Repeat Offenders?

Who among us doesn’t adore the ‘the one that got away’ love story? I know it couldn’t be just me because book shelves are lined with these sweet reunion novels. Harlequin has a line dedicated to pregnant hook-ups, so why not old booty calls?Oops, that’s not how they package it. Here, let me start over …second chance books is a nice way of saying familiar dick. People love these past love story lines. I’m not too sure how many people revisit these types of relationships in real life, but I do wonder where the obsession comes from.

Depending upon the scenarios, I’m game to read 300 and something pages of getting to know you again. I even wrote a second chance romance between an ex-football player and a former ballerina. To be honest,past history is sometimes fun to build a plot around, but in real life maybe not so much.

There was a reason why the relationship didn’t initially work out, right? Could it be that personality defect that couldn’t be overlooked? Or perhaps it was circumstances. Lovers who were torn apart get reacquainted twenty years later. Sweet, right?But in the back of the reader’s mind, everyone is thinking did the heroine or hero change or grow? How could they possibly be attracted to the same traits at 40 that they were at 20?(Only if their maturity was stunted during all that time)What, just me again? *rolls eyes*I highly doubt that.  

Second chance plots can be crazy sweet, but there has to be a certain amount of self-exploration to anchor the story. One side has to be right, while this other side has to be wrong, but most importantly someone has to be sorry. A misunderstanding can occur to drive a wedge, but at some point in the story this has to be acknowledged. Forgiveness is a strong theme here, young Skywalker, and someone better be ready to grovel. Cynical? Maybe a little, but also realistic.In other words, someone must own up to their crap then the clothes can come off. Not always in that order, but most of the time this is the formula that leads to that almighty HEA ending we crave.

Romance VS Erotica

Once upon a time I wrote a romance book and I hated it. Don’t get me wrong,romance is the best—the tension, build up, and strangely enough the insecurity on both people’s part. Most of all I love the flirt. The ‘I like you and I want you, but I can’t come out and say it because that would just make me creepy’. What makes most romance wonderful is the flirt. However, what I don’t love is the purple prose.

Who among us has ever described their vagina as a flower? Okay, I have, but in the context that I don’t have weeds there … don’t judge. Publishers have categories for their genres, and romance tends to be sweet and flowery. Stronger adult language oftentimes changes what would be a romance book into erotica.

Once labeled with that explicit R rating,the plot of the book then comes into question. Erotica is known for sex where the plot will often suffer but that is not always the case. Due to my inability to say “rod” over “cock” I will forever be given the side eye for substance. To be honest, the book I wrote was supposed to be sweet but not downright puritanical. Once the publisher hacked it to death with that red pen of hate, the story became unrecognizable. It took something away from me and the story to give in to that PG-13 rating. After that, I vowed to never bend to those flowery words that only Shakespeare could pull off. Instead I’ve decided to stick with my new-age heroine. “Take off your panties,” she demands of the hero, but with a wink first … you know, because she doesn’t want to fuck with his ego.