Fantasy Romance
“Absolutely not!” Alaric roared. “You are my sister. I will protect you.”
Claudia folded her arms over her chest. “I am a mage purple class.”
“All the more reason for you to stay here where its safe. Do you know what Ilyiosians do to mages?”
“I don’t care. I won’t lose you to them, too.”
Claudia paced as she thought through her prayer and found her brother alone in the great hall with an untouched glass of wine beside him.
“What’s wrong?”
He shook his head.
“Tell me.” Claudia crouched beside him. While he was almost ten summers her senior, she had been his confidant and voice of reason since Anton’s death.
“King Garon wants war.”
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.
Layla’s first day at preschool, she met a nice boy named Mig. She and he fell in love.
She met him in K5. She loved him a lot.
Layla is a secretary at school. She fell in love, unlike yesterday. The boy’s name is Mig.
(Four Years Later) Layla’s first day, she met him again. She liked him more.
Today they date. They want to kiss. So they do. They play Princess of the Dragon World.
When they were twenty-five years old, they married. They had fun at the 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!
Claudia watched her mother all but beg for her father’s attention and was disgusted with both of them.
Her mother would never be the Duke of Whitecliff’s first wife.
She should stop trying.
Claudia stared down at the mage tome in front of her. She would never let herself be anyone’s second choice.
Besides, she had a war to end.
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.
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*
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*
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!
We recently visited my grandmother and my extended family. They live almost seven hours from us, and there is no easy way to get there by airplane. It’s not a trip we make often, though I wish it was easier so we could. Two kids in a car for seven hours is no one’s idea of fun.
My grandmother lives in a very rural part of the country, and she has neither cable TV nor internet. It made for an interesting trip for kids whose hospital pictures we took with our iPad. They learned to appreciate Netflix a whole lot more when we got back to the hotel.
My mom made the trip as well, and she took my oldest daughter in her car with her. This allowed my husband and me time to reconnect. We had seven hours in the car with minimal distractions other than talking to each other. I was reminded how much he makes me laugh, what a good partner he is, and how supportive he is.
Sometimes in the rush of kitchen remodels, making supper, doing dishes, and running the kids to school and dance class you can lose sight of these things. Makes me realize how much we must start making time for date nights.
The other thing the trip made me realize is that we’re growing old.
Yeah. Harsh.
But true.
I remember standing at the same sink my daughter was at to wash her hands when I had to stand on tiptoes to reach the faucet. She can already reach the faucet.
I remember when “the back room” seemed like this huge, cavernous space. Now, it’s like any other room.
I remember when her back yard seemed huge and to stretch on forever. It’s actually a relatively small yard.
It’s also hard for me to think of my uncle’s as grandfathers now, though they are. I remember when I was first visiting my grandmother, and my one uncle still lived at home while he was in school. Now, his kids are grown and on their own.
Time marches on.
While our vacation wasn’t a trip to Mexico or Disney World, it did let us see family and give me time with my husband. Not exactly a Pinterest trip, but that’s okay. This gave me a chance to reflect and remember what is important, even if it also reminded me of how much has changed.
What I do with that lesson is now up to me.