Was there an unintended pun in the subtitle of the panel at the Readers & ’ritas convention last weekend: “The Difference Between a Straight Mystery and a Romantic Suspense”? Because the three authors who addressed a room full of romance fans turned the word “straight” on its head.
In fairness to the convention’s organizer, Fresh Fiction, the panel was supposed to consist of three women authors. But when one had to cancel, the moderator tagged the first male author invited to the convention, swashbucklingly gay author/writing teacher Damon Suede to fill in. Joined with mystery writer/Italian translator Traci Andrighetti and suspense writer/scientist Lara Lacombe, the result was a gleeful hour spent tugging at the boundaries of romantic fiction, mystery, and male-female viewpoints.
After reminding the audience that the etymology of “romance” derives from the original word for a novel, Suede, Andrighetti and Lacombe played with ways to define “romance”, “mystery” and “thriller/suspense” in modern terms.
The function of a mystery, Suede posited is “that things will be untangled when they go wrong”; that of a thriller/suspense becomes “maybe no one will help you” and that of a romance is “someone will help” when those tangled things are going very, very wrong. In other words, the overwhelming characteristic of a romance, both readers and authors agreed, is that the relationship between two people is paramount.
Still, in drawing the line between mystery/thriller and romance, “I think it’s often a shame that mystery writers forget there’s often a love interest involved” in their books, Andrighetti said.
The problem, she believes, often lies in the sexual stereotyping of books. “We say women write romance and men write mystery.”
Suede agreed. And that the stereotyping works both ways.
He was told by other romance writers that he wouldn't be able to write romance, “because I’m a male writer. I think many more guys read romance than we think. I have a fire house in Austin that reads all my books (Hot Head, Seedy Business, Grown Men, Horn Gate, Bad Idea) ¾
and they’re straight guys. They say, now I can talk to my girlfriend about this stuff.”
“In my family,” Andrighetti counters, “my dad and brother are really uncomfortable reading my books (Limoncello Yellow and Prosecco Pink). (But) I read in Italian, and I was inspired by a woman named Gabriella Genisi, and 70 percent of her readers are male.” (She’s also thrilled at the prospect of translating Genisi’s work for English-speaking readers.)
And then, ahem, there’s the stereotype that romance readers, well, maybe any readers, don’t want to try anything too challenging. Which brought the panel back to the dilemma of Lacombe. Make that, Dr. Lacombe, with a doctorate in immunology and microbiology. Mild-mannered science professor by day, she writes suspense with romantic elements (Lethal Lies, Fatal Fallout, Deadly Contact ) by night.
Do you find it hard to dumb down your books?” an audience member asked.
Not even an issue, Lacombe insisted. The thought that readers may consider themselves “dumb” distresses her. “I think you’re taught to think you’re dumb. That’s not right. I try to write the books with a bit of knowledge that lets people say, now that’s interesting.”
Leading to an aha moment from the game theory book, A Theory of Fun, Suede said. “There’s a balance between fun that’s too hard and fun that’s too easy.” Finding the right balance between easy and hard is the challenge. “If it’s too much of either, it’s boring.”
For more about Andrighetti, Lacombe and Suede, as well as the Readers & ’ritas convention, see the site for convention sponsor Fresh Fiction, at http://freshfiction.com/.
Showing posts with label Readers and ’ritas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Readers and ’ritas. Show all posts
Monday, November 10, 2014
Monday, November 18, 2013
Wordcraft -- Romance with the strangest beings
Dear Romance Writer -- I can’t figure my boyfriend out. One minute, he’s normal, the next he’s grown fangs that would give an orthodontist nightmares. And even though I have visions about him (literally), I can’t tell whether the scene where he mistakes an obnoxious relative for a turkey is about the coming Thanksgiving dinner or from a past life. Is it safe to bring him home to meet my family? Signed, Desperate in Dallas
With apologies to paranormal romance authors, Vicki Lewis Thompson, Jaye Wells, and Shannon K. Butcher, Desperate in Dallas’s letter is a sample of world they write about. It’s a twenty-first century world, but one where heroine and hero face more challenges than Jane Austen ever dreamed of on their way to finding happiness together. But although the heroine’s family may be witches and the hero’s beasts, love still wins if lovers can keep their wits as sharp as their fangs.
It’s a subgenre dominated by the world of the internet and e-books, and a panel discussion of “All Things Paranormal” drew a standing room only crowd at the Readers & ’ritas conference in Allen, Texas this month.
What draws writers and their readers to this genre of romance and the supernatural?
“It’s so engrossing,” Butcher said. (Yes, she is married to paranormal fantasy author Jim Butcher). “You live in this other world, keeping true to the laws of physics you set up. I‘ll reverse engineer a world to evoke a particular emotional response, to forge an emotional landscape.” (And for more about her and the world of her stories, see http://shannonkbutcher.com/.)
Wells agreed. “World building is the organic, play part for me. I find it hard not to write paranormal. When you’re writing paranormal, if things slow down, you can always throw in a demon.”
“What I do when it’s getting boring is throw in some sex,” Thompson said, drawing a hearty response from the audience. She admits to being the most light-hearted of the group. “Since I like humor, I’m going to have humorous stuff in the world.” In addition to more traditional romance series, the latest in her “Wild About You” series, Werewolf in Las Vegas, is due out next spring, according to her site,
www.vickilewisthompson.com/.
Wells asserts that the devil beams her wittiest lines to her through her dental fillings, and otherwise indulges her hand at humor under the pen name Kate Eden. Her (Wells’, not Eden’s) next book is the first of an upcoming series, Prospero’s War, is about a female cop out to clean up the traffic in illegal and addictive dirty magic. For more updates and to read sample chapters of this and other Wells’ series, see
http://jayewells.com
Butcher’s upcoming Willing Sacrifice, due March 2014, opens with a vision heroine Rory Rainey declares can’t be expunged from her mind with all the brain bleach in the world.
Given that they’re writing about sex, magic, the supernatural, and decidedly un-normal characters, have they ever written anything bizarre enough for their editors to delete?
“I try things,” Wells said, “thinking my editor’s not going to let me get away with it, but she never does. The only thing she insists on is that it needs to drive the story action.”
“I’ve never had an editor call me (on writing),” Thompson said, “but my daughter is my beta reader and she’s called me!”
And for those wanting to learn more about writing romances (the biggest-selling book genre in the U.S.), see the Romance Writers of America website, at
www.rwa.org/.
With apologies to paranormal romance authors, Vicki Lewis Thompson, Jaye Wells, and Shannon K. Butcher, Desperate in Dallas’s letter is a sample of world they write about. It’s a twenty-first century world, but one where heroine and hero face more challenges than Jane Austen ever dreamed of on their way to finding happiness together. But although the heroine’s family may be witches and the hero’s beasts, love still wins if lovers can keep their wits as sharp as their fangs.
It’s a subgenre dominated by the world of the internet and e-books, and a panel discussion of “All Things Paranormal” drew a standing room only crowd at the Readers & ’ritas conference in Allen, Texas this month.
What draws writers and their readers to this genre of romance and the supernatural?
“It’s so engrossing,” Butcher said. (Yes, she is married to paranormal fantasy author Jim Butcher). “You live in this other world, keeping true to the laws of physics you set up. I‘ll reverse engineer a world to evoke a particular emotional response, to forge an emotional landscape.” (And for more about her and the world of her stories, see http://shannonkbutcher.com/.)
Wells agreed. “World building is the organic, play part for me. I find it hard not to write paranormal. When you’re writing paranormal, if things slow down, you can always throw in a demon.”
“What I do when it’s getting boring is throw in some sex,” Thompson said, drawing a hearty response from the audience. She admits to being the most light-hearted of the group. “Since I like humor, I’m going to have humorous stuff in the world.” In addition to more traditional romance series, the latest in her “Wild About You” series, Werewolf in Las Vegas, is due out next spring, according to her site,
www.vickilewisthompson.com/.
Wells asserts that the devil beams her wittiest lines to her through her dental fillings, and otherwise indulges her hand at humor under the pen name Kate Eden. Her (Wells’, not Eden’s) next book is the first of an upcoming series, Prospero’s War, is about a female cop out to clean up the traffic in illegal and addictive dirty magic. For more updates and to read sample chapters of this and other Wells’ series, see
http://jayewells.com
Butcher’s upcoming Willing Sacrifice, due March 2014, opens with a vision heroine Rory Rainey declares can’t be expunged from her mind with all the brain bleach in the world.
Given that they’re writing about sex, magic, the supernatural, and decidedly un-normal characters, have they ever written anything bizarre enough for their editors to delete?
“I try things,” Wells said, “thinking my editor’s not going to let me get away with it, but she never does. The only thing she insists on is that it needs to drive the story action.”
“I’ve never had an editor call me (on writing),” Thompson said, “but my daughter is my beta reader and she’s called me!”
And for those wanting to learn more about writing romances (the biggest-selling book genre in the U.S.), see the Romance Writers of America website, at
www.rwa.org/.
Monday, November 11, 2013
Wordcraft -- Romance writing with a side of mayhem
There are as many kinds of romance writing as there are writers--or readers. And last weekend’s Readers & ’ritas conference in Allen, Texas, brought out so many, I had to make some difficult decisions in picking which discussions to attend.
One that made the list was the “50 Shades of Mystery” panel featuring authors with styles as different as Diane Kelly’s relatively light-hearted Death and Taxes series, Mary Burton’s law enforcement thrillers, Kay Thomas’s Elite Ops military-flavored series, and Dianna Love’s terrorist hunting operatives. The covers for their books feature guns, bullet holes, and fully-clothed characters (with maybe a bare shoulder or so). And they do believe in doing their background work, from the Writers Police Academy; to citizen police academies, to trying on the ever-present Kevlar vests. And talking a lot to experts.
So what, exactly, does it take to write a story that qualifies as “romantic suspense”? And how much suspense/thriller/mystery gets added to the mix? And given the usually slender page counts for series romances, how much room does a writer have to deal with multiple plot complications.
To a great extent, panelists agreed, the answers depend on the which publisher--and which line of that publisher--the author is writing for.
“We talk a lot about the percentage,” Thomas said. “It’s fifty percent suspense, fifty percent romance for some lines,” with other publishers looking for as little as twenty percent or as much as eighty percent of the plot to come from suspense elements. Although Romance Writers of America’s criteria for awarding awards requires the love story to be the main focus, sometimes the suspense is dominant bookstores don’t even shelve the volumes in their romance sections, as Kelly says happens to hers.
And Love and Thomas are tending toward single title books rather than series, to allow for more complicated plots. “My newest is 110,000 words,” Love said. “I write what I
enjoy and I like really big.” (Compare that to the Romance Writers of America guidelines for “traditional romance” with word counts topping out at 60,000.)
How hard is it to do to the technical research for suspense writing, a reader asked. “The research can really fuel your writing,” answered Burton, who recommends the Writers’ Police Academy, to be held next fall in Jamestown, N.C. And all panelists agreed on the need to check facts with experts.
“People are so willing to be helpful,” Thomas said, adding that she’s also lucky to have a homicide detective as a family friend.
“It helps if they know you,” Burton agreed, and especially if the interviews are done in person, “because honestly,” she admits, “if you just email, your questions will sound kind of creepy.”
Face to face interviews can also bring out information a writer may not think to ask questions about, Kelly noted.
Just how much of the facts she gathers does a writer need to put into her books?
“Sometimes you can’t be technically correct but you have to do enough to draw the reader in,” Burton said. “Too much information is a huge temptation.”
“It’s a balancing act,“ Kelley said. “What do you owe your sources and what do you owe your readers? I would never make (my sources) look bad, but as a writer I have to do what it takes to entertain a reader.”
Readers & ’ritas is a program of Fresh Fiction, the brain child of mother-daughter book reviewers Sara and Gwen Reyes. See Fresh Fiction events and featured authors, at
www.freshfiction.com/.
For information about the Writers’ Police Academy, which usually sells out quickly, see www.writerspoliceacadmy.com/.
(Next Monday--romancing the paranormal, another facet of the Readers & ’ritas conference.)
One that made the list was the “50 Shades of Mystery” panel featuring authors with styles as different as Diane Kelly’s relatively light-hearted Death and Taxes series, Mary Burton’s law enforcement thrillers, Kay Thomas’s Elite Ops military-flavored series, and Dianna Love’s terrorist hunting operatives. The covers for their books feature guns, bullet holes, and fully-clothed characters (with maybe a bare shoulder or so). And they do believe in doing their background work, from the Writers Police Academy; to citizen police academies, to trying on the ever-present Kevlar vests. And talking a lot to experts.
So what, exactly, does it take to write a story that qualifies as “romantic suspense”? And how much suspense/thriller/mystery gets added to the mix? And given the usually slender page counts for series romances, how much room does a writer have to deal with multiple plot complications.
To a great extent, panelists agreed, the answers depend on the which publisher--and which line of that publisher--the author is writing for.
“We talk a lot about the percentage,” Thomas said. “It’s fifty percent suspense, fifty percent romance for some lines,” with other publishers looking for as little as twenty percent or as much as eighty percent of the plot to come from suspense elements. Although Romance Writers of America’s criteria for awarding awards requires the love story to be the main focus, sometimes the suspense is dominant bookstores don’t even shelve the volumes in their romance sections, as Kelly says happens to hers.
And Love and Thomas are tending toward single title books rather than series, to allow for more complicated plots. “My newest is 110,000 words,” Love said. “I write what I
enjoy and I like really big.” (Compare that to the Romance Writers of America guidelines for “traditional romance” with word counts topping out at 60,000.)
How hard is it to do to the technical research for suspense writing, a reader asked. “The research can really fuel your writing,” answered Burton, who recommends the Writers’ Police Academy, to be held next fall in Jamestown, N.C. And all panelists agreed on the need to check facts with experts.
“People are so willing to be helpful,” Thomas said, adding that she’s also lucky to have a homicide detective as a family friend.
“It helps if they know you,” Burton agreed, and especially if the interviews are done in person, “because honestly,” she admits, “if you just email, your questions will sound kind of creepy.”
Face to face interviews can also bring out information a writer may not think to ask questions about, Kelly noted.
Just how much of the facts she gathers does a writer need to put into her books?
“Sometimes you can’t be technically correct but you have to do enough to draw the reader in,” Burton said. “Too much information is a huge temptation.”
“It’s a balancing act,“ Kelley said. “What do you owe your sources and what do you owe your readers? I would never make (my sources) look bad, but as a writer I have to do what it takes to entertain a reader.”
Readers & ’ritas is a program of Fresh Fiction, the brain child of mother-daughter book reviewers Sara and Gwen Reyes. See Fresh Fiction events and featured authors, at
www.freshfiction.com/.
For information about the Writers’ Police Academy, which usually sells out quickly, see www.writerspoliceacadmy.com/.
(Next Monday--romancing the paranormal, another facet of the Readers & ’ritas conference.)
Monday, November 26, 2012
Wordcraft -- Romance, historically speaking
A couple of weeks ago, I reported on the influence of romance fiction on current popular writing. But a single post couldn’t do justice to a genre beloved by a significant segment of readers. A much-lamented survey by Pew Internet Libraries earlier this year reported that 19 percent of American adults read no books whatsoever last year. Before we writers faint, remember this means about 80 percent of the adult population did read books. And very often, they read romances.
Romance Writers of America reported that 20 percent of romance readers bought (and presumably read) at least one book monthly, putting them in the 45 percent or so of people in the Pew study who reported reading at least six books, and in some cases 50 or more, in 2011.
Of those romance books, nearly half -- both in print and e-book versions -- were historical romances. Which explains why the panel on historical romances was one of the best attended at the Readers and ’ritas convention in Allen, Texas, earlier this month.
Why read historical romance? Asked that questions, panelist (and former lawyer) Lauren Willig turned the tables on audience members -- asking why they were attracted to historical romances such as her Pink Carnation series. Why look for relationship guidance to eras whose rules were so different from today’s?
“I don’t think people have changed. The mores have changed,” said panelist Elizabeth Boyle (Along Came a Duke).
Some audience members yearned wistfully for the tension derived from cultural taboos of the past -- “the looks across the room, the point where they can touch hands.”
“I like taking a challenging idea and putting it in a historical situation,” said panelist Cathy Maxwell (The Chattan Curse series and others). “What I’m interested in is the dynamics of the relationship and whether these people are going to complement each other.”
But if the point is the relationship, is it permissible to bend the rules of history to make them serve the story?
“As writers of historical fiction, we’re only allowed to know what (the people of the time) know,” Willig said. “Taking things that could have happened is all right.”
“(But) there’s no artistic license for dates,” Maxwell said. “If we can get it right, we should get it right.”
On the other hand, “There are expectations of readers,” Boyle said. “It’s better to put in something that’s factually incorrect than to put in something that readers won’t accept. A book doesn’t live until it’s read.”
(For details of the Pew survey and the Romance Writers of America statistics, see http://libraries.pewinternet/ and www.rwa.org/cs/readership_stats/.)
(Next Monday -- Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Kidder insisted at this year’s Literature + Medicine conference that he didn’t set out to do a good deed when he wrote about third world health problems. He just wanted to tell a good story.)
Romance Writers of America reported that 20 percent of romance readers bought (and presumably read) at least one book monthly, putting them in the 45 percent or so of people in the Pew study who reported reading at least six books, and in some cases 50 or more, in 2011.
Of those romance books, nearly half -- both in print and e-book versions -- were historical romances. Which explains why the panel on historical romances was one of the best attended at the Readers and ’ritas convention in Allen, Texas, earlier this month.
Why read historical romance? Asked that questions, panelist (and former lawyer) Lauren Willig turned the tables on audience members -- asking why they were attracted to historical romances such as her Pink Carnation series. Why look for relationship guidance to eras whose rules were so different from today’s?
“I don’t think people have changed. The mores have changed,” said panelist Elizabeth Boyle (Along Came a Duke).
Some audience members yearned wistfully for the tension derived from cultural taboos of the past -- “the looks across the room, the point where they can touch hands.”
“I like taking a challenging idea and putting it in a historical situation,” said panelist Cathy Maxwell (The Chattan Curse series and others). “What I’m interested in is the dynamics of the relationship and whether these people are going to complement each other.”
But if the point is the relationship, is it permissible to bend the rules of history to make them serve the story?
“As writers of historical fiction, we’re only allowed to know what (the people of the time) know,” Willig said. “Taking things that could have happened is all right.”
“(But) there’s no artistic license for dates,” Maxwell said. “If we can get it right, we should get it right.”
On the other hand, “There are expectations of readers,” Boyle said. “It’s better to put in something that’s factually incorrect than to put in something that readers won’t accept. A book doesn’t live until it’s read.”
(For details of the Pew survey and the Romance Writers of America statistics, see http://libraries.pewinternet/ and www.rwa.org/cs/readership_stats/.)
(Next Monday -- Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Kidder insisted at this year’s Literature + Medicine conference that he didn’t set out to do a good deed when he wrote about third world health problems. He just wanted to tell a good story.)
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