Romance!
Romance! I’ve never been a fan of what one might call
pure romance. I’ve always preferred my love stories to have other elements and more
themes than the old-fashioned man meets woman, they quarrel, they make up and
marry. I prefer the main characters to be real, rounded people with back stories
and families, and fully established lives before meeting their heroes or
heroines. I want to have the feeling that their previous interests and concerns
will continue in a situation of mutual love, respect and generosity.
Romance! I’ve never been a fan of silly misunderstandings
which have no proper purpose other than to keep the lovers apart and provide
the black spot as it used to be called which appeared at about the
three-quarter mark of a novel. That misunderstanding often concerned one of the
romantic partners being told lies about the other, or truths that were spun to
suggest the worst interpretation. The teller was almost always someone with no
reason to wish the couple well. Does the newly-informed hero or heroine ask the
other partner for an explanation? Of course not! That would be too sensible!
Romance! I like my romantic partners to have enough complementary
or in-common attributes and interests to make it feasible that they’ll stick together
into the foreseeable future. This doesn’t mean each needs to be honey-sweet,
but there should be something that will hold them together and it will
be very little to do with curves, muscles or physical beauty.
With that in mind, here are a few of my loving partners
from various of my romantic books and my attempt to explain why they
work as lovers by my definitions.
1.
Tamzin Herrick and Matin Campania from the
seven-volume Being Tamzin series. Matin first saw Tamzin during a
terrible period of her life when her very odd parents were forcing her to
change her identity yet again, parting her from her first love just as they
parted her from her best friend when she was eleven. Matin was in the thrall of
a handler who also managed Tamzin’s parents, but, seeing her despair, he smuggled
a phone number to her in a pair of shoes. When she eventually found it, some
months later, she called him, and he facilitated her escape. Tamzin offered to
stay with him out of gratitude, but he sent her away to a safe place even he didn’t
know. They met up again nearly a decade later in their late twenties, each
having made a satisfying life in the meantime. Finally, the time was right to
debrief and to catch up on unfinished business. Tamzin had no proper family,
being long estranged from her only relatives. Matin had a close-knit loving
bond with his. Tamzin was a violinist and portraitist. Matin worked at a music
studio and hoped to open his own studio in the wider arts. They really were
made for one another… now…but only because they overcame their rocky first
meeting by courage and a willingness to create their own futures.
2.
Pippin Pearmain and Alain Barfleur from the
nine volume Performing Pippin Pearmain series were both young actors
when they first met. They enjoyed a brief friendship while making a film
together, but Pip was only fourteen to Alain’s eighteen. They just missed working
together again in another production a few years later. Alain left her a letter
and a gift, but his agent made sure her return letter never reached him. Pip
became an eccentric character actor who finally retired in her fifties after
her mother and her agent died in the same week. She never forgot Alain, but he
was just a lovely memory, the donor of a cup she used on special occasions. In
her sixties, having spent a decade living in a seaside cottage with two conversational
cats, Pip made a comeback in a strange film shot at a music festival, playing a
part written especially for her. She met Alain again by chance when he was
hijacked into the closing scene of the film…To their delight they still felt the
tug of instant friendship. Both were single, and both were willing to take a
chance—and they did. Pip, however belatedly, got to have her fairy tale with
the best friend she’d missed for decades.
3.
Doctor Harry Fejoa from Rachel Outward
Bound first met Rachel Traveller when they were both taking part in a human
deep-sleep tanking experiment run by the Outward Bound company whose
ambition was to send a colony ship to a distant planet. The plan was to conduct
studies on the effects of long-term hibernation. Harry and Rachel met in the year-long
simulation where they, and fifteen other candidates, inhabited a virtual world.
Harry was a counsellor and physician and Rachel a nutritionist with an odd perception
talent neither she nor anyone else could explain. Harry, from his fascination
with Rachel from a scientific point of view, soon began to appreciate her odd approach
to life. They realised they were in it for the long haul when they understood
that the promise of shipping out with the new colony was less important than
being together.
Romance! It is where one finds it. My characters find it because
they are in the right time at the right place, meeting the person who will
bring out the best in them and give them one more reason to be satisfied in
life. Surely that’s what romance ought to do?
To follow on to the other bloggers in this blog hop, check out...
Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-3pV
A.J. Maguire http://ajmaguire.wordpress.
Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com
Belinda Edwards https://booksbybelinda.com/
Helena Fairfax http://www.helenafairfax.com/
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Diane Bator https://escapewithawriter.
Sally Odgers https://behindsallysbooks.
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/
