Rowena Cherry, Guest Blogger :: Oh, Sir Jasper…! Confessions of a serial Romance writer.

Oh, Sir Jasper…! Confessions of a serial Romance writer.

by Rowena Cherry

I write Romance (with a big R). This is a problem.

It’s my own fault. I painted myself into a corner with my debut novel, Forced Mate by “branding” myself with my series of suggestive chess titles, by setting up a family tree, and by world-building–if I can call a monthly, phenomenally-induced mating frenzy “world-building”—none of which sits well with what a politically correct Romance should be.

What should a politically correct Romance be?

Hero meets heroine. Hero and heroine may find each other physically attractive, but annoying. Their goals are mutually exclusive. Hero and heroine are forced to work/be together. They solve the external problem. They fall in love. They find a way to both be happy together. HEA.

There’s not a lot wrong with that, is there? What’s my problem?

Well, it is twofold. For a start, that is pretty predictable. How do you make it interesting? One solution would be to mix and match with a Bond-movie mentality.

Bond movie.

Bond meets villain. Bond and villain (and bad Bond girl) enjoy each other’s company, but their goals are mutually exclusive. Villain threatens global stability. Bond has to stop him. Bond picks up decorative girl as side-kick. Explosions ensue. They save the world. They have sex, but we all know that Bond will be back to save the world with the help of other lovely girls and gadgets.

That would be a plot-driven Romance. For that, you need expendable villains and an interest in explosions. I prefer to write character-driven Romances. Moreover, I’m bored of megalomaniacs and madmen… and if they are criminally insane, shouldn’t they be given medication, instead of a sticky end?

The second wrinkle in my twofold problem is this wretched “rut-rage” concept that I baked into my literary cake. It’s probably more suited to Erotica. Perhaps I set up an expectation and don’t deliver? The title “Forced Mate” didn’t help. Forced Mate is a chess term for the situation where the black and the white chess Kings race to be the first to make a pawn into a queen. (It’s more than that… but having a queen in the end game is really useful). It wasn’t intended to promise a futuristic “bodice ripper”, and no clothing gets ripped off the heroine in Forced Mate.

I tried to balance the scales with “Insufficient Mating Material”—another clever chess title—but probably just as misunderstood in its own way as its predecessor.

I don’t write Erotica. There is sexual tension, there’s foreplay, and there’s a consummation scene (usually) but I write Romance. So, although the hero and/or heroine may think about having sex with someone else, or remember having sex with someone else, or even confide one to the other, they don’t have sex with anyone else once they’ve started seeing each other. It’s one hero. One heroine. And their happy-ever-after involves a permanent commitment, and plans to have a family.

So, what was I thinking when I set up the rut-rage? Well, lions (who mate every fifteen minutes for two or three days) are interesting. The sex is perfunctory, but frequent and apparently affectionate and consensual. Tasmanian Devils are more in the bodice ripper line… and there are plenty of other examples in nature of rut-rageous behavior. When I started writing in 1993, it was original as far as I knew. It seemed commercial, and it made good sense for what I wanted to do with my divided Imperial family

However, it is becoming more and more of a thorn in my side. Given that the males detect a female’s oestrus and go into a sort of attractive, masculine rut, how do I avoid rape and other nasty business?

In Forced Mate, the heroine was whisked off into outer space. Space travel and other shocks to the system can put a girl off her cycle, so her first oestrus in the hero’s company was delayed. That worked for me.

In Insufficient Mating Material, the heroine was older, worldly wise, and had some knowledge of potions, and had been suppressing her hormones for years (which is one reason why she was thought to be substandard as a potential wife).

In Knight’s Fork, the heroine is hot stuff, but the hero had mumps during his boyhood on Earth, and his auto-immune system destroyed the glands in his sinus area which ought to detect female copulins.

Now, I’m struggling to find another plausible, absolutely logical reason to deny the next hero of his rut-rage until the heroine has fallen in love with him.

In my opening remarks, I mentioned the Family Tree. How on Earth –or in outer space—do I keep my readers in suspense when they can go to http://www.rowenacherry.com/familytree/index.php and see Who (officially) had sex with Whom; who fathered whom –as far as my oversexed alien Djinn Royal Family was prepared to divulge– and when?

I left myself a loophole or two. My immoral Royal characters don’t necessarily tell the truth –especially when The Imperial Machismo is on the line– and there isn’t an investigative free press in the Tigron Empire. Royal bastards might be hushed up!

Another problem I created with my family tree was that I set the characters’ names in stone.

Not knowing the rules that considerate authors follow, I used hard-to-pronounce names, and they all began with the same “consonant combination” ie DJ.

If I could turn back time, perhaps I wouldn’t give all senior members of the Royal Family names beginning with Dj–. There are better ways of alerting my reader to the presence of a dangerous god. The Dj—was intended as the alphabetical equivalent of The Imperial March.

At least, when they have six or seven names (like European Royals), they don’t have to use their Djinn (gin) name! Tarrant-Arragon won’t use Djustin or Djohn (Justin or John) until he becomes Emperor. Djarrhett (Jarret) can be ‘Rhett.

As yet, I haven’t had a Djasper, but that might be about to change!

By the way:

The “Oh, Sir Jasper,” quote is from the middle of an English rugby song. Each refrain is one word shorter, starting with maiden protests and ending with an “Oh!” of pleasure.

http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/o/ohsirjasper.shtml

Rowena Cherry’s Mission Statement

My goal as an author is to give good value. I expect to provide my readers with six to eight hours of
amusement, a couple of really good laughs, a romantic frisson or two from the sensual scenes, a thoroughly satisfying HEA, something to think –or talk– about when the book is finished.

More interesting facts…

All Rowena’s titles are chess puns. “Forced Mate” is from Pandolfini’s term for a race between the two Kings to make a pawn his Queen. In chess terminology “Insufficient Mating Material” is when the players realize that no matter how badly or well they play, no one will checkmate the other. A “Knight’s fork” is when two or more pieces are threatened simultaneously, and only one can be saved.

Rowena Cherry has played chess with a Grand Master and former President of the World Chess Federation (hence the chess-pun titles of her alien romances).

She has spent folly filled summers in a Spanish castle; dined on a sheikh’s yacht with royalty; been serenaded (on a birthday) by a rockstar and an English nobleman; ridden in a pace car at the 1993 Indy 500; received the gold level of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award; and generally lived on the edge of the sort of life that inspires her romances about high-living alien gods.

Tagged as: fantasy author, Forced Mate, Insufficient Mating Material, Knight's Fork, Rowena Cherry