True Romance - More than Chocolate and Flowers?

Sarah Raplee here.  I write Romantic stories in several sub-genres of Romance.

Today’s Blogversation is about defining what romance is to you, and sharing what you find romantic.

I think the Wikipedia definition of romance is a little dry, but on point:

“Romance is an emotional feeling of love for, or a strong attraction towards another person, and the courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings and resultant emotions.”

To me, romance refers to words and actions that express a feeling of love, strong attraction and deep connection between two people. It includes elements of mystery and surprise.

For example, when my husband and I had been dating for a couple of weeks, he “pinned” me with a child’s Smokey the Bear pin to show he wanted to date me exclusively. This was special because part of his job as a forestry firefighter was to visit schools in a Smokey the Bear Costume to give talks about preventing wildfires (and it expressed his quirky sense of humor).

Simple things like choosing a special gift for your honey, or writing a love note on an ordinary day, can be very romantic.

What does romance mean to you?  What do you find romantic?

Travel Adventures in Writing

by M. L. Buchman

Well, last month I messed up and used this month's theme of "Adventures in Travel" for last month's blog post about writing the book of my bicycle journey around the world:
https://romancingthegenres.blogspot.com/2019/07/every-book-has-its-time.html

I figured that this month I should look at my "travels" in writing.

Recently I was part of a small group discussion about the drop-out rate of authors from the industry, many of them with reasonably established careers. We talked a bit about why it happens. I eventually proposed a "model" but I've given it a lot of thought since and wanted to explore this a bit more.

I'm not talking about the "fad" writers. "Oh, everything with Girl in the title is hot, I'll write one of those." "Oh $0.99 books with massive ad campaigns are the answer to everything." Most of these folks are gone as quickly as they arrived. I'm talking about people who want to have a good, consistent writing career.

There are a number of hurdles to clear, things that can really stop authors in such a way they may never recover:

• Actually finishing and letting go of (publishing) that first book.
• The terror of the blank page of the second book especially after all that pretty polishing of the first.
• Five books later, discovering that this career requires hard, consistent work, and that success rarely just dangles from the trees. Yes, there are the breakout writers, but I'm not talking about those, I'm talking about steady, workaday writers like myself.

But once they clear the five-book hurdle, most authors seem able to continue up to that 20-book threshold. Then a massive winnowing happens at this point and this is what aroused my (and the group's) curiosity.

Why at 20 books?

By then, especially if the author focused intelligently on a genre or series, income is often moving nicely. Maybe not stellar yet, but probably a decent income. They know how much work it is.

And then they just walk away. 

My theory on this is actually tied up in my own recent experience. I have fifty-two romance novels across multiple series. But 12 of those are in contemporary romance, which is quite different from writing military romantic suspense. And the military rom was split up across multiple series and the last 9 years (so I wrote many other things in between, perhaps bypassing that 20-book trip point that way).

But why at 20 books?

My theory is that most of the truly long career writers I've spoken to have had to reinvent themselves. Either the industry or the traditional publishers' perception of the industry created tectonic-scale shifts and suddenly Gothic romance, westerns, horror, Cold War thrillers, science fiction in general, and so on simply were no longer a viable option. A writer who wrote 20 novels without being "forced" to reinvent themselves would consider that they'd had a good run.

Then along came indie publishing. Now we are able to reach an on-going audience despite any trends or perceived trends. We are free to write 40 military romantic suspense novels as part of a career with no clear pressure to reinvent ourselves.

I think that this is the real 20-book trap. Twenty novels is typically between 1 and 2 million words. Isn't it time for a break? For a change up? For a refreshing of motivation? You don't have to do as I have and jump whole genres, but shifting from mystery to thriller, from noir to cozy, from space opera to apocalyptica, even small-town romance to urban romance. These kind of changes keep us fresh as writers. At least that's my theory.

Yes, many careers were ended by the "tectonic" shifts of the past, but how many more were created anew by an author reinventing and refreshing themselves? I'd wager the later number is far bigger.

I recently noticed that my own instinctive writer was looking for a change. My last several military romantic suspense novels have been reviewed with "thrilling, fast-paced, adventure" far more than heart-felt romance as they used to be.

So? I've decided to listen to that for a while. I'm not abandoning romance. But for now, I'm working very hard to reinvent myself as a thriller writer. We'll see how that goes...

Coming November 19th and December 17th the Miranda Chase NTSB thrillers:

More Info / Pre-order

A supersonic drone flies Black Ops missions from the most secure hangar in the nation.

A C-130 Hercules transport plane lies shattered in the heart of America’s Top Secret military airbase — Groom Lake in the Nevada Test and Training Range.

China’s newest stealth J-31 jet fighter goes missing.

The CIA, the military, and the National Reconnaissance Office are all locked in a power struggle.

One woman is trapped in the middle. Miranda Chase, lead crash investigator for the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board), becomes a pawn in a very dangerous game.

Burdened with a new team, she must connect the pieces to stay alive. And she must do it before the wreckage of her past crashes down upon her.

Think I'm right or wrong? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the challenges facing career-writers.

---

M.L. “Matt” Buchman started the first of over 60 novels, 100 short stories, and a fast-growing pile of audiobooks while flying from South Korea to ride his bicycle across the Australian Outback. Part of a solo around the world trip that ultimately launched his writing career in: thrillers, SF/F, and romance.

His titles have been named Barnes & Noble and NPR “Top 5 of the year” and 3-time Booklist “Top 10 of the Year” as well as being a “Top 20 Modern Masterpiece” in romantic suspense. As a 30-year project manager with a geophysics degree who has: designed and built houses, flown and jumped out of planes, and solo-sailed a 50’ ketch, he is awed by what's possible. More at: www.mlbuchman.com.

Travel Tale

By Courtney Pierce

Photo: Clash of the Titans

My 13-year-old stepdaughter rebelled about our recent move to Kalispell, Montana. She didn’t want to leave her friends, nor did she want to have to attend a new school. All her insecurities released like the Kraken. She even accused us of “ruining her childhood.” Personally, I love to relocate. It's a chance to explore, meet new friends, and break out of stale routines.

Then I told her what I did in my senior year in high school.

In the summer of 1976, my family moved from New Jersey to Northern California. For most parents, it would be unthinkable to relocate across the country prior to their kids entering their senior year in high school, but mine did without hesitation. My immediate reaction was, “What about my friends? What about my voice coach? What about Prom?” But deep down, I embraced the upside: adventure, new friends, a new voice coach, and prospects for a real boyfriend that didn’t know me through any embarrassing stages of growing up.

Moving allowed me to reinvent myself, wipe the slate clean, so to speak. I could start out as

a young adult, a California girl, just like in the Coke commercialsꟷblond, tan, my toes in the sand. I could experience life with the accompaniment of Beach Boys music.

Ahhh . . . gotta love the teenage imagination. And it only got better.

As a serious vocal student, I immediately won favor with the Performing Arts teachers at my new high school. These relationships also gave me the inside track to making friends. In short order, my new voice teacher presented me with an opportunity to audition for America’s Youth in Concert, a choir and orchestra whose members represented each state of the nation on a summer-long tour of Europe. I figured it was a long shot, but what the heck, so I sent in an audition tape.

My crude recording won me the spot of lyric soprano in the choir, and I would represent the state of California. After graduation, it would be off to Europe for me with my very first passport in hand.

We started the tour in New York's Carnegie Hall, then hopped over the pond to London, France, Austria, and Italy. While it was hard work performing every night, I had a blast. I gobbled up the living history of every city we visited, and I swore I saw the purported ghost that lurks in the circular hallways of London’s Royal Albert Hall. In Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral, I imagined the Hunchback hiding out in the bell tower to listen to our performance. In Rome, I sang beneath Michelangelo's amazing painted ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. It was a life-changing experience. It also gave me independence and a work ethic for entering college.

I won’t kid you that the hard work balanced out with a huge amount of fun. At eighteen, my hormones were raging during my free time, especially if those off-hours involved a male foreign accent. By today’s standards, though, I was a goody-two-shoes, though, and I took my responsibility of state representation seriously. 

Forty-three years later, while packing for our move to Montana, I came across my photos and yearbook from that Europe trip, the summer of my life. I ended up sitting on the floor for nearly an hour while I relived so many long-forgotten moments of my younger and suppler days. Even after all this time, I’m still appreciative of the opportunity my parents afforded me.

As if by design, I found out that my stepdaughter’s new school in Montana will be sponsoring a trip to Europe during Spring Break of 2020. I signed her up for one of the twelve spots and surprised her with the news. She squealed like a stuck piglet at the county fair. Her trepidation about the move melted and, suddenly, Kalispell, Montana was a-okay  when attached with a 10-day trip to London. 

But I think it was more than the trip that won her over. My stepdaughter is now focused on the woman she thinks she'll be, not the girl she left behind. The trip will help her get to that place of confidence and independence, just like it did for me. And she's looking at Kalispell, Montana with new eyes, appreciating the beauty that surrounds her.

She skips rocks over the lake and sits with us on the porch

to watch the light-show from a thunderstorm. We gaze at the fiery stars. We run to the front window to marvel at the deer prancing across our driveway and anticipate our first sighting of a mountain lion or grizzly bear. Bald eagles and osprey circle overhead to hunt, and her Dad takes her to fish for bass in the lake while I make dinner.

I watch the two of them glide past the windows. She's going to be just fine.

I’ve come full circle. It's time to pay it forward. The opportunity that was afforded to me, I can now pass along to her. And thank goodness for Brexit, because the £175 that I have in my safe will still buy more than one round of fish and chips and several souvenirs.

Of course, the moving box of travel books had to be opened first. My stepdaughter has been poring through them for all the details of the Crown Jewels, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and chopped-off heads rolling on the dirt floor of the Tower of London. There will be much for her to take in when she goes to go to Oxford, Buckingham Palace, and sees a West End show in Piccadilly Circus.

It makes me squeal with delight, like that happy piglet, to do this for her. I'll never forget those stomach flutters as the plane lowered for a landing in London's Heathrow Airport. I was never the same kid again.

Photo: Micah Brooks

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband, stepdaughter, and their brainiac cat, Princeton. Courtney writes for the baby boomer audience. She spent 28 years as an executive in the entertainment industry and used her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. She studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and She Writes. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal.

Audiobook now Available!

Check out all of Courtney's books: 

courtney-pierce.com and

windtreepress.com 

Print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com.

Available Now!
Book 3 of the
Dushane Sisters
Trilogy

The Dushane Sisters Trilogy concludes with Indigo Legacy, available now. There's love in the air for Olivia and Woody, but will family intrigue get in the way? Ride along for the wild trip that starts in a New York auction house and peaks in a mansion on Boston's Beacon Hill. 

The Dushane sisters finally get to the truth about their mother.

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."