Writing Romance is Complex Fiction
Hi everyone--I'm Tara Lain and i write The Beautiful Boys of Romance. I was having a conversation the other day with a friend who doesnt read romance. In fact, he doesnt really read
fiction. I was explaining the twists and turns of the plot of a new book Im
writing and I found myself telling him how very complex good romance is. I
listened to myself saying it and thought, son of a gun its true. Now I will be
the first to admit that most people dont think of our genre this way. They
think of romance as the simplest of fiction. Boy meets girl, boys loses girl,
boys finds girl again and they live happily ever after. Of course, in my case
its boy meets boy but the principal is the same. They call it a formula.But think about it. Virtually all
fiction has some formula. Certainly mystery has a lot of rules and suspense is
riddled with them. I guess you could argue that Joyces Ulysses had no formula, but maybe breaking the rules was a formula
of its own. Now, think about romance. We not only have to create an interesting
plot with three-dimensional characters who have problems of their own -- we
also have to make them fall in love! They have to fall in love somewhat
believably, have obstacles that keep them apart and make it appear at least for
a time that they wont get together, and then, in spite of it all, they end up
together.I thought about my newest release,F.A.S.T.Balls. In that book,the central conflict is between a gay firefighter and a homophobic firefighter who has been raised by his preacher father to believe that homosexuality is evil and that gay people are responsible for most of the ills of the world. How the heck do you get a guy like that to realize he's gay and fall in love with another man? That was my dilemma. Enemies to lovers of a very real sort.
Its been many a century since
“romance” was a tight formula plot with two-dimensional characters that always
ended in a wedding. In fact, we might argue, that today ours is one of the most
complex genres to write. But maybe we better just keep it between us! LOLWhile i'm here, i'd like to invite you to sign up for my email newsletter. It's mostly full of news about contests, games and chances to win books and prizes from me and other authors.
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If you visit my website at http://www.taralain.com, you'll also discover some free reads.
And here's a nibble from F.A.S.T. Balls:Excerpt:
F.A.S.T. Balls by Tara Lain; The Gay Fireman and the HomophobeAvailable
at AMAZON AReFirefighter
and surfing champion, Jerry Wallender, looks like a hero to the world, but he
cant see it. He keeps falling for these intellectual guys who end up making
him feel dumb and unneeded. On top of
that, Mick Cassidy, super-gorgeous firefighter and total homophobe, makes
Jerrys life miserable with his slurs. Then one day Micks nice to Jerry and,
at the Firefighters Ball, Jerry offers a helping hand and ends up with a
hand-job. What the hell is going on?Mick
Cassidy is great with fighting fires and solving math problems but rotten with
people. Raised by a gay-hating preacher, Micks carefully constructed world of
gay bashing starts to crumble when he meets Jerry, the nicest, kindest man hes
ever known. Micks never wanted a woman
and cant stop thinking about sex with Jerry. In fact, he cant stop doing it.
Does that make him gay? And if hes gay, what happens to his whole life? A
hook-up between sweet Jerry and mean Mick might be total disaster -- or the
smartest idea Jerry ever had.Straight nodded and positioned himself
at the foot of the stairs. Mick tested each stair before he applied
weight. One gave way but he jumped to the next. Heat searing now. He bent double and
moved like some round-backed animal up three more stairs to what would have
been the top if much had been left. Damn. Where was he? He pressed against the only wall not
burning and sidled his way down the hall to what must have been the bedrooms.
It seemed like it took a year of inching but he got to a door frame and looked
in. On the far wall, he saw what was left of a single bed like for a kid. Holy God!The floor of the room was mostly
missing. Burned through. He leaned forward. No. No, God. Lying on the floor a story below was a firefighter. It
had to be Jerry. Crumpled like some bad voodoo doll or something. His breathing
apparatus stuck out from under a burning board. The caved-in floor had caught
fire to the fabrics in the room and a huge blaze was consuming a couch and
fallen floorboards only feet from his head.No!Mick pressed himself against the wall
again and forced himself to go slow. If he died, so did Jerry. When he finally
got back to the stairs, he ran down, with charred wood cracking under his
boots. He hit the ground, pointed his arm, and ran toward the hall to the back
of the house on the first floor. He rounded a corner and staggered back. Flames
licked up the walls on both sides like an arc of fire. He crouched real low and
burst through to a short section of hall barely burning. Straight volleyed
through beside him.Then he stared.The space ahead must have been a family
room. Now it was pure inferno. He knelt and peered under the fire. Yes, Jerrys
body lay beyond a wall of flame. Micks heart and head disconnected. One wanted
to leap headfirst through the flames and grab that fallen body in his arms. But
the firefighters brain calculated. There was a chance of slipping through the
burn low and on the right side.Straight knelt beside him. Mick pointed
at the area and mimed his going through. He reached for the RIT Bag in
Straights hand. The man pulled it back and shook his head. What the hell? Mick
used his extra reach to grab the bag and pull. Straight pulled back.Mick screamed through the speaking
diaphragm. “What the hell?”Straight peered into Micks mask. “Our
chance. Leave him.”What? “No way.” He waved his arms
wildly. “Your fathers mission. One less fag.”Mick stared at him. Every ounce of blood
felt frozen. Everything hed been taught stared through his mask.
Discriminate…judge…despise…hate…and finally kill.The scream came from somewhere hed
never been. Some place in his soul that had never seen light before. “Ahhhhhhhhhh!”You
can find Tara HERE:Website: http://www.taralain.comBlog: http://www.taralain.com/blog Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4541791.Tara_LainTwitter:
http://twitter.com/taralain
FB Page: http://www.facebook.com/taralain
Tara Lain writes the Beautiful Boys of Romance in LGBT
erotic romance novels that star her unique, charismatic heroes. Her first novel
was published in January of 2011 and shes now somewhere around book 21. Her
best-selling novels have garnered awards for Best Series, Best Contemporary
Romance, Best Ménage, Best LGBT Romance, Best Gay Characters, and Tara has been
named Best Writer of the Year in the LRC Awards. In her other job, Tara owns an
advertising and public relations firm. She often does workshops on both author
promotion and writing craft. She lives
with her soul-mate husband and her soul-mate dog in Laguna Beach, California, a
pretty seaside town where she sets a lot of her books. Passionate about diversity, justice, and new
experiences, Tara says on her tombstone it will say “Yes”!
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