Friday, May 11, 2007

Mr. Romantic

My friends,

I've been dabbling in the romantic genre for a few months now. I am under the impression that there are very few male romance writers out there. Kate has told me of a couple and I just bought an interesting one by Nicholas Sparks today.

I think there are less male romance writers out there than woman because men have a harder time with the subject of intimacy and sex. Perhaps we are embarrassed to write about something so deeply passionate and difficult as the romance genre. Perhaps (should I say it? sure why not.) we men are scared of romance in an odd subconscious way. For some of us it's very much conscious. A lot of men have trouble either being romantic with their partner, or have no clue how to go about it, which I think are one in the same.

As for myself, I don't do too bad int hat department, I don't think. My wife does brag from time to time about the day I had spread rose peddles on the floor, forming a path upstairs, which had been twinkling with various candles I place here and there. She had gotten home from work, walked in and followed the path upstairs, where I was waiting, massage oil read, the bed sprinkled with more rose peddles. Okay, so it's not that original, but hey, I think it turned out pretty good. And for the four years we've been married I've done quite a few romantic things up until this date.

But writing a romance? Nope. I've never even tried. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I'm such a fan of horror I can't bring myself to read any romance at all.

For my next post I will posting a short romance story. This is a first, so please, don't laugh...well, at least not before you read it. There will be one difference, however. I am going to mingle the romance genre with another, as an experiment.

I will post the story either Sunday or Monday. Let me know if you want to read it. It's always great having all of you take a gander and throwing out your feedback. I'm so grateful to have such caring friends. So grateful...

12 comments:

Susan Miller said...

Your post made me think of this quote...

"The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude."
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Sorry, I've been having a "crazy 'bout quotes" week. Sometimes the urge hits.

Anyway, this is exciting. I will definitely read it and give my inspiring and thought provoking feedback (little sarcasm there for ya'). What better weekend to write about passion than one that celebrates the mother of your children. I think romance is about appreciation.

Fab said...

Well, it's got my intrest anyway. Romance mixed with another genre? I'm curious how it will turn out.

RK Sterling said...

That's great, Lucas, that you're willing to try to something new. The biggest romance sellers right now are almost all mixed genres: paranormal romance, fantasy/sci-fi romance, etc.

The thing that categorizes a a "romance" is that the focus is on the building relationship between two (or sometimes more) people, and there has to be HEA (happily-ever-after). You can have a bloody thriller that's still a romance if 50% or more of the focus is still on the relationship and they live happily ever after. :)

Lucas Pederson said...

Susan, your feedback is more helpful than you know. Yeah, the story, though, may not be as passionate as we might hope. But who knows. And about the quote. How true it is..

Fab, I'm curious too. So far it's trying my patience. But we'll see, we'll see.

Kate, happily ever after??? Um...all right. I guess I coiuld sqeeze it in here, somewhere...My hat goes out to all the romance writers, this is hard stuff, let me tell you.
It was from your email that I got idea, Kate, so it's your fault I'm suffering like this. Oh, whoe is me..and all that silly stuff.

Thanks for stopping by you three! Enjoied the company!

Princess Banter said...

I actually have great admiration for male romance writers -- not only because they're rare, because i think it's very uncommon that males can express their deepest emotions that way. I happen to love male romance writers (or "dick lit" writers) because they give a fresh perspective on the topic of love and relationships :)

Drizel said...

whhoooohooo....bring it on....and for crying in a bucket your wife is really lucky, just keep up the good work, spoil her wrotten.....I havent been writting so much here yet....this place is so over whelming.....:)

Charles Gramlich said...

Robert Jordan got his start writing romances. I actually wrote the prologue to a paranormal romance once but then couldn't really decide where to go from there and ended up never proceeding. Looking forward to your mixed experiment

Vinny "Bond" Marini said...

I did a romance Monday Matinee two weeks ago and a few of my readers commented that they were waiting for "the twist". The twist when the man attacked the woman and tore her body apart. The twist when the couple would be attacked and killed.

I found it funny that I have set them up for the twists in my writing.

The story was "Sweetest Feeling" found over on THE COUCH.

Good luck with your attempt.

Lucas Pederson said...

Princess, "Dick Lit" huh? Wierd. Anyway, yeah, male romance writers are a rare commodity indeed. Although I'm not sure I'm very good at the emotional part of it, but give me an E for effort and I think we'll be okay. Thank you so much for stopping by! As always, it's wonderful to see new faces here.

Etain, why, it's about time you got over here and said hello. I was starting feel like you had forgotten about me. And yeah, my wife is spoiled rotten, unfortunately. But hey, when a guy is in love sometimes he can't help it. Good to see you back!

Charles, I didn't know that about Robert Jordan. Wonders never cease. Now about that prologue...perhaps it is time to pull the musty thing out and revamp it. Start over, see what happens. Couldn't hurt.

Bond, Thanks!!! I'll try my best. Oh, and I'll be checking out your blog. You got me interested int hat story now. Thanks again!

Vinny "Bond" Marini said...

Lucas:

I sort of did your first sentence assignment. I had to add a few words to the first sentence to make it work with the opening.

William Jones said...

I hear that mixed romance genre is quite popular. Recently the Year's Best Paranormal Romance collection started publishing, which seems to indicate there is a genre blend there.

Lucas Pederson said...

I've been seeing more and more of the genre mixing lately. In a way it's kind of neat, in an other, it's sort of scary. It's neat becasue writers come up with something fresh everytime, they let their imagination soar to new hieghts. It's scary because how much genre mixing will it take before every idea has been done? Where does that leave for us yet to be published writers? I shiver at the thought.
Thanks for stopping by William! Wow! Haven't seen you for a while! In any case, it's great to see you here.