How the Romance Genre Picked Me

One of my critique partners is trying to decide what genre to write - since she reads and enjoys all of them! I started thinking about how I decided to write contemporary romance so I thought I would add my two cents.

This is probably not the best reason, but honestly I decided on romance because certain authors made it look "so easy". Prolific writers like Danielle Steele, and Debbie Macomber. I read their stuff, so incredibly popular and mainstream, and I started to think "I can do that."

Now when I would read the thriller/mystery/suspense genre (Lisa Gardner among my faves, who actually began in category romance) I would think: How do they come up with this stuff? I can't do that!

So I started with what was (cough, cough) "easiest" for me. And guess what? It hasn't been easy. But for me to dip my toe in suspense/mystery when my brain is already thinking "too hard" wasn't going to work for me. So I took the easy way out (still coughing here).

Now my family is after me to write a mystery. Why? I spend most of my TV time glued to true life crime shows like Dateline, 48 Hours, Investigators, and all the stuff I can find from the I.D. channel. I absolutely love it. It drives my family nuts. But I don't think I could write it!

Took a Picture of My Baby Before It Left For NYC

I finished my first manuscript, first and second revisions, in January 2012.The whole endeavor from start to finish took approximately 14 months.In late February, I sent that baby off to the slush pile in New York City. I'm such a nerd I took a photo of the envelope.I'll see if I can post it here.

You know how it is with your baby - you wonder if it will make it all the way there, if it will get torn or thrown around on the way. And it was winter - I had no idea if my baby would get wet and arrived shriveled or twice its normal size. But you have to let these things go. I heard back from the Editor, the wonderful Emily Rodmell, on May 2, 2012, a short two months later which in publisher-speak means "immediately". I sent Emily a proposal - sometimes called a partial - the synopsis and three chapters. I targeted Love Inspired contemporary. I received a nice letter from Emily on May 2 - it was my first "R" rejection and it has the place of honor on my desk in a nice frame. It was short and lovely, and I quote in part:

... while there are appealing aspects to the story, it does not ultimately meet our present needs. Because we have a romantic suspense line in addition to a contemporary romance line, we try to keep the two completely separate and reserve any suspense plots for Love Inspired Suspense. Your story had too much danger/suspense to work for Love Inspired but not enough for work for LIS.

That was my bad - I did know that, but hadn't realized that the lines were so set in stone. Learning lesson! Shortly thereafter, I linked in to the Harlequin ecommunity - a wonderful place for budding romance writers. If you're a romance novelist, especially an unpublished one, I can't recommend a better place.

I'm Still Alive Through First Revisions

I'm still plunking through first revisions, which as I was warned by other authors is a little like re-writing the entire book. Here are some of the things I've changed in first "revisions":

My heroine went from working in a doctor's office to working in a cafe as a barista. She went from working with an older matronly woman to working with the owner of the cafe, a former runway model. I gave my heroine the "sidekick" she desperately needed.

Two supporting players changed. Instead of living near her parents, my heroine lives near her in-laws and there is no love lost between them. More conflict! The heroine's parents were kind and supportive, and while that is wonderful in real life it's just not interesting in a novel.

I added a minor character. The heroine is being chased by a man she is not interested in. More conflict!

On another note, I have experienced some health problems this year. Serious ones. In September I had a surgery which I'll blog about later. In case you were wondering why I'm still not finished one year after I started!

Have a Heart

Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help, writes in The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives that her manuscript was rejected by 59 literary agents before it was finally accepted!

She talks about her persistence (i.e. stubbornness) and multiple re-writes as she continually changed and shaped her manuscript. Wouldn’t you like to know what the 60th agent saw in the manuscript that the other 59 did not? Could it be that Kathryn changed and improved the manuscript over the years to the point where it was a different book?

Wading through my own first revisions, these are the questions that I ask myself.

Susan Henderson, author of Up from the Blue has advice that has truly resonated with me. “Don’t edit the heart out of your story.”

As I revise my manuscript, changing the heroine’s occupation and thus part of the setting, and adding and deleting secondary characters I am reminded to keep the original vision of my story intact. One of my biggest problems is that this is not the story that I felt driven to complete. I worry at times that it never had a beating heart to begin with.

This story is more or less an experiment. I belonged to a writer’s group last year which encouraged me to finish something. At the time I had three novels in different stages of completion. I chose to finish this book because I thought it would be ummm, the easiest to complete!

As I wrote, it was not my intention to even attempt to write The Great American Novel. I was quite pragmatic and decided to target a particular publisher, a “niche” publisher. I hoped it would fit nicely into that little sub-genre. Now I’m not certain.

Is it best to target a particular publisher, or to follow your heart and write the story that you’re passionate about?

The Novel is Finished...now what?

An interesting thing happened on the way to finishing my first novel. I changed my mind. About a lot of "stuff" having to do with my protagonist. Still, I pressed on.

Then I finished it, and I don't like it. Oh, I DO like parts of it. But hey, if I'm not in love with the whole blessed thing, how can I expect anyone else to be? First revisions are going to be major. People weren't kidding when they warned me it's like an overhaul. I can see why.

By the time I'm done revising my protagonist, she will be unrecognizable. That is a good thing because somewhere along the way she turned into a whining "Poor me" victim instead of the strong and powerful woman I saw in my mind's eye.

Hold on, Maggie (that's my heroine's name), my red pen is coming!

Use Your Frustration for Inspiration

I was one of the people who watched the Anthony trial from start to finish. I was literally attached to the TV most of the day, fascinated by the evidence, impressed with DA Jeff Ashton's intense and skilled cross-examinations. Most of all, I'd fallen in love with that little girl, who reminded me so much of my own daughter at that age. I wanted desperately for justice for the person who threw her away like so much trash.

When the case went to the jury, I thought, "Whew, at last. Back to normal life. It should take them some time to deliver a verdict. This is, after all, a MURDER trial with over 300 pieces of evidence entered in over thirty days of testimony. No need to rush. I know I would want to get it RIGHT." Imagine my surprise when the jury came back in less than 11 hours with a verdict. Without a doubt I knew, as did everyone else, that they had not bothered to review the evidence. News later came in that they never even sent out any questions(oh, they did send out for lunch).

Like the rest of the country, I was outraged. But instead of vilifying the jurors, the defense attorney, and the accused I decided to turn my anger and frustration into creativity. Because I write, I started a story from the point of view of one of the jurors that has to go home and deal with the ramifications of her decision. Is it one she now regrets? Will she lose relationships with people she once loved because of her decision?

This story may not go anywhere, but it has been cathartic to write it.

Among the Living

I wrote this short short about two years ago. It came to me, when I was thinking about how I believe we are all much better people when we recognize that we are all connected to each other. Unfortunately, we are still flesh and blood and wasn't it Paul that said, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak?" This story reminds me that there is more than one way to see life.

Among the Living


The Raiders versus Seahawks game had just gone into overtime the moment Jesse died. She knew this as she knew everything, when her soul lifted into the expanse and all ties were cut to the mortal world... Stay tuned to read the rest. Every Day Fiction asked me to revise and resubmit. Coming soon to a Kindle near you?