him, how he makes decisions that affect him and his heroine, how he rises above his flaws is what keeps the reader turning the pages late into the night.
So the men below, first a list of my favorite romance heroes whose faces exist probably only in my mind, then the “eye candy” I promised, are the men who, at one point or another, have made me say, “I think I’m in love.”
Here are a half-dozen heroes from some of my favorite romance novels:
1. Rhett Butler—the epitome of suave and debonaire from Gone With the Wind; he was my “first.”
2. Mr. Darcy—say no more
3. Wulfgar—hero of Wolf and the Dove (my first medieval, and his name says it all)
4. Beowulf Malloren—Jo Beverly’s Marquess of Rothgar; dark, tormented, and sexy personified in Devilish
5. Nicholas Delaney—the hero I love to hate from Jo Beverly’s An Arranged Marriage
6. Sebastian St. Vincent–a real bad boy who gives up his rakish ways for the love of a shy, yet strong young woman in Devil in Winter
So I have shared some of my by favorite sexy men. Now it’s your turn. Who is your ultimate hot, hunky hero? Come on, share!
Hillary Clinton received some flack for her book It Takes A Village, however the African proverb upon which it is based, “It takes a village to raise a child,” has a profound truth: we will accomplish a task better with the help of others than we will alone.
This sentiment is especially true when the task at hand is writing a novel. For the most part, writers write alone and the journey, while exhilarating, is treacherous. Even when your draft is finished, the adventure is not over, but merely beginning.
I tried writing in a vacuum last year. I wrote the first draft of my current WIP; went back and “edited” it; tried to get friends or family to read it (no takers). Then I “polished” the sure winner. A colleague read the first five pages and loved it. So in March I queried. Low and behold, three days later, bang—a request for a full. Jubilation!
Fast-forward to August. Still waiting for a response from the agent who requested that full. So I started looking for info on her. And ran across an awesome website: AbsoluteWriteWaterCooler.
Not only did they have all kinds of information on agents and publishers, they had forums where you could post your work and get critiqued. I bit, and though my first chapter wasn’t “trashed,” my eyes were suddenly opened to things I didn’t know I didn’t know about writing. Things I didn’t know about the business of writing. That site became my lifeline to making my dream come true.
Unfortunately, critiques there were limited. There was not a lot of romance being critiqued (and especially not historical romance); Query Hell was where it was happening. That was a good thing because reading massive amounts of queries and beginning attempts at critiquing helped me focus on how to use language to my best advantage.
Again, I began to believe that the WIP was ready. But this time I was cautious.
Someone suggested I join an online crit group, so I Googled “romance online critique group” and the first thing to pop up was Romance Critters. Sounded like a winner to me. And was I ever right!
Rom Critters became my “village.” Because that poor little WIP was still nowhere near ready. But my Crit Partners took the time and effort to critique it thoroughly and explain what it meant to “show not tell;” clarify what the heck a “character arc” was; enlighten me about “repeated pronoun usage” (my personal downfall). These talented writers helped me “raise” my child from the gangly youth it was in November, to the solid citizen for which I just confidently (well, mostly confidently) sent out queries.
Critique partners are the writer’s lifeblood. They are the people who will tell you the truth you don’t want to hear instead of the lie you do. They are the ones who take time from their own writing to help you make yours better. They are the friends who encourage you when you have a bad day, who commiserate when you get that rejection letter, who celebrate when you get a request, win a contest, publish a book or short story. They are family you grow to love but may never meet.
If you have not joined an online critique group, you might want to consider that step. Not only will the group’s critiques help your writing but, even more valuable, your critiques of their works will strengthen your understanding of how good writing is crafted.
Within the writing community, it really does take a village, with its many helping hands, to make writers’ dreams come true.
The following links have helpful information if you are considering joining an online or face-to-face critique group:
There are certainly challenges to any kind of writing project. The romance genre, and all of its attendant sub-genres, presents any number of challenges in a variety of combinations. Romantic suspense combines the challenge of making romance steam while the H/H solve a mystery; sci-fi and fantasy romance dares its writers to build worlds from the ground up or create new rules for our own world, while still ending with an HEA. Contemporary romance requires its characters and plots to blend in with todays quickly changing standards, mores, slang, and jump-cut mentality that is part of the ever-shifting and colorful life in the 21st century.
And finally, historical romance challenges the writer to recreate, in as much detail as possible, life in times long removed from our busy world. This genre sets up an expectation that what the reader sees on the page and in their mind as they read, is a truthful depiction of how life was lived in times and places long past. It is a challenge not for the faint of heart.
Even though I only started writing about two years ago, history has been my passion all my life. I majored in history in college and have gloried in researching throughout my career. I am truly a social historian, one who is fascinated by how people lived in times past. And when my muse showed up on my doorstep, it was a no-brainer to figure out what I should write. I’ve never even attempted to write anything non-historical.
But, even though I love to research, even though I love writing about life 200 to 300 years ago, the challenges of portraying that life correctly in the novel are sometimes daunting.
Take, for instance, the area of clothing.
My current WIP is set in 1761 in London. There are many sources to tell me what the fabric of the period looked like, what the silouette was like, what styles were in or out of fashion. I can find these things readily, via the internet and books on period costume. The challenge comes with translating this information onto the paper for the reader to imagine clearly. And this is where the challenge becomes tricky.
Terminology. If I write that my hero has put on his banyan, unless my reader is already well-versed in 18th century costume or has read a number of historicals and figured it out from context clues or has taken the time to look the term up, she is going to be confused as to just what contraption my hero is wearing at this most intimate moment. So I, as the author, must either stop the action and explain that a banyan is a robe or dressing gown modeled on oriental garments from the same century, or simply give a context clue and move on hoping the foreign word does not jar the reader out of the story completely.
Follow this link to see what a banyan looked like and get a little more information on this sexy 18th nightwear for men.
So why use the term banyan if it can be just as easily called a dressing gown? Character POV and perspective. In the 18th century men would have thought of this article of clothing as a banyan (dressing gown is a later term). So if I am in deep POV I must use the term that the character would have thought, to be true to the period.
Another word is petticoat. Today we equate this word with an undergarment. In the 18th century it is also an outer garment, the skirt of a two-piece ensemble. The link below will take you to the site for a facinating project on constructing clothing from the middle of the 18th century. It gives examples of petticoats, both undergarments and outer garments.
Another challenge regarding clothing is how to get your hero and heroine out of their clothing for that steamy first bedroom encounter. You have to account for them taking off every piece of clothing, but you cannot take all day to describe the disrobing. And considering how much clothing they wore, and how hard it was to get into and out of their garments (ladies were often either pinned or actually sewn into their clothing), one wonders how the fires will stay lit long enough for them to accomplish any sort of tryst.
Below is a video from one of my favorite period movies, Dangerous Liasions, set in the mid-to-late 18th century that demonstrates just how complicated it was for the upper class to get dressed in the morning.
It was a time for beautiful clothing, exacting manners, and dangerous liasions, which makes the 18th century one of my favorite challenges in writing historical romance.
What is your biggest challenge in writing romance? Is it plot, character, research, setting or something more? Come share a comment on how you overcome your hurdles in the romance genre.
All writers know that revisions are a necessary evil, a vital (though sometimes tedious) part of the process of writing a book. Unfortunately, many writers do not see it for what it actually is: another opportunity for them to be creative.
Now, if you all you are changing in your manuscript are small phrases, spelling and punctuation mistakes, and grammar issues, such pains-taking corrections can be less than exciting. I tend to think of this type of revision as a “polish”: your manuscript is almost literally walking out the door and you are making sure its buttons are fastened, its hair is combed, and it doesn’t have spinach caught between its teeth.
Sometimes, however, a hiatus is needed—a vacation from your manuscript. If you are getting weary of working with your current WIP—after months of rounds of writing, critiquing, re-writing, and re-critiquing—set your work aside and let it percolate. This can actually lead the writer to a stronger conception of their work. Coming back to your novel with fresh eyes and a willingness to embrace change can truly work miracles.
The revision that excites me most is the one where I truly re-vision a major portion or concept of the work. Seeing the work in a different light, or thinking about it “outside the box” that I originally put it in, often takes the manuscript in a better direction simply because I am not limiting myself to my original vision of it.
This process is, however, fraught with pain and fear. Pain because I have to sacrifice ideas, scenes, language, dialogue that I have become incredibly fond of. The first book I wrote, my medieval, will have approximately 8-10 chapters cut when I revise it this summer. I know this, and have been putting it off because I like an awful lot of what’s in those chapters. But the harsh reality is that the major story conflict starts at the end of chapter 9. Their courtship, while a conflict in and of itself, is not the major conflict in the book; the conflict emerges after they fall in love. And at its current length of 160K, the book needs pruning.
But there is also fear. Fear of making a mistake. Fear that this re-visioning will weaken rather than strengthen the book. That is a very real risk with every revision, and not a light one.
There is the hope, however, at the end of so many tunnels.
As I wrote this blog, I recalled some advice a friend recently gave me, suggesting that I think about breaking the book in half and creating a two book set. Now I’m wondering if perhaps it could be done as a three book set—chronicling the whole story: boy woos girl and gets her, boy loses girl, boy gets girl again in the end.
Hmmmm. A new vision. A re-vision. And anticipation of rewriting a story I love suddenly escalates. Can’t hardly wait for summer now.
Below are a couple of links that may help make revisions easier. They give advice and strategies from some of the top writers in the business.
Stephen King’s book On Writing is a personal favorite of mine. He has another, earlier book, Danse Macabre, that also has great information on writing, especially for the horror genre.
How difficult is it for you to revise your work? Do you look forward to revising or do you drag your feet? Please share a comment about your take on revisions.
Jenna Jaxon Romance--because passion is timeless. 