Elizabeth Drakes's Site

Fantasy Romance

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Short Story – Love of the Romance

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In honor of the release of my third book, my daughter wrote her own romance novel. She figured she’d learned a lot reading over my shoulder despite my protests.

I have warned you that she is precocious.

She wanted me to share it with you here. I think we may have another budding writer in the family.

Love of the Romance

 

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Love of the Romance: A Love Story about Layla and Mig
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Clearly this is a friends to lovers novel. You can totally see the confusion the characters struggle with as they come to understand their feelings.

Layla’s first day at preschool, she met a nice boy named Mig. She and he fell in love.

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Layla seems a bit more unsure. Mig is all in. A lot of plot potential with that. 

She met him in K5. She loved him a lot.

 

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Now we have love at first sight, built on the love they had as children. 

Layla is a secretary at school. She fell in love, unlike yesterday. The boy’s name is Mig.

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Hmmm, more time jumping. Makes you wonder what happened that pulled them apart. I am also wondering where Layla’s arms are. I need to ask the illustrator about that.

(Four Years Later) Layla’s first day, she met him again. She liked him more.

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Things are moving pretty quickly between Layla and Mig!

Today they date. They want to kiss. So they do. They play Princess of the Dragon World.

 

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Really unsure about those vows!

When they were twenty-five years old, they married. They had fun at the wedding.

 

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This might explain the quick wedding!

Thirteen weeks after they were married, they had a baby! They love it.

 

For a child more interested in Wings of Fire than anything else right now, she has an amazing grasp of the romance genre. Now, to keep feeding her Wings of Fire books and keep her out of my “open door” romance novel stash for as long as possible!

Don’t Be a Writer

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At least, don’t be a writer of romance novels when your daughter is in first grade but reading at the fifth grade level, and she wants to read the book you wrote.

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Yeah.

About that…Errr, no.

I tell her the stories in my books will scare her, and there is some truth to that. She has put down more than one book in her few short years because there was death in it. She almost quit reading The Magic Treehouse series altogether because of a book in the series where the kids go back in time, meet an Egyptian queen, but when they return to the present, the queen is a mummy. My daughter was super unhappy about it, saying it was a terrible ending.

I have no idea where she gets it from. *whistles while avoiding eye contact*

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I swear!

 

And I’m totally lying.

But my romance novels are not fade-to-black. And there is no way she is ready for one of them, much less one her mom wrote.

Heck, I’m not ready for her to read them and the barrage of questions that will come.

But she is my daughter, and as we were playing a video game together, her main focus wasn’t on the combat, or maximizing loot, it was all about marrying off the characters. She was especially delighted when that resulted in the parents being “gifted” with an unruly child they had to deal with.

I have no idea where she gets it from. *whistles while avoiding eye contact*

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It was the cat. Yeah, the cat.

 

Kids show you the best and worst sides of yourself.

I’ve toyed with writing her a story just for her, but I’m not sure I can do it. Or that I want to spend my writing time doing it when Knight of Valor is calling to me.

Maybe I could rewrite my current stories and remove the non-fade-to-black scenes.

I’m trying to remember when I first started reading Victoria Holt, and I’m almost certain it was fifth or six grade. I still remember sitting on my bed devouring book after book, and based on where the bed was positioned, I know it had to be before seventh grade when we moved. It wasn’t too long after that I discovered Kathleen Woodwiss and was cemented as a lifelong romance reader.

Granted, it wasn’t until much more recently that I decided I wanted to write what I read. I’d toyed with traditional fantasy, urban paranormal, and science fiction before realizing I could incorporate those into romance and write what I read.

And I’ve never looked back!

Micro Fiction: What Had He Done

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Despite his better judgement, his advisers’ suggestions, and his own wife’s wishes, the king allowed his daughter’s grave to be disturbed.

They had to take great care given the poison, but he had to lay Rohan’s doubts to rest.

And, he had to lay to rest his own.

When they opened the coffin, the king closed his eyes and turned away.

By the gods, what had he done?