Howard and Heyer

Fiorella has been concentrating so much on her writing lately that she hasn't done much reading, which she decided was as a mistake, so she revisited at couple of her old favorites--Linda Howard and Georgette Heyer.  Linda Howard wrote contemporary and Georgette Heyer wrote historical--in fact, she was the mother of the historical romance genre. But Fio digresses.  What she wants to tell you is that, now that she reads more analytically, she realized how much her own writing style has been influenced by Howard's use of inner dialogue and Heyer's subtle humor.

For a a good read, pick up a copy of these ladies' romances.  They've stood the test of time.

Romance Pigeonholes

Once upon a time, a romance was just a romance, the story of a relationship between a male and a female that ended happily.  Now romances are categorized.  You can read about male-female relationships, female-female relationships, and male-male relationships.  Or you can read sweets and inspirationals.  Or you can read about threesomes and foursomes--even BDSMers.

Another dividing line is age, of readers and characters.  The ages of the readers are categorized into "young adult" (ages twelve to eighteen), "new adult" (ages eighteen through twenty-four), and adult (default).  Also, authors are expected to make their main characters' ages match up appropriately: a love story involving a forty-plus man and a nineteen-year-old girl such as  Georgette Heyer set up in her classic These Old Shades could not get published today.

But Fiorella isn't sure readers care about categorization.  A good story is still a good story.

Posing a Question

Why are American historical romance writers so hung up on the British nobility?  Every book seems to feature a member of the House of Lords--and their titled ladies. In fact, enough dukes and earls and counts and viscounts lounge around in romances to people a small--maybe a large--nation.

Why?  Is it faithfulness to the Georgette Heyer tradition? Is it the long dresses and swash-buckling heroes?  Is it the the long-ago and far-away princess movie aspect?

Fio doesn't know the answer. After, all she writes dark contemporaries.

Fiorella and Georgette

Unable to sleep last night because of too much chocolate-on-chocolate Father's Day cake, Fiorella  curled up on the couch in the den with a well-worn copy of Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer, the mother of the historical romance genre. Fio became acquainted with Heyer years ago when she finished her first semester finals at University of Texas and wandered into the college bookstore to find a paperback novel to relax with. These Old Shades, Fio's initial venture into the Regency world created by Heyer, fit the bill and was soon followed by its sequel, Devil's Cub.  From then on, Fio was addicted.. She loved the characters, the humor, the plots, and  the British settings.

But now, reading the books as an author, she marvels at their craftsmanship--the subtlety with which Heyer introduces her characters, the way she makes period information seem natural, her skill in keeping the story moving--and Fio hopes she can do the same even half as well..

Classic Heyer

Fiorella is cleaning out her bookcase of beloved paperback romances, ones she never thought she'd toss, but the time has come  (the Walrus said).  However, there's at least one that ain't a-gonna go, and that's The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer, the woman who invented historical romance--and don't send me corrective little notes mentioning Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott.  Jane was writing contemporary romances while Walt wrote adventure stories for armchair cavaliers.  Avant garde!

The plot of The Masqueraders is hard to explain without a few sniggers coming from a modern audience because it faetures a brother and sister being disguised as the opposite sex, but nothing untoward happens.  Not that sexual entendre is nonexistent in Heyer's works--it's just not played out on the public page.

Anyway, the story involves the sibs' father establishing his birthright, the son wooing his ladylove in the spirit of adventure, the daughter being wooed by the man she is in love with but does not feel worthy of, and a bad guy who plots with another bad guy to bring them all down.  Complicated and interwoven, but Heyer makes it work--wandering POVs, long expository passages, and all.. 

Yeah, The Masqueraders is a keeper.

Entranced

Fiorella is re-editing an older manuscript to get it ready for contests,and sometimes she needs inspiration. Usually she starts leafing through works by current authors, like Susan Elizabeth Phillips, to get herself into the swing, but yesterday she picked up one of her old favorites by Georgette Heyer.

Georgette Heyer was the woman who invented historical romances. Her plots were clever, her backgrounds meticulously researched, and her characters intriguing. Fio figured she could learn a lot from ol' Georgette's style and started skimming Venetia. And, forgetting that she had her own oeuvre to work on, didn't put the book down until two hours later.

Now, that's a style to learn from.