The decision to kiss for the first time is the most crucial in any love story. It changes the relationship of two people much more strongly than even the final surrender; because this kiss already has within it that surrender. ~Emil Ludwig
Well, we got a little bit of snow overnight, but definitely not the 6-12" they were predicting! We got a 2-hour delay from school rather than a snow day...
So over the weekend I finished up another article for WOW (their February issue) titled "Romance: It's Not Your Mother's Bodice-Ripper Anymore." (It's a feature article, which means from this one piece I will make just about the same amount of $$ I have made in royalties on One Night in Boston since last August. Oh well.)
My article is, as you would guess, a look at why today's romance is so different from those of 20-30 years ago...and why it should get more respect than it does. In doing some research online, I found this terrific article, that appeared in TIME magazine back in 2003. It's definitely worth a read, though I'll quote a couple of my favorites passages here:
Julia Quinn [author of the Regency romance The Further Observations of Lady Whistledown] isn't who you think she is. For starters, she isn't really Julia Quinn. That's just a pseudonym she chose so her books would be shelved next to those of the best-selling romance writer Amanda Quick. What's more, she's not a little old lady with a dozen cats. Julia Quinn is Julie Pottinger, 33, a smart, ambitious Harvard graduate. Quinn spent two years after college fulfilling her pre-med requirements, then went to Yale medical school. But after two months she dropped out to pursue her true purpose in life: writing romance novels...
Writers like Quinn are reinventing the romance novel for the postfeminist generation. Although she hasn't discarded the conventions of romance, Quinn is more than willing to tweak them...
In her next novel, Quinn plans to explore some darker themes — the hero is a widower whose late wife suffered from clinical depression. It's an interesting direction for a romance writer, one that might bring her perilously close to literary respectability. As she points out, "You always get more respect when you don't have a happy ending." So is she tempted to trade in her soft-focus covers for cultural credibility? To end, just once, with a funeral instead of a wedding? "Oh, no!" Quinn says quickly. "I have a mortgage."
It makes me happy that a Harvard grad can write romances and (maybe, just maybe) not get a bad rap because of it. Maybe there's hope for the rest of us too :)
4 comments:
I LOVE that she chose her pen name based on shelving... maybe I should have chosen "Robert" or "Cruise"... LOL...
Yep, we didn't get much snow, either. Yay!
We didn't get snow but Amanda's school is still on a 2 hr. delay. Crazy because they are the only school in our area having a delay. No snow just a little ice in places. But we do live in a rural area so maybe the roads didn't get treated.
I like what Quinn said about getting more respect when you don't have the happy ending. I think this is true.
Hi, I find it interesting that writer's whose books do not end happily get more respect. Why do you think that is?! Thanks,Cindi
jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com
That is so ingenious the way she selected her pseudonym.
I can't wait to read your next feature article.
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