I started out writing Fantasy. Pure Fantasy. Swords and sorcery and… well actually if I go even further back I started out at the ripe age of twelve writing poems. Some people think in pictures. I have always “seen” and “heard” my thoughts as words. Words that form pictures, concise and succinct. Words that paint colors and punch snapshots of emotion. It’s hard to explain. But for me, when a poem came to me, I always got a sort of “feeling” –it was a tingly sort of prickly feeling at the back of my throat and behind my eyes. It’s like I’d feel it coming “on” (not unlike the feeling of a migraine or attack of bersitis about to come on). The poem would “appear,” almost leaping off my fingers. Almost as if I hadn’t written it at all. Almost as if I was plucking some formless shape from the ether and giving it form, words, colors, emotions.
Writing poems kept me sane during some of the darkest times of my life. I called them “naked pictures of my soul” because they exposed my inner emotional workings like no other form of art could. I suspect it is much like this for visual artists. Whenever I started to create I could never see the entire “thing” I was creating until the end.
Writing fiction creates a little more distance than I had with poetry. I can “shield” the rawness in fiction. But kernels of those inner workings still emerge. I’ll often sit back and wonder, “Where did THAT come from?” Creation is strange like that.
More to the point, why the switch from poetry, to longer fiction: first fantasy, and then historical romance? My first work of long fiction centered around a character named Synna. I started out writing her “history” and somewhere along the way, her story evolved into an epic fantasy that would have stretched volumes, had I written it all out (three volumes exist in a fairly primitive state now and are, for now, trunked). When people asked me what I was writing, I’d first say “Fantasy.” When I got a blank stare, I’d elaborate: “Think LORD OF THE RINGS meets PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.” They’d quirk their brow, intrigued.
It was the best way to describe the Synna story. Though I could never hope to touch Austen or Tolkien, it gave people a filter to categorize my writing. It gave me a goal to shoot for. It was a novel of manners and relationships against a backdrop of epic Fantasy story lines–good versus evil and the imminent doom of the world and all that good stuff.
So why romance? It kind of snuck up on me. (And yes, I know that ‘snuck’ is not proper usage, but it’s such a great word). I’ve been a Jane Austen fan since college when I first read “Pride and Prejudice.” Her work is the precursor, in my opinion, of the modern romance novel. Her novels are about relationships and the growth and development of characters as a result of finding true love. They are about the happily ever after. Every one of Jane Austen’s novels ends with a wedding or proposal.
Romance, for me, is about what it provides for the reader. It is not unlike Fantasy in the respect of feeling a need for escape. A romance novel immerses a reader in another world, governed by it’s own rules, encased in boundaries so-defined by the author and peopled by characters that are real people. Characters that could be your friend, your cousin, yourself.
The romantic element in literature is so ingrained that rarely a popular piece of fiction (whether in novel, cinematic or other form) does not have a love story somehow involved or attached to it. Romance is important. Love, desire, hope are all facets and parts of feeling human. They soften the hard parts of the world and make it easier to live in. I’m waiting for the study that shows that reading a romance novel releases the same amount of endorphins in the brain as eating a good piece of chocolate.
I do most of my writing time on my laptop, a Macbook which happens to be made of aluminum. And as aluminum is a conductive metal, it gets ice cold in chilly weather–or in an overly air-conditioned Starbucks (a coffee-fueled writer talking, here).
I can be all swathed in a comfy jacket, warm socks and scarf but if I’ve got my wrists resting on arctic metal, then it’s very difficult to concentrate and get to the work at hand. Conversely, wearing full gloves and typing is pretty much impossible.
There is a remedy! The fashion of the day has brought us the practical and useful fingerless gloves. I recently purchased a pair on sale at a local sporting goods store and they look something like this:
Fingerless gloves let your fingers do the work & keep you warm.
I’m sure there are loads of lovely items on etsy you can peruse. But since I crochet I’m going to make these before the weather gets too nice to wear them:
Because the after-effects of a duel are at the center of a vital relationship in my current Regency Historical WIP (working title “Violette of Toulouse”), I’ve been seeking to inform myself of all of the particulars on how they were fought and what the customs are surrounding them.
On the very first day of this year, 2 months ago almost to the day, I drafted a list of writing goals for the year. When I did so, I promised myself that I would revisit them often and not forget about them. There were ten goals altogether, the first nine of which had due dates attached to them (what can I say, I’m a teacher, I work better with due dates in mind!). The due dates have made all the difference!
Two months into the year and I have accomplished two of the ten goals. In January, I was pleased to become a member of RWA- Pro by querying Broken Oathsto an agent, which I did. As expected, I got rejected, but it was the rejection I needed to provide in order to show the organization that I am seriously pursuing publication.
In January, also, I began writing a short story which, for goal number two, was to enter into the Jane Austen Made Me Do It Short Story Contest. It was an amazing opportunity that comes along rarely for aspiring writers. I figured I’d take a shot at it. To my great pleasure, I am honored that “The Love Letter” has been selected as one of the top ten stories. To think that people read and liked my work well enough to vote for it is very validating for me. To think that my story will be read by an editor, and considered for inclusion in an anthology amongst many other great writers, is thrilling indeed.
While I’d love to pause, sit back and savor the moment (and I will for a little while), I realize that I only have a one in ten chance of winning the grand prize. The odds of winning this round are less than they were at the beginning (10/88 is still better than 1/10) but I will cross my fingers and remain hopeful. Even if I don’t win, though, I’ll still be thrilled that I made it this far and that my work was appreciated by many of those who read it.
Now, on to the next goal. I’m in the process of polishing the first section of Violetteand write up a short synopsis of the plot for entry into the Orange Rose contest held by my home chapter of RWA. Those due dates sneak up quickly!
I’ve had quite a struggle with it. I’ll talk more on that later in a post which I plan to entitle “Trusting Your Gut Instinct.” I’ve redrafted the story from different points of view and deleted entire scenes and restructured it. The story has always been the one I wanted to tell. It was just the manner of telling it that complicated matters.
One thing’s for sure. I combed that manuscript multiple times for all manner of typo and yet, only after it was submitted did I see one missed return, one use of double word, and a seriously messed up set of commas (due to the fact that I’d deleted words from a sentence but forgotten to rearrange the commas). This experience has taught me a lot in microcosm of how it will doubtless be on a larger work of fiction (only magnified that much more).
The inspiration for the story is The Letter (you know the one). It is about a young man who receives a page torn from a novel mailed anoymously to him and the chain of events that result from it.
The first line reads: I never expected to pull a mystery out of a self-addressed stamped envelope.
To read the rest, click the link: The Love Letter. If you like it, feel free to vote for it!
As of this writing, there are over 60 Jane Austen-inspired stories to read and enjoy. I’ve read almost all of them and noticed that there is a huge variety of both genre, style and influence. The creativity is truly amazing!
