Mary Jo Putney | Historical Romance Rocks!

Romance has been part of storytelling since the Ugggh clan sat around the campfire in the Stone Age, and today the romance genre flourishes in many delightful forms.  But I think that historicals have something special that really says romance!   

The dashing costumes are delightful even for those of us who would rather be shot than wear a corset.  The past is a great escape from everyday life.  We can return to times and places when Men were Men, Women were Women, and both probably needed a good bath.  *grin*  When we read historical romances, we aren’t thinking about the dark side of history.   My English ancestors were probably field laborers, but I read and write about lords and ladies, because it’s fun.   

Of course, a certain amount of realism is required to anchor the story and give it emotional resonance.  Men who were raised with great wealth, power, and privilege run the risk of being arrogant jerks, which is why I so often torture my heroes.  It makes them better and more compassionate, so anything I inflict on them is for their own good.  Really. 

Historical romance also allows for over-the-top plot elements like marriages of convenience, amnesia, noble highwaymen and pirates, and characters returning from presumed death.  I love all of those (well, not so much the highwaymen and pirates), and over the years I’ve conjured apparent death for an embarrassing number of characters, especially the heroes.   

I also adore amnesia—what is a man when memory, habit, and the expectations of friends are stripped away?  What is the inner truth that has a chance to emerge?  My July release, Loving a Lost Lord, is my third amnesia book, and the hero starts the book apparently dead.  But he was certainly happy to meet Mariah, the adaptable blond beauty who drags his mostly drowned body ashore.  By the time he and Mariah work things out, Adam has come to terms with his half Hindu heritage and his ducal station, and is a much happier man.  I’m sure that someday he’ll thank me for all I put him through.   

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Sara Reyes | Where Have I Read That Before?

Recommended Reads

Call me old or at least a long-time reader and you'll be right. And as one I've got a few favorite authors that I'll read anything they jot down including a grocery list which reminds me of a web site a few years ago that collected authors' grocery lists, hmm, gotta check that one. For charity I think. Anyway, back to me and reading old favored authors.

Have you ever noticed that you'll be reading a book and need to pause, wondering, "Did I read that in _____?" or perhaps, "hmm, Lydia is just like Joceyln in ______" I'm referring to another book by the same author so don't get all excited I've delving into plagiarism. I leave that to others to root out (don't be alarmed, my Pennsylvania Dutch has a way of emerging now and again). No, talking about authors who, bless them, have a way of telling the same story over and over.

Sometimes it's because I'd assume, their publisher wants another hit or at least a known out of them for a ravenous market (that would me!), other times it's become a job, like every night when I do the dishes, sometimes I forget exactly how I did it, it's a routine, and perhaps for some authors the stories are all the same or the telling format is. Whatever it is I've noticed it more and more recently, as in the past several years, that the stories are the same old same old. And I'm not always happy about it.

That forces me to find newer authors with different characters and different voices to tell me their stories. But that is a lot of work and there are days when I just want a Jayne Ann Krentz or a Loretta Chase or a Mary Balogh or a Lois McMaster Bujold. And sometimes it becomes a disappointment to me when an author has a new book, I'm all agog to read it, even to the point of snatching it out the package when it arrives (oops, perhaps I was a bit violent grabbing but hey I really wanted to read it, I read fast, no one would notice!). Or like my daughter, stalk a store until it is unpacked and placed into her eager hands. Well, she did wait nearly 12 years for that final book in the series.

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