Romance and the Frog Prince

 Yesterday I saw the Frog Prince sitting beside the koi pond. He didn’t move. I wondered if he was afraid of the large koi swimming around the pond, but he wasn’t a small frog. I doubted if he would fit in the mouth of the koi. Maybe he just needed to dry off for a while and take in the sights of the world. Or maybe he was hoping to catch a few tasty bugs. He sat there for quite a while but I didn’t see him eat any bugs. Eventually, he jumped back into the pond, which was a good thing because I was worried that someone would accidentally step on him. 

Once I returned home, I started thinking of that old Grimm fairytale about the Frog Prince. Grimm's tales are, for the most part, quite dark and simply the idea of kissing a frog is repulsive. But then I recalled those long ago boyfriends and the kisses I received from them. 😂 Those kisses weren’t much better than kissing a frog. (Hint: Hubby was much better at kissing than all the old boyfriends.)

In truth, the Frog Prince is a romance which also contains a moral about keeping promises. The princess was a spoiled brat but the biggest obstacle to the romance was the fact that the prince was a frog. Nevertheless, he was a persistent frog for he knew his own salvation relied on the princess keeping her promise, which she did reluctantly. At the climax she throws him against the wall, but the spell on him was broken and love reigned.

There are many, many people who disdain romances because they believe the happy endings are unrealistic. They say that in the beginning the hero and the heroine hate each other and then inexplicably at the end they fall madly in love. 

I disagree with that stereotyped idea of the romance genre. In the beginning of a romance there are always obstacles to the relationship of the two protagonists. That is not an absurd notion. It happens in real life. While your future husband or wife may not be a frog, they may have a job in a different state. The hero may be a police officer while the heroine's father was a mean police officer and so she doesn't trust someone with that occupation. That's just the way things work in the world. Nevertheless, the couple can work things out. The magic in a romance is love. And love can change the world--even the very broken one we live in. There can be happy endings if we keep our promises, just as the princess had to keep her promise to the Frog Prince. 

Best of all, romances offer hope and leave readers with a positive feeling.

Maybe the frog I saw at the pond finds true love and eventually fathers thousands of little tadpoles that look just like him who spend their lives eating lots of mosquitoes and other annoying bugs. Isn’t that a realistic happy ending?

🐸 🐸 🐸 🐸 🐸

Cooking Up A Happy Ending

A romance book must have a happy ending. That's the guarantee. Romances without an uplifting ending are not not romances. In real life, the good guys do not always win and there are plenty of tragedies. When I pick up a romance, I want to forget about the real world.

However, to assume that there is a formula or recipe in writing a romance is to dismiss the nature of the art. Yes, romances are genre literature and so they are looked down upon by those who write and read literary novels. Literary novels are considered serious works. To me, they are most often seriously depressing. Romances do have sad scenes. My novel, HEAVEN'S BLUE, has choked up a number of readers--but it ends well.

There is a lot of variety to be found in getting to the end of a romance. While there are only so many plots in the world, romances are character driven novels--and when it comes to people, the choices are endless. I've read my share of cowboy romances, but they are not all the same. Every writer comes to the task with a completely unique set of characters roaming around in his or her mind. Jane Eyre is as real in most readers' minds as Nicole Kidman--maybe more real. The characters I put into my novels are very real to me.

One of my other Christian romances, HOPING FOR JOY, is based on part of I Corinthians 13--so there's some serious spiritual pondering in the story. Still, despite their differences, the hero and heroine will succeed in falling in love by the end. Why bother reading a romance when you know that the two protagonists will end up happy every after? For me, it's the sunshine I feel in my heart when I get to the end. How about you?

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love love. I love happy endings. I believe in love.

So, I write romances. And I read other authors' romances. Romance novels are the BEST!

💖

New Jersey Romance Writers' Conference 2017

Writers' conferences are amazing! As you can see above, I received a bunch of free books at the New Jersey Romance Writers' Conference this weekend. I actually could have gotten more, but I didn't want to be too greedy. 😇 

However, there's more to a writers' conference than free books. There's enthusiasm and encouragement along with a heaping dose of helpful, practical information about the business of writing and marketing books. The workshops at NJRW's conference ran the gamut from a beginner's class on point of view to round table discussions with other published authors concerning the state of the industry.

My top tip this weekend concerned Amazon ads. I had tried signing up for an Amazon ad more than a year ago, but my ad did not seem to work for me. As it turns out, other authors have found the ads successful by using their own extensive and exhaustive lists of keywords. 

One of my favorite workshops was given by Eileen Dreyer titled "His Brain/Her Brain: Why It Took Moses 40 Years to Get out of the Desert." Ms. Dreyer put together all the facts concerning the differences in men's brains and women's brains. As soon as I returned home, I showed my notes home to my husband. He studied them with some bemusement. I don't know if he'll understand me any better, but I believe I'll understand him far more now that I know the facts. 😂

I was looking forward to Tracey Lyons talk titled "Keeping the Sexy in Sweet," but unfortunately Ms. Lyons didn't show. Still, I did get a copy of her book The Heart of an Agent, and I've already started to read it. (It's GOOD!)

Of course, the best thing about a writers' conference is simply being with other writers and meeting authors from all over the country. As romance writers, we are invested in hope. Our stories have happy endings and sometimes a happy ending is all you need to BELIEVE.