The Craft of Writing - I Do Love It

It's my "day off", and since my PT wants me to take an extra day away from exercising at the gym, I've been taking Wednesday away from there as well. It feels odd to be typing this at 5:10 am when I should already be up on the track fast-walking my 2-1/2 miles. Still, the physical therapy is working, so I'l follow orders. Instead of working out in the gym, I showered at home and scrubbed the shower from top to bottom instead. No rest for the weary or the housekeepers - LOL. 

There is a newer version of this book available now, and
I suppose I could purchase it (although I'd probably get
it in digital version). Still, it's an entertaining way to
learn some principals of grammar. 

I've got four boxes of books ready to take over to Half Price Books later today, and it's a heavy shopping day today with stops at two different grocery stores and Target. When I finally return home with bags of produce and other assorted items, I'll get back to work on Sharon's room which is actually getting places. Counting down, I have four days of spit and clean left before picking her up at the airport. One of those days will be nothing but vacuuming and dusting, so that gives me a total of three days to wrap things up in the heavy cleaning department. I can do this. 

There is a newer version of "The Well-Tempered
Sentence" available also, but I think my original
copy will continue to do what I need just fine. I'll
try to make space with my other grammar books
and get both volumes shelved above my computer
desk today. 

I almost put two books in for resale that I would have regretted. Fortunately I looked at them a second time and rescued them from the boxes of doom. The books, "The Transitive Vampire" and "The Well-Tempered Sentence" by Karen Elizabeth Gordon are grammar and punctuation books that I love. They actually will have to go above my desk here, joining my Strunk and White "Elements of Style" and my Mirriam-Webster's "Guide to Punctuation and Style". One can never have too many references about comma placement and the use of adverbs. 

I've had articles published in "Bead & Button" magazine as
well as in "Beadwork" magazine, also original fiction
in "Dragonology". I've been working on my novel for
years now, but it's been a victim of lack of time and my
desire for authenticity. It'll get there one of these days. 

DH put all of my beading magazines onto the shelving yesterday, I'll try and get a photo today to share with all of you tomorrow. As he's been going through them, he's also been pulling issues where I had published projects and putting them into a file he's set up for my publications. That's sweet of him. I had no idea he really cared about what I had written in the past. I'm not good at self-promotion, so I usually pushed those articles, etc to the background when I think of things I've done in my life. 

So, I hear the washer singing Mozart to me (yes, my washer sings a digital tune when the load is finished). Time to pull the first load of laundry out and get it ready to dry; it's going to be a very busy day. Stay healthy and happy today, and I'll be back on schedule tomorrow. 

Thinking About the HEA Ending

In romance novels, the Happily Ever After ending is almost mandated. In fact, with some publishers and in some contracts, it is part of the requirements; no HEA = no publication. I admit that there is are many stories and novels written in the Fantasy genre, but, isn't the expectation of an HEA also something of a fantasy? I mean to say, "How often in real life does HEA follow automatically in the footsteps of a loving couple?"

It's nice when Happily Ever After really happens, but is it
really ever true? Does the inclusion of HEA make a
story into a fairy tale? 

Let's think about this for a moment. Rhett Butler walks out on Scarlett O'Hara at the end of "Gone With the Wind". No HEA there. Although Odysseus finally returns to the arms of his beloved Penelope in "The Odyssey", every other man who sailed with him died before arriving back to Ithaca. Odysseus may have had his own HEA, but there were a lot of other houses where that didn't happen. And let's not even get into the fact that in "Romeo and Juliet", both lovers die - separately, by their own hand, and weeping over the dead body of their one and only love. Some HEA there, hmmm?

Romeo and Juliet, a great romance, ends up with both
title characters dead by their own hand. Hmmmm - how
does that work with a Happily Ever After clause? 

So why push drama into a back corner for the sake of the HEA? Well, for one thing, it is the 'romance' genre, meaning the idea is boy gets girl (or other boy) through a process of many trips and stumbles and finally, after soul-searching and deciding they truly are worse apart than together, boy proposes to boy (or girl) and another happy couple is born. The romance goes out of the romance if the HEA isn't there. But there are occasional contracts out there which allow the author a bit more latitude.

I came across this while looking for a good proposal
picture and couldn't resist. *waves* out to all of my
geeky and happy Tolkien-fan friends out there. 

Sometimes the contracts will allow for an 'implied HEA'. This would be one where the doctor and his wildly attractive assistant reunite after the deadly storm and a gleam is in their eyes as they greet each other. As they embrace (after damaging floods, tornadoes, and kidnapping), you know that all will be right with the world and that they will receive their HEA, even if the book ends on a searing kiss in the middle of the Emergency Room doorway. An author can sometimes get away with an implication.

Kissing in the rain. Isn't it romantic? It's also cold, wet, possibly
leading to pneumonia and/or other illnesses. But heck - it's romantic! 

To flip a position and query, does the reader really need to know that an HEA is imminent? Is the reader really silly enough to read a romance novel and expect that the chambermaid will end up happily pulled from charcoal obscurity to enter the life of the Duke gracefully with all of the trappings of a full education in the mores of London strictly class-based Victorial society?  Really? I know we all want the guttersnape to be comfortable at Ascot, but the Eliza Doolittle story can only hold water for so long before the holes in the bucket start to appear.

I have to point out here that Audrey Hepburn had perfect teeth - something
that a street beggar would be unlikely to have. Also, good bone
structure, a stunning body, and generally she was hot, Hot, HOT! 

So I am ranting here. "Give the reader some credit!" Don't assume that every romance novel needs a 'happily ever after' ending. Some of the best romances either go unrequited or require the sacrifice of one or the other protagonist. Instead, give us a good, solid romance that is based on personality as well as physical attributes. Build a plot that doesn't have holes large enough to drive a Mack truck through them, and allow some of the small realities of life (parents, former lovers, education, job requirements, etc) to come through and make that HEA a difficult goal to achieve. Acknowledge some reality. For instance, divorce is rampant in this country and that certainly is not stated as a predictable future for your romance novel's Happily Ever After. Perhaps Happily Ever After should be amended to read Happily Ever for the next X years with periodic contract renewals and no rose-colored glasses.

The woman standing is my Godmother, Vera Sears and
the man holding the violin is my Uncle Edwin. I'm so
proud of my cousin for putting this together and getting
it out into the public eye. 

Just mainstream thoughts for this Thursday morning. As an aside and add-on, a shout goes out to my cousin who published "Ghosts In my Mother's Closet" yesterday at Outskirts Press. Way to go, cousin dearest. Now, make it a NookBook and I'll buy it in a flash! I'm very proud of you, though. You got your book out much faster than my own which is 100,000+ words and still moving on.  Happy Thursday, everyone!