The HEA Cafe

Author Archive

I’m in edits this month–just finished substantives and copy edits arrived at my door. So the part of my brain that dredges up pithy blog topics is on a bit of a hiatus. So I asked my readers on my fan group what I should blog about here and received (and am still receiving) quite a few interesting ideas.

One I’ve chosen for this 11th-of-the-month offering is author Lynne Connolly’s, where she noted:

“How about … Harlequin’s recent contention that in times of trouble sales of romance books go up, because people are looking for escape?”

I admitted I was totally unaware of the supposition–edits tend to keep me nose to the keyboard, lost in world of my own making. The best I can do at those times is scan Publisher’s Lunch when it plops in my emailbox. But it’s a good topic because it highlights not only the value of reading but the resilience of the romance genre. I think it also ties into author Margaret Carter’s recent blog at Alien Romances, where she offers:

The August-September issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND contains an article on the importance of storytelling. Benefits of stories for human beings include expanding the capacity for empathy and learning how to function in social groups. One psychologist suggests that stories “may act as ‘flight simulators’ for social life.”

So, are romance readers escaping into flight simulators? What a thought.

I am hopeful that this readjustment of the financial markets will make people see the value of a $6.99 book as opposed to a $250 DVD player. Both are escape mechanisms but in my humble opinion, the book is one that provides a much deeper, long lasting and you-don’t-need-batteries-with-it-experience (unless you’re Kindle-ing…).

But the advantage of the romance novel (or a novel written to the romance genre’s required HEA) is the overall positive tone generated by the book. That, to me, is what makes the genre special and what also makes it powerful.

You are what you think is perhaps an overused slogan from the 1970′s but there is a lot of truth in the adage. Focusing on the negative makes you negative, or more prone to be negative. I’m not just making this stuff up out of my little blonde over-edited head; there’ve been studies done that state so. So when you have a roomful of people thinking, Ohmigod, this is awful and then a cityful of people thinking, Omigod, this is awful and then a planetful of people thinking, Omigod, this is awful…things can get pretty awful.

Hold your fire. I’m not advocating blind Pollyanna-ism. (I originally typed BLOND instead of blind…how’s that for a Freudian?) I’m advocating a realistic appraisal of your ability to choose what you want to focus on and how you want to feel.  

It’s the old glass being half-empty or half-full analogy and where romance novels come into play is they can remind us that the glass can well be half-full, if not overflowing.

Romance novels are far more than just stories of two people falling in love. They’re also stories of faith, hope, perseverance, resilience and determination. They’re an analysis of the personal dynamics between people that often transcend logic.  They’re about strength and they’re about vulnerability. They are the human drama of the heart, and perhaps there is no better time to rediscover that than when the non-human elements of politics and finances seem to overwhelm daily life.

So maybe a resurgence of interest in romance novels isn’t so much an escape as a reminder that yes, this really is what life is all about.

“you shall above all things be glad and young.
For if you’re young,whatever life you wear

it will become you;andif you’re glad
whatever’s living will yourself become…

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.” ~e.e. cummings (1894-1962)

 

~Linnea

HOPE’S FOLLY, Book 3 in the Gabriel’s Ghost universe, coming Feb. 2009 from RITA award-winning author, Linnea Sinclair, and Bantam Books: www.linneasinclair.com 

It’s an impossible mission on a derelict ship called HOPE’S FOLLY. A man who feels he can’t love. A woman who believes she’s unlovable. And an enemy who will stop at nothing to crush them both.

It’s time again to talk about heroes. Not the one in our books who struggle through incredible odds and eventually succeed, but about heroes whose HEA–Happily Ever After–was cut short. The HEA is a staple, a requirement of the romance novel. In a romance novel, an HEA is guaranteed.

There are no such guarantees in real life.  

For three hundred forty three NYFD firefighters, September 11, 2001 was a day where heroism and HEA collided.

None woke the morning of his or her shift thinking this was the day to be a hero. None donned his or her gear and raced to the alarms at the World Trade Towers thinking this was going to be part of history. They all answered the call for help, not knowing the call was greater than even that.

Three hundred forty three lives were changed forever. Three hundred forty three families were left with an empty space that would never be filled.

Three hundred forty three were the last, best hope that day. But even the best would not be enough.

It’s been seven years. The flags that flew from every passing car are rarely seen. The pride that our best had tried is rarely voiced. It’s good that the grief is passing. It makes me pause that the importance has also.

You see, I’m in the business of building heroes: fictional ones. But I look to those 343 and know that no words I can pen can tell one-tenth of their greatness.

So if you’ve fogotten or need a reminder, please visit the sites below:

http://www.fdnylodd.com/9-11-Never-Forget/FDNY-Heroes/Gave-It-ALL.html

http://www.newyorkfire.com/nyfd/memorial.jsp

~Linnea

I teach conflict. I teach a fair amount of writing subjects, having made my living from writing in one form or another for almost thirty years (in addition to writing science fiction romance for Bantam, I’m a former news reporter and a retired private investigator–some day I’ll figure out what I want to be when I grow up). My novels are known–according to reviewers–for characterization and conflict (and world building, too, but that doesn’t have the “c” alliteration so I’m leaving that out for now). So if I teach conflict and if I’m known for being a writer who writes good conflict, why am I blogging about learning about conflict?

Because with all that I knew about writing conflict, I learned more about it from a Donald Maass seminar. Almost a year ago.

I’m not a slow learner. Quite the opposite. I generally can’t wait to try whatever new technique I find via an online class, a how-to tome or an in-person seminar. I’d read Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel a good six months before attending his seminar (which was hosted by my local Florida RWA chapter, Southwest Florida Romance Writers). Having read the book, I went more to see “The Donald” in action. I’d heard he was a good speaker (he is). But I really didn’t think he could teach me anything new on conflict.

As I said, I’d read his book. I found it interesting and I’d highlighted a few points that intrigued me but overall, it didn’t knock my writerly socks off. It wasn’t anything I honestly hadn’t heard or read before. It was just presented in his style. The same was true of his seminar. I found it reassuring that such a famous agent had come to the same conclusions I had about structuring conflict. But there weren’t any Aha! moments.

So color me awfully surprised when the past month, slogging my way past yet another howling deadline, “The Donald’s” advice suddenly came home to roost.

* What does your character most want?

* What is the moment the protagonist abandons what s/he most wants? What inspires those feelings and how thoroughly can you burn those bridges?

* What is the one thing your protagonist would never say, never do? Find three places in your story where s/he says or does that thing.

* Who else could solve the central problem? Remove them.

* Can bad things happen sooner? Who gets crushed? Who is ruined? Who goes postal?

* Take the protagonist through failure and beyond.

* Who can betray the protagonist?

* Make it worse, make it worse, make it worse.

These are all culled from some twenty-plus pages of notes I took that January, amused and entertained by his presentation but not really feeling the pull of his words. Maybe the book I was working at at that time didn’t need them. Maybe I had too much fun the night before with my author buddy, Stacey Klemstein (watch for her faboo YA Paranormal debut from Hyperion/Harper Collins in 2010!) and her husband, visiting from Chicago. Maybe the words just needed time to ferment.

Whatever the reason, I pulled out that battered legal pad at the halfway point in Hope’s Folly (Bantam, February 2009) and they hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks. Me, who teaches conflict, who thinks she has a handle on how to torture characters and enthrall readers.

The moral of this blog is 1) don’t think you know it all, 2) don’t throw out those old notes from a seminar/writing class and 3) continue to attend writing seminars and take craft of writing classes. RWAOnline offers oodles. You can do them on your schedule in your pink pjs and bunny slippers, if you so desire. Your talent for writing is a growing, shifting thing. It needs to be fed often. It needs to be exercised often. It’s like a capricious (and likely not housebroken) pet that inhabits your brain. Without proper attention, it will just curl up on the couch and snore loudly. It won’t return your affection. It won’t defend you from that home/brain invasion posse known as “Writer’s Block” when it comes bursting through your door.

It took eight months for Maass’ words to prove their usefulness. But they did. I’m happier for it, my characters are happier (well, not yet but they will be) for it and when my editor gets the manuscript in a few weeks, I hope she’ll be happier for it.

Take time out of your writing to insert some learning, especially in craft areas you think you already have down pat. Shake your writerly brain up a bit with the challenge of a new technique, a new twist.

And don’t throw out those notes!

Namaste, ~Linnea

Linnea Sinclair
RITA award winning Science Fiction Romance
Bantam 2007-2008: Games of Command, The Down Home Zombie Blues, Shades of Dark
2009: Hope’s Folly
http://www.linneasinclair.com/

I started this discussion over at the AlienRomances blog and had some terrific answers. So I thought I’d give you all a chance to respond, too, amending it a bit as this isn’t strictly an SFF/SFR site:

Writing a book isn’t easy. But combining more than one plot line–which romance novels do more and more these days–can be killer. You have your romance arc and your suspense arc. Or you have your romance arc and your SFF arc. Or you have your romance arc and your inspirational/religious arc. Or…

So why do we do it? What drives reasonably-minded authors to spend the time penning novels that are sometime a precarious balancing act? The old adage is that writers write because they can’t NOT write. But certainly, we could (and some of us do) write other genres.

So here’s my challenge to published authors:Your name:
Your website:

Your name:Your website:Post your answer in ONE sentence:

I write [fill in your genre] because [fill in one short reason why--your best reason, your strongest reason].

Then answer this:

If readers could read only one book of mine, I think it should be: [title] because [one short reason why.]

I’ll start.

Name: Linnea Sinclair
website: http://www.linneasinclair.com/

I write science fiction romance because I love the vast possiblities, conflicts and love stories that can be explored in cultures and worlds that may not be like our own.

If readers could read only one book of mine, I think it should be FINDERS KEEPERS because it’s an accurate melding of SF and romance in a light, fast-paced and fun way.

(Wow, that last one was tough and I invented the dang question!)

So authors–post your answers! And readers, feel free to comment and tell the authors if you feel they’re on-point.

~Linnea
SHADES OF DARK, the sequel to Gabriel’s Ghost, coming July 2008 from RITA award-winning author, Linnea Sinclair, and Bantam Books: http://www.linneasinclair.com/

“Four and 1/2 Stars! Chaz and Sully are back, and their lives haven’t gotten any easier! Picking up after Gabriel’s Ghost, the singularly impressive Sinclair thrusts her dynamic lovers into a maelstrom of trouble. The first-person, high-octane action is exhilarating. When it comes to futuristic romance, it doesn’t get better than Sinclair! ” –Romantic Times BOOKreviews magazine

A popular romance review site hands out its “Desert Isle Keeper” designation for those books it deems a romance reader would want to have in her possession when stranded on a desert isle (personally, I’d eschew the romance novel and opt for a book entitled “How To Get Rescued Quickly And How To Survive Until You Do” but I understand and appreciate the sentiment, especially as I’ve had a few of my books snag the coveted “DIK” tag).

Be that as it may, I’ve compiled my list of Desert Isle Keeper writing books. If I were stranded on an island (with electricity and internet access) and was on deadline, what how-to tomes would I want by my side? Here’s my list. Post yours!

1. Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V Swain

2.  The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes by Jack Bickham

3. Beginnings, Middles and Ends by Nancy Kress

4. GMC: Goal, Motivation and Conflict by Debra Dixon

5. Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne and King

If I could bring only one, it would be Swain. Yeah, okay, I’m a devoted Swain-ite. But his advice speaks to me, works for me.

What books have made a difference in your writing and why? ~Linnea