Welcome Inez Kelley!
You know, I hate rules. I do. I’ve always hated them. I REALLY hate them in my own stories. When I sit down to write, I write what I see, what comes to my head. When someone comes along and says “you can’t do that in a romance”, the hair on my neck raises.Says who?
After some hem-hawing and stuttering, the naysayer will spit out “Readers. They don’ t like *insert whatever rule I broke*.
Hmmm…
Okay, I used to skip school because I could. I never did a lick of homework in High School. I stopped drinking beer when I was 21 because, well, by then it was no big deal. It was legal. Rules and me have never been best buds, ya know?
I thought about those naysayers and then did my own thing any way. *shrug* It seems I am always breaking some unwritten but iron-clad RULE OF ROMANCE. Strangely, I never know these rules until after I break them.
For example: RULE: You can kill the villain but, for God’s sake, don’t kill the dog.
Oops. Sorry.
RULE: You can’t kill your hero and heroine, either.
Oops again.
RULE: Romance heroes NEVER call the heroine a f-ing B!tch.
Uhm… oops?
RULE: Heroes never cry.
ROFLMAO… seriously?
RULE: Love fixes all the problems in the world.
Say what? Not in my world.
RULE: The heroine is never physically stronger than the hero.
*shifty eyes* NEXT!!
RULE: Ex-wives/husbands are always evil or bad people
Uh-oh
RULE: The heroine should never tell the hero he need a shower first if he wants to get ‘busy’ with her.
O.o ……
Rules shmules. If it makes a believable story, I’m writing it.
In my latest book SWEET AS SIN, I just listened to my characters and wrote their story. It isn’t always pretty and they don’t follow the rules. John is one messed-up dude and Livvy doesn’t understand the words “Back Off”. These two are explosive together. Sometimes it hurts to watch them hurt each other. Love isn’t always sweet. Sometimes it burns like sin.
*I* have one rule of romance. Anything goes as long as at the end, the main characters get a Happily Ever After and the reader walks away feeling like they lived the story. PERIOD. So that’s the only thing I promise in my books.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a hero about to slip some drugs into a heroine’s drink. Off I go to break more rules.
SWEET AS SIN
She’s made for sin. Sin is something he knows intimately.
John Murphy is tormented by nightmares. A bestselling young-adult author, he writes the ultimate fantasy: stories where good always triumphs. He knows better. His past has shown him the worst in people—and in himself. When he moves next door to the sexy, vibrant Livvy—a woman completely unlike his usual one-night stands—he's driven to explore every curve of her delicious body.
Pastry chef Livvy knows that giving in to the temptation that is John Murphy won't lead to anything permanent, but she deserves a passionate summer fling. John discovers she's as sweet as the confections she bakes while Livvy slowly unravels his secrets. But what will happen when she uncovers them all?
Buy Sweet as Sin at Carina Press, AMZ, ARe, BoB or B&N
Inez Kelley is a multi-published author of various romance genres. You can visit her at her website http://inezkelley.com/ Follow Inez on twitter at @Inez_Kelley or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/inez.kelley
