I Hate Rom-Com's

I hate romantic comedies. Other than a select few most of them are predictable.
The couple meets in some cute way, most times with the desperate and single woman doing something to look like a complete idiot. Maybe she knocks over an entire table of food at a restaurant and he helps her clean up the mess. Or she gets her dress caught in the door of a cab and has to run along the side of it until the hero swoops in and saves the day.

After the cute meet the couple starts to date and all the woman’s flaws and insecurities come to the surface while most times the hero remains as clever and attractive as ever. Everything is fine until some conflict either internal or external threatens to break them up for good. One of the two has an epiphany and realizes they can’t live without their soul mate and by the end of the story everything is neatly tied in a pretty little pink bow and the happy couple lives happily ever after.

No wonder audiences have been staying away from romantic comedies in droves. Who wants to watch a story that’s that predictable? As a reader, it’s a tired formula I’ve seen repeated over and over again in a number of romance novels and it’s the reason I don’t read those types of books anymore.
As a writer, especially with a series, making things unpredictable is something you have to consider, especially when your story has romantic elements. Though the reader may say they want the heroine and her love interest to be happily married with kids, don’t believe them.

I can testify that I’ve thought the same thing with the TV series Castle. As soon as Detective Beckett and Richard Castle got together I was done. That was last season and I haven’t watched it since. After watching two characters who have been pining for each other for years finally get together, it’s boring now that we have what we wanted.

What keeps your reader interested is the tension between the couple. Move their relationship forward slowly.  If you put them together as a couple, tear them apart soon after and have them find their way back to each other all over again. Introduce that best friend who’s been yearning after the hero since they were kids. Maybe one of them has an unforgivable secret? What if her jealous best friend is a liar and spreads a nasty lie that breaks them apart. Unbeknownst to the hero, maybe his lady love has been replaced with her crazed, long thought dead twin sister. The longer you can keep your couple from that happily ever after the more the reader is pulled in. Make them wait!

Just because you’re following the romance formula doesn’t mean you have to play it by the book.

The Villain Must Pay

There's a lot of injustice in the world. All you have to do is turn on the news and here about someone being victimized. As we all know, sometimes the punishment doesn't fit the crime. How many times have we seen someone get a slap on the wrist for some heinous crime that's left someone badly hurt, emotionally scarred or even dead?

I once read a book that started out promising. It was a good read, up until the end when the antagonist got away with his misdeeds. The two main characters were coerced into letting him get away with a slap on the wrist. I still hold a grudge against that author for that ending. Although it may not realistic when it comes to the real world, people want to see justice rendered, especially when they're invested in a story.

As a writer, it's something I take into consideration. Maybe it's some form of vigilantism, but I personally want the bad guy to suffer and I know our readers feel the same way. Even though the antagonist is nothing but a combination of ones and zeroes in my computer, I want them to get what's coming to them. Sometimes getting carted off to jail won't do it, sometimes the punishment has to be extreme to satisfy the reader. Sometimes for the punishment you have to think outside the box. It's Raven Newcastle's world and she can do what she wants.

If only things in real life were so simple.

Here's another one of those character interviews that was so much fun!  I hope you enjoy it.  This time we're interviewing our hero, Aiden Stone, featured in our novel, The Body Hunters.

 Maurella Stevens interviews FBI Special Agent Aiden Stone

MS: Aiden Stone, I've been so looking forward to interviewing you!

AS: No problem, Maurella.   You can call me Aiden:

MS: Thank you Aiden.  I noticed in the book you took to calling  Danielle , Nani.

AS: Yes, she hated it at first but it grew on her!

MS: Didn’t she think you were being very forward at first calling her beautiful in Hawaiian?

AS: Yeah but she likes it!

MS: Speaking of what were you thinking when you blurted out “the” statement to her.

AS: Honestly, I don’t know, my mouth took over my brain, I had no other good reason to keep her in Dallas, I panicked and I said what I said.

MS: But you know what they say about stressful utterances, in the heat of the moment comments?

AS: No Maurella, please educate me!

MS: That when you utter something out of fear, passion, or stress it tends to be the truth. Was it Aiden?

AS: Um, well you may have got me there!  Of course by that point I felt something strong for Danny, and I know she  felt it for me!  She was walking back into a hornet's nest and I just didn’t want to see her hurt. I knew it could be explosive.

MS: And it was wasn’t it?

AS: Well, yeah! I was right! But I certainly couldn’t take any pleasure in being right; I had to face the fact that I had also with held information and that put her in danger in the first place.

MS: Was it a case of too little to late?

AS: Yes and of course Lucius getting in the way.

MS: Ah, yes Lucius, let’s talk about him a bit.

AS: Forget about the King of the Vampires.   I’d rather talk about you!

MS: Aiden! I see you never quite stop flirting!

AS: Just one of the things the ladies love about me!

MS: Back to Lucius if you don’t mind! He never really quite believed you . You had a major fight with him about Danny’s safety why do you think he reacted the way he did.

AS: He has his own agenda, and unfortunately no one is clear what that is! He acts like her father sometimes. Just because he was her dad's old partner, he’s really not that much older than her. Or me for that matter.

MS: Not a Braddah huh!

AS: Nope not a Brah! Look at you speaking my language! I see I'm leaving an impression on you!

MS: Ok Aiden, let’s not get carried away!

AS: Well you’re the one with the ticket to the gun show! (Aiden flexes his arm muscles)

MS: You are incorrigible!

AS: I believe Danny called me a jackass!

MS: I don’t know if I’d go that far just yet! But you also have your soft side too, you held real emotion for the women being killed and for Danny's feelings when things got heavy

AS: Well of course, there's a time and place for everything.  I may joke around but I know when its time  to be serious.

MS:  Do you feel it brought you two closer?

AS: Look what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and a shared harrowing experience is going to bring any two people closer. I would like to think that it did anyway

MS. Now we know you are psychic, that’s not a secret. Do you feel its hindered you any or have you come to accept who you are now?

AS: With Danny’s help I have been able to not only accept my gift, but expand on it and control it. At first I didn’t want it.  I thought I was nuts you know? Now I understand there are things that cant be explained and to use the gift for the betterment of others.

MS: Good philosophy!

AS: Now don’t get me wrong .  You've got to have great investigative skills and do a lot of leg work.   Cases just don’t solve themselves because I've got this gift so to speak. It doesn't work that way. There are still a lot of  forensics involved and putting all the pieces of the puzzle together.

MS: Yes I can imagine!

AS: But I always make room for play! Can’t be work all the time! 

MS: That brings me to your reputation as a ladies’ man, you are quite the player!  Has that changed now?

AS: Let me take you to dinner and you tell me!

MS: Sure, can my husband come too?
AS: Husband? Ugh! Look of course I have feelings for Danielle, more than I want to admit. But you’ll have to stay tuned.