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Today’s A Pretty Quacking Place Too

I love historical romance. The news around us is so very grim. Our economy has been down for so long that it keeps dragging us down with it.  So many people are unemployed, underemployed or working two or three jobs to survive. The worse today gets, the more tempting historical romance looks.  In trying times historical romance is an oasis from the desert of reality.  I get that. I really, really get that. 

But you know what I think too many people forget, overlook or don't realize? Contemporary romance done right provides the same kind of escape. It may provide an even better escape. Think about it.  We can see our world, our time in new and exciting ways by reading contemporaries.  Contemporaries remind us that times can get better, will get better.  They can even inspire us to change some things we're doing in order to make our reality a better place to live.

So, let's hear it for contemporary romance.  

But wait - there's an important thing to remember about contemporaries.  While they are set in the time we live in - or in a year close to our time - under the virtual covers, our era is apt to look a little different too.  That's because whatever slice of life a contemporary is presenting - it's that slice on steroids and as seen through the eyes of the author.  For example, John Grisham (mostly) writes legal thrillers.  He's a lawyer, so he has the credentials to do that.  But, I've got to tell you, the trials you'll see in a courtroom won't be anywhere near as thrilling as the ones you read about in a Grisham story.  The trials, the law firms, the lawyers you find in a Grisham tale are those he created and they're playing out their tale in today's world, done Grisham's way.

An author of any genre in any time is always (always, always) free to write the world of their book their way.  Perhaps Kennedy was never assassinated or perhaps the book is set in a small Southern town famous for an epic Civil War battle that only occurred in the author's imagination.  You may read a book set in your home town or your home state and come accross events, places or sets of beliefs or values that you don't even recognize. Amongst an author's most important tools are the words - What If.

Like Grisham, I'm a lawyer.  And I've written a couple of contemporaries and the one on the way, my WIP (work in progress) is a contemporary.  Unlike Grisham, I write romance. So my contemporaries deal with what happens when love and the law intersect.  My first contemporary, E-mail Enticement, is set in my home town of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  E-mail is the tale of a billionaire who falls in love with an almost legal young girl. In the course of their relationship he sends her a number of emails. When things go wrong the emails are used as the basis for felony criminal charges against the billionaire.  Then he has to defend himself after the lady disappears and their whole courtship is put on trial.  The book takes you through the whole criminal trial, but I promise you, it's a lot more exciting than any you'd find going on at your local courthouse.  

My second contemporary is Griffin's Law, which is set in Columbia, South Carolina, at the law school that I attended. By the way, that law school is a fabulous institution and if you're looking for a legal education, you can't do better.  But I digressed. I do that.  Griffin's is the tale of a law school professor who is a famous local lothario and the McDreamy fantasy of his female students.  He's vowed never to get involved with a student, but what happens when never comes?  The book is written as a tribute to Grey's Anatomy.  It doesn't feature the setting, characters or plots of Grey's, but hopefully it captures the mood, the ambiance of that series.

And then there's my WIP.  It's tentatively titled The Office Ink Spells Murder. And it's also set in my home town of Myrtle Beach.  Can you tell that I love the Grand Strand area?  Think Cain & Abel as Jed & Mark, attorney brothers who practice in a family firm. The firm has a rule forbidding dipping pens in the office ink.  It was never a problem until Gemma, a new associate gets hired.  Mark gets murdered and Jed is a likely suspect.

My books are my children.  I love them all equally but in different ways. If you're a parent, you understand that statement completely.  And like any parent, I worry about sending my books out into the world.  I don't think E-mail or Griffin's has gotten a fair shake because people are buying so much historical romance to fight the bad stuff going on outside their windows or right in their living rooms.  So I worry about sending poor little Office Ink out to the virtual world.  Will readers ever give contemporaries the same consideration they give historicals?  Will they ever learn that the world of the contemporary romance can be a darned enticing place?

I hope so.  I really, really hope so. 

Like my historicals, my contemporaries are written from my unique over-the-top point of view.  So even if you find other contemporaries to be too much like real life and therefore too dull - I promise you that you won't find mine to be anything less than a roller coaster ride that soars over the top of love. 

Even if your real life these days isn't what you'd like it to be - or perhaps, especially if it isn't - give my contemporaries a try.  They'll help you see that our era may be far more exciting and enticing than the regency period - provided you view it from over the top.

So, please, check out E-Mail Enticement and Griffin's Law.  Keep checking for Office Ink which will be boogling out to the virtual shelves in the next month to 6 weeks.  Yeah, Regency England, the Scottish Highlands and the Old West were fun time periods. But from my point of view, today's a petty quacking place too!