Romancing the Summer away at RomantiConn - free ticket giveaway!

I know, it’s been awhile! But I’m here! :) I’ve been busy writing and revising and enjoying spring. My quick round-up:

• Revisions, writing a new book

• Enjoying early spring flowers and plenty of walking and biking

• A huge landscaping project

• Visited a local STEM event and geeked out, Star Wars style

• Planting my veggie gardens and nurturing my seedlings indoors a little longer

Be sure to sign up for my newsletter for quarterly updates.

Do you love reading romance? Do you like meeting dozens (over 80!) authors, grabbing goodies, and snagging book deals?

Then RomantiConn (a fabulous Romance Reader & Author Event in Trumbull, Connecticut) is for you! I am lucky to be able to give away ONE free ticket admission to RomantiConn this year. I will be announcing the winner on JUNE 1st. You have all month to enter.

Enter for a free ticket admission

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Enter for a free ticket admission 〰️

Learn more about RomantiConn

And about tickets here

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And it wouldn’t be a blog post from me without photos of nature, hikes, flowers, or coffee mugs, so here’s a spring round-up! Biking, walking, Star Wars at STEM event, daffodils at a botanical garden, some of my seedlings, and cupcakes for a recent bake sale.

Writing the In Between: Romantic Women's Fiction

What makes a book a romance?

Many people think having a romantic arc of any shape or size in a book categorizes it as a romance, but this is not the case. All genres can have a romantic arc in their book. Others presume that if you have two character POVs and they are or become romantically involved it is romance. Also, not always the case. So what is a romance then?

According to the Romance Writers of America (RWA), two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.

However, a romance’s framework goes far deeper than that. There are “rules” or beats an author must follow, a template of sorts to achieve the status of romance. There are a slew of other conventions and elements readers expect to see in a romance. Often, but not always, the story is formulaic (much like a cozy mystery), and readers know what to expect. There are no surprises.

What makes a book women’s fiction?

According to the Women’s Fiction Writer’s Association (WFWA), women’s fiction is:

A layered story in which the plot is driven by the main character’s emotional journey.

An emotionally satisfying ending (Happily Ever After or HEA) is not a guarantee. Chick-lit, book club fiction, and literary fiction can all fall under the Women’s Fiction umbrella.

According to the Romantic Women’s Fiction Writers (a chapter of RWA), “Romantic women’s fiction is a happy marriage of romance and women’s fiction. On the heroine’s journey through life, she meets the hero, adding romance to her other challenges. In the end, many of her life’s issues are resolved and the romance has a hopeful, satisfying conclusion.”

Now that I got all those murky-hybrid-crossover definitions out of the way, what do I think is Romantic Women’s Fiction?

Will Rise from Ashes.

I believe romantic women’s fiction is any story about a protagonist who undergoes huge personal growth, which is deep and layered. The story may or may not have a HEA (in my case, mine do). The story revolves around a protagonist (usually a woman) overcoming both an internal (emotional) and external conflict, resulting in personal growth. The protagonist’s central emotional journey weighs heavier on the page than the romantic journey.

Authors who’ve successfully entered this realm of romantic women’s fiction include Susan Wiggs, Amy Harmon, Kristin Hannah (some of hers), Katherine Center, Nicholas Sparks, and Barbara O’Neal to name a few. Jeeves Reeds lists a few of these “crossover books” and Amazon even has a category of “Women’s Romance Fiction.”

What authors do you think fall into this realm of Romantic Women’s Fiction?

When an author plunges into the world of querying and marketing such a novel, we quickly find ourselves stuck in the murky world of: Is my book romance? Is it a subgenre of romance? Is it women’s fiction with romantic elements? What is my book?? Who will want this? Agents and readers may say, “Yuck! There’s not enough romance in this” or “Nope, this story has too much romance to be women’s fiction.” It’s the Goldilocks of fiction genres: too much or too little romance. What is the balance of just right? That answer, I do not have.

I am currently querying a book that falls into this mysterious in between. I’m also writing a book that has yet to be labeled with a very low-simmer and side-story romance, but it’s definitely not the central story.

My hope is this new label of romantic women’s fiction takes a strong hold of the writing, reading, and publishing community and becomes a genre we hear more about. I want to see lists on Amazon, Goodreads, and BookBub. I’d love to see hashtags like #romanticwomensfiction take off on Instagram, Twitter, and MSWL.

What do you consider Romantic Women’s Fiction?

I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time…

P.S.

Here’s a list of a just few (there are many of us out there!) up and coming authors who delve into the Romantic Women’s Fiction realm:

Julie Howard ~ Pamela M. Kelley ~ Ramsey Hootman ~ CJ Fosdick ~ Shirley Goldberg ~ Sarah Grunder Ruiz ~ Jennifer Bouchard ~ Paulette Stout ~ Jamie Beck ~ Kristan Higgins ~ Amy Q. Barker ~ Leslie Lynch ~ Rebecca Campbell ~ Lorrie Thomson ~

Holidaze!

Anyone else feeling the daze that comes with fall holidays, one after the other? Then top it off with #NanoWriMo2021 (or in my case, I opted for #NanoRebel) all November? Ahh…Well, time to cut to the chase.

It’s Giveaway time!

Woot! I do enjoy giving stuff away. This month I’m teaming up with ten other authors across genres (memoir, mystery, romance, women’s fiction, and fantasy) to giveaway a bunch of e-books! How to enter? Easy peasy:

Hop over here: bit.ly/21holidaygiveaway

What else have I been up to? Besides writing and researching and the usual marketing gauntlet, I’ve been working the craft and book fair circuit, meeting lots of local folks, and happily introducing new readers to my books, photo cards, and homemade jams! And yes, I did 2 events in one day because I have coffee running through these veins!

Be back in the new year!

Slainte.

Fun with Fall Festivals!

You’re either rolling your eyes or smiling at my alliteration, right?

’Tis the season of getting out and being a bit more social again. Or so I hope. 2020 translated to lots of canceled conferences, workshops, signings, and all things in-person for authors. 2021 started off the same, but as we transitioned into autumn and with shifts in state restrictions, I’ve noticed more opportunities popping up. I’ve been enjoying my October of not just the fall foliage (ahhhh) but other New England fall traditions: fests! Festivals are good excuse to get out and enjoy the fall colors, crisp air, pleasant temperatures, and blue skies. Our region is known for craft-vendor-bookish-fall-apple-BBQ-beer-cider-food truck events!

Apples from my own harvest. This is about 1/3 of my yield!

First up, I visited Brookfield Orchards for their 1st Annual Authors Fair. The scents of kettle-cooked popcorn and baked apple cider donuts wafted through the air upon the tunes of local music. Yes, I tried a donut and the popcorn.

Then, I hung out in “Authors Alley” at a local fundraising crafters fair. It was good to see some friends in-person I’d only seen on zoom for the past eighteen months. I chatted with a fellow author and gardener about our bounty of produce this fall. My raspberry grand total, if anyone’s been following me on Instagram or Twitter and Facebook was…18 pounds of berries!

Next up, I traveled to Boxborough, MA for the Fall in Love New England Romance Readers event. It was my first time, and won’t be my last. I connected with new readers, bonded over games of BINGO and Password, laughed it up at the Halloween party, and also got to finally meet authors I’ve been communicating with all through the ether of cyberspace for years now. I connected with dozens of new-to-me authors, too. Oh, and I dressed up! I never dress up. Ever. I ordered an amazing handmade (black watch tartan) Scottish lass costume from Etsy. I love it. I could wash dishes wearing it.

This past weekend, I partook in the West Boylston Parks & Recreation-sponsored Fall Fest and it was a blast: thousands of attendees, live music, pumpkin and scarecrow contests, balloon entertainer, hundreds of trick-or-treaters, delicious food trucks, and lots of lots of chatting with readers, selling books, and meeting aspiring authors. I also got to dress up again. This time, I donned long johns under my dress and wished I had brought gloves! (note to self for next time). Also a corset all day…yeah, maybe I will be revisiting that thought of doing dishes wearing it.

In November, I head into the Yuletide and holiday events. So far one fair is booked, but we’ll see what else November and December hold… in the meantime, I’m gearing up to wear my Scottish lass costume one more time as I hand out candy to trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

As the days get shorter, darker, wetter, and colder, soon it will be the season of hunkering down with a warm cup of comfort java and the manuscript that’s been calling my name, yet I find every excuse to not work on (hey, a gardener has deadlines, too!). Rest assured, it’s happening. I must always listen to the call of my characters!

Until next time,

slāinte,

Jean

Did Not Finish

What makes you not finish a book?

Preface: NO, this is not about “not finishing” a manuscript, project, career, or life goal. Oh, that’s a great post for another day…

Since my computer has been hijacked by aliens, I figured it was time to write my monthly blog post! My website works at least while I wait to chat with my computer-savvy brother for his help with what is probably a minor issue.

Have I mentioned before my ineptitude with computers?

Computers + Jean = oil + water

But I digress.

Many readers are familiar with the term TBR pile. It’s our To Be Read pile of books hanging out on our desk, coffee table, or nightstand, in our car, or loaded in our e-reader or audiobook apps. TBR piles are fun! They’re good. We look forward to reading. I know it makes some of us fret, too. We look at them and feel, “Oh my gosh, I have so much to catch up on! I’ll never read them all.” But for some it’s a game of how many they can read in a week/month/year.

via GIPHY

Now, on to the DNF pile, or the Did Not Finish pile, the lesser known sibling to TBR piles.

Oi. Did. Not. Finish.

It happens to us all. It’s the pile we don’t like to talk about. The one we push under the rug. Some of us see every dang book through to the painful ending, and do not enjoy it for whatever reason. We finish out of obligation, compulsion, hope, or something else…

Reading is subjective, after all. But some of us give up part way in. (btw, I am here to say THAT IS OKAY!) We might be disappointed with the story (for a whole slew of reasons), or with ourselves, perfectionist and conscientious to a fault. It could be the storyline or flawed plot, a trope, an ending, a character, a writing style, the point of view, grammar issues, overused clichés, words, the narrator if it’s an audiobook…there are a hundred reasons for us to not finish a book. We might want to throw it at a wall (yeah, I know you’re out there, book-throwers.)

Are you a power through and regret it later person?

via GIPHY

Or…

Are you a, nope, gave it until x number/percent of pages, and said

Bye Bye Bye?

via GIPHY

For me, it depends. If I promised to read it or got an ARC copy or signed up to review it, I will finish it. Always. If I’m reading for pure enjoyment, then I will give up by 20-35% if it’s not doing it for me, for whatever reason. Do I still review the book? If I finished, yes, but I focus on the positives and do my best to give an honest review and rating. If it is a DNF, then no. Never. Why? In my opinion, it’s not fair to the author or readers. If you read say the first chapter and hate it, how can you review the entire book? It might get better (or it might not). We all bring our own life experiences to a reading session. Sometimes it’s just not our cup of tea but may be for someone else. However, it could be a hopelessly flawed book, but how do we know unless we read the entire thing?

What prompted this blog post?

Well…I just gave up on a book about 35% of the way in. It was getting better, but also getting worse. (Yeah, figure that one out!). I just couldn’t anymore. It was a deeply tragic, sad, dark, twisted story. My heart was not able to keep going. Sometimes I need lighter. Sometimes I am cool with darker. Oh yeah, it was also a bestseller with a gazillion Amazon and Goodreads reviews, most of them glowing.

And when this happens, I go to the reviews and see if I’m not irrational with my thoughts (there is always somebody who feels the same), and yes, I read the spoilers because I DO want to know how it plays out. I was glad I made the decision to pull the plug on it.

Also recently on my DNF list: a book by a hugely successful bestselling author (I love her other books, but this one and I were just not hitting it off), and I tried a few different books by another bestselling author, and I just couldn’t get into them. I tried several! She came highly recommended, too. Is there something wrong with me? Why can’t I LOVE some of the “bestsellers”? Eh. Preference. My inner author critic. My own life experience. And it’s okay. There may be one plot point that hits a trigger so off to the DNF pile it goes.

What do you think about DNF piles?

• Do you review the book anyway?

• Do you regret the investment of time you put in?

• Do you try another book by the same author? (I do. I like to give them another chance)

• Do you tell everyone you know how much you hated the book?

• Do you just toss the book aside, not stewing over the time lost, and move on to the next one in the TBR pile?

I’d love to know abut your DNF approach. Do share!

And in case you’re wondering, yes, the aliens have left my computer by now (hey, an author can get distracted and take two days to write a short blog post…) My brother helped me with the easy fix (sigh, I am such a luddite).

What is your approach to DNF piles?