Romance is the most maligned genre of literature, despite being the highest grossing. How do publishers afford multi-million dollar contracts for first time literary fiction authors? On the backs of romance. We, romance readers, are the most loyal fans. We are powering through the recession, earning even more profits for Harlequin despite the buying downturn through the rest of the economy. Unfortunately, most people who criticize the genre as “bodice-rippers” and “crotch novels” have never read one. I’ll leave the eloquent arguments to Smart Bitches who Love Trashy Books and Dear Author. Check out the stats on romance readers from the Romance Writers of America to see that we’re a highly diverse, highly educated bunch. Escapist fantasies? What book, besides a textbook, isn’t an escapist fantasy? That’s what reading is. That’s what TV and movies are. ENTERTAINMENT.

Romance novels are delicious. Nom…nom…nomnomnomnomnom.

What I want to share with you now is the time honored wisdom: Don’t Knock it till You’ve Tried it

Here are 13 recommended books (all of which I’ve read and loved) in each subgenre of your reading persuasion. Go ahead, try one. I double-dog dare ya.

1. Contemporary: This Heart of Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
2. Paranormal: Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione
3. Historical: It Happened One Autumn by Lisa Kleypas
4. Regency: The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne
   
5. Science-Fiction: Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair
6. Fantasy: The Moon Witch by Linda Winstead Jones
7. Suspense: Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard
8. Young Adult: Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith (sigh, or Twilight…but who’s left who hasn’t read it?)
9. Women’s Fiction: Blue-Eyed Devil by Lisa Kleypas
10. Erotica: Go Fetch! by Shelly Laurenston
11. Contemporary Category Romance: Marriage at the Millionaire’s Command by Anne Oliver
12. Paranormal Category Romance: Raintree Inferno by Linda Howard
13. Suspense Category Romance: Strangers in the Night by Kerry Connor

Yesterday on twitter, the stalker network and supreme procrastination tool to end all procrastination tools, some of us book nerds (@mizwrite @ciaralira @pixiedustgirl @bookbinge) decided to read Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s new book GLITTER BABY as a group and discuss it. Join us! Glitter Baby is a revised, revamped, shiny and new version of one of SEP’s earliest books.

You get extra points if you read both the original and new versions. Shoulder pads are hot!

Welcome to the world of the Glitter Baby

Fleur Savagar is the most beautiful woman in the world . . . to everyone but herself. With her oversized hands and paddle-boat feet, her streaky blond hair and funny green eyes, she lives a life filled with secrets that began before she was born. That was when her bewitching mother left home to find James Dean and met Errol Flynn instead. Now Fleur has to grow up quickly, and life won’t make that easy.

Jake Koranda is both New York’s most brilliant playwright and Hollywood’s hottest actor. Difficult, talented, and tormented, he has no patience for international glamour girls, not even ones with beautiful bodies and smart-aleck mouths. But there’s more to the Glitter Baby than shine, and Fleur’s tougher than Jake expects. Even with the odds stacked against her, she’s fiercely determined to discover the woman she’s destined to be.

An ugly duckling who can’t believe she’s turned into a swan . . . A tough-guy movie star with a haunted past . . . In a land of broken dreams, can two unlikely lovers trust their hearts?

Title: Kiss an Angel
Author: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Publication Info: HarperCollins 2002
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rating: <3 <3 <3 <3

What a delightfully charming love story! For anyone whose ever threatened to run away and join the circus, this is the book for you. A unique setting for a delicious tale of opposites attract. Ms. Phillips guides her characters through heart-wrenching transformations, and the resulting happily-ever-after is inspiring to behold.

Plot:

When Daisy Devreaux’s machiavellian father forces her to marry a stranger for six months or go to jail, she decides a marriage of convenience is the safer bargain. Only after the vows are said and her angry new husband carts her to a circus, of all places, does she begin to regret her decision. Her whip-cracking authoritarian husband refuses to let her leave. Daisy is determined to make the marriage work, even if her new husband refuses to help. Tortured hero Alex Markov agrees to pay off his debt to Daisy’s father by teaching Daisy the error of her irresponsible ways. He has no qualms about treating the flighty heiress with the contempt she deserves; he lost his soul years ago.

Poor Daisy loses the fledging friendships of the other circus performers when Alex refuses to pretend their marriage is a loving one. She is further outcast when she is accused of stealing money from the circus. Alex sentences her to muck out the elephant stalls even though she is terrified of animals. For the first time in her life, Daisy is asked to do hard physical labor and she surprises everyone with her refusal to give up and go home. Her pure heart slowly melts Alex’s icy core, but their relationship cannot survive another betrayal and Daisy runs away.

Eventually Alex tracks down Daisy’s father and determines that Daisy was not at fault. He feels-rightfully-like an ass. Once he tracks her down much groveling ensues. Depressed and alone, Daisy struggles to forgive him for betraying her. Alex puts his pride on the line to win her back.

Discussion:

One of the best things about this book is Ms. Phillips’s trademark witty banter. Cynical Alex and ever-hopefull Daisy disagree on everything. They are about as unalike as two people could possibly be, but they find common ground in their solitude and sense of humor. Love transforms them into much better people than they were at the beginning: Daisy learning responsibility and purpose, Alex learning humility and forgiveness.

Publisher’s Weekly disagrees with me, writing “there is nothing funny in the mean-spirited and abusive hero.” I’m usually overly-sensitive about this type of thing, so I’m surprised I didn’t have the same reaction as PW. I agree Alex is a bully. He has all the power in the relationship and abuses it readily. However, After Alex realizes his mistakes, he perfects groveling to an art form. IMHO he truly regrets his actions and changes for the better. Daisy’s ability to bend like bamboo, makes her infinitely stronger than Alex’s unyielding oak.

My only complaint is that Daisy’s father didn’t get his comeuppance at the end. Alex should have socked him one! Oh, and the woo-woo stuff with the tiger was a bit weird.

This book is also one of the hotter SEP books I’ve read. Funny, sexy and heartwarming. What’s not to love?

“Successful writers show up at the blank page. What makes them writers is not the instant excellence, but the sheer dumb repetition of showing up.” – Opera Magazine (at least that’s what my notes say)

More notes taken at the RWA National Conference in San Francisco. This was a very motivating talk by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (SEP) on “Six Magic Words That Lead to Publishing Success.” My notes do not precisely match the handout because I didn’t have it in front of me during the workshop. I don’t read much contemporary romance, but I do love me some SEP. If you haven’t tried her, I strongly recommend IT HAD TO BE YOU and THIS HEART OF MINE, both in the Chicago Stars series.

6 Magic Words: Keep The Reader In The Story

The focal point of writing well is: Keep the Reader In the Story. A bestseller is a book that is so compelling you can’t put it down. Not the book that is so perfect. The book that is so compelling. Riveting plot. Characters are people you care so much about you are really invested in them. A bestseller may be plot driven. It may be character driven. It may have new fascinating world. It may be the author’s voice that is the spark. Regardless, the focal point – keep the reader in the story – lets everything else settle into place.

Tip 1: Work to master good craft
Good craft is the basics: grammar, spelling, basic rules of writing. If you don’t have good mastery of craft it will pull reader out of story. Following all rules will not necessarily get you published or on the bestseller list, but not practicing good craft will keep you off. Watch out for: poor grammar, repetitive phrases, and extra words like just, actually, very, felt. Avoid long boring paragraphs of description and awkward sentence structure. People have different rules about Point of View, but it comes down to one thing: does it work or doesn’t it? The is no problem switching between characters POV or not switching if it doesn’t throw reader out of the story. People who have good craft can break the rules.

RISEN GLORY was the first book SEP ever wrote. It was an historical romance. For the re-release this year she revised the original in 2 months, and realized she did know something about writing. We all feel like pretend writers. It was affirming to know that after all this time she has learned a lot about craft. JUST IMAGINE – the new title for the re-release – is 100 pages shorter after revision!

Tip 2: Create dazzling characters.
When SEP starts a new book, she gives herself permission to put garbage on the screen – knowing she can fix it later. When she starts writing a character it is only two-dimensional, she knows she will fix later. She doesn’t start with ANY advanced character descriptions, instead fumbles and stumbles around for 500 pages until she finds out who they are. She doesn’t know until END of book. But SEP doesn’t recommend that tactic. She starts with a general idea and peel each layer of character as she goes.

A) Create a hero or heroine that is sympathetic but flawed.
SEP recommends reading her book AIN’T SHE SWEET as a writer. It was an interesting writing challenge to start with a heroine who has done terrible things at beginning of book (she’s the mean girl in high school), coming back to town where everyone hates her. How do you make a character like that likable? SEP enjoys creating heroines who have their flaws and have their problems. Her guiding principal is to give them flaws but keep their heart PURE. (Though she isn’t sure she’s followed this excellent advice with her current hero!) SEP said, “I love writing a woman that is less than beautiful and a gorgeous hero. Depends on your personal world view.”

B) Make your characters realistic, but still larger than life.

C) Make your characters’ actions well motivated.
Their actions must make sense. A writer cannot manipulate her character’s actions to advance the plot. Don’t make heroine Too Stupid To Live. If you do not let your characters be manipulated by plot, how do you keep plot going? Do that by giving your characters strengths and weaknesses. The things that get them into trouble are their strengths and weaknesses; Move the plot forward by the characters’ internal conflict. Always keep the characters true to themselves. It is a disservice to the characters you create to make them do things that aren’t loyal to who they are.

D) Let your characters grow and develop through the story.
The heroine and hero should be capable of doing something at the end of the story that they are not capable of doing at the beginning of the story.

E) Give your characters individual voices.
This comes second nature to SEP. She hears the hero and heroine’s voices separately and distinctly. It is a challenge to make a voice ring true without resorting to slang (that disappears and reappears), especially when creating younger characters. She recommends having younger ears reread manuscript when done.
Too often writers try to amp up the conflict between the hero and heroine by making the heroine bitchy. This is cheating. Dig deeper. The conflict must be motivated. SEP said, “I don’t know about men in your life, but men in mine seldom love bitchiness.”

On male behavior: Men think differently than women do! Let your male characters act like men, instead of women in men’s bodies. If you do this you will find conflict naturally. Let men be men – readers will recognize that and go along.

Tip 3: After you’re done with your manuscript, read only the scenes with the heroine in it.
See if you have her relationships and motivations with hero firmly anchored in every scene. Then go back through and do the same with the hero. No instant attraction. Instant energy, but usually they don’t like each other at beginning. There should be a natural progression and it should be consistent. Do the same with the secondary characters. Characters should be emotionally anchored in every scene. You must have a clear sense of emotion and purpose and goal in every scene.

Tip 4: Write a fast moving plot
So easy: Just leave out the boring parts! Where do the boring parts come from?

A) Back Story
With new writers just throw out chapter one and start with chapter two. This problem never ever goes away. Writers try to fill opening with back story. Throw it out! And start with chap 2. The challenge is the same for getting reader into science fiction/fantasy world without bogging down the story with narrative. You must introduce it with action. Treat the world building like you would treat back-story.

Nothing slows a story down more than a flashbacks. No front-loading: You must work information in slowly. (In Ain’t She Sweet SEP learned how to do back story. She started with a prolog knowing she would take out later. Eventually she buried it in chapter four where reader was already invested in story. She didn’t start chapter with it; she buried it.) Advice for back story – be sneaky! SEP used little lines of italics/dialog of mean things Sugar Beth’s father said to her sprinkled through out. Do NOT frontload. Prologs are a cheap trick. This is not hard fast rule (look at the prolog in Lord of Scoundrels for an example of one that is well done). In general, use little bits that keep reader in the story.

B) Description
Look for only the two or three sentences that are so evocative they tell it all.

C) Internal Dialog
Long pages of internal thought bog down the plot. Lengthy descriptions that do not illuminate character or move plot forward need to go. Precious dialog needs to go. Don’t fall so in love with own sentences that you lose the big picture. Don’t sacrifice the mental state of your character either for moving the plot forward or cute lines of dialog!

SEP is a pantser. She never outlines ahead of time. Almost every plot she’s read has been done before – but that’s what’s fun.

Tip 4: Don’t switch into secondary plot on a cliffhanger.
Instead, resume the cliffhanger at beginning of next chapter. Reader will skip the secondary plot. You want to make it impossible for the reader to put down your book.

How to juggle plot and subplot. SEP usually has a secondary love story – ones that don’t have enough story to sustain a whole plot. Generally these secondary love stories complicate things for hero and heroine.

Tip 5: Write to your strengths, NOT the market.
It is difficult to do that listening to editors at RWA! By the time you get your manuscript done, something else will be hot. Try not to get sucked in to opinions of other people. Good feedback helps you figure out your strengths. Try a critique group or reader feedback. Listen to your instincts, but don’t get stupid. Remember you need to defend your work through your work, not by verbalizing about your work. You can’t explain to people what they should have gotten out of the book.

SEP doesn’t use a critique group in process. She recommends you figure out which one you are. If you come out energized – do it. If you come out feeling “I suck” – don’t use one. There are a million people at RWA who will tell you how to write a book, but what they are telling you is how THEY write a book.

This week I’m in the Windy City, trying to make myself write while Mr. Wonderful is at a conference. I’m about to hit two big milestones: 200 pages and 60,000 words. Whoot! Tomorrow I’m going to meet my blogging friend Shannon, who blogs at What Women Read and DIK Ladies Rule!. She is going to give me a tour of Millennium Park, the delights of Chicago, and her favorite bookstore (Yay!). I’m really looking forward to gushing about our favorite books! Shannon stole Adam Hauptman from me in the DIK Hero Round Robin, so I’ve been sharpening my nails to steal him back. Watch out Shannon – I’m coming for him!

I read Nalini Singh‘s 2nd Psy/Changelings Book Visions of Heat (great!) on the airplane and brought two books set in Chicago with me.

Title: Storm Front
Author: Jim Butcher
Series: The Dresden Files, Book 1
Publisher: Roc, April 2000
Genre: Urban Fantasy

This will be my first full-length novel by Butcher. I enjoyed his short in My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon, which also featured Harry Dresden and his dog.

Synopsis: “The novels of the Dresden Files have become synonymous with action-packed urban fantasy and non-stop fun. Storm Front is Jim Butcher’s first novel and introduces his most famous and popular character-Harry Dresden, wizard for hire.

For his first case, Harry is called in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with the blackest of magic. At first, the less-than-solvent Harry’s eyes light up with dollar signs. But where there’s black magic, there’s a black mage. Now, that black mage knows Harry’s name. And things are about to get very…interesting.”

Or, in Haiku:

Cynical Wizard
solves magic crimes in Chi-town
with his awesome dog.

Title: It Had to be You
Author: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Series: Chicago Stars, Book 1
Publisher: HarperCollins, March 2002
Genre: Contemporary Romance

I’ve read almost all of the Chicago Stars books (out of order, I know) and loved them. SEP is speaking at the RWA Conference in San Fran in July and my critique partner told me she’s not to be missed. What do you think of this cover??? I can’t think of another romance cover quite like it. Usually covers have pictures of half-nekid men.

Synopsis: “The Windy City isn’t quite ready for Phoebe Somerville — the outrageous, curvaceous New York knockout who has just inherited the Chicago Stars football team. And Phoebe is definitely not prepared for the Stars’ head coach Dan Celebow, a sexist jock taskmaster with a one-track mind. Celebow is everything Phoebe abhors.”

Or in Haiku:

Blond bimbo takes on
stubborn alpha football coach.
Opposites attract.

All About Romance has a search engine that allows one to search by location setting. Chicago turned out these books:

• The Firebrand by Susan Wiggs
• The Mistress by Susan Wiggs
• The Hostage by Susan Wiggs
• Wild at Heart by Patricia Gaffney
• The Savage Heart by Diana Palmer

Has anyone read any of these? What did you think?

Every kid knows the jump rope chant “first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage.” Early romance novels, such as those by Georgette Heyer, followed this prescription with the hero and heroine sharing no more than a tame kiss and marriage being the final culmination of the love story. Here in modern Romancelandia, the order has changed to reflect the popular culture. What can be the culmination of love when sex has become a recreational activity? That’s right. Babies. With popular category titles like “The sheik’s virgin mistress’ secret baby,” have babies have replaced sex as the physical embodiment of the hero and heroine’s love? In our paranormal fantasies, fertility can apparently save the world.

The romance genre is written by women, for women, so it makes sense that fertility is a major theme. Having a baby can be the most significant life-changing event in a woman’s existence. I find this topic entirely fascinating, especially in paranormal romance novels. However, as I struggle to compose my thoughts, I realize I don’t have a thesis. What does the treatment of fertility in the romance genre say about today’s women? What does it say about our beliefs on motherhood and love? I don’t know. Maybe you can help me muddle it out.

Contemporary romance is chock full of Surprise Babies. (This Heart of Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips is one of my favorites.) Motherhood is a choice in this day and age, and often one that competes with the time and energy of a challenging career. While in Historicals surprise babies always lead to a quick marriage, modern women have the choice to raise the child on their own. But this surprise is a big upset to career and life goals, giving us Ta DA! Conflict, conflict, conflict! Conflict is, of course, what makes a story a story. I found an interesting article from the New York Times in 1991 that still applies to 2008 contemporaries, which illustrates:

A synopsis for an updated version of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” which many romance writers like to regard as a founding classic of the genre, might go something like this: Elizabeth Bennet, a spirited, single 36-year-old systems analyst in San Diego, Calif., signs up for artifical insemination. The proud Mr. Darcy, a disturbingly handsome corporate executive with his own yearnings for an heir, hires a surrogate mother; due to a mix-up at the fertility clinic, Mr. Darcy ends up impregnating Miss Bennet instead. They spar over custody for several chapters, come together in a torrid embrace, then marry — though not necessarily before he escorts her to Lamaze class and assists at the birth.

In Historical Romance there’s a big clue to whether you’re in for a “surprise”: if the hero and heroine talk about contraception you know they’re gonna screw up. If they don’t even consider it you can wait until the epilogue for the little bundle of joy. The moment when the hero realizes he could have knocked up the heroine is a major turning point in the love story. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read “Pride filled him as he imagined her belly swollen with his child.” This is the moment when the hero finally realizes that he doesn’t just want a tumble in the hay, he wants something lasting. He imagines building a life with the heroine, raising her above the position of mistress to be the mother of his children. Possible motherhood is a great excuse to use when you want to marry the girl but you don’t want her to know you want to, and maybe when you don’t know you want to either. Then you can rail against her, punish her for injuring your pride, and still tup her at your leisure. I learn all the great tricks from Regencies.

There is a very interesting dichotomy between the current environmental crises and the Paranormal genre’s proclamation that we can save the world through procreation.

Fertility in Paranormal world-building is an issue of catastrophic proportions. So many of the paranormal series have magical races that are dying out due to infertility issues. Christine Feehan’s Carpathians and C. L. Wilson’s fey, for example. have very few children born recently and, more importantly, very few females. Both races are unable to reproduce (at all or only female children, respectively) without their fated soul mates. Lara Adrien’s vampires are all male, and can mate only with the few female humans who carry the mating mark. Kresley Cole’s Immortals can only reproduce with their soul mates, and vampires can’t even have sex until they find their Bride. The heroine restores the hero’s manhood.

J.R. Ward‘s vampires are only fertile once every ten years, with high fatality pregnancies. Ward’s characters Viscious and Phury struggle when the Scribe Virgin, the mother goddess of the vampire race, tries to take procreation out of the love equation by ordering them to impregnate her 100 vestal virgins. Having sex with countless women doesn’t bother them, but knocking up countless women does. Rhage’s mate Mary is saved from an early death to cancer by the Scribe Virgin who says:

I regret that your ability to bring forward life has been taken from you. The joy of my creation sustains me always, and I take great sorrow that you will never hold flesh of your flesh in your arms, that you will not see your own eyes staring at you from the face of another, that you will never mix the essential nature of yourself with the male you love. What you have lost is enough of a sacrifice, (Lover Eternal, p438).

In almost every paranormal romance book, the hero is tortured by his violent past and his dark future. The heroine is tasked with not only winning his love, but also saving his soul and saving his race. Blogger and book reviewer Mrs. Giggles writes in her review of C. L. Wilson’s Lord of the Fading Lands:

In the romance genre, ‘her private parts… will save the world!’…. I suppose in future books there will be a showdown between good and evil as our heroine’s special powers will heal the world while her special and tireless ovaries will repopulate the Fae like the beautiful breeding cow that she is.

Some have argued that dark paranormals are a regression to the days of he-man fight, she-woman birth. But I disagree. Modern paranormal heroines are not regulated to only breeding while men do all the providing. These heroines do not have to chose either/or. They must use all their strengths, embracing their compassion and sexuality as well as their fierce protective instincts and mental adroitness to fight evil. Men may be physically stronger, but only a woman can save the world.

I could go on and on with examples, but you get the idea. What do you think modern authors are saying about fertility? How is J.R. Ward going to repopulate the Brotherhood if Phury falls in love with the head Chosen? Or do you think he is going to fulfill his duties in Lover Enshrined? So far Z is the only one to have a baby. It’s going to be sloooow going if Wraith plans to rebuild his civilization.

And that’s enough rambling for today.

Title: This Heart of Mine
Author: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Series: Chicago Stars Series (Book 5)
Publication Info:
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rating: <3 <3 <3 <3 < 3

Since my critique partner handed me a stack of Susan’s books last Thursday, I’ve been on a Susan Elizabeth Phillips marathon and I’m loving every minute of it. This one, so far, is my favorite, leaving me with the biggest warm fuzzy feeling I’ve had in ages. Sigh. Love, true love!

The heroine, Molly, is the little sister of Chicago Stars owner Phoebe Calebow (who has her own story in It Had to be You, book 1). I love Molly and identify with her. She has always strived to be perfect, seeking approval from everyone. Under this impossible pressure she sometimes snaps, resulting in crazy stunts like pulling the fire alarm. She takes out her frustration on her hair (last month I dyed mine black). She is creative and has always doodled, leading her into a career as a children’s book writer and illustrator. Her books are loosely taken from her life, featuring Daphne the bunny and Benny the Badger. Guess who Benny is? Silly Badger, tricks are for kids! The chapters start off with excerpts from the Daphne books. The way Ms. Phillips interweaves the Daphne series and Molly and Kevin’s story is hilarious.

Kevin is the Chicago Stars Quarterback, and he featured in the third book of the series Nobody’s Baby but Mine, which I also enjoyed. Kevin has some mommy issues, but he’s a good guy. He burns his excess energy off through crazy stunts, like jumping out of airplanes, much like Molly does with her hair changes and fire alarms. Molly, in one of her impulsive moments, compromises Kevin (great twist) which ends in (my favorite plot device) a surprise pregnancy. After a wedding and a miscarriage, Molly sinks into depression, which Ms. Phillips treats with a refreshingly realistic hand. Kevin drags her to his family camp where he seeks to rid himself of the past. There they both learn to grow up and open up and eventually fall in love.

Ms. Phillips is a fabulous author. The emotions in this book are only surpassed by the comedy that jumps from every page. There are quite a few similarities between this story and Natural Born Charmer (book 7), but I liked this one best because Daphne and Benny were so funny. The secondary love story between Kevin’s mom and a famous artist wasn’t as interesting (and was a lot like the secondary love story between Dean’s mom and dad in NBC). Kevin was sweet, but Molly made the book shine. I laughed out loud at their witty comebacks.

A must-read for any Romance Lover, and a great book to start off with if you’ve never before read the genre. It earned my coveted 5 hearts – a desert island keeper!