ROUND ROBIN, AUGUST 23rd, 2014.

Topic: Have you ever read or written a story that had a secondary character take over a story?

In my first published romance, ‘Faith, Hope and Love,’ the housekeeper Hannah (thrown in for light relief) stole the scene quite a number of times.

The story begins with Rachel the heroine and Luke the hero in court over custody of Luke’s infant nephew.  When Rachel collapses, Luke blames himself and takes her home to his ranch and Hannah.

Hannah’s worked for Luke’s parents since she was a teenager and is a member of the family now.  Deeply upset by the death of Luke’s brother and his wife and passionately wanting to set things right for their infant son Gordie, Hannah knows Rachel and Luke were made for each other.

As soon as Hannah senses the special tension between Rachel and Luke, she starts matchmaking with a vengeance. 

At one point she almost earned an entire chapter to her ‘good works’.  It was hard to keep her within the parameters of her role as secondary character as the story went on!

A friend told me she got caught up in the book just waiting to see what Hannah would do next to bring Luke and Rachel together.  That’s a compliment every writer needs to hear every now and then.

Thanks Rhobin for all you do.

Let’s head over to Rhobin’s blog to see her input on this topic.

Rhobin Courtright    http://rhobinleecourtright.com

Here are the other members participating this month:

Marci Baun  http://www.marcibaun.com/
Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com
A.J. Maguire http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/ 
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Margaret Fieland http://margaretfieland.com/my_blog

Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.webs.com

Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.com/

JUNE ROUND ROBIN, SATURDAY 28th JUNE, 2014

FIREWORKS!

Post your best explosive (literally or figuratively, physically or emotionally) scene from your writing. Tell about your reaction to writing it, background information, etc.

One of the most emotionally explosive scenes in my writing was in my first book, Faith, Hope and Love. 

Here’s the excerpt from FAITH, HOPE and LOVE, available at http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Hope-Love-Homespun-Romance-ebook/dp/B00EKNTNTM:

“The judge's entrance fast forwarded the drama.  Luke detached himself from the scene, willed himself into the role of impartial outsider.  It was the best way he knew to help himself. 

Both counsels presented their cases.  Both clients wanted the same thing.  Custody of ten-month-old Gordon Summers.

He was called to the stand, reminded of the oath he'd taken.  Myrna gave him an it's-in-the-bag smile and Luke realized he hated rapacious women with too white teeth.  But then he'd wanted the best lawyer.

"Mr. Summers would you share with the court, the details of the twentieth of July?"

Luke cleared his throat.  His eyes swerved to Rachel Carstairs.  She sat on the edge of her seat.  For the first time that morning she was looking straight at him.  Not through him.  The look in her eyes were twin drills, boring into his brain.

"I was spending the weekend on the ranch I co-owned with my late brother."  The words conjured instant pain.  "My brother and sister-in-law had decided to fly to Palm Springs for a charity gala."  Another pause, longer this time.  The muscle throbbing in his jaw made it hard to sound matter-of-fact.  "Their plane crashed ten minutes after takeoff.  It exploded on impact.  There were no survivors."

He looked her way again.  Her stillness tugged at him.  Both arms were wrapped around her body.  As if she was cold.  As if she wanted to shut out the scene he had just painted.  In that moment Luke knew that she had loved Chris.  The thought landed on the top of his already high pile of doubts, escalating his uneasiness.

They should have found another way of sorting out their differences.”

While writing this scene, I felt the immense sadness of Rachel at losing her only living relative in the world; her cousin Chris.  I also felt Luke’s deep sense of loss over his brother and sister in law’s death.  She had flown half way around the world and had nothing except the love she felt for her late cousin and the urge to do her best for Chris’s son.   The little boy she felt was her one shot at giving and finding love.

Luke has everything…a big ranch, money, power.  Rachel has a small savings account. 

It was a given Luke would win and Rachel would be out in the cold again.

The court case is the beginning of their romance.  Ten month old Gordie is an amazing matchmaker and of course everything ends well.

Feeling Rachel’s pain and sense of inadequacy from the minute she set eyes on Luke helped me paint the scene with the right brush strokes of emotional tension.

Thanks Robin for including me as we light up the sky.

Let's go over to the next blog and see what exploding there...

http://www.fionamcgier.com

HEROES

My personal hero is an ongoing challenge to me as I'm sure I am to him.
I'm lucky to have him in my life and there are certain qualities in him that find their way into my books and yet I take full advantage of the fact fiction gives me the license to create perfect heroes...the kind I like 'meeting' in the books I read or the shows I watch.

Where do we writers find them?

In the depths of our imagination, combining them with the real life qualities we like best in the men we know.  Part film and television, part books, part real life.

What kind of heroes do I like best?

The dependable kind of course with a strong purpose in life and great family values.

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder so they don’t have to look perfect…they just have to have something about them that appeal to the heroine.

Are my heroes realistic?

My ‘reality’ is different from every one else’s so I can’t say they are. 

I emphasize ideals of qualities that are universally wanted and needed by every woman.

I think books create a world to escape to for a few hours and I want to provide a retreat that leaves readers feeling good.

Which one quality in heroes appeals to me the most?

It’s the ability to understand a problem the heroine’s facing and deal with it without her having to put it into words.

http://www.fionamcgier.com 

http://geetakakade.blogspot.com

http://dbator.blogspot.com

http://www.marcibaun.com

http://lynncrain.blogspot.co.at/


http://beverleybateman.blogspot.com

http://mizging.blogspot.com

http://connivines.blogspot.com
http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/ 
http://rhobinleecourtright.com/

ROUND ROBIN BLOG FOR JANUARY 2014: HEROINES

January, 25th, 2014

TOPIC:  What type heroine(s), traits, personality, in particular always draw you into the story?
Has it changed with time?
And do you write this type of heroine?

Heroines who draw me into a story are ones who:

1. Stand up for themselves.
2. Do not choose love for the sake of security but demand to be loved back 100% before they will commit to a relationship.

3. Face a compelling challenge other than the romance, from the word go.
4. Have a fault that makes them vulnerable and human.
5. Someone who at least once in the story 'rescues' the hero from a predicament.
6. Insist on equality at every level.

This type of heroine draws me into a book and makes me want to share her journey of external problem solving and self discovery on the path of love.

In Faith, Hope and Love, my first traditional romance and again in Daddy's Little Girl, my sixth, the heroines Rachel and Sara don't have two nickels to rub together but they still stand up for the things they believe in each in their own way.

Remember Anne of Green Gables, Jo of Little Women and Portia in The Merchant of Venice?  These were a few of my favorite 'early' heroines.


The changes time has brought about:

When I was first published in 1990, the traditional romance category was for young women.  Heroines in this category fell in love, worked through challenges with the hero and then got married before they consummated their relationship.  When I had one couple in bed before they were married in one of my books, I remember an editor telling me,  “Your heroine's not been married before so we can't have that scene in here.”  She went on to say, "If she's a widow or divorced that’s okay but explicit love scenes belong in another romance category, not yours."

Things have definitely changed since then with 90% of heroines now jumping into bed first and then working out their relationship with the hero for the rest of the book.
When I tell people I write 'traditional romance' they ask what's that and I explain.  Then they look at me like 'She must be the sister of the Dodo bird to be still writing those books!'

So, in today's world I'm a young adult writer and that's a label that’s right for my books.  I continue to use the traditional romance label as well for those 'golden oldies' readers, like me, who still recognize their favorite category by it.

Do I write about this type of heroine?

I do.

I have to sidetrack a bit and explain why this type of woman is so important to me...
I read romances in India as a young girl (Essie Summers, Anne Weale, Lucy Walker...to name a few).  Hemmed in by traditions that gave no leeway to women where marriage was concerned, I felt trapped.  The books I read reached into the head and heart of a ten year old and gave me the idea it was all right to be independent and to want to love someone and marry them because they loved you... not because your horoscopes matched, or you were good looking and healthy and would have many sons to carry on the family name, or well trained and would never give your husband a moment's worry no matter what he chose to do, or that there was a large dowry offered to diminish your faults and make you acceptable.

Back to the present:


I like to think that young girls all over the world, not just in the USA, might read my books and get ideas from them of self sufficiency, self worth and their rights in the decision making process about one of the most important areas of life...their choice of a partner…just like I did.

The women I write about now are not 'mooning' about love; they are realists...they meet someone who makes them realize that life has much more to offer with that special someone in it, but also that instead of a guaranteed 'happily ever after' they are going to work every day at building and maintaining a successful relationship.
They have to fall ‘in like’ with the hero first, find common ground to sustain their initial interest for a relationship to develop to the point where they cannot live without each other.

As for personality traits....

I like my heroines to be intelligent, have a sense of humor and be absolutely determined to support themselves so they are not leaning vines who need to be propped up by a hero.

Christy, Bridget and Laurel, the three heroines in my Cupid holiday trilogy, are all like this though they come from very different walks of life.

When I’m writing a romance, I think of my heroine as 'sleeping beauty being brought to life by the kiss of reality and determining to have it all:  a great personal life and success in work that is vital to her...whether it is running a home, raising a family, having a great career or running a country.'


I hope that strong heroines will continue to inspire women all over the world to insist on their right to freely choose whom to love and marry…just as they inspired me.

Thank you for your comments.  The replies to your comments are in the next blog...


                                                                  ****************

Robin, thanks so much for letting me sound off on a topic very dear to my heart.

http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/