Thursday Thinking

This article in Elite Daily is something I think every author of romance novels should read.

The eight reasons men are real and guys are fake offers up some insight into the mind’s of men, not guys.

When we consider our protagonist male in any romance novel, we all like for him to be manly, and this article gives great examples of who these real men are, how they behave, and why we’re able to look at them as being mature men as opposed to immature, not so attractive because of the way they act guys.

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Waaay back in 2011, Julie Ortolon posted a blog about romance novel covers and the changes they’ve gone through over the years.

It’s another fun and educational read, but the ending left something to be desired imho.

There are actual titles for these cover images, which I think is hilarious. I found this article because of my growing curiosity over the sudden and (for me) inexplicable changes that occurred with cover art.

No, I wasn’t a huge fan of Fabio back in the 80’s, especially when it became blatantly obvious he was the leading man on almost every cover I can remember seeing on the shelves at BDalton, Waldenbooks, and other chain book sellers of the time.

I didn’t want to compare the leads in those novels to Fabio, but I didn’t want to see the muscle-bound, half-naked men disappear from those covers, either. Heck, I was in my prime at the time and muscle spelled sex in my budding mind. I liked it!

What I didn’t like (and still don’t) were the ridiculous ‘object’ covers that soon followed after a feminist outcry worked to bring about this major change.

How was I expected to derive any interest in a romance novel with a flower on the cover, or a distant cottage in some wildflower blanketed field shaded in a thin mist? Give me a break.

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Finally, from the Romance University blog, JENNIFER TANNER‘s post about kissing scenes is another article I think every romance novelist should read. After all, for some of us, it is the most difficult scene to write.

Well, it is when things like context, mood, set-up, and the actual act all need to be portrayed in words that manage to evoke all those feelings in not only the characters but the reader’s mind as well.

Jennifer interviews ANISE RAE for this article, and there are things like physical aspects as a result of kissing, why we kiss, and then ways in which the writer can create these scenes in a way that will help the reader to enjoy the experience almost as much as our characters are supposed to be enjoying it. 😀