They say that love makes the world go ‘round. Yesterday was just one example – so many celebrating Valentine’s Day either with their sweethearts, the memory of their sweetheart, or just with family and friends, kids and grandkids or maybe even their pooch. So, this month our Blog Hoppers decided to blog about love and romance and how it affects our writing. Some of us write specifically in the romance genre, but do our other novels have a hint of romance as well?

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Well, I’ve done both. I have a well-received, award-winning romance series: The Camerons of Tide’s Way.

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I’ll start with what I dislike about the genre. For much of the genre it feels a lot like watching the Hallmark channel where the characters, plot and town names are more or less interchangeable. Always a small town. Always someone returning for urgent one reason or another after having escaped the town they grew up in and always the person they had a romance with back in the day is still there and unattached so the love gets rekindled. Sound familiar? The overall genre of romance is more diverse than that, but the strictures of the genre are relatively narrow. My first romance was turned down by the first two editors I pitched it to, because I’d colored outside those lines. Luckily for me, the acquiring editor I pitched it to a third time not only asked for the manuscript but wanted additional ideas for a series. She happened to like my coloring habits. And apparently my readers did as well. That first book Falling for Zoe, orginally panned because the editor claimed there was too much going on, reached best-seller status on Amazon and two subsequent books in the series, Healing a Hero and Worry Stone won silver in the Florida Writers Literary contest. I enjoyed writing all of them, but if I’d had to narrow my style to fit Harlequin, I’d never have wanted to see them in print. At least not with my name attached.

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This doesn’t mean I don’t love a good love story. I really do. Early in my adulthood, I stumbled upon Georgette Heyer and not only have I read ALL her books, they still grace my personal library shelves. I won’t name names, but there were other best-selling romance writers at the time that I read one book and never picked up another.

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As I matured and my reading branched out, I began to look for adventure. I discovered books by W.E.B. Griffin – he has several series out, one set in the lives of Army personnel, another with Marines, two with spies etc. They are mostly set during war time, but the thing that appealed to me most was the multi-dimensional characters and the fact that they matured and changed as the series went on. One of the first books I read was about a young officer who was excellent at his job, but in his personal life seemed to constantly mess up in the love field. Other characters started out young as well, got promoted, ended up with wives and kids. IN other words, there was always some romance going on in those books, despite the distraction of military life or international espionage. And I loved them. Vince Flynn, David Baldacci, Steve Berry and others got added to my reading lists with equal enjoyment.

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There is always something that breaks the rule and gets away with it, though. For me it was Jack Reacher. While I’ve read nearly all of the Reacher series, I do find the main character something of a Flat Stanley. Reacher has family: brother, father and mother, but they are rarely seen and even their influence on who Reacher is as a man seems minimal. He’s an honorable man, but one who’s a drifter, with no home and no responsibilities. When he takes a woman to bed, it’s just about sharing their bodies with no love lost and no looking back. As Reacher stumbles on total strangers who find themselves in trouble he never hesitates to jump in and right wrongs, along with delivering his kind of justice to the bad guys. But there just seems to be something missing in Reacher’s character in contrast to the men and women who people Vince Flynn’s stories or Tony Hillerman’s, who all have more depth to their personality.

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But now, about my writing and how I incorporate romance into my non-romance stories. My first published Novel:  a mainstream suspense -The Candidate, was set in the midst of a campaign for president of the US, and both my main character and two of the supporting cast had love stories woven in. It is not a political story, though. It’s a people story. My main character was happily married and that was part of who he is. Two secondary characters met and fell in love in that maelstrom of political conflict. Matt Steele, the hero of that book, has made missteps in his past that come to light and influence his campaign forcing him to make a choice between honor and possibly losing his bid for the White House. And that other budding romance is threatened by the opposition, leaving them with difficult decisions as well.

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Crossfire: 

Bullseye

I’ve also started a mystery series set here in my hometown of St Augustine, Florida. My heroine is the only female on the major crimes squad in the Sheriff’s department, for which I interviewed the real-life female on that squad to get authenticity to what it was like for a woman in that world. My heroine, Jesse Quinn, has a personal life as well. The series starts with her, the divorced mother of two teenagers. But she meets someone who clicks and there is a hint of romance added to her life. To me, the reality is that all of us juggle our lives, between the different hats we wear and more often than not, that juggling act brings conflict. When I read, I want the characters in the book to feel real. I want them not to just be a broker, or a banker, or a cop or a soldier. (Or in the case of the Hallmark brand, bakers, librarians, or book sellers.) I want them to be sons, brothers, sisters, mothers, lovers and friends, and often even pet owners.

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My latest series, the first one Unspoken Promises will be out in April, is a cross between women’s fiction and romance so I get to have it all. Except perhaps the action of a cop’s life or a spy, or even someone in the limelight of a political arena. But there is a ghost and a love story over 200 years old. And the conflicts of real life along with a heavy dose of romance. (This is the image of The Captain Patrick Murray House which is the setting for my new series. It will be on all the covers. Note the widow's walk where my ghost is keeping watch.)

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For me, Romance is the spice of life. But perhaps some of my fellow-blog-hoppers have a different take on the subject so here’s the list for you to go check them out.

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Bob Rich  

A.J. Maguire

Victoria Chatham

Belinda Edwards

Helena Fairfax

Connie Vines

Diane Bator

Sally Odgers

                                       Anne Stenhouse