But It's a Dry Heat

Archive for the ‘Romance’ Category

Tangled

My loathing for the “old school” Disney princess (Cinderella, Snow White, et al.) is no secret.  She’s dumber than a bag of hammers and utterly useless as a protagonist. Her only strength is sweetness that can put you in diabetic coma in five seconds flat. And she’s pretty.   Cute, little forest animals love her (which probably means she has fleas), but never mind that, she’s pretty.  Sometimes she hides out with seven little hairy men and cleans their house and washes their skidmarked undies. She waits for her prince to come because good girls never orgasm first.  And they certainly never do anything to save themselves.

Fortunately, Disney heroines have come a long way, baby.  Some more than others.  While I liked Tangled–it’s hard not to–I think Rapunzel is one of modern Disney’s weaker heroines. Weaker is too strong a word, since Rapunzel is smart, inquisitive, artistic and sometimes, driven.

As romances go, however, The Princess and the Frog is a much stronger story. (It’s a stronger story, period.) Especially when (more…)

In Praise of Dragons and Beta Heroes

How to Train Your Dragon is one of my favorite movies. I love this movie for two reasons: Hiccup and Astrid.

First, Hiccup is what some in Romanceland calls a beta hero and I lurves the betas. Second, Astrid is a terrific, strong female character.

Regarding betas ….  The definition varies, but a beta hero is the opposite of an alpha hero.  Alpha heroes are the kind of men who get stuff done with brute force. They are usually endowed with … a corresponding amount of muscle, and often (annoyingly) characterized as emotionally  constipated.  Honestly? That’s not my idea of a romantic hero.  Yeah, the muscles are nice, but as I’ve noted elsewhere, it wouldn’t be long before I got bored and cheated on Mr. Manly with the geeky astrophysicist  across the hall.

The beta hero is more a thinking man/woman’s hero.  He won’t or can’t (more…)

AWOL from the Battle of the Sexes

If men are from Mars, so too are women.

I periodically come across discussions regarding the depiction of men in romance novels, in particular, how men are written by female authors. The common concern is that the men aren’t “manly” enough, that they have been feminized (whatever that means).  Alternately, some female writers opine that men are mysterious beings who cannot be fathomed by the female mind.

This is big deal for some women writers.  They even take classes for insight into the male mind.

Which boggles my mostly female, but somewhat male mind.  Do these women know any men? Is the whole of (more…)

The Canvas Thief

So I stopped procrastinating and put the contract for The Canvas Thief in the envelope.  It’s now crossing the continent, destination Canada.  Actually, the fact that Harlequin/Carina Press–yes, as in Romance novels–is in Canada is news to me.  Shows how much I know about what has (sort of) become my genre.  (There’s a long blog posting about my weird relationship with romance sitting on my hard drive. I keep fiddling with it, trying to explain my is-shoes with romance tropes in a way that doesn’t alienate every romance reader/writer out there.)

The Canvas Thief (which, I hope will get a new title because I suck at titles) is a hybrid of romance, urban fantasy and suspense. Set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, it’s the story of an artist who accidentally brings two of her graphic novel characters to life.  It’s set in the same “universe” as The Music of Chaos and Breas the vampire is a secondary character.

Since I set out to write romantic fantasy, not a romance, it doesn’t adhere to some romance novel requirements.  Like that the hero and heroine meet in the first chapter, if not first page.  In The Canvas Thief, they meet in Chapter Four.

That could, I guess, change during editing. I’m pretty malleable, editorially, but I’m rather adamant that this story not have the usual forced, first page/first chapter meeting of H/h seen in many romance novels.  It just doesn’t work. Not for this story.