Romance Novel Tropes

by Madelle Morgan

In my teens I devoured Harlequin category romances, so I knew exactly what I wanted to write about for this month's topic: Favorite Romantic Clichés. 

In the Muskoka series of contemporary romance novellas I'm writing, I will incorporate several of the familiar tropes listed below. 

Although, honestly, none of my books will have titles like The Bad Boy Billionaire's Secret Bride so as not to be confused with category romance!


Types of Hero

Protector (Military, Cop, Secret Agent, Firefighter, Bodyguard, etc.)
Sheikh
Billionaire/Tycoon/Developer
Royalty (King, Prince, Earl, Lord, Count, etc.)
Medical doctor/Surgeon
Cowboy
Boy Next Door
Bad Boy

Who Are You Again?

Amnesia
Mistaken Identity
One Night Stand
Reunited Lovers

With Friends Like These...

Friends to Lovers
Enemies to Lovers

Marriage

Marriage of Convenience
Bride

Babies
Baby on Doorstep
Secret Baby
Accidental Pregnancy

Literary Tales of Love
Beauty and the Beast (damaged Hero)

Cinderella (Heroine is transformed)

Upstairs/Downstairs (Heroine falls for Hero in higher social class or vice-versa; e.g. Wuthering Heights)


Have I left out any of your favorite tropes?

Which are your favorites?

www.madellemorgan.com

Harlequin - A Canadian Success Story

by Madelle Morgan

"After nearly four decades of romance, Torstar Corp. and book publisher Harlequin are breaking up." - Linda Nguyen, the Canadian Press.

On May 2, 2014, Canadian media company Torstar announced the sale of Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. to the U.S.-based News Corp. for $455 million. Harlequin will become a division of HarperCollins Publishers.

Am I the only Canadian woman who felt a little weepy at the news?

Canadians are used to foreign companies swooping in to buy up successful Canadian companies. Our oil & gas companies, mining, forest products, retail and high tech companies are mostly foreign-owned subsidiaries.

Now Harlequin Enterprises is one of them. (Sniff.)

Harlequin is an icon to many Canadian women over fifty. We spent many snug evenings reading Harlequins while howling wind blew snow into massive drifts during long, freezing winters.

In our early teens we read sweet romances, because that's all there was. I discovered my first Harlequin romances at thirteen while babysitting, and had to read fast to finish the book before the parents returned.

A Few Milestones on the Road to Entrepreneurial Success

Harlequin was founded in 1949 by Richard Bonnycastle and a couple of partners in Winnipeg, a Canadian prairie city smack dab in the center of Canada. We have to thank two women - Richard's secretary and his wife Mary - who convinced him of the mass appeal of romance novels. Significantly, Winnipeg winters are extremely long and cold. Harlequin published its first medical romance in 1953.

In 1954 Mary Bonnycastle became Harlequin's chief editor. Three years later, Mary persuaded her husband to acquire the North American distribution rights for category romance novels published by the British company Mills & Boon.

Richard and Mary's son Dick Bonnycastle, Jr. took over the company in 1968 and grew Harlequin into an international public company. In 1972 Harlequin acquired (some say merged with) Mills & Boon, Britain's most successful publishing house at the time.

Mills & Boon had a number of popular authors, but Harlequin had the marketing expertise. Were you one of those teenagers who flipped through Harlequins racked in drug stores, scanning for the good parts?  Women who actually had money could subscribe and receive a bundle of new books by mail every month, saving themselves the embarrassment of purchasing romance novels in a store. The money rolled into Harlequin's coffers.

Torstar bought a controlling interest in Harlequin in 1975. By the 1980s Harlequin was the world's leading romance publisher, distributing books in several languages.

If interested, you can read more about Harlequin's history on Wikipedia and in the book The Merchants of Venus: Inside Harlequin and the Empire of Romance, by Paul Grescoe.

How Harlequin Influenced My Life

Early Harlequin novels empowered women, led me personally to believe that I could have any career I wanted. Back then most young women were encouraged to become nurses, teachers or secretaries. But why be a nurse when you could be a doctor?

Harlequin launched the Presents line in 1973. Those novels expanded my small world, allowing me to travel vicariously to exotic locations. Who else loved those Greek and Italian millionaires in the early Presents novels?

As I grew up, so did Harlequin. It began publishing hotter romance lines like Desire, Temptation and Blaze. The tag line below says it all: "The things you can learn from books these days..." Millions of satisfied men and women owe a huge debt of gratitude to Harlequin.

In my thirties I decided to write a Harlequin! I targeted my first novel to the Desire line. A Harlequin editor rejected it for good reason, 'cause it was unsalvageable. But not to despair. According to those Harlequin heroine role models, women can achieve anything they set their minds to. I joined an RWA chapter and kept writing and submitting until my fourth novel was published by Ellora's Cave, another innovative publisher.

How did Harlequin romance novels influence your life?

www.MadelleMorgan.com

Using our Environment for Story and Character Ideas

Dear readers

One of the questions I’m frequently asked when people learn I’m a writer is, ‘How do you come up with your story ideas.’

Ideas flow thick and fast for me, however writing the story is the hard work.

The environment we live in is my inspiration. I use songs, movies, television programs, celebrities, and people I meet or know.

I use movies and TV to see what themes are popular. I love looking at modern day issues and then thinking what would that scenario be like in the Regency era.

Movies of course often look at classics like Shakespeare and put a modern twist on it.

In addition, a movie I love I’ll try and put my own twist on it and set it in the Regency period. For instance, I am looking at writing a Regency story a bit like No Mercy. I find the idea of a ‘lady’ virtually sold as a child an interesting concept and how she’d rise above that.

In my contemporaries, I like using themes that are a bit deeper.  In THE RELUCTANT WIFE, RomCon Readers' Crown 2013 Best Short Contemporary, I

selected a topic close to my heart; endometriosis and the impact this can have on a woman’s life.

A lyric in a song can also trigger an idea. Country songs in particular as they are often filled with heartache.

I guess, because my mind is always filled with stories, I tend to look at the world around me as a potential story. I’m one of these people that would be quite content sitting at a railway station, or the airport, watching people interacting and trying to imagine their stories.  I find it sad, for instance, when I see couples out for dinner and they spend the whole meal not saying a word to each other. Is it comfortable silence, or have they simply nothing to share with each other anymore? I find my imagination working overtime when I see this. I try to write a story that would see them find their spark again.

With my over-active imagination I never feel lonely. Characters are always popping in to say hello and keep me company.

How about you? Are you a people watcher? What’s your favorite place for people watching?

Here's to 2013 and a fab year!

Happy New Year!

Did you have a great beginning to 2013? It's summer in NZ so it was nice and hot. I'm holidaying in the Hawke's Bay a small wine growing region on the east coast of the North Island of NZ, about 4 hours drive from where I live.

It a new house just completed, except for the landscaping around the pool, but in this heat we're simply happy to have something to swim in. I'm here for about two weeks and I plan to relax, write and do some walking in the vineyards.

I don't normally make New Year resolutions but I do set myself goals for the year. How else will I know if I've achieved anything when I get to the end of the year? However, life sometimes does get in the way, so I try to make realistic goals.

2012 was a busy year for me. I had 5 books released, the last was my first contemporary romance, THE RELUCTANT WIFE, Entangled Indulgence 20 Dec 2012. It's a book very personal in nature - read it and you'll probably guess why. I can't say too much or it will give the plot away.

She married the wrong man, but has to pretend he’s the right guy…

Abby Taylor walked out on her irresistible husband three years ago. Now she has no choice but to return to Italy to ask him for a favor. To pay for her grandmother’s heart operation she needs his money, but it comes with strings attached.

Conte Dante Lombardi has it all—an Italian villa, a successful family business, and a noble title. But he needs a child to carry on his legacy and time is running out. He also hopes to satisfy the desire Abby rouses in him.

As Abby uncovers why he’s in such a hurry for a child, she falls in love with him again … just as she realizes it might be impossible to keep her end of the deal.

...an intense, passionate rollercoaster of a love story—just perfect!

- USA TODAY bestselling author Natalie Anderson

I hope my historical readers will take a risk on my contemporary and enjoy the change.

2013 is going to be just as busy because I have signed a three book deal with Random House Loveswept for 3 Regency romances (one is already completed) and I have the third Regency in the Invitation to series to complete and another contemporary, The Nanny Trap, to write. I'd also like to do another novella series this year too. Gosh, that sounds a lot. I'm starting to panic already and it's only the 3rd Jan.

I have just written my goals and here they are:

#1 To be healthy – lose weight, get a bit fitter – nothing is as important as your health. Can’t do anything else without it.

#2 To publish 4-5 books this year

#3 To sell my house so I can move to the Hawke’s Bay permanently

#4 To earn enough off my writing to give up the other day job

#5 To have fun and enjoy life with friend and family

I'll let you know how I go at the end of 2013. Doesn't that seem far away and yet 2012 whizzed by.

What are your goals for this year? Feel like sharing?

For the release of The Reluctant Wife, I'm running a contest over at Romance Wrangler - WIN a Kindle Fire or Kindle Touch. Check it out.Closes 15 January 2013 and it's open internationally.

http://romancewrangler.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/bronwenevans-thereluctantwife-bookreleasecontest.html