Shelley Munro Blog

The secret of writing a great romance is to take a classic plot and twist it to make the story unique. Here is a list of the classic plot types used in romances:

1. Secret Baby - a pregnancy results from a romance and the father doesn’t know about it.

2. Cinderella - a rags to riches story.

3. Beauty and the Beast - one of the main characters is physically marred in some way.

4. Good Girl/Bad Boy - opposites attract. This can also be reversed with a bad girl/good boy.

5. Stranded - a couple is stranded together and the enforced intimacy leads to more.

6. Marriage of convenience - an arranged or forced marriage leads to love.

7. Family feud - think Romeo and Juliet.

8. Mistaken Identity - one of a couple isn’t who he or she appears to be on the surface.

9. Lady and the Cowboy - a class difference sets a couple apart.

10. Secret - a secret stands between romance.

11. Twins - lots of possibilities here.

12. Kidnapping - an abduction.

13. Business competitors - two people fighting for the same prize and only one can win.

14. Friends to Lovers - a friendship leads to more.

15. Masquerade - pretending to be someone else.

16. Amnesia - where one of the characters has lost their memory.

Which type of plot is your favorite? The one you most dislike? Have I missed any from my list?

I visited the Purple Hearts blog a few days ago, and Nancy Haddock was their special guest. Nancy’s post was about the road she’s traveled to become published. BTW - Nancy’s new release La Vida Vampire looks like a fun read.

The last part of her post made me think about writing the book of your heart and following the market. There’s no doubt about it - the road to publication and the subsequent hard work to stay published isn’t an easy one. We, as writers, need to write the very best book we can, yet it must be marketable. Sometimes the market is difficult to read. The books that editors are buying now won’t hit the shops for a while, and by the time they do, often the market is saturated with that particular genre of romance. Historicals are becoming more popular now, and I’ve heard murmuring that sci-fi is the new paranormal. Other people are saying erotic romance has done its dash.

I have an idea. I know it’s probably not a marketable story because it’s sci-fi, it’s light rather than the currently popular darker paranormals, and I have a yearning to write this story in first person. Three strikes, and I’m out. But the thing is - this story is calling me. I’ve been thinking about this story for three years, and after all that time, I still love the idea.

So my question to you is: do you write the book of your heart, even though you know it might not be your breakout book, or do you play it safe and write the story you know you have a good chance of selling?

I’ve received another wonderful review for Fancy Free. Fallen Angel Reviews has given Fancy Free 5 Angels and a Recommended Read award. Color me excited!

Rachel C said, “Ms. Munro gives us hot sex scenes that have your blood heating and your palms sweating. But that’s not all you get with Fancy Free, you also get laughter, emotion and suspense. Ms. Munro has you guessing the whole time, and with the curiosity of what might happen next riding you, you can’t help but turn the pages until you reach the end. This is the second book by Ms. Munro I’ve read and it certainly won’t be the last. Fancy Free offers everything—steamy sex, at times slap stick laughter, nail biting suspense and of course let’s not forget the cast of supporting characters; they alone are worth the price on the cover. Don’t miss this great read.”

Read the full review here. Thanks so much for the great review, Rachel.

I’m still busy working on two Middlemarch stories. I’ve hit 32,000 words for one story and I’m working on final edits for the other story. All going well another Middlemarch story should travel the cyber highway to my editor’s inbox soon.

One of my standout reads for this year has been Lori Armstrong’s Julie Collins series. I finished the third book in the series during the weekend and immediately emailed Lori, attempting to bribe her in exchange for an ARC of the next book. I’m desperate to know what comes next! Sigh - I failed. Evidently others have tried bribes with little success as well.

This is a mystery series with a romance subplot. Julie is a chain smoker, she drinks, and she brings a lot of baggage to the first story. Julie has a screwed up relationship with her father and her brother was murdered, which colors her actions. She’s a tough chick with a smart mouth, and I loved her straight away. And Martinez, her love interest - let’s just say, I want him and leave it at that.

The books are Blood Ties, Hallowed Ground, Shallow Grave and Snow Blind (out in October). They are best read in order.

If you haven’t read Lori’s books before and enjoy mysteries, run and grab a copy. You won’t regret it. As I said - the first three books in this series are among my favorite reads to date this year.

I’ve also just finished reading Drui Claiming by Jory Strong. This is part of Jory’s Supernatural Bonds series and I’ve enjoyed all four books. The last two books in the series Drui Claiming and Sophie’s Dragon take place during the same time frame. Gotta love those dragons!

What have your standout reads been so far this year?

Today I’m guest blogging over at the Romance Studio. Come on over and say hello!

My March release, Fancy Free featured a heroine who inherits a condom company.

Some of you will already be familiar with the behind-the-scenes story about how the idea for Fancy Free came to me. My husband and I were flying home from San Francisco aboard an Air New Zealand flight. I browsed the in-flight magazine and a new product article caught my attention. One of the new products was a vibrating condom, and immediately my mind seized on the idea. My husband shushed me when I tried to discuss condoms and the possibilities, so I went into daydream mode and by the time we landed in Auckland had a plot all mapped out.

That brings me directly back to condoms. In our personal lives we’re told to practice safe sex. I have no problem with that, after all, who wants to pick up a nasty disease while doing a horizontal tango?

Safe sex and the surrounding issues is something that authors need to consider each time they write a love scene. Back at the start of the safe sex campaign a lot of people went on record as saying using a condom in a fictional love scene destroyed all the spontaneity. Personally I’ve never understood the problem because if the scene is written properly, a condom can add an extra dimension. It says I care enough about my health to use one. It says I care enough about my partner to protect him or her. To me, writing a condom into a love scene makes plain common sense.

Over my years of writing I’ve developed a set of rules for fictional condom use. I’ll also add here that this is my opinion and this is what I like to see. I’m not going to bash you over the head if you disagree.

Contemporary romance:

My hero and heroine always use a condom in each love scene. Sometimes more, since I write erotic romance! If they don’t use a condom I give the reader a good reason. Sometimes in the heat of the moment our hero and heroine might forget. Our hero and heroine might be in the middle of nowhere and desperate to the point of crazed, or they might know each other’s sexual history and oral contraception is enough. In Fancy Free, condoms are part of the plot. My characters James and Alice make full use of their products. In Summer in the City of Sails, I even have a condom scene where the hero tells the heroine her glow-in-the-dark condoms remind him of a green ogre.

Historical romance:

I know from my research a form of condoms has been around since Egyptian times. During Roman times after the gladiators fought, they scored big time with the noble ladies. These noble ladies didn’t want children from the gladiators, merely a night of pleasure so they used condoms.

If I’m writing a historical, my heroes and heroines usually don’t use condoms. This was an era where good girls remained virgins until marriage, especially the women of the nobility so the use of condoms isn’t an issue. I look at the social mores when deciding whether my characters use birth control. In my Georgian-set historical, The Second Seduction the plot was a marriage of convenience and a condom wasn’t necessary. In Unforgettable, my World War II romance the couple use condoms.

Paranormal/futuristic romance:

Sometimes my hero and heroine use condoms and sometimes they don’t. It depends on the set-up. Often in my futuristic stories I’ll make a point of saying sexually transmitted diseases are eradicated. I did this in Sex Idol and Fallen Idol.

In my Middlemarch Mates feline shifter series condoms are used in some books and not in others, with the readers learning why condoms are absent.

It is my opinion that responsible romantic heroes use condoms.

What do you think about condoms in fiction? Should our heroes and heroines use them? Does it jerk you out of a scene if condoms are absent? If you’re a writer what rules of use do you like to apply?

Ever since my aspiring author days, I’ve stuck to the idea of having several submissions out at once to help cushion disappointment. If I have several projects with editors or agents and one comes back with a no, I have hope in the mail because some of my other subs are still live.

After selling my first book I’ve continued with my “hope in the mail” program, and mostly it works. But there’s one strange phenomenon I’ve noticed. The replies tend to come back in clusters, no matter when I first sent them out. A case in point. I sent one sub in mid-Dec, one in Jan and one in Feb. The answers have all arrived back in the space of a week with two coming on the same day. I still have two live submissions and quite frankly, I’m a bit worried about opening my email in the morning.

I received a couple of rejections and I’ve already moved on to Plan B for those. I’ve also have some good news to balance out the rejections. (I’m not telling yet) I don’t think I’ll change my “hope in the mail” routine, but I’d definitely like the replies to arrive farther apart. I need time to savor the hope!!

I’m a huge paranormal fan. I like both dark paranormals and the more light-hearted ones. My own writing tends toward the light-hearted with humor end, although I can write darker if I set my mind to it. I wish there were more of the light-hearted ones around. I’ve just read Howling at the Moon (tales of an urban werewolf) by Karen Macinerney. I really loved it and chuckled out loud quite a bit during the reading of the book. Unfortunately I need to wait until Nov 2008 for book two.

I know there are quite a few paranormal fans out there. Do you prefer reading the darker paranormals or are you, like me, a fan of the light-hearted ones? Actually, I like humorous contemporaries as well. I wish there were more of those around, too.

Mr. Munro and I have just returned home from a family dinner - a birthday celebration for my mother-in-law. Now that the family is getting larger it’s difficult to organize everyone, so we were slightly depleted in number, although we managed four generations of family. We’re also expecting two babies in the family - the first to arrive should make an appearance in just over a week. Everyone is excited because it’s a girl after several boys. Anyway, Mr. Munro and I had to go for a walk when we arrived home to shake down our dinners. My eyes were WAY too big.

The form for volunteers at the RWA conference went online today. I decided I’d volunteer and chose the agent/editor appointments plus a few hours on the registration desk. I’m a bit shy, so it’s good for me. That’s what I keep telling myself…

I thought I’d mention the Erotic Romance Blog. Both the blog and the website are full of great information on e-publishing and erotic romance plus the latest market news. I always find the posts interesting and have them on my blog feed.

And finally writer Josh Lanyon has a how-to book available on writing m/m romances. It’s called Man-oh-Man, Writing M-M for Cash and Kinks. It’s definitely worth checking out and is available in e-format from Fictionwise. I recently read my first book by Josh Lanyon called The Dark Horse and enjoyed it very much. He’s a very good writer - lots of emotion and well-rounded characters. He has several books available at Fictionwise and some at Loose ID.

Writing a book is like dating. There’s the first excitement of the new idea where you wonder what to wear, how to approach the shiny new relationship. It goes well and there’s a second date. The liaison seems full of promise but suddenly the guy doesn’t ring…

What on earth has gone wrong? you wonder, trying to frantically rethink the relationship, obsessing about what you should have, could have done differently.

Read the rest of this entry ?

Yesterday I, along with countless other writers, started on the 70 Days of Sweat challenge. This is my first time and so far I’m doing all right and have written more words than I normally would. Here’s hoping I can keep it up because I know I have some edits on the way. Is anyone else doing the challenge? Let me know if you are. I like to know my fellow sweaters.

On Friday I fell off my bike. My left knee looks like I’ve attacked it with a grater while my right leg is sporting four fist-sized bruises. Yep, looking pretty colorful today. On Saturday my knee was painfully sore but today I’m feeling much better and walking normally again. It’s fine as long as I don’t make any sudden moves. My bike tire caught the lip of the footpath after I’d passed an elderly gentleman and over I went. The man asked me if I was okay and picked up my bike for me before hurrying off. I think he thought I might cry. I didn’t but I said, “Bugger” twice - the extent of my swearing. So, my lesson learned - watch out for lips on pavements. Unfortunately, all the new footpaths have a few inches drop down to the grass and it’s not always easy to avoid them.

Today I’m giving away a download of Playing to Win over at The Romance Studio.

And another CONTEST: Win a download of Fancy Free. Read the excerpt on my website and answer the following question. What stopped James and Alice from making love? Email your answer to shelley munro@ gmail.com (no spaces) and I’ll announce the winner on 6 March.

And that’s all the excitement at the Munro house. Oh, apart from the fact I’ve finally purchased an Ipod. It’s only a 1GB one but they were so cheap hubby and decided we might as well buy it. I have my songs loaded up, heavy on the NZ music, and I’m good to go. Life’s good.

What are you up to this week?

Ideas - they come in the strangest places at the funniest times. A writer’s life is never dull that’s for sure!

Mr. Munro and I were catching an Air New Zealand flight from San Francisco to Auckland. We hadn’t been on the plane long and I was settled back with my inflight magazine. It’s always the first thing I read when I get on any plane since they have interesting travel articles. Air New Zealand have this new products section and one of the items shown was a vibrating condom.

“Oh,” I said to hubby in a loud voice. “Look!” (and I have to point out hubby is always growling at me for muttering. I don’t but that’s another story. Anyhow, I spoke rather loudly.)

“What?” he asked.

“It’s a vibrating condom. Hmmm, I wonder how they test them?”

“Shush!” he said glancing at our neighbors who WERE looking at us.

“But it’s a vibrating condom!” I said. “Let’s buy one. How do you think they test them? Do you think people test them?” I asked, full of questions. The muse was at a full gallop, considering all the possibilities.

“Shush,” hubby said again. “I’m trying to read.”

“Oh, but don’t you think it would make a great story?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“All right,” I said, a trifle grumpy now. “I’ll think to myself about how they test the vibrating condom.”

“Good idea,” hubby said.

So, I did. All the way back to New Zealand I thought about condoms and how they’d be tested. I thought about the possibilities of a girl inheriting a condom company and the rest, as they say, is history. I wrote Fancy Free, a story about a girl who inherits a condom company and is heavily involved in testing…

If you’d like to learn how my twisted mind works Fancy Free releases from Ellora’s Cave on 7 March 2008 - next Friday!! And meantime, if you’d like to read the blurb and excerpt go here.