Since this is a Friday post, I was trying to think of a Friday type song, so amazingly, I came up with a line from one!
It's appropriate, isn't it, since we all write with strong romantic elements, no matter what our specific genre. I think everyone wants to be in love (every day, not just every Friday,) and so even if they can't personally do so, it's certainly nice to read about people who do and experience the rush vicariously.
Now here's a question - how do you personally feel about love stories that don't have an HEA (happily ever after) ending? And how do you classify them - something that I keep harping on, I know, but our entire world is so classification-crazed these days.
Is it the love story itself that makes you 'fall in love' or is it the HEA? As long as the story is rich and satisfying, does the resolution always have to be positive?
I raise this question and yet even when I am writing a sad love story, the ending is, in its own way "happy." I like HEA, even if it is non-traditional. I think it is a definite human urge, need, belief - that things are resolved in a positive fashion. What do you think?
Dipping back into classification madness - I love my XM radio. I wish I didn't, I wish there was just RADIO, you could hear all different types of music without having to specify a category. Anyway, with the demise of possibility in local, over the air radio, here I am in XM land. Where there is alternative country, country, adult acoustic rock, contemporary rock, "real" jazz, alternative rock, cutting edge rock, alternative rock of the 90's, alternative rock of the 80's -- all on my punch buttons.
Are we over categorized? not just in terms of music, and our writing, but in terms of our lives? Are people niche marketing themselves?
Okay, wandering from far afield back to the specifics - We're supposed to be announcing our news here on FRIDAY , but I haven't much NEW news to report, so I'll go with a quick recap of things -
-signed FIVE O'CLOCK SHADOW and THE MODEL MAN at the Los Angeles Times Book Fair the end of April. I had my kids pass out about 250 book marks and yes, my Amazon numbers did go up afterward. I was also amazed to meet people who actually knew who I was (from local newspaper articles last year, reviews and such.)
-my erotic romance novella from THE COWBOY, Rodeo Man, finaled in the Passionate Plume
-and the warm buzz and new contacts made at the PASIC conference in NYC continue, I'm still getting requested material out there
Genie
Five O'Clock Shadow - available NOW
3 comments:
I think I've been on planet earth long enough to know that HEA doesn't mean that's the way they stay after the book is over. Doesn't everyone who enters a relationship or marriage think/hope/pray that it will last forever? I think readers want that HEA because it gives them hope, because it transports them away from their own messed up lives/divorces/failed relationships. What's wrong with that? It's fiction, after all. If someone reads a romance that doesn't end happily, I think they feel cheated, especially if that's what they bought the book for in the first place. There's tons of books out there that don't end happily. The reader could just as easily spend her money on one of those. Personally, I'm more of a realist, and I'm okay with a tortured/tragic/sad ending, but but for those who read romance novels with certain expectations, I say, let's give it to them.
Genie--I finally got a chance to read Five O'Clock Shadow and I loved it! Thanks so much--what a terrific book!
Great post, Genie!
I love the HEA myself. I like to know that the "good guys" always win in the end, too.
And you know I'm cheering you on with all of those manuscript requests!
Faye
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