Tag Archive | romance

Top 5 Non-Traditionally Romantic Movies

May17

There’s nothing like a good, romantic movie to curl up with on a lazy evening. I’ve always been a sucker for them. But the other day as I was driving home from the day job, thinking about some of my favorite romantic stories, it dawned on me that some of my favorite romantic movies are as far from the traditional “boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl overcome obstacle and live happily ever after” trope as you can get. In fact, some of my favorite romantic films are downright tragic!

So I decided to put together a short list of my top five non-traditionally romantic movies. Here they are in no particular order…. Continue reading →

Can a Genre Die?

May15
Courtesy of Wikicommons

Courtesy of Wikicommons

My little corner of the writer’s world was all in a tizzy last week after an article published at Dear Author that suggested that the Historical Romance genre be allowed to die.

Oh horror!

Of course, when you read the article you see that what the author of Dear Author was getting at is that right now there are just so many Regency novels out there with plots that feel stale and recycled, that it’s time to move on to something else. I believe her argument is that if Historical Romance has nothing more to offer than Regency after Regency, everyone will get bored and go home.

Compounding that problem are the cringe-worthy reports from some of my author friends that the traditional publishing agency is caught between disinterest in signing new authors who write Regency, but being unwilling to take a gamble on non-Regency authors, especially new authors, because Historical Romance in general just isn’t selling right now. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but from what I’ve seen this seems to be more true than not. Continue reading →

Talking with Constance Phillips about Resurrecting Harry

May9

Constanc Phillips - SMToday my special guest is a fellow writer and friend of mine, Constance Phillips. I read and enjoyed her first book, Fairyproof, and when I heard that her second novel was out, a delicious story about none other than Harry Houdini and his wife, Bess, I couldn’t resist asking her to come by to talk about it.

So Constance, tell us a bit about Resurrecting Harry.

Can Harry Houdini Escape the grim reapers hold to save the only woman he’s ever loved?

That is the sum of the story. Erich a reincarnated Harry Houdini charged with keeping Bess from falling prey to those who would use her for their own gain, and to save her from becoming obsessed with mysticism and talking to the dead.

There is a bit of a mystery going, but all-in-all it’s a story about the great love these two celebrities shared. Continue reading →

How NOT To Write A Series

May7

More often than not these days, it seems as though every story is told as a series. Whether it’s books, movies, or TV shows, series are the format of choice. And why not? Once you get hooked on a world, on the characters and storylines that inhabit it, you want to see more and more and more of it. And while some stories I’ve known drag on and on, the really good stories have you – oh, I don’t know – standing in line for hours and purchasing the seventh and final book of a certain series at 1:30am, then rushing home and reading it in one sitting so that no one spoils it for you.

BramwellBut I have also known cases where a series has been absolutely, completely destroyed by its writers. There are few things in this world that have made me angrier. Case in point: Bramwell.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of it, but Bramwell was a fantastic, brilliant British TV series from the late 1990s about a woman doctor in London of the late 1890s. Let me tell you, this is one of my favorite series ever. It was complex and meaningful, full of interesting characters and insightful reflections on a world that was as rich and swiftly-changing as our own is today. If you haven’t seen this show you need to zip over to Netflix or Amazon and watch it.

BUT…. Continue reading →

The Inner Life of Secondary Characters

Apr24

Last weekend I posted a fun scene from my latest novel, Fool for Love, that highlights one of the secondary characters in the series, Jacinta Archer. I love that scene because Jacinta is such a character (no pun intended). She has a whole inner world and her mind works in definitive ways – ways that often meddle with the lives of the rest of the characters in the Montana Romance world. Oh yes, there is much more of Jacinta to come!

My favorite secondary character that I’ve written is the character of Toby Dunkirke from the Noble Hearts series. On the surface Toby is Sir Ethan’s loyal servant and Joanna’s beloved brother, but in reality he’s so much more! His loves run deep and the decisions he makes and actions he takes informs the action of the entire trilogy almost more than any of the heroes or heroines. And yet he’s still just a secondary character. Continue reading →