Fantasy Romance
The Tamarian soldiers stared at Leikar, then one nodded toward the Knight of Valor. “Closest Priestess of Thalia is hard half day ride from here. He won’t survive that long.”
Leikar stared at the young Knight, his sword no longer aflame with the god’s light. “I know how to cure zombie rot if you can get me the ingredients quickly enough.”
Several of the soldiers whispered he was a mage and shouldn’t be trusted.
Finally, the soldier in charge met Leikar’s gaze. “Get him what he needs. Quickly.”
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!
There are few rules when it comes to writing, but one of the few is that a romance novel has a happily-ever-after or a happily-for-now ending. If it doesn’t, it isn’t romance.
I have seen this bashed a lot on social media lately and even in “regular” news. And no, I am not going to link to it and them more publicity. Seems like everyone wants to take a shot at the romance genre, love in general, and the happily-ever-after (HEA) ending the genre demands.
Pssst. It it doesn’t have an HEA or at least happily-for-now ending, it isn’t romance.
And I am not going to apologize for wanting this ending.
To me, it’s not a detractor of the genre. It’s why I read it.
No matter how awful the circumstances, no matter what horrible things happen in the story, I know the author will give me my happily-ever-after.
The bad guys get their comeuppance. The good guys get their happily-ever-after.
Yes, I know it’s not real. It doesn’t have to be for me to enjoy it any more than I suddenly expect any Marvel movie ever to be “real”.
It’s my escape. It’s my form of self-care.
Lately, I need what happy endings I can get. Even a character-focused video game I’ve been playing lately threw me when it killed a main character. I had to restart the whole thing to meet the criteria for the character not to die. Then, at least three more character, two of them main characters, died.
And there was nothing I could do about it. They are scripted to die. I put the stupid game away and haven’t played it since.
The job of a storyteller is find a way for them to live despite the obstacles you set in front of them!! This was wrong on so many level.
I find it interesting at the amount of derision and scorn pointed at the romance genre that I simply don’t see leveled at others. Not that I want it to be. Read what you love and be done with it. But I still find it interesting that genres such as horror or sci-fi don’t face this kind of stigma.
Maybe because Stephen King and Neil Gaimon made them cool.
Maybe because there’s no kissing in them, and we all know how people feel about kissing books.
I don’t need my fiction to reflect the real world.
I need an escape, and that escape doesn’t need to involve lasers, massive explosions, or enormous battles.
Just a kiss will do.
As the Knight of Valor destroyed the three ghouls coming at him from behind, the first wave of zombies closed in on him.
The Knight screamed as they tore at him.
Leikar ground his teeth, knowing the Knight was a fool.
But he couldn’t not help.
As he emerged from his hiding place, a fire spell was already
on his lips.
Leikar watched the Knight of Valor fight, the man’s sword literally ablaze with the light of the gods.
It was unlike anything he had ever seen, and the holy energy was unlike anything he’d ever felt.
But it was still a losing battle.
Not even a Knight of Valor could stand up to so many undead alone.
Rohan was right.
The woman inside was not his daughter. Had never been his daughter.
Where was Elise?
Where had they buried his little girl?
A sickening thought wormed through his stomach.
What if Rohan was right again and she was still alive, hurt, and all alone?
The king began to run.