Isn't It Romantic?

While I endure the waiting game to hear about my proposal for my next mainstream (which, when you submit in July, means a wait of all summer and into the early fall) and the comfortable feeling of having my publishing obligations satisfied, I've been working on a mainstream romance, which for all you folks who don't follow the industry means a romance without the sometimes constricting rules laid down by publishers of dedicated romance lines. Anyone who is familiar with my mainstream novels knows they have little to no romance in them, except for the one I just finished, which will be out next spring.

As many of you know, I won't be writing for Arabesque anymore. The word given to me from the brass (which still hasn't been officially announced, but at this point I feel the five months I've waited for them to say something is long enough) is that they are turning Arabesque into a showcase for the top authors in black romance, with a mix of reprints and new titles (with the advent of Kimani Press, Arabesque was reduced from four books per month to two). While this is a wonderful opportunity for the shining stars of the genre to get their older titles (many of which are continuing/connecting series) returned to print for thousands of readers who discovered them later in the game and wish to read their entire body of work from the beginning, it leaves li'l old me -- more accurately described as "reliable" than as the creme de la creme -- without a home.

You might be saying, "What about Kimani?" That won't work, either. I don't think I can produce a romance manuscript every five to seven months and still write an annual mainstream for my other publisher, which is the frequency they're looking for. Yes, these category romances are shorter than Arabesque, but they're still full-length books, and 70,000 words isn't all that short. Nor am I fond of the continuing series (I know I'm a real oddball there, but I'm just not) that they want their writers to concentrate on; and the idea of writing a modern-day fairy tale and/or stories featuring alpha males, both of which are also on their desired list, isn't appealing to me either. The authors writing for Kimani Romance all have one thing in common -- they enjoy their work and are writing the stories they want to tell. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that writing something you don't want to be writing is agony for most of us.

I write because I enjoy writing . . . not because I expect to get rich from it, not because I want to be a household name. The days of torturous writing (like writing a book report for school on a book I had to struggle to complete and absolutely hated) are behind me forever.

So I'm just writing. In all honesty, I did ponder making my WIP a trilogy and taking a shot at category, then decided that wouldn't work. There are plot issues to consider; one of the romances is based almost exclusively on voice contact until late in the story (try filling an entire book with that). Then there were age issues to consider; one couple is older, which might make it a hard sell by itself in a package with the other two much-younger couples. Better to combine all three in one big book.

I'm writing this romance with no restrictions, and I must say it feels wonderful to throw out all those don'ts and just write what I want to write. The story is constantly evolving, and I can shape and develop the conflict as I feel fit without worries that it might be too gritty or too risque for the publisher's guidelines.

I'm only a third of the way through, so two questions remain. 1) Will I be able to finish it? Yes, I think so. This is still an experiment for me, but so far it's successful. But I do have to consider that my steadfast progress on this manuscript, which I've been quite happy with, will surely decrease when I return to my contracted work, which naturally takes first precedence over mere wannamake sales. 2) Will I be able to sell it? Again, yes, I think so. I'm not entirely objective, but I happen to think it's pretty good. It will have to finished first, since I know where I'm going with it, but the precise manner in which it will unfold changes all the time. I'll need to know all the answers before I sit down to summarize it.

That old standby, time, will really tell the tale. Wish me luck!