making the characters feel real

 Writing a romance has its own challenges if you want the relationship to feel believable. Well, the truth of it is a romance is both fairy tale and reality. It should feel like it could happen all the time it's a mythology that carries the reader to a higher plateau than their usual routine-- they hope because romances have danger or angst as part of their repertoire. In real life, we prefer easier paths-- well most of us do. We though can vicariously experience other worlds and ways through what we choose to read.

Making the romance believable is something constantly on my mind as I write this new story where I have two characters with independent goals. Realizing they love each other is not the end of their struggle. Next comes-- how the heck is this going to work out? 

For every book I have written and by now there have been 15 published (one of those has 3 separate romances within it), I am always presented with the challenge of the general plot swirling around these characters-- but most of all this couple and how they have come to want each other. The stages of romantic love are important to keep in view. The images on a board help me do that.

In a genre romance with a mandatory happily ever after, the reader knows it will work out. Any talk of cliff hangers is just a question of 'how' it will work out, not if. A good writer will make that seem believable even as it could also seem it'd have gone the other way.

With this current work in progress, I have images on my bulletin board to remind me what to keep behind my words. I bought images from Period Images, printed off some, and set them in my backdrops. For this new couple, only one of the images I bought will end up the cover. It is this one, and the emotions I see in it are his conflict, torn between the world he has lived for over ten years, much of it involving wars, and now this woman in his arms, who sees his doubts and has her own conflicts to overcome.

The others are for my writing and will be in trailers-- probably. I put them on my bulletin board to keep in mind the stages of a romance, the joy, the passion, and the concern.

Along with the couple, in this series, there will be four romances-- the first one began in 1852. This is the Stevens family and keeping that family always in my mind makes for a better story, I think. Relationships are not just about the couple but the community in which they have grown up, live, fight, and love.

Besides the people, the other important character, for me in any story, is the landscape (top image) in which the story is set. So it also is pinned to my board to keep me always remembering what they see, smell and feel when they look around their world.

Sexuality and Fiction

Recently I had an articulate reader comment on my books in the Amazon Forums. She said she had not bought any, even though they looked interesting, because of her dislike of sexuality in books. She felt my covers indicated they might have that sort of thing inside (she was right). She thought a rating for sexuality would be helpful in my product descriptions.

I wrote back that I'd have a problem deciding how I could rate mine even if I could think of a rating system. One of my books got a review in a book review blog. I only stumbled across it by doing a name search to see what was out there in mine. She gave that book a 2 star in passion. Since a 5 star is tops where it comes to rating a book, I am guessing she was saying that while there was some passion, it wasn't that much. I am not sure if that was her meaning-- other than if someone wants zero sex, they don't want my books. On the other hand, if they are looking for erotica, they don't either.

If I used the ratings like for films, it wouldn't get much easier. I would definitely not say my books are PG but then would they be PG-13? When my granddaughter asked if she would be able to read them, I said not for some years. It wasn't just about the sex though. It's about grown-up attitudes toward romance. I don't really want her thinking soul-mates at her age.

When I think about an R rating, I am not sure my books are sexy enough for an R. I have read a lot of romance books where a sexual encounter can go on for pages, sometimes 20 or more. Mine are more about the leading up than the actual doing as I am not into reading or writing blow by blow descriptions. But on the other hand, they don't fade out before the big event either (and there will be at least one big event somewhere along the way). 

I am still thinking how sexuality can be handled in the blurbs for the books. I am comfortable with the level I use in the actual books-- and I did think about it. My belief is that healthy sexuality is good for adults. I think it's fun to write and seems rewarding for the characters and me. And I am about a full experience for those characters as well as the person who will pick up the book.

In my own reading, I don't mind sex in a book, but I wouldn't buy one for it either. One writer I've read over the years used the term blush for the level of sex in her books. Well I agree she has sex and it's described, sometimes step by step, but blushing? I don't know what it would take to get me to blush regarding sex in a book.

If a writer puts in more sex than interests me (and for me it's not about offensive, it's about boring), I skip over it. In some books I have read, that can mean I get a short story rather than a full novel.

IF I make a mistake and get a book with what I feel is a perversion of sex, I throw that one out rather than trade it back in. I wouldn't put a nasty review on that author's page, but I sure wouldn't buy another book by them either. The only kind of sexuality I am interested in reading or writing is healthy relationships between two people.

In my case that means male and female, not because I consider the other unhealthy but because I don't know much about it. I try to stick to what I do know something about from my own experiences. I have had gay characters, but they are always secondary-- i.e. friend of hero or heroine.

An idea for a book has rolled around in my head for awhile. It came to me in a set of two of my movie type dreams that came a couple of weeks apart. In the first dream the hero has been in a long time relationship with another man-- basically his life mate. He and the heroine are forced to go on the run from a criminal element and in spending so much time together, they fall in love.

In the dream, he might have known he was bisexual before this, but she was totally surprised as she may have been attracted to him but didn't let herself imagine it could be anything. In the first of the dreams, they didn't pursue it once they escaped from whatever they were trying to flee. Although it appeared that his partner was sick and when he died, maybe as much as five years later, they would seek each other out.

In the second dream about these same people, his primary relationship turned out to be with a crime boss-- meaning he had been betrayed by his long-time partner thereby not only proving dangerous, but also giving him a legitimate reason to go to her. If I had ever tried to fully develop this idea, I would not have written about his same sex experiences but only the new one with the woman. (The dream didn't reveal either as I have to admit here, I don't dream about sex. I am more of a dream right up to it and fade to black kind of dreamer.)

Usually when you do see a movie or read a book about three people in this kind of triangle, it's from the other end where the man and woman have been in a long time relationship and then one of them recognizes their true sexuality is to be gay.

 I haven't tried to develop this idea not because I think readers would not go for it (who knows on that).  I don't write based on whether I think an idea would be popular with readers. Instead my hesitation was because I thought it might be offensive to gay people where I have read that many don't think there is such a thing as bi-sexuality. Gays are fighting for respect on so many levels now that I would hate to write something offensive or implying people can change their gender at will. I don't believe that but what I do think is some are gay, some are straight, and some can go between, but what do I know about it. Hence it has seemed wiser to leave this idea on the discard pile where a lot of other ideas for books end up.

Well, that was kind of a distraction to my main topic which was to try and figure out some kind of sexuality rating for my own books that alerts readers to avoid them if they are opposed to sex in a book-- married/committed or not. I know one thing-- they aren't sweet and they aren't Christian. But what they aren't doesn't say what they are.

From Here to There

To me, the best romances are about more than a romantic relationship but are laid into a story bigger, one that is about life itself. 'From Here to There’ is such a story set into several mythologies, the perfection of another person, of a place, and of histories that might or might not be true.

Helene Lamont, from a tony Boston family, is being married in a lavish Boston wedding when she realizes, no matter what the cost, she's not willing to live a life such as her parents have done. She has seen a better example of what marriage can be like in that of her deceased aunt and rancher uncle. She tells her brand new husband of her decision between the wedding service and the reception.

Multimillionaire, Phillip Drummond is in shock at the idea his trophy wife has turned into an albatross to ruin his carefully built reputation as a business wunderkind. He had the perfect wife to perfect his image right up until she is about to make a fool of him. Helene’s decision throws him back into memories of his growing up in a world, nothing like hers, that he has tried to hide.

When Helene’s Montana rancher uncle, Amos, visits Phillip with an offer to come west to his ranch where Helene will be living for awhile, Phillip at first sees him as out of his mind. What does he know about ranching? He'd be a total dude. No thanks. Still it irks him that his own toughness was not recognized by Helene. Will he also head West despite knowing it is pure foolishness?

Set mostly in Montana, it depicts the life real ranchers live today with its costs and rewards. This book is a love story of two couples, one out of the past through a journal, but also love of the mythology of the West, ranch life, and a region I have personally come to care for very much. From Here to There is about our illusions. It is also about a truth that life is led in the moments between here and there.

It is now available through Kindle at the following link-- From Here to There -- for purchase or borrowing as part of Amazon Prime.

For more of my thinking on this story, click on the button alongside here, Romance with an Edge, where I wrote further thoughts on the story and what is behind it as I see it.