Marie Dees

I do realize England, Ireland and Scotland are popular settings for romance novels, and I do realize you want to take advantage of all the romantic history of those isles. But please keep in mind that they are real locations and that history is real history. You are free to create your own characters, but unless you are working in alternate history, fantasy, steampunk or another genre that actually involves changing history, you really should rework British history. I don’t mean don’t create Lords and Ladies that didn’t really exist or don’t through in the odd castle. I mean know when the major wars were and what the social issues were. Know when your characters should have been fighting for or against a monarch and when perhaps they should be concerned with social reform. Please, just do some research before you finish the novel and send it off to a publisher.

Lately I’ve been noticing “redshirt” characters in books I’ve been reading. Perhaps they’re excusable, even necessary in mystery but fantasy seems particularly prone to them. Or maybe some writers just don’t know they’ve created a “red shirt.”

Now, I do know people who’ve never watched the classic Star Trek series, so I’ll explain the term “redshirt.” In the original series, whenever a hapless crew member appeared wearing a redshirt, viewers knew he was probably there to be killed off. His death would prove that the mission was indeed a dangerous one. So, a redshirt is a character who exists simply to be killed off.

Is this bad? Not necessarily. Mystery novels often kill off a character simply to establish more clues and fantasy writers have to kill off characters in battle scenes. But sometimes these redshirts are created to elicit an emotional response from other characters and the reader by their death. That’s a technique that runs the risk of falling flat.
Perhaps I’m feeling the effect the most when I read fantasy novels because these novels tend to be over-stuffed with characters to begin with. Add to that the added fantasy convention of giving characters unusual and strange names, and I’m already struggling to keep up with who is who. Then suddenly one of these many and usually named characters is killed. I can tell by the reaction of the other characters, this is supposed to be deeply significant. I’ve even had authors explain to me how they envision a reader being emotionally stunned by a certain character’s death. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit that often I only vaguely knew who the character was when he died.

So, are red shirt characters a bad idea? Well, not always. Sometimes the plot requires characters to die. But for me, any character created with the purpose of killing him off is a red shirt. Let him do his job and leave the scene. I may appreciate the action around it, but just don’t ask me to cry for him.

“Lair of the Jaguar God” is in the top twenty for the Loose ID Hot Hooks contest. The first 250 words of the story and the 100 word blurb will be up for voting on October 26-29. If I’m in the top ten, I move to the stage of submitting the first 1,000 words. Then potentially the full novel.

“Lair of the Jaguar God” is a gay romance that asks the enduring question — can a young archeology student find love with a sexy were-jaguar?

I’ve finished a new story “Fallen One” and want to submit to a publishing call for “Angels and Demons” stories. But the publisher wants a 2 to 3 page synopsis with the submission, as well as the usual blurb in the cover letter. Not an unusual request. Publishers use outlines or synopsis to get a quick view of the plot that a story follows.

I can never help feeling that a synopsis or outline is a bit of a betrayal of the story and the characters. A synopsis pulls a story free from your writing style and brings out the logic in the plot. Now, I know my story has logic. I’ve gone over the thing and a dozen times to pull all the little plot details together. But I don’t like the feeling that I’m separating story from style.

Hopefully I’ll have good story news on it in the future. But first there is a whole submission process to work through. The life of a writer.

I love writing in the wee hours of the night when the judgmental editor site of my brain has retired for the night. It’s a great time for writing and I sometimes type away half in a dream state. Sometimes problems that I’ve been struggling with for days just work themselves out, almost by magic. And afterward, I fall asleep feeling that I really am a writer.

Of course, the editor side of the brain wakes up in the morning and has to tackle whatever the creative side came up with during the night. Right now it’s struggling with this sentence:

“But that is the answer to the problem, and what Luc has not figured out.”

It seems a fairly simple sentence, but in the bright light of day, the meaning seems to elude me. Even in context, it seems convoluted. About three rereads, and I think I may remember what I was trying to say. But if it doesn’t make sense to me on a first reread, it won’t work for a reader.

It’s where romance meets technology. The reason I have a cell phone that does everything in my purse but a quaint, turn-of-the-century style phone in the writing room. Mundania Press is looking for steampunk stories this submission period. Project Runway even has a contestant designing with a decidedly steampunk vibe. But I find those of my generation seldom know what it is. My sister doesn’t know what it is, so I’m having to education my niece on counter-culture movements. (They live in Wyoming right now. Apparently steampunk hasn’t made it to Wyoming.) But people hear the “punk” in steampunk and think 1980s style punk and miss the new vibe. Today’s steampunk is about giving technology that same elegance that the Victorian’s did.

Writers of Romance should check out Ciar Cullen’s new Steampunk Romance Society. Because it’s time to learn to write a little steampunk.

I just posted an article on my Examiner.com page about the Harlequin Presents writing competition, and I’m amused by the very appropriate prize. The contest is free and easy to enter, but the prize is–a year’s editing from a Harlequin editor.

Why does this amuse me? Well, I’ve known lots of aspiring writers who enter contests, sometimes costly contests, and find out afterward that winning doesn’t do much to help their career. There are just too many small, local contests out there. But I’ve also known writers who furiously enter contests just to say they’ve won. (Yes, it’s a bit different with publisher writers who can attach the phrase “award winning” to an actual novel.)

But here is a contest where the prize is actually wonderfully valuable to the audience the contest is geared toward and only toward that audience. Perhaps more contests will find ways to offer prizes that really make a difference.

I was at the chiropractor’s office today when I heard the woman beside me chatting about how she was tired of reading mystery novels. She was just over them, with all the murders and things you had to solve. As a writer of mysteries, this worried me until she spent the next ten minutes recommending various mystery novels. So, it seems mysteries may not be going out of style just yet.

Sometimes you have to stop a moment to watch life go through its twist and turns to see the pattern. Sometimes you realize that pattern is turning you away from your real goal instead of leading you to improvement.

So, I’m am turning back toward my writing and my goals. If others decide objecting to what I write is their goal, well, that is their choice. Not mine. So…

Yep, I’m an erotica writin’ witch. Gotta problem with that?

Marie