{"id":4587,"date":"2017-11-04T16:31:24","date_gmt":"2017-11-04T20:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/?p=4587"},"modified":"2017-11-04T16:31:24","modified_gmt":"2017-11-04T20:31:24","slug":"resist-mixing-politics-romance-novels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/04\/resist-mixing-politics-romance-novels\/","title":{"rendered":"RESIST Mixing Politics & Romance Novels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entertainment Weekly<\/a> says that the \"happily ever after\" genre is taking on Trump by joining the resistance.\u00a0 I'm distressed to learn that some of my colleagues are repeating the mistake made by the entertainment industry. Like actors, actresses and comedians, writers are free to have political opinions.\u00a0 Among friends and family, or at a political gathering held by folks of a particular leaning, expressing political opinion is perfectly acceptable.\u00a0 Conning your audience into buying one thing and selling them another is a lie and liars deserve to lose.<\/p>\n

The article<\/a>\u00a0notes that Lauren Billings, who writes with Christina Hobbs\u00a0as Christina Lauren, responded to readers who reject mixing romance with politics by saying, \"we share our opinions in our books in every word we write.\"\u00a0 If that's true, before you ever buy one of their books, you should consider that these writers aren't channeling their characters, they're not telling you the story you bought, they're feeding\u00a0you their personal beliefs and ideology.\u00a0 Is that what they marketed?\u00a0 Is that what readers bought?\u00a0 No, it's not.\u00a0 With all due respect to Ms. Billings, Ms. Hobbs and every other romance author on the planet, readers don't give a darling damn about what you think or feel or believe.<\/p>\n

Readers buy romance to crawl inside the heads and hearts and souls of the hero and heroine.\u00a0 A good writer often pens thoughts she'd never have and describes acts she'd never perform.\u00a0 How does the writer do that if \"every word she writes\" contains her opinions?\u00a0 She can't.\u00a0 An author feeding her opinions through the mouths of her characters is telling her story - not the tale the readers bought.\u00a0 A writer who gives in to ego to that extent echos the errors of entertainers.\u00a0 There is a reason that movie theaters are empty.\u00a0 Romance writers who feed readers stories with political overtones are herding romance to a place where shelves stay full.<\/p>\n

The EW piece<\/a>\u00a0commits the same mistake made by reporters, prognosticators, actors and entertainers.\u00a0 It shows a fundamental misunderstanding of why Americans back President Trump.\u00a0 The President is neither anti-gay nor anti-woman and neither are the hordes of Americans who voted for him.\u00a0 Many Trump supporters aren't particularly conservative.\u00a0 What unites ALL Trump supporters is not a political party.\u00a0 In fact, it is the exact opposite of a political anything.\u00a0 Trump supporters are tired of politicians, labels and political correctness.\u00a0 America voted Trump into office to elect a businessman who would run the government like a company.\u00a0 Some businessmen want to make and sell a better car or a better thermostat.\u00a0 Trump wants to make and sell a better America - not better for Democrats or Republicans, or for liberals or conservatives - but better for the vast majority whose lives and beliefs mix a little from all of those things to create the most unique thing on Earth:\u00a0 an American.<\/p>\n

Writers should disclaim and denounce the EW article<\/a> and everything it contains and advocates.\u00a0 \u00a0I disclaim it and I surely denounce it. Romance writers should write\u00a0 because they want to tell stories where people face obstacles, triumph over tragedy and end up happily ever after.\u00a0 Those stories should be the character's stories, told through the eyes and the hearts and the minds of the characters, not the authors.\u00a0 A writer who sells a love story but delivers something else has betrayed her readers. That writer will not inspire that reader to do anything but avoid her work in the future.<\/p>\n

Life is full of problems and despair and the Great Duck knows - it's far too full of politics these days.\u00a0 Anyone who wants to experience any of those things can turn on a number of 24-hour news channels.\u00a0 People don't go to a movie to hear an actor mouth lines filled with political drivel.\u00a0 People don't turn on a comic's special or late night program to hear him talk abut how much he hates Trump.\u00a0 And people don't read a romance novel to RESIST anything.\u00a0 Romance is about indulging senses and emotions. It's about love and triumph and living through a roller coaster ride that ends at a happy forever.<\/p>\n

People don't read romance to get some writer's take on politics or her opinion on the President.\u00a0 \u00a0So, the EW piece has it wrong\u00a0 - it's not the romance authors who should join the resistance movement.\u00a0 Romance readers should RESIST any writer whose product description or blurb describes a love story but tells a thinly-veiled political allegory.\u00a0 \u00a0So, how to RESIST being deceived by a writer, especially one you enjoyed before?\u00a0 Here's how - RCW - return, complain and warn.<\/p>\n

Whether you bought it in Kindle or in Paper, return any book you were conned into buying.\u00a0 Complain to the seller.\u00a0\u00a0Email Amazon or Apple or Barnes and Noble or your neighborhood bookstore.\u00a0 Email the big publisher.\u00a0 Explain that you were the victim of a bait and switch that\u00a0you feel was a deceptive act by the writer, the publisher and the seller.\u00a0 Explain that you expect a clear warning about any romance novel containing political opinion, references or overtones. And warn your fellow readers by posting a review on the seller's website, but don't stop there.\u00a0 Follow up by tweeting and posting on any board or forum where you interact with other readers.<\/p>\n

Are authors, actors, comedians, singers or athletes allowed to be political?\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 They can write a political book, give a speech at a rally or appear on an opinion talk show.\u00a0 But they must learn to separate their politics from their work because the audience is not paying to support their politics.<\/p>\n

Politics is politics and romance is romance. Any author's effort to combine the two should be met with reader resistance. Resist with your purse, your email, your reviews, your boards or forums, and your Facebook and Twitter. Unless there is a clear posted warning that the books contains a political point of view, all readers should be able to buy and enjoy romance novels by all writers.\u00a0 Any writer who believes otherwise can be taught that they are wrong and it is the readers' job to administer the lesson.\u00a0 Money talks and reviews and social media make fine megaphones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Entertainment Weekly says that the \"happily ever after\" genre is taking on Trump by joining the resistance.\u00a0 I'm distressed to learn that some of my colleagues are repeating the mistake made by the entertainment industry. Like actors, actresses and comedians, writers are free to have political opinions.\u00a0 Among friends and family, or at a political ...continue reading \"RESIST Mixing Politics & Romance Novels\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4587"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4593,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4587\/revisions\/4593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}