Old Hobbit, New Hobbit

This post was inspired, somewhat tangentially, by my post Old Pope, New Pope on the blog for Eolyn. 

I wasn't really sure why my musings over the election of Pope Francis have led me to discuss the film interpretation of Tolkien's classic story The Hobbit.  There doesn't seem to be much of a connection there, except maybe that Tolkien was Catholic. He even once described his epic masterpiece The Lord of the Rings as a "fundamentally religious and Catholic work" (Faith and Fantasy: Tolkien the Catholic).

But beyond that, why the appearance Pope Francis would have reminded me of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was a mystery to me, until a review of a couple of salient images helped solve the puzzle.

To show you what I mean, I give you this image from the balcony of St. Peter's on March 13, 2013:

And this image from the publicity campaign for the first installment of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy:

Does anyone see what these two images have in common?  What, pray tell, is missing from both? 

Anyone? Anyone? Beuhler?

I think you get the point.  And if you don't, that's okay.  Just keep reading. 

I want to apologize up front to all of you who are avid fans of the movie The Hobbit.  It's not my intention to detract from your enjoyment of the movie; certainly it is not my intention to call into question your taste in fantasy adventure. 

But as someone who found her Hobbit experience less than fulfilling, I have for a while (a couple months now, actually) been craving a space in which to share my impressions.  Since almost anything goes on Heroines of Fantasy, I've decided to follow Thorin Oakenshield's brave example, and go out on a virtual limb. 

Let me start by saying that I love Tolkien's work; anyone who has followed me on blogs and Facebook for even a brief while will know that by now.  I thoroughly enjoyed The Hobbit when I read it years and years ago, and the story continues to inspire me to this day.  Peter Jackson's interpretation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, while a disappointment for some Tolkien purists, is at the top of my personal list of all time favorite films. 

I did not, of course, expect a Lord of the Rings experience when I went to see The Hobbit.  For one thing, I knew The Hobbit was not an epic tale in the same sense of LotR.  It's a wonderful, charming fantasy adventure complete with a wizard, a band of feisty dwarves, and a dragon.  It does not need to be more than that; and it would not have been fair to expect anything from The Hobbit -- except maybe the scenery -- to be quite on par with what Jackson so artfully gave us in LotR. 

But I did expect to be entertained, and I did not expect to be bored. I was disappointed on both counts.

It wasn't really about the lack of women characters perse. Indeed, one could argue that the artificial insertion of female characters would have violated Tolkien's original vision in unacceptable ways.  (I have heard we are in for a female character in the second film, and already some Tolkien fans are up in arms. . .)

But all those stocky adventure-seeking fellas in The Hobbit fell flat somehow -- with the dependable exception of Gandalf and Gollum.  More than halfway through the movie, I had yet to become invested in the fate of anyone, even Bilbo, with whom I should have identified as a character of noble qualities -- strengths, and weakness that anyone, man or woman, could relate to. 

The disappointing experience of The Hobbit left me reflecting on the magic achieved with the LotR films:

How Sam instantly became someone who could have been my friend, too;

How Merry and Pippin were just the kind of guys I'd like to stop by the tavern and share a pint with;

How Boromir's failure in his struggle against the Ring reflected my own shortcomings and weaknesses;

How Eowyn's noble spirit and courage was something I could aspire to. 

The list goes on and on. There was not a character in the film interpretation of LotR with whom I did not identify on some level -- not a character whose ultimate fate I did not have an investment in -- no matter what their role or gender. 

So now it's your chance to tell me:  What was missing from The Hobbit?  Am I onto something here, or am I just being over critical?

I will say there was one scene in the movie that almost made it worth sitting through the whole thing:  The riddle game between Bilbo and Gollum was absolutely brilliant.

Then again, Gollum carried that scene.  Between you and me (and the rest of the internet), I was secretly hoping he would win, so he'd get to keep his Precious and eat his hobbitses.   

Posted by Karin Rita Gastreich

Epic Fantasy isn't Dead: Reader Preference and the Changing Publishing World

I have always been a huge fan of epic fantasy: sweeping tales, set in well-built worlds, with characters who embody the more “traditional” values of honor, chivalry and grace. So it’s really no surprise that this is the genre I turned to when I started writing. What DOES surprise me are the bold assertions by editors, agents and publishing houses that the genre is dead. Unfortunately, these assertions say more about the power of the industry over what we read rather than indicate the actual health of a genre.

Back in 2006, I attended a writer’s conference where I had the privilege of, along with a handful of other writers, lunching with a very cool, very lovely Tor editor. She assured me, along with every other aspiring novelist at the table, that the days of the epic fantasy series were over. Publishing could not afford to take chances on multi-book contracts for newer writers, and readers were no longer interested in “door-stoppers.” The implication was: 1) readers don’t have the attention span/ time/ interest; 2) epic fantasy is too outdated; and 3) the production, both short-term and long-term, of epic series is too expensive in today’s market. And ultimately, epic fantasy is “too cliché.” A map at the beginning of the novel? So passe! Readers and publishers alike are bored by the Euro-centric quest fantasy, she told us; they want urban fantasy, not swords and sorcery. 

My experiences with several agents over the years also backed her claim. At writer’s conferences, they actively sought paranormal/ urban fantasy. Vampires were all the rage, then werewolves, then zombies. Some indicated that they might read and represent “more traditional” fantasy, but they didn’t prefer it and weren’t sure they could sell it. I received very kind, personalized rejection letters praising the quality of my writing, characters, and story, but they all ultimately passed on representation. Epic fantasy, they told me, wasn’t selling—unless it was wildly different. In other words, to sell, an epic fantasy novel would only sell if it were void of all the typical fantasy tropes—the very same tropes that define it as a genre.

Fast forward a few years. The Lord of the Rings is one of the most popular movie series of all time, and The Hobbit series begins, exposing another generation to Tolkien's work. A Game of Thrones is now a wildly popular HBO miniseries. Tor not only picked up Brandon Sanderson to complete the late Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, but also published his personal fantasy series. Morgan Rhodes’ Falling Kingdoms, quite possibly one of the worst fantasy novels I have ever read, is touted as a Young Adult George R. R. Martin, firmly stamping the novel as epic fantasy and attempting to bring up another generation of fantasy readers. Whatever my personal feelings about the novel, I am both stunned and excited that publishing is starting to once more acknowledge that people actually like epic fantasy.

Still, it is difficult to find a fantastic new epic fantasy series on the shelves. Rhodes’ novel cobbles together the worst in epic fantasy; while many readers are just thrilled to have ANY epic fantasy on the shelves, I fear publishers will see any bad reviews or low sales of the novel as a reflection of the popularity of the genre as a whole and ditch plans to publish any more epic fantasy. Hadley Rille Books has made a business out of publishing this genre, yet can’t get the books onto the shelves of brick-and-mortar bookstores (bookseller snobbery on the part of big and small booksellers alike is a discussion for another time). We know there are epic fantasy readers out there; the problem is getting quality books in front of them. The balance of power between big and small publishers makes this an intimidating, at times impossible task, and the victims are the readers.

Ultimately, this points to a disconnect between readers and publishers, a disconnect that will only grow as independent publishing and e-books gain popularity. Publishers and agents think they know what readers want. Meanwhile, readers aren’t hitting the bookstores like they used to, and with a wider variety of ebooks to choose from at 1970’s book prices, chances are good that agents and publishers will have less idea of what readers actually want. The advent of kickstarter adds another level, as readers can actually directly support and take an active role in the creation of any project they desire, removing the publisher and the agent from the process entirely.

HRB's latest fantastic fantasy

What does this mean for epic fantasy? My guess is that public awareness of the smaller publishers—such as Hadley Rille Books—and the independent authors writing and publishing good fantasy will increase as people vote with their dollar. Perhaps more awareness will force big publishers, agents and organizations like SFWA to acknowledge that quality novels do come from small press, and that a good portion of the reading public actually likes traditional epic fantasy. Eventually, the industry will shift altogether, making more room for the indie presses and offering more choice to the readers.

At least, I hope for change. I, for one, am tired of others declaring an entire genre flatlined based on publishing standards and measures that are just about dead. Choice is good. I want to see lots of books on the shelves—epic fantasy, dystopian, urban fantasy, comedic fantasy, steampunk, cyberpunk—along with writers whose work is so difficult to pigeonhole that agents and publishers don’t even bother trying. We, as readers and writers, should not have to wait for the industry to tell us which books to read, or dictate what we like.

Despite all attempts to the contrary, the epic fantasy genre isn’t dead. We may have to work a little harder to find the books and authors we like, but until then, they will be right there, waiting to be discovered.

Kim Vandervort

What do you read?

March 3, 2013

What do you read?

I’m taking a bit of a side track from some of my usual blog topics today. I have a keen interest in story, but I find I don’t gravitate to short pieces. I don’t have tons of story ideas in folders and files waiting further attention, but I have a goodly handful I hope to commit to as I continue to explore Pevana and the regions and cultures I have found there.  I like short stories; I read them, use them to teach and they figured prominently in my courses of study as an undergrad and later as a graduate student. I still have all the volumes of Lin’s Carter’s early series The Year’s Best Fantasies. In fact, Carter’s collections introduced me to several of my favorite writers: CJ Cherryh and Patricia McKillip. I have been collecting and consuming their long and short fiction the bulk of my reading life. I admire them both for the quality of their prose and for how prolific they have been.  I sense a control to their output, dedication to the craft and professional discipline in how they go about creating their tales.  They are committed in ways I know I will never achieve. I follow Cherryh on her blog, and the scope of the woman’s knowledge and interests is truly impressive. I consider her one of the greatest artificers of our age, and yet she doesn’t eat, sleep and dream the genre. She delves into ancestry, gene history, follows current astronomical developments, finds time to ice skate, cook, go to cons and go blotto with video games and great historical movies. Her blog reminds me of Gatsby’s house, “full of interesting people doing interesting things.” In short, the woman has used to bulk her days to foster and explore all the things that speak to her talents, and I find that truly inspiring.

                           

I think many of us share similar experiences. I still feel energized by being in the classroom, and that will likely always be a first focus for “what I have to say.”  One of the nicest, surprising by-products of becoming a published author is how much more authority I bring to the classroom. I have always been the “word guy” throughout my career; that oddball who actually knows the MLA style manual, the comma-counter, king of symbolism, and reading quiz Nazi.  These last few years have really spiced up the interactions in class, and even though I know the odd brave kid will ask about “the books” in order to deflect me away from the topic at hand, the talks that ensue usually create sublime communicative moments. My students surprise and impress me in those moments. Digressions can be fruitful. One habit I have developed over my career is to always bring a personal book to school. I don’t feel quite right if the bag doesn’t have that balancing presence. Along with my Fitzgerald and Lee or Orwell and Kafka, I have to have my current down-time favorite. I steal a few minutes every day during lunch or prep to read a page or two. I find it helps me. I have also been fortunate enough to turn a few kids each year on to the joys of some pretty great books.

My question for those of you who read this blog and my writer friends and associates is simply this: What do you read? I write fantasy because it suits my temperament and skills. I love science fiction, but I doubt my technical knowledge and language command. I fear sounding false, so I stick to swords and spears and bowls of stirrabout. I have always been intrigued by Roman Britain and the “dark” years after Rome withdrew. Arthur, Ambrosius, Uther and the rest of the real or mythical cast periodically claim me. I blame Suitcliff for that. I was fortunate as a young man to find a great library in my junior high school that stocked all of her novels. I recall looking for a refuge from the hormonal soup that was my school and developed a fondness for heather choked hills and heroes that spoke to me from the shadows of the past: The Lantern Bearers, Dawn Wind, The Sword at Sunset, The Eagle of the Ninth. Great stuff. I have enjoyed collecting her works as an adult.

                                                   

Rome’s history intrigued me. We tend to extol its engineering virtues, but Gibbon gives a different perspective. I’ve actually read some Tacitus. As a kid I lived in Germany, and woven amongst the long drives in the country were snippets of Wagner, references to the Holy Roman Empire and all that it wasn’t. A visit to Waterloo sent me careening down the Napoleonic Era and a lifelong love affair with Forester’s Hornblower Saga and later an addiction to Cornwell’s Sharpe novels. Much later down the time line a colleague introduced me to Shelby Foote and his epic Civil War tomes…and my sense of the sentence has never been the same.  Historians like Tuchman, Ambrose and their like have punctuated my reading life. I just finished The Age of Wonder, an examination of the scientific advancements that took place between the years 1770 and 1830 and the relationship between the scientists and the romantic poets that shared the world stage during those years. Again, ripping stuff. There are many others, of course, but my intention was just to share a smattering of the different kinds of works that framed my youth and continue to impact my writing. I’ve had a good ride so far. What about you?

And what am I reading now? After seeing the first Hobbit film, LOTR claimed me once again. My sixth grade teacher read the book to my class. I still hear her voice doing Bilbo… Middle Earth claimed me when I was twelve and I have been taking hikes with Frodo almost yearly ever since. And yet this time, I will admit to having a slightly different experience, and I blame my wonderful editor for the insight. I now know the source of all those over the top epic sentences she had me excise or change. Plus, has anybody else noticed how much the dear old Professor used passive voice? But that is a topic for another time.

So, peers and readers, what do you read? What are your favorites that you find yourself revisiting from time to time? I would welcome any additions to my “to be read file.”

Happy reading!

Mark Nelson

Claire Ashgrove

Our guest blogger this month is Claire Ashgrove, and she says it all! So I'll just hand over HoF to her and let her do her thing.

Ah, it’s February and romance is in the air….

Not so much if you’re a single, romance author—then the romance is all in your head!  But as a romance author, I’m delighted to be here this month and celebrate that all important human emotion with all of you. 

One of my favorite movies is He Said, She Said.  When Terri-Lynne said I could piggy-back off one of the authors blog posts here, I couldn’t resist taking the opportunity to use that He Said, She Said approach and tag onto her thoughts about the happily-ever after and what constitutes romance.

Let me start with why romance (and across any genre) appeals.  I think it is because that is a human emotion that everyone relates to.  In non-romance genres, I think you see more of a “loss” of loving couples, so to speak, and heartbreak, because those emotions are even more powerful than the bliss of being in love.  As such, it’s natural to include it in plot arcs.

But when you start talking about genre romance, you start dealing with an entirely different core plot.  Compared to fantasy where the storyline often trends toward the “hero-quest” approach, a genre-romance isn’t so much about whether the demons are going to overtake the world, or whether the main character is going to escape the pandemic set upon the land.  The focus of a romance novel is the hero/heroine romantic involvement, and everything external has to contribute to that developing relationship.

The typical romance reader has a set of expectations the novel must meet, and when those expectations aren’t fulfilled, the reader has some…shall we say pretty strong…reactions.  One of those expectations is a Happily Ever After or Happily For Now resolution.  The hero or heroine can’t die in the end, otherwise the focus of building their relationship through however many pages is…pointless.

Let’s look at my other favorite movie, Message In A Bottle – Nicholas Sparks.  We have a wonderful love story.  But as I step back and dry my eyes from that gut-wrenching journey, that story isn’t about two people falling in love.  It’s about a man who has to be able to overcome his past.  The story is the hero’s journey. The heroine is merely his inciting action.  If you look at her life throughout the movie…nothing much changes.  She’s in a slightly better place at the end, than where she was at the beginning.

We love the hero’s journey because what he does to become a better man is so terribly emotional.  When we reach the end, and are sobbing because he’s not going to get the girl (or the girl isn’t going to get him), we’re also able to see that he died a stronger person, one who didn’t live in his shadows, and had come to peace with himself.

That’s more like women’s fiction…only with a sexy, brooding male main character instead of a quirky, smart heroine.

So what constitutes romance?  That wholly depends on how you define it.  If you choose to define it as what we all encounter in our daily lives, it can be present in any novel, in any form.  If you choose to define it as a genre romance, then yes, the expectations are boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl in the end. 

As someone who writes across a variety of genres – historical fiction, romance, erotic romance, thrillers, and fantasy – romance is fun, no matter how you use it in writing.  (Gee what better way to make a reader empathize with a character than to rip out his heart by killing his loved one in front of him?)  I love to plot and subplot, and subplot some more, and I don’t like having everything resolved all nice and tidy at the end, even if my hero and heroine have achieved their HEA.  I write in the other genres so I don’t have to maintain that standard when I don’t feel it fits the story running around in my head.

So that’s my three cents!  And I’d love to hear your questions or thoughts on them!

~Building on a background of fantasy game design, a fascination with history, and a lifetime love of books, Award-Winning author Claire Ashgrove brings to life action-filled, passionate journeys of the heart. Her first contemporary novel, Seduction's Stakes, sold to The Wild Rose Press in 2008, where she continues to write for the Champagne and Black Rose lines. Adding to these critically acclaimed romances, Claire's paranormal series, The Curse of the Templars (Tor,) marries the history of the Knights Templar with the chilling aspirations of the most unholy--a must-read for speculative fiction fans. Her books have received multiple nominations for "Best Romance of the Year" awards as well as placements within a variety of contests, including the rigorous, Reader's Crown Awards, where Immortal Hope was named Best Paranormal Romance of 2011. For those who prefer the more erotic side of life, she also writes darkly arousing espionage novels for Berkley as the National Bestselling Author, Tori St. Claire.

She is an active member of Romance Writers of America, and her local RWA chapters, Heartland Romance Authors, Midwest Romance Writers, and North Texas Romance Writers of America.

Claire lives in Missouri with her two young sons and too many horses, cats and dogs. In her "free" time, she enjoys cooking, studying ancient civilizations, and spending downtime with her children and the critters. She credits her success to her family's constant support and endless patience.

Connect with Claire via:  Facebook  |  Claire’s Blog  |  Claire’s Website  |  Twitter

Finding the Muse

Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry

I have always loved the idea of the muses. The concept of beautiful spirits who whisper inspiration into the ear of the artist, giving ideas shape and form, makes the entire messy birthing process of art—and writing—seem so romantic. It probably helps that there have been so many romanticized depictions of the muses in art throughout history: always female, always beautiful, always with that dreamy, benevolent look on their faces. Because I am a child of the 80’s, my muses tend to look like their counterparts in Xanadu, complete with flowy dresses and roller skates. This is probably why I often feel like they are skating just out of reach, mocking me, on those days when I really just can’t find any ideas.

Some days—and these are rare—I’m pretty sure muses exist as full-fledged sources of inspiration. Those days when an entire scene or a brand new character pops into my head fully formed, the times when I can’t get to the computer or a piece of paper fast enough, I know muses exist. But more often than not, muses must be found, often in unlikely or unexpected ways. And most often, we have to forcibly remove the muse from that shady dark corner where she’s hiding and force her to work.

Because let’s face it: true out-of-the-blue, downloaded-from-the-mothership, children-of-the-gods inspiration is rare. The reality is that more often than not, muses are nothing more than writers’ favorite scapegoats. Writer’s block? My muse didn’t visit me! Can’t find the right words? She’s not paying attention! Don’t feel like writing? My muse abandoned me! She went shopping or fell asleep, that lazy wretch, so now I have to do laundry, wash dishes, grade papers, go the movies, or just lie around and mope, and it’s all the muse’s fault! That poor little muse, so pretty and sweet in her statues and artistic renderings, ends up sitting in the corner wearing rags and sniveling from all the abuse. We love our muse and we hates her, precious, oh yes, we do. We court her, we scorn her, blame her and praise her, until it’s a wonder she doesn’t just give up and go find someone else to inspire.

The Muses of Xanadu Skate into Your Consciousness

That muse is given an awful lot of responsibility, but the truth is that inspiration is created, not found; and when it is discovered, it is most often seeded in a thousand small ways, and rarely as a magical hotwire from the universe’s great mystical USB cable in the sky. And like all seeds, it must be nurtured to fruition; left on its own, it will wither and die. My books—in fact, most of what I write—often begins with a dream. Song and the Sorceress began one day after a really intriguing dream that involved portals between worlds, friends from school, and Duran Duran (don’t judge). I started writing it down the next day. Eventually, after many drafts, years of experience, maturity, and a general overhaul of what I wanted the novel to be (sorry Duran Duran, you had to go), that initial inspiration resulted in only a few main elements of the final novel: Ki’leah, Breyveran, and the country of Sildehna. Other characters developed along the way, based on smaller sources of inspiration. Llyrimin of Norr was modeled after a friend of mine who struggled with infertility; her children are based on my girls, my friend’s nieces, and another boy—a child for my friend (who, incidentally, did end up having a boy—intriguing). Much of what Aria, the protagonist of my short story “Faire Aria”, experiences on her first trip to the Renaissance Faire are direct observations and experiences from my own culture shock when I attended a faire for the first time. Some characters are based in look or mannerism on someone I once met, knew, or even just heard on the street. But very little of what I write is a direct result of the muse’s whisper, and everything I write is carefully considered, shaped, re-molded into characters, settings and plots that are wholly new.

So, yes, I do like to believe the muse exists. But the true work of the writer—and this is the hard part—is recognizing inspiration when and where it happens and shaping it into its true form. In every interaction with others, every place we visit, everything we see and experience, there is the muse. It is up to us to find what she leaves us and turn it into something tangible and real.

Kim Vandervort

Love's Value in fantasy...

As a high school teacher, every year I get to watch my students go through hyper-romantic antics getting ready for Valentine’s Day. At our school it starts in late January with the Tolo, designed to help fund the yearbook costs. Between the silliness of creative asking moments, the quests to find matching shirts and the debates over dinner reservations, the students manage to turn themselves into something approaching sensitive romantics. For me it is a nice departure from their seasonal cynicism. These last few days of candy grams and candy-kiss roses, and Terri-Lynne’s post about the not so happy ending got me thinking about love and how we use it in our stories. And I am not talking about the ‘falling in love’ that provides so many possible conflicts and complications; or the emotional outbursts that come during tales of extreme danger, quests magnificent, rebellions or wars most martial. I’m talking about love long term and its role in story.

Perhaps I’m being disingenuous, but I just don’t come across too many tales that include a long term relationship. Some of the pair-bonds in the Pern novels come to mind, hints and nuances appear in Tolkien’s work, and I am sure there are others. In fact, I’d like for anyone who reads this to post a response spreading the word about those other works.  I don’t think the list is as long as it probably should be. Rather, we see stuff like Trystan and Isuelt, Arthur and Guenivere; the love in conflict, threatened, betrayed or lost just seems more prevalent. Even Aragorn and Arwen only got 120 years before she had to taste the bitterness of his passing.

I wonder why?

The easy answer, hinted at above, is that long-term love, stability, nurturance, quiet and peace just won’t sell. Where are the dramatic elements that provide for character growth, complication, that all important element of danger so important to plot?

Why can’t the stable bond fit into that paradigm more often? So much of modern fiction treats all the turmoil (cue Jane Austen) that leads to love and the happy ending. In fact, all that stuff is really just the end of the happy beginning. And more and more, as suggested by Terri-Lynne and our present era, the endings of those moments don’t always suggest long term love. What were Darcy and Elizabeth’s next two decades like? That story didn’t get written, and I think the lack is a shame (cue the opening sequence to Up). I just don’t think it happens enough, especially in our genre. Check the stacks of the local bookstore. How many covers imply happily ever after in pair-bond-wedded bliss?

I’m guilty of this in my own fiction. Love seems to be a vital element in my stories. King’s Gambit deals with a war, but as I revised and re-wrote certain parts (dang editor…) I began to realize the whole thing was a quest for happiness through the chaos. Despite the conflict described, the book is actually more about women than otherwise, more about love and the prospect of extended, bonded connection than anything else (thank you, wonderful editor…).

I’d like to see if the long-term pair-bond could be worked more frequently into the stories we see published. And I’m excluding the eternal vampire love-fest foisted on us by Twilight. We live in a world beset by uncertainty. This week is Valentine’s Day; show me the love.

So, readers, educate me on all the stories I haven’t read but should because they show or use the long term pair-bond successfully. Make a case for it showing up more often and more importantly in our fiction.

 

Mark Nelson

 

(Not So) Happily Ever After

It is February, the month of love. Ah, Valentines Day! Some optimist must have decided that February was far too bleak and wisely chose the old legend to create a holiday around. (I know that's not the real history. I did that one last year.)

Quite coincidentally, I have been reading To Weave a Web of Magic, a collection of four fantasy tales with a romantic bend (Claire Delacroix, Lynn Kurland, Patricia McKillip, and Sharon Shinn.) I highly recommend it. Three of the four tales end in the seemingly prerequisite happily ever after. One does not.

Let me backtrack just a little...

I joined the RWA (Romance Writers of America*) in 2011. I do not consider myself a romance writer, but my books always have a strong romantic element to them. Because the RWA broadened its horizons to include my sort of stories, I was able to sign up, and thus able to join a local writing group that I am very happy to be part of. There is one thing about the RWA that I don't like, and that is that it is absolutely necessary for your novel to end in happily ever after. It's right there in the definition.

I do love happily ever after. I'm a sucker for it, I have to be honest. However, I don't like it all the time. If you know how it is going to end right from the beginning, in my opinion, it gets boring no matter how many stones you throw at your lovers. I rarely let everyone in my stories live happily ever after. Some of the characters will, but some will not. And some will have happily enough.

Slight spoilery:
The fourth story in To Weave a Web of Magic is Claire Delacroix's An Elegy for Melusine. It combines elements of the John Keat's poem, La Belle Dame Sans Merci and the Cupid and Psyche myth. As you can imagine, Ms. Delacroix's story doesn't end any better, and yet it was still incredibly romantic from start to finish.

My favorite painting, La Belle Dame Sans Merci by Sir Frank Dicksee

So--does a story have to end happily to be considered romance? If you are strictly a romance writer, it seems the answer is yes, it does. The RWA has recently cracked down on what is considered romance, and what they will call romance by their standards. But what about those romances that do not end happily? Is Romeo and Juliet any less a romance because they both die? Cupid and Psyche? I won't add any less obvious stories here, but I can think of quite a few tales I would consider romance, even if they don't end happily.

Romance? Or strong romantic element? Is it fair to say something isn't a romance if it doesn't end happily? What books/stories do you consider romance, even though they don't end happily? Comments are open to all spoilery! Just be warned before you read them.

Terri DeFino

*The RWA is a fantastic organization, very writer-friendly, especially friendly to unpublished writers. It is an organization of cooperation, mutual respect, and truly, a group of writers and writing professionals who work together even when they are--in fact--competing with one another.