who writes or reads romances?

 

One thing that many people don't know is that men also write romances. Some do it under their own name or a pseudonym, but others in different genres. Westerns often have a romance in their story, though it won't be at the core. Examples are Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour.  

The thing is relationships are at the heart of many books, whether key or alongside the action. Because reality is human interactions are what makes the world go round, not just babies but moving forward. My romances are all heterosexual but there are good romances out there which are not. It's all about thee strong connection. 

 Because so many are prejudiced against the idea of romance as a key part of a book, I know I always lose readers here who challenge that as realistic. Romance novels have a bad rap, probably about the equivalent of soap operas. Who reads them? Maybe women a lot like I was when I did.

My first romances (to read that is) came when I was in the end of grade school and began checking out from the library some of those sweet stories like Paintbox Summer by Betty Cavanna (I had forgotten the author's name but still remembered that title which led to the author).

Those books were pretty much like the little films of the time on the Mickey Mouse Club with Spin, Marty and Annette (if you aren't in your sixties at least, you probably have no idea who they were). The stories were sweet. Sex, drugs, and alcohol rarely intruded in the lives of those teens; or if they did, they were shown as negative. I was living a life a lot like those books; so they suited me for a few years.

Then in my early teens came the westerns which really were my first romance reads of an adult sort. I was as interested then in the western life as the romantic parts. The women in Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour, etc. stories were often learning to live a western life and toughen up. The men they were attracted to were as tough as the land.

From this came more grown up fare by authors like Frank Yerby and Ernest Hemingway (yes, he did write stories with romance even though it usually didn't end well). The romances I read during that period had history as more important than the romantic parts, and the endings might or might not have been happy.

It wasn't until I was married and I think had my first baby that I actually read my first romance novels of the bodice ripper sort, which had only recently come into popularity with authors like Rosemary Rogers, and I might add were considered wicked back then. For me, those books were quite enlightening, and I went for enlightenment in a big way for a while.

Then I realized I didn't think it was healthy when any rape was romanticized or glorified which means even by the hero. I still read romances but less frequently and a bit more carefully chosen; until, boom, I lost interest in all of them.

More on this next week as to a defense of the genre. 

Expectations

To be honest, I am of the generation, who never expected to live past 30 and told my future husband as much. Once that date passed I quit predicting and here I am now, October 7th, just turning 82. How the heck did that happen?

 

It's a bummer for me that my birthday turned into such a significant date for the Hamas attack on the Israeli Kibbutzes, but it is what it is, and I will never pass this birthday again without a feeling of sorrow for what happened that day to innocent people. Frankly, there are too many dates like that these days.

 

What did that baby girl expect way back, all those years ago? Certainly, not the blessed life she had and the horrors out there in the world. How do we stay sane? Because was it the choice? To live with anger, fear and rage, no thanks for me. But it's a tough time, way beyond what I expected all those years ago with such great parents and a life full of possibilities. A golden era, I call it-- although with the Cold War, Korean War, and then Vietnam War, it sure wasn't all golden.

 

 

 

romance or love story

 

 

To write about romances is to lose some readers with the very word as the stories have been ridiculed so much, with a fair number poorly written with a formula or using silly wording. Yet, romance is at the heart of many emotions. What makes two people decide to tie their lives together-- including legally? But then again, how many real life romances end, sometimes even in tragedy?  So, when writing such books, to avoid being ridiculed, what should a romance be about?

First of all, separate romance from love story. Love stories don't have to have happy endings. Some examples from the past include Gone with the Wind, Wuthering Heights, and most of Shakespeare's plays. Love can be a violent emotion when is not accompanied by other behaviors. There are many books where love or even romantic feelings are in the story, but they aren't love stories or romances. An example of that would be Where the Crawdads Sing. Different examples of passion for someone but not a love story or a romance.

Romances, on the other hand, always end happily-- or are supposed to. The teasers might suggest they won't, but they will-- or they're not romances.

The issue though for a writer is what makes two people drawn together and then have the probability the relationship will last? A writer can't just set them up and assume they'll fall in love and it will (after some crises) work out. It has to be believable to the reader. Well, unless someone is writing formula and then they just follow the pattern; but what if the author wants it to feel real and bring the reader along for the ride?

All of Jane Austin's books are romances. Her own life never got that happy romantic ending but her lead characters always did-- despite the problems to getting there. 

Romances can be and usually are about more than romance, but it does have to be at the heart of the book. A writer can't just say they fell in love. Readers have to believe it would have happened. I often read reviews for other authors of romances and readers get quite irked when they don't believe those two people would have chosen each other.

One of the things that makes a couple feel real is when they have things in common to draw them together. But, there should also be those opposite elements that lead to conflicts between them. Otherwise, there's just -- and they lived happily ever after. I'll write more about that in the next blog as this one is already getting too long.

You know, relationships are not just about humans. It's what makes the world go round and species survive-- or not.
 

Love Waits--- sometimes

  

The stories of  the Stevens began on the Oregon Trail with the march west that so many made to find a new life on the West Coast. In the case of the Stevens, it was Oregon and an offer of land, this one the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850. The farm we own in Oregon was part of that claim. It stayed in the same family until we bought it. We're planning it'll long stay in our family too.

When writing a series, many authors do know what is to come. I think I mentioned this before that I did not for this Oregon Historical Series. One book though led to another with romances for the sisters and surprisingly, their mother. I was writing other stories during this time. By the time I got to the youngest of the sisters, Belle, who had been in two books and referenced through letter writing, it was her turn for her romance.

I wrote the first chapter but then felt stymied and put it aside for other projects. Almost a year passed when I finally knew where it would go. In a month, I had it all written, ready for editing.

Belle had long been gone from her family, first with rich friends, who invited her on trips. Then as the Civil War came along, she helped there, learning medical help from Clara Barton (if you don't know who she is, look her up as it's worth your time.)

Then Belle wanted to be in the Pinkertons, who rarely hired single women. With a few lies, she was hired by Alan. When this book began, she is back in Oregon in a pose as a governess to two adorable children with the assignment to find proof of a plot to continue the Southern cause and stop an illicit flow of counterfeit dollars. On a stage heading for Canyon City, with her charges, the book begins. Soon there is a confrontation with the Native Americans, who didn't think kindly of others taking their land.

That attack led to her seeing again her love of 10 years before, who had rejected her advances due to her youth and his own military career, He had been chasing the Indians and then could thwart their attack on the stage.

When he sees Belle again, he can see she didn't want him to speak of her family. The attraction is still there with more violence to come but also a ball organized by the man Belle and her only love, Rand, are mutually but secretly seeking to find evidence of his plots.

Lots goes on, but I thought it'd be fun to share a clip from the book and that ball.   

“Now, don’t forget,” she said before she left him, “the last dance is mine.”

He bowed his head and smiled. He forced himself to look away from her. From then on he forced his concentration on locating and not losing track of Forester. The man seemed to drift from group to group but not long with any. If this gathering had an ulterior purpose, it was more likely establishing him as a power in the community than it was plotting with a subversive group.

He had nearly forgotten the ball would end. Belle would return for that last dance. Then, there she was. “This song was requested for you specifically, Captain Phillips,” she said with a smile as she put her hand out for him.

When he heard it start up, he understood why, Garryowen, the fighting song of many a soldier. Some regarded it as an ending song as well. He swept her into his arms and began the quickstep that was best danced to it. They spun around the dance floor, this time with no chance to talk. He realized as they danced that others had stepped aside. They were in the center of the floor and then they were the only dancers. When the music ended, the others applauded and Belle laughed.

“You look at little stunned, Captain,” she said as the left the floor.

“Custer has claimed that for his Seventh Cavalry.”

“Does that mean no one else may claim it?”

“No, but do you know it’s a drinking song?”

“Actually no... but I did know about Custer. Miles Koegh actually claimed it first.”

“How did you know that?”

She smiled. “Well, don’t tell anyone, but I did happen to have met General Custer once.”

For those who don't know the song, I found a link for it with the images from the movie about the Spanish American War in Cuba: Garryowen 

If you play it, can't you just see a woman in a flowing ball gown,  being spun around the floor by a handsome cavalry officer.

So, the book is called Love Waits, because that is just what happens in this adventurous romance with two warriors. It is wide, and you can find more links in my website, but below is its link to Amazon where you get a free sample, the blurb, and the link to buy it there. 

LOVE WAITS 

 

 

 

Going Home-- Oregon historical romance

 It is interesting, at least to me, what inspires writers, as to their interests for topics, but also what leads readers to the same things. The diversity possible is huge from settings to subjects and characters. When I thought about writing the third in the Oregon series, its timing was part of its appeal, but there had been so many reasons I found fascinating this time in history. At the same time, it is now complicated to cover it in a simple blog. 

Writing a blurb was easier as it goes more to the characters and their issues, but what about the background of the time where these people had
to find their own happily ever after, if they even could, in a turbulent time with the protagonists having their own complexities due to their choices.

Because, in many ways, we live in such a time in 2025, not just in the US but around the world. Writing a book can infuriate as many readers as please them. Study histories of periods a hundred years ago and watch out which books you trust, as histories can be distorted to suit agendas. When writing a book set in such times, it has to be presented as the truth-- but was it?

I began Going Home with needing an interesting hero for the middle Stevens sister. Loraine, who preferred to be called Raine. She had left the family homestead when they got to Oregon. She preferred a life in town and saw the work that interested her as business. She thrived in that environment and even got into stage productions. She felt successful and not in need of a man in her life.

Well, there was one man, Jedediah Hardman, who she called the Laird because of his arrogance and background, with family having left Scotland
due to abuse from the more powerful English. In Georgia they had established a plantation, but not of slaves because of their own heritage of abuse. Their workers were free and paid. Jed had come to Oregon and acquired an Eastern Oregon ranch. He found he woman he wanted to be at his side, but Raine was a city woman and ranch life can be hard and isolating. 

Before they could work out anything, the Civil War erupted. Jed's brothers signed up with the Confederacy, not to defend slavery but to fight for their land. Jed couldn't fight against his own kin; so he traveled back to Georgia and to fight for the South, not a popular view in Abolitionist Oregon (despite its own dark history of racism where in its constitution declared no Black could own land or live in the state and weirdly no Pacific Islander could marry a white). Hypocrisy so often is connected to righteousness.

Going Home begins when the war has ended. Raine is feeling fairly settled into her life, but then Jed returns to Oregon to reclaim, What Is His. 

The complication for me, as a writer of this book, was when this whole issue of North versus South was erupting again, when the book was due to come out, over statues, names of teams, and even forts. Having a hero fighting for the South was not going to be popular, but the plot couldn't change and this demonstrates another kerfuffle for writers when political viewpoints change with right and wrong being strongly disagreed over.

Going Home though stayed as it was written with all the interesting aspects of various cultural differences even within a country. It did not just deal with the black and white issues (important as that was). but also the Chinese and Native American issues. Along with that is life at the edge of wilderness, which eventually the hero and heroine must navigate through if they want a good life together. 

This third book in the Oregon series is wide; but if you want to read a sample, the blurb, or purchase it, it is here on Amazon-- Going Home
 

 

violence

 My country, the United States, has once again had a political assassination, not the first, and although one would wish otherwise, not likely the last. Charley Kirk has been blocked from speaking on campuses. but this time, he was shot dead at an event for speaking his mind and inviting dialogue. He was not advocating violence, but that's what he got.

Although I never subscribed to Kirk, I did listen to him now and then. He was a Christian, lived in Arizona, and believed in Conservative thinking. He expressed more than once that he thought it was valuable for people with differences to be able to express them, without violence. He is a loss of a solid person expressing one side of the divide in our country. 

When people use the word evil to depict someone else's ideology, to me that is scary since a few mentally ill or extremists sometimes take it further. 

I won't say more on this; but this week also, a young woman was stabbed to death on a commuter train by someone mentally ill, who should have been incarcerated for his own benefit and certainly hers. Violence is just too prevalent. There is, by the way, a video showing what happened to the young woman, but a lot of media will not show it as it does not suit their agendas. I watched it though as I can so relate to the horror of what happened to her. Charlie Kirk knew the risk he faced. She did not. 

There was a blog written for this week, but I don't have the spirit to put it out right now. Not like the US has not known violent times, thinking of Martin Luther King Jr. and so many more; but it's still depressing, when leaders are taken out by one person and a bullet. Many people die but when it's a political leader, it's more than the rest of us. It's an attempt to destroy a way of thinking.

Right now, I know it's not healthy, but it's time for wine and sadness. Next week will be the intended blog, about a book, set also in a violent time. What the hell is going on or is there no way past that for human nature??? 

Time to remember some peaceful times-- the John Day River and one of our photos. Fortunately, I've known a lot of those times.

 

 

Where Dreams Go-- and tough choices for writers

 Since I started with the Oregon trail and the Stevens family, I decided to carry on with all four books. I had planned at one time to add to the four with their grown kids. I might still do that, but there is another series, I wanted to add a book to, first. I have though some ideas for how I might carry on the history of Oregon through this family. After all, I am a native born Oregonian, not Indian, but it's a much beloved part of my family for those who are. I am getting distracted. Back to the book that followed Round the Bend.

 

First, I had to make a tough decision as a writer-- to kill off a character I had much liked from Book One. I had a reason for the needed removal. In book One, I had a secondary character (well, a couple of them) that I also liked. One seemed a natural to be a hero of his own book-- Adam O'Brian (even though he seemingly lost out when courting Amy Stevens. He was a scout, a  man who well understood the wilderness and the ability to fight when it was required. 

BUT, who would be his heroine. There were still those single sisters, but they didn't seem right, too easy and no challenge in the relationship. One was actually too young. I could bring in a new character; however I already knew who it should be, but it took something to happen that would make that possible.

Amos and Martha, the parents of Amy, Loraine, and Belle, had a happy marriage. In Oregon, they settled near where Amy and Matt built their cabin and there built their own. Happy, happy, happy. Amos was a good man, strong with a bit of a past of his own. Now though ,he and Martha, who had known each other since their own youth, were content. 

Amos though had to go if I was going to get the plot I wanted. I don't think it's ever easy to kill off a character that the writer likes. I knew just how to do it since that kind of accident had happened, in the community where our Oregon farm sets. 

Amos and Matt had been cutting down a tree, one that split wrong, injured Matt and ended Amos' life.

The book begins after that tragedy, with Martha adjusting to her widowhood, remembering over and over the moment that an injured Matt had come to tell her what happened. She had gotten to Amos as he was dying. He told her to tell... but died before he could finish the sentence. 

Because St. Louis Jones had also settled near the Stevens families, he was a help to Martha, but she was still a young enough woman to be strong and care for her own homestead, even as she grieved the loss of her beloved husband, but found joy where she could especially since Amy was pregnant.

I guess by now, readers likely figured out who Adam's love was. He had stayed away from the families, out of respect for them and especially Amos-- since the woman he dreamed of was married to  a good man, as Adam saw it. It was never Amy but always her mother. And, Amos knew it, respected Adam for his ethics.

Scouting for the military down in the Siskiyous, was when he got the letter telling him that Amos had been killed and Martha was now a widow. He headed north, knowing it might still be a long-shot, since he was ten years younger than her and had little to offer. Still, he had to give it a try, as he had dreamed of her over many a lonely campfire.

Their possible romance was complicated by their differences, her concern how her daughters will see him as her husband-- after all, at one time he had courted Amy. To add to it, Oregon had its own turbulent history. Some of it nothing to be proud of, many wanting it, to be forgotten.

Link is to Amazon to get the free sample, read the blurb, or buy there. It is, however, also wide. 

Where Dreams Go 

There is another link, this one to the trailer I created for the book--