Category: General Writing

I recently read an article by a psychology researcher who thought she could explain why women read Harlequin romance novels. Such articles often intrigue me and this one, in particular, drew me in because the author and I share the same name (Mary Anne) - albeit, she doesn't spell hers the way my namesake Granny told me I had to spell mine.  Dr. Fisher concluded that women read romance because they're looking for a cad who becomes the dad.

Most of the articles trying to "explain" women's love of the romance genre make me want to throw something at my computer screen.   The other Mary Anne's piece didn't make me mad so much as it made me pity the author.  First of all, as a researcher, she should have known she couldn't base an understanding of a vast and complex genre like romance on one atypical type of book of the genre.  It makes all her conclusions laughably wrong. For example, based on her study of Harlequins, Fisher decides that romance novels are too short and characters are therefore too underdeveloped.  Certain types of Harlequins are intended to be short fast reads that get the reader in and out fast.  But not all Harlequins are short - some of the publisher's imprints are long, slow, luscious reads.  So Dr. Fisher bases her conclusions one type of one imprint from one publishing house.  I hope she does a better job with the psychological research she gets paid for.

Fisher concludes that romance novels are "candy for women's brains."   She concludes that they allow the reader to live vicariously through the heroine and fall in love with the hero but without any of the consequences.  Of course, she also thinks that the plots revolve around the woman trying to decide if the hero is "Mr. Right." So, at least Fisher is consistently wrong.

...continue reading "Romance – What Makes Us Close The Book?"

Writers have lots of ideas.  We have great, immense, goobledegobs of ideas. Most of them are destined to be born and die within the disturbed realms of our fertile little brains.  Most, but not all.  A few of those notions do grow up to be books. 

I germinate ideas or script scenarios in my head all the time.  My imagination is where I go to escape when the job is too sad or demanding or when reality bites too hard.  But it's not only stress or sadness that sends me to Mary Anne World.  Sometimes a great TV show will send me there.  I've written alternate scripts for many a Grey's Anatomy episode, and I've made up whole romances that only lived in my head (Cristina and Webber, anyone? And I always thought Izzie belonged with Dr. Burke)  Like I said, my head is a strange place. 

Of course, it's not just Grey's that gives birth to ideas.  I've gotten romance ideas for Dr. House and Cuddy or Gordon Ramsey and a Hell's Kitchen contestant.  So far, none of those has grown up to be a book, but in the future, you never know.  Griffin's Law came to be after I imagined Grey's in a law school. 

But its not just TV that brings ideas.  Sometimes they grow from reading an interesting legend on the Internet (the MacLeods of Skye and their famed faerie flag became my - so far - three part Forever Series).  The idea for E-mail Enticement came during a CLE seminar.  The first book I ever wrote , Brotherly Love, came from the most unique place.  Usually the characters create the story but with my first book, the message created the story.  I got to thinking about how big and broad love is and I wondered why we create boxes and rules to try to limit and define what we should only celebrate.  The characters in Brotherly are more "real" than in most romance novels, because they were intended to be more like us - flaws and all - and the story was written to make the reader think instead of just experience.

...continue reading "How A Little Idea Grows Up To Be A Book"

Everyone I know is flawed. All of the people I love and adore have blemishes. Each of my co-workers, from the boss on down, has defects. And me? If there were a country called Flawed, I'd be its Queen.

I'm working on a new book. Actually, I'm juggling two - a historical and a contemporary. I was working on the historical yesterday when it struck me that the hero was pretty damned tarnished.  My mind flipped over to the contemporary and realized that yep, sho 'nuff, the hero has potholes in his character big enough to drive an 18-wheeler through.  

My personal creative process starts with the characters and builds from there.  From the characters flows the story.  When its going well, one of them will often lead me down a path I never intended to travel, he or she will change the direction of the whole bloomin' book in a way that's gonna cause me no end of re-writes.  Those characters, the ones whose tale I'm telling?  They're never the good guys in the white hats from stable backgrounds earnestly seeking only a permanent committed relationship. 

Invariably, my hero will be the spoiled rascal who's always lived life on his terms, by his rules.  And those rules, like everything else in his world, tend to favor allowances rather than limits.  His background may have been more or less stable, but it'll have enough instability, enough challenges, that it's made him tough, wily, and smart.  My heroes are always smart.  But he won't be looking to right the world's wrongs.  Heck, he won't even be looking to right his own. 

My hero will never walk into the story as the guy avoiding the tawdry, temporary pleasure of sex without strings.  He surely won't be seeking a committed relationship.  My hero will embrace the tawdry and wallow in the sex whilst avoiding good girls like they were one of those diseases he might pick up in his favorite brothel. 

Yes, you guessed it.  My heroes have always been varmits. 

...continue reading "My Heroes Have Always Been Varmits"