Romance vs Love Stories

You know, I have some real problems with romance sometimes.

First, don't slap me. I don't look down on the genre (and romance writers make a killing, so I envy that), and I like some mushy stuff as much as the next person. But I'm coming at this as an acquiring editor who sees a LOT of romance novels.

What bothers be about romance is that a) too often I see shortcuts taken instead of development of a real love story, and b) there's a predictability immediately (when I say "romance" we all think "boy meets girl, they have obstacles, they live happily ever after).

Well, okay, and c) it almost always consists of white, heteronormative pairings that reinforce rigid gender stereotypes and that makes Skyla's head go BOOM! But that's another talk for another day.

There are fantastic romances out there, but doing acquisitions for our romance imprint, I see the same things over and over. They are Soul Mates so they will automatically fall in love and have their HEA, regardless of what their personalities are like. The have no lives, no desires, outside of their own relationship. Everyone's goal is a diamond ring at the end. I never doubt, even once, that the boy will get the girl and they'll live on and on with no struggles forever and ever. And they're all white straight people.

You know what? No.

Love is messy. Love is hard. Love happens between people unexpectedly. Love doesn't always lead to a happily ever after. At it's best, love can help you rise above things; at it's worse, it'll suck out your soul and make you a crazy person.

As a reader, and an acquiring editor, I don't want to read about flowers and candles and That Perfect Someone. I *want* that unpredictability as two strong personalities struggle to make room for one another. I don't want that security of knowing it'll all be okay, because, you know, I'm a grown-up and I *know* there's no HEA for people who don't work for it. I don't want to read lazy writing.

And as a writer...I can't write romance to save my life. If I could, I would, then add some hawt sex and make a bundle. But I always have a love story in my work because I'm a Libra and I have love on the brain. Romance, though? Nope.

And here's the review of one of my books that got me thinking about this:

"One thing is certain beyond any doubt: Wolfe is a stunningly good book. ...[snip]... What I was less certain of as I read, was whether Wolfe can be described as a romance. The story focuses primarily on River. She is not by any stretch of the imagination your average heroine, and though the plot revolves around her struggle to rejoin the were she had chosen as lifelong mate, her animal-like personality and pragmatic approach to life precludes the standard sex-obsessed main characters that tend to populate the hotter romances. Daryl, her chosen mate, is removed from River for the biggest part of the book.

However, I would implore all fans of romance to buy this book and read it, because while it is not your average romance novel, it is a story about love. Not just the happily-ever-after fairy tale kind, the real kind, the sort of love that takes two people and cements them together in relationships that are like lighthouses on rocky shores.

In a world where too often ‘romance’ is synonymous with ‘superficial’, Wolfe is a tale that runs deeper. It was only once I’d put the book down that I realised through the absorbing entertainment, frequent laughs, and thought-provoking emotional pieces, Skyla Dawn Cameron had gently led me as reader through a thorough study of a raw, real, committed love.

To have a reviewer that Gets It is a wonderful thing--to have a reviewer put it so eloquently and quotable is one in a million.

I write about werewolves and vampires and zombie romantic comedies and all kinds of silly things. But all that stuff is window dressing. Beneath it all, I'm trying to write about people and those Real Things we all go through. Like love. And I'd love more writers to get it through their heads that their job isn't to repeat genre tropes, it's to tell a meaningful story that feels real to the reader.

So I don't write romance. I write loves stories (amidst all the killing and violence and Damaged Main Characters [TM]). And some days, at least for some readers, I get it right. This is a Good Thing.

(Also, that picture is--obviously--not the Wolfe book cover...it's the promo poster I made featuring the two MC's.)