The Next Big Thing

In which I sort of interview myself on my current work in progress.

I was tagged for this interview by a forum friend, Ruth Madison. I’m normally reluctant about doing memes, but when Ruth so kindly asked me, I decided to give it a go. I’m always excited to see what questions other people come up with.

However, there was a major issue – I have five current works in progress at the moment! Nevertheless, I picked the one I am writing most on this week, and plunged in. You might have noticed I am a bit tight lipped when it comes to my WIPs, especially these days, but it seems like a good time to let a few cats out of some bags.

So, on with the interview on September’s WIP:

What is the working title of your book?

Right now, I’m calling it Memento Mori, but I’m also toying with the title Last Look, since the other is rather used up.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I had been working on a novel set in the 1950s, but I’ve always been drawn towards the Victorian era. I love historical photographs, especially (and forgive the grimness) Victorian postmortem portraits. These are portraits taken of loved ones after death, and were relatively common, especially for children. With the cost and inconvenience of photography, many families never got a live shot of the departed before it was too late, so they would have one done after death. Today, this might seem rather shocking, but I think it's quite touching. And some of the photos are beautifully done. One night, looking at such pictures, the whole story came to me in a flash, via the entire person of the main character, William Tidy, all surrounding this practice of photographing the dead.

What genre does your book fall under?

I don’t really know. It has some romantic elements, but it isn’t a romance. I’d have to say “litfic”, whatever that really is, or general fiction. Possibly historical fiction, though it’s more about the people than the history. I will have that all ironed out before I have to market it. I hope.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I always cast my WIP as a movie in my head, but this main character is uniquely himself. Sometimes, when I make the little puppets dance in my mind so I can write it down, he is Johnny Depp, but other times, he is someone else, like Daniel Radcliffe or someone. He's himself, really. The lady in the book is certainly Rachel Weisz, who I think is one of the loveliest women in the world.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

A man more comfortable with the dead discovers that life happens whether you want it or not.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Not certain, really. I am not exactly drooling for an agent, but I’m not sure this book would be best served by a small epub, and I lack experience with non-romance publishers. I’d love to see it published with a bigger publisher, naturally enough, but I doubt that would happen before I got tired of waiting, and certainly not without an agent. I have considered self-publishing something, but I remain undecided. Who knows? Maybe it will sit in a drawer forever. I guess we shall see what we shall see.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Still working on it. It started out as a novella, but I think now it might become a novel. I’m hoping to have it done by the end of September, if I can fend off the laziness.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I really can’t say. I don’t think in terms of comparisons, especially with litfic. I’m writing it in a very consciously Victorian style and feel, so the language reminds me of some books, whereas the story doesn’t.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

My pure love of Victoriana, and the gruesome beauty of these photos. And motherhood, though I might be giving too much away there. Mostly, I'm writing it just for myself, since it's a story I'd like to read and the character has endeared himself to me.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

If lots of corpses doesn’t interest people, I don’t know what will. There might be a hot air balloon involved at some point, and a portion takes place in a wax museum, does that help?

Also, my hero never once says, “I see dead people.”

Thanks, Ruth, for giving me a nudge!

Now, “Tag! You’re it!”

Krista D. Ball

Jessica Coulter Smith

Michel Prince

Ashlynn Monroe

Melissa Keir 

In Praise of “Wounded Hero” Romance

A Guest Post by Ruth Madison, author of (W)hole.

Why do we read romance novels? It’s a huge market and yet not many people admit to reading them. They are a guilty pleasure. I think because we’re afraid people will think we’re dumb or naive for enjoying the unrealistic and overly romantic notions of love in these books. Yet even the most grounded of us seem to get something deeply satisfying from sappy stories of true love and people finding the perfect partner for them.

These books are pure fantasy. They are what we wish love would be and I know I’m always embarrassed to be caught reading them, fearing that people will think I’m “simple” enough to believe that this is how love works.

Yet reading about people falling in love and being happy satisfies a very deep part of our psyches. Some of the joy of the experience is reading about men that we would find powerfully attractive in real life. We can imagine ourselves as the heroine in the story and can feel that love we want when we see the characters getting closer.

There are legions of different romance genre niches because there are so many different kinds of men that we all find attractive. There are some things that are so nearly universal that we don’t think about it. Historical romances with their gentlemanly, charming, aloof heroes. Western romances with their tough cowboys who are hiding vulnerable hearts. Contemporary romances with their slick business men. These archetypes call to something inside of us and being connected to the heroine who tames these men feels great.

Some of us have unusual attractions, though. What happens when your ideal man, the one that you want to read about finding love, is not physically appealing to the majority of women? We might get dismissed and looked down upon as deviants or fetishists when we enjoy wounded hero romance.

People will get very defensive if caught reading books with heroes who have physical disabilities. They will justify it in all sorts of ways, always making sure to claim that it is not a fetish thing. Well, for me it is. I know why I like these so-called “imperfect” heroes (who, in my opinion are absolutely perfect). They are the men of my fantasies. I will proudly say that I read and I write romances about men who are physically disabled.

Is it because I have the desire to have power over men? Is it because I’m afraid of men and want to dominate and control them? No. There are other romance genres for that. I’m interested in strong men who are dealing with the unique challenges of disability. They have to examine and think about how they define themselves as men, since the world wants to desexualize them and tell them that they are less manly because of their impairments. I enjoy seeing men fight back against that stereotype.

Not all people who enjoy these books are like me. Some may also enjoy these romances just to see a different kind of hero. The term “imperfect” hero came about, I believe, because some people were tired of reading about men who were completely and utterly perfect in every way with no vulnerability, no flaws, no humanity. The muscled guy who went to Harvard and was on the rowing team and now makes billions of dollars and still has perfect abs is not my kind of hero.

However, there are sensitive issues that writing about people who have disabilities brings up and how can I, as an author, stay sensitive to them? Am I just stereotyping them in a different way? Am I using someone’s real life struggles for my own pleasure? Is making the people I am attracted to into romance heroes a disservice to them?

No one seems to worry about the feelings of the men stereotyped in other genre romances. We read books with naked male torsos on the cover where you can’t even see the faces of these men. No one says that we’re being insensitive to these men. What makes disability different?

Part of it is that with disability there is the sense that these people need protecting. They need to be saved from being the fantasy of people like me. This is a way that non-disabled people infantilize adults who have disabilities. But there’s also a very real reason wounded hero romance is different.

In real life the traditionally attractive guy doesn’t have negative experiences connected with that. He is pretty much on top of the world. Disability brings a lot of other social issues with it connected to being a marginalized group.

The important thing, to me, is that the authors who write wounded hero romance books must be well versed in disability issues and civil rights. They must study and research and know the dangers of how people with disabilities are often portrayed badly by non-disabled writers. As an author of wounded hero romance, I have a responsibility to portray the disabled characters in ways that will not harm the overall fight for equal rights that people who have physical disabilities are currently fighting in real life.

So, I say, let’s enjoy our fantasies and never be ashamed of what kind of guys we find appealing, but also remember that the men we dream about have real lives and deserve our respect both in life and on the page.

Please visit Ruth at her website.

12 Flavours of... Author Ruth Madison

Today, we learn twelve very fast favourites of Ruth Madison, author of (W)hole and Dev Dreams, romances with "imperfect" heroes.

1. Favourite book - Treasure Island. I read this book when I was eight years old and I fell in love with Long John Silver. I loved the complexity of the characters, and him in particular because he couldn't be easily classified as bad or good.
2. Favourite genre - Literary and Chick Lit. When I'm looking for something to read I either go for dark, serious, and intense or else really light and funny. It all depends on my mood.
3. Favourite movie - Born on the Fourth of July. I saw this movie when I was twelve and it affected my world view significantly. It was my first taste of disability rights issues and that's something that has become a huge part of my life.
4. Favourite TV show, magazine or newspaper - Dr. Who is my favorite current TV show. I'm also a huge Firefly fan. I love quirky characters and dry humor.
5. Favourite kind of music - Musicals like Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, and Les Miserables. I have a particular soft spot in my heart for Man of la Mancha; seeing the world not as it is, but as it should be is a big theme with me.
6. Best invention ever in the history of humankind - Language. I am endlessly fascinated by languages and I wish I could learn all of them. Currently I am only fluent in English, but I can speak a little bit of Hindi. I really want to learn Irish Gaelic, German, Russian, Dutch. I could go on and on!
7. Favourite subject in school - English. That's probably predictable!
8. Favourite website/blog - Oh this is a tricky one, there are lots of sites I enjoy! Website: www.paradevo.net I spend a lot of my time there and I've made great friends. Blog: www.rachellegardner.com She is an agent writing posts about questions that writers often have
9. Favourite #hashtag - #novelines - I love reading those enticing little sentences from people's books or books that people enjoy.
10. Favourite way to decompress/relax - Watch something funny on TV with my dog laying on my stomach.
11. Best thing about writing - Connecting with people. I wrote something very personal and very difficult, but it has connected me with people like me from around the world who have expressed gratitude that I was willing to put our experience into words. That feels amazing.
12. The best thing about/in your life - I am so grateful to live in this era where there is so much freedom to choose what we want in our lives. I also think there has never been a better time to be an author. As a woman I don't think there has been any other time in history where I would have the freedom to live on my own and pursue my dreams.

There isn’t enough fiction out there with characters who have disabilities. Ruth Madison aims to fix that. After years of combing through the dusty back shelves of libraries looking for her elusive, imperfect hero, she started writing her own. Ruth’s romantic tales are full of wounded heroes: men physically challenged by life, but not defeated. These men overcome the difficulties of amputation, paralysis, or cerebral palsy to find acceptance, happiness, and heroines who love them exactly as they are.