I presented a possible cover to my critique group for critiquing. I won’t go into what they said but for one thing. “What is the story about in five words?” asked a non-romance author.
What five words? Give me a break, but it worked. I blurted
it out, “It’s about prejudice.” Okay, that's three. Do I get extra credit?
The cover I showed for my about to be released novel, Cinnamon
& Sugar is below:
So, looking at this, my son-in-law said when I asked how he felt about it, he said, "Well, it's a romance novel, right?" He thought it was typical for romances and therefore it's just a cover and ok.
That got me thinking about people who never read romances. My thoughts went to the movie Casablanca. "Our feelings don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.... Where I go, you can't follow.... Here's looking at you, kid..." (from memory, and aren't the greatest all like that. We remember. It's seared into our brains.)
Rather than shrug your shoulders at a person who doesn't "do" romance. Speak up, so I did. I said the story is about prejudice." I explained. Now I'm not sure he'll read it, but because his deceased wife, my daughter, loved the first draft. He probably will. And at the end when I finish with a Martin Luther King quote, “I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.” He'll say, yes, this really was about prejudice. And maybe he'll remember some lines from the story.
So this brings me back to romance in general. I'll just stick my neck out there and suggest that any good novel, no matter the genre, needs at least two intertwined stories, both with purpose and goals.
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