Peace and Love Out of Conflict – the Heart of a Romance Novel ...... by Delsora Lowe

In the United States, July is a symbol of freedom and peace, as it is when we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. But that freedom came at a cost, as does most everything we do in life. 

Life isn’t filled with parades and marching bands and fireworks and speeches / proclamations about peace and freedom. It is filled with toil and dedication to a cause and brokering consensus and treating all fairly / equally…and conflict. It is all those things mentioned above that make this country stronger, and each individual in this country stronger.

Peace after conflict is vital. As is partnering or negotiating with those who might not agree with you, or be in the same space as you, an important step toward unity and peace.

As in our own lives, and in our hopes and dreams for a peaceful and functioning nation, as romance writers we also want our characters to find peace and joy and that all important and sometimes elusive happily-ever-after or happily-for-now.

But no person or character can find a satisfying end without some heavy-duty work toward achieving happiness along with the angst that is a natural part of any journey.

For me personally, the months of May and June have been filled with work and angst and conflict.

No, it’s not what you think 😊

In the last 6 weeks, I have taken three writing workshops on Conflict, each with a different approach. And each giving me more writer tools to effectively “torture” my characters before they finally conclude they cannot do without the partner I have aligned them with in my story. I put torture in parentheses because I write mainstream contemporary sweet and saucy romance. So, my torture of characters is only enough to make them work for the reward of finding that special person meant just for them.

How do we build enough conflict for our characters to learn, grow, and fall in love? In each workshop I learned many ways of making my stories more exciting for a reader.

In a month-long workshop, where the presenter “tortured” the writers with tons of wonderful information and assignments, I had many AHA moments on things I already knew I must do - things I had been doing - but with a makes-sense, step-by-step way of rooting out the core emotional wounds that make our characters who they are. Whether that internal wound comes from something that happened as a child or as an adult, it guides our character’s way of thinking and therefore reacting. They are the issues that both cause conflict for our characters and force them to overcome deep-seated stressors to find happiness. And in a good romance, the hero or heroine are our primary characters who will be paired up with the ones who will help the other overcome those burdens and move forward to embrace that happily-ever-after.

Internal wounds of a character fighting to resolve themselves and move on.

In another workshop, the presenter talks about the outside forces and / or the internal wounds each character brings to the story. Those are the pieces that generate conflict between the characters, as each individual may react differently to the same root cause. Facing and resolving those triggers individually and then together as the characters grow in the story, helps the characters overcome and open themselves to the happily-ever-after that is a prerequisite for the romance genre. Resolving the genesis of that internal conflict leads to peace and joy for the characters.

In the third workshop, we learned how to make peace with ourselves as a romance writer, while we “torture” our characters by throwing conflict in their paths, when all we really want to do is get to that wonderful, happy ending. The more conflict we throw at our characters, the more chances they have to work hard to overcome challenges. And having to struggle and fight all odds to find love makes it all the sweeter when our characters find love and peace in their lives.

So, celebrate peace while knowing that finding peace may, at times, include a lot of conflict and take a ton of work to overcome struggles. 

Happy July and Peace and Love Be With You!

Book Two of The Cowboys of Mineral Springs

Amazon 
Books2Read   

~ cottages to cabins ~ keep the home fires burning ~

Delsora Lowe writes small town sweet and spicy romances and contemporary westerns from the mountains of Colorado to the shores of Maine.

Author of the Starlight Grille series, Serenity Harbor Maine novellas, and the Cowboys of Mineral Springs series, Lowe has also authored short romances for Woman’s World magazine. Her new novella, The Love Left Behind, released in October, 2020. 

Social Media Links:

Author website: www.delsoralowe.com

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Books2Read Author page: https://www.books2read.com/ap/8GWm98/Delsora-Lowe

BookBub Author Page: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/delsora-lowe-93c6987f-129d-483d-9f5a-abe603876518

Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16045986.Delsora_Lowe 
Instagram: #delsoralowe / https://www.instagram.com/delsoralowe/

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Spark and Fire

By Courtney Pierce

Sorry to break it to you, but men and women are very different in how they forge relationships, especially in print. I’ve nailed the female side of the equation, but I tend to need serious support when it comes to behavior driven by testosterone. It’s like pushing my chapters into the TSA x-ray machine and waiting to hear, “Bag check!” on the other side.

I require all of my male characters to be vetted by the real deal—a manly man. My husband is a prolific reader, a writer, a mountain man, a hunter, a lover, a protector, and happens to have a huge heart (not necessarily in that order). He's the man for the job. He calls B.S. on my prose, becauseI tend to feminize emotions. And that's not how real men think. I can't pretend to know what goes on in an alpha-man brain, so I take the suggested changes with open arms. After six books, criticism makes my work better.

The story magic of a compelling relationship isn’t made up out of thin air. We authors infuse a  a goodly amount of emotional truth into the prose, both about ourselves and the partners we’ve had in our lives. How else could we pull off the creation of a relationship that’s believable? If it's real within the author, then it's real to the reader.

My husband is protective of his family to the point of hanging a 12-guage shot gun at the front door. He's ready for the "what if," and he'd fight to the death should there be a serious threat. Otherwise, he's a pretty mellow guy. I don't completely understand it, but I certainly feel protected and loved as a result. 

First time writers make the huge mistake of creating relationships with endless pages of dialog, usually from the female perspective. Their characters pour their hearts out to each other with endless blabber about feelings. I, myself, made this mistake in one of many drafts of my first book Stitches. I ended up deleting most of it after a heart-to-heart with my editor. I started over.

Relationships are forged with nuance. A glance. A touch. A connection across a room full of people. The unspoken moments create partner magic.

In my next book, BIG SKY TALK, Aubrey Cenderon brings three layers of baggage to her introduction to Sheriff Russell Knowles: the death of her father, several years of being a single woman, and leaving behind a career to transition into retirement. Little does Aubrey know that her baggage will drive the direction of her future—with a little supernatural help.

The sheriff ignites the spark through his protectiveness of Aubrey. He wants her safe from an injured grizzly bear in the neighborhood. The conflict and connection begin with a threat.

Russell Knowles sets off Aubrey’s healing process the minute he meets her. But he has a case to solve and Aubrey has the key. Something isn’t right here—or maybe it’s something quite right and new. His focus in his official capacity wavers in Aubrey’s presence. There’s something about her that awakens his six sense for the unexplained. The threat is of another world. Russell knows it, and so does Aubrey. 

No two people of Boomer age create an intimate connection without a history. Past experiences drive reactions and future actions. It’s inevitable. Characters fight and conquer old demons in order to start fresh. They each learn something new about themselves and grow in the process.

The unexplainable becomes the catalyst for bringing lovers together. The magic of a spiritual connection becomes the driving force.  And that's the magic of a relationship: the belief that something higher fuses two people together.

Love can't be analyzed, studied, documented, or forensically pulled apart to prove it's real. But we know in our heart it is very real.  While you can't touch it, touch is a result. You can't see the pheromones of love chemistry, but our head swoons with them. Our chest tightens from the heart pound, like looking over a cliff at crashing waves . . . 

and deciding 

                     to take 

                                a leap 

                                            of faith.

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband and stepdaughter. She 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 Authors of the Flathead. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal.

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

Check out all of Courtney's books: 

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com 

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."

Coming in 2022!

When Aubrey Cenderon moves to Montana after the death of her father, the peace and quiet of Big Sky Country becomes complicated with a knock on the door from the sheriff. An injured grizzly bear is on the loose and it must be eliminated before it kills again. The sheriff's insistence that she buy a gun for protection will present Aubrey with some serious soul-searching, because the grizzly-on-the-run is hunting her too . . . for a different reason.

I Read ...I Buy..Maybe Not!

By: Marcia King-Gamble
www.lovemarcia.com

It's a competitive world out there, and with so many authors offering free reads, I am  mighty selective about what I buy these days. Aren't you? Hard cover books are pushing the $30 mark and paperbacks can cost close to $10.00. So don't you  think twice before getting out that credit card? In today's world of outlet shopping I can get an entire outfit for that same 30.00 bucks.

Like you, I have a tendency to stick to the tried and true. Authors that I know for sure can deliver. Authors like Susan Elizabeth Phillips, because there isn't one of her stories I don't like. The same can be said for Donna Hill, and then there is Sandra Kitt - the reason I began this crazy writing career. Incidentally she is the co-author of my last book, titled By Design.

What most people don't realize is that even if you are traditionally published ( and you get editing services for free,) these professionals with their ivy league degrees are hardly infallible. You, the author, shouldn't leave all the proofing up to them. Your responsibility is to edit your book as best as you can, and even so, you are way too close to your work to catch all the errors.

That said, several things pull me out of a book. A poorly researched book being one of them. Sure I can forgive the occasional typo. I can even  forgive the dangling participles, and I can overlook the chapters that end without a hook. What I can't forgive are misspellings, or the inappropriate use of words. I have difficulty forgiving the author placing her story in a setting she is clearly unfamiliar with. For gosh sakes we live in the world of Google maps and videos.

Case in point, I recently read a novel set in the world of  the affluent, yet the author didn't have a clue that those enjoying that lifestyle would never wait in an airport lounge, or pick up their luggage at the carousel.  Further, she did not understand that the hotels they stayed in would never serve a $8.95 buffet breakfast in the lobby, and that such a thing as room service is a staple in most 4/5 star hotels.

I am by no means suggesting that we are all born with silver spoons in our mouths. I am simply suggesting that a little research could easily have added some authenticity to her story.  Another pet peeve of mine are self published authors with  homemade book covers.  Covers sell a book and if that book looks amateurish there go your sales. The only person you are hurting by being cheap is yourself. There are Internet companies that can help. I have gotten some beautiful covers from upcoming graphic artist looking to build a portfolio for as little as $5.00, and I have tipped them far more than they charged.

This brings me to another pet peeve of mine. Books with no internal conflict. What surprises me are the number of seasoned authors putting out books that are all external conflict. For those of you who don't know what I mean, let me elaborate. An external conflict is an issue created by an outside force; a situation going on in the hero/heroines environment. It drives the dramatic action of the plot. Think Romeo and Juliet and the two feuding families.

 The internal conflict is the war within. The struggle inside that usually prevents the characters from moving forward. It's the dilemma facing the characters and it's impact on them. If these people aren't relatable or flawed why should we care? Everyone has experiences that have scarred them and made them vulnerable. Readers want to read about people they can relate to and root for, and they want to see them grow. At the end of the book they want to have learned something.

When I read a book that is all external conflict, and no internal, it makes me wonder what drives that character. What are the stakes? How can I root for a character that I don't know, and why should they matter when the author has not provided the ground work for me to understand who they are, where they come from, and why is that goal so important to them?

Since I write romance, I need to know  what drives my characters. It's not enough that two people are attracted to each other and find love. What are the obstacles they face? What is so important to them to make them step out of their comfort zone to achieve that goal? It's got to be more important than winning that guy or girl.     

Books with no black moment are downright boring to me.  It's that knuckle biting moment when you think all is lost, and there is no hope of romance between these two people that keep you reading. If everything is hunky dory from start to finish it's yawn city.

I spend money on books to be carried away, and while I'm being transported to another world I want to learn something. If I stumble over sentences that require I reread them four or five times until I understand what the author is saying, then I get frustrated not carried away.

As authors we may only have one time to make a first impression (especially with new readers.) It pays to be your own harsh critic, and it also pays to enlist the services of an editor or proofreader.  It could very well be the best money spent.

About Marcia King-Gamble

Romance writer, Marcia King-Gamble originally hails from a sunny Caribbean island where the sky and ocean are the same mesmerizing shade of blue. This former travel industry executive and current world traveler has spent most of life in the United States. A National Bestselling author, Marcia has penned over 34 books and 8 novellas. Her free time is spent at the gym, traveling to exotic locales, and caring for her animal family.

Visit Marcia at www.lovemarcia.com or “friend” her on Facebook: http://bit.ly/1MlnrIS