Note: Sorry for today's delay, readers. We had an emergency mix-up. Pictures coming. Jomama.
Three year old Annie was whining the other day.
“What’s wrong, baby,” says her mother, seriously refraining from any eye rolling.
“Well,” Annie says, “I just have a bad feeling that someone’s going to eat me.”
“Don’t you hate that feeling,” her wise mom answers.
Streisand aside, feelings, premonitions, that ghost of a tickle at the back of your neck can fill you with foreboding and dread, or excitement and anticipation.
How many romance stories begin with that tingle, the whisper of a hot slide down the spine, the shock of a glance across a room?
The heart and soul of romance is feeling, that emotional roller-coaster ride on the way to true love.
I read a lot of mainstream suspense – Robert Parker, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais are among my favorites. But I always feel a little cheated on the romance angle, left wanting just a tad bit more of the romantic relationships, such as they are, in the story.
A male teacher in my English Department attended a conference on Jane Austen. I was eager to hear what insight he’d gotten on this amazing nineteenth century writer.
“Ack,” he said, “boring, boring, boring. If I never read another Austen novel again, it’ll be too soon.”
Case closed.
What?
I finally realized he wasn’t interested in reading or talking about relationships. He wanted to discuss “guts and glory,” men and wars and events that change the world.
Uh, don’t relationships change a whole lot of worlds?
We never saw eye to eye on Austen, but we agreed to disagree on important writers.
But I realized that romance readers often read for an entirely different purpose that other readers. We want the relationship. We talk about love and romance and sexual tension, but what we’re really aiming for is that soul connection between our hero and heroine, the indefinable something that binds them to each other.
One of the most powerful emotional scenes I’ve read is when Scarlett O’Hara falls down the stairs and Rhett Butler is emotionally brought to his knees. Wow!
What about you? What are some of your favorite emotional, love, or relationship scenes in a book or movie?
Three year old Annie was whining the other day.
“What’s wrong, baby,” says her mother, seriously refraining from any eye rolling.
“Well,” Annie says, “I just have a bad feeling that someone’s going to eat me.”
“Don’t you hate that feeling,” her wise mom answers.
Streisand aside, feelings, premonitions, that ghost of a tickle at the back of your neck can fill you with foreboding and dread, or excitement and anticipation.
How many romance stories begin with that tingle, the whisper of a hot slide down the spine, the shock of a glance across a room?
The heart and soul of romance is feeling, that emotional roller-coaster ride on the way to true love.
I read a lot of mainstream suspense – Robert Parker, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais are among my favorites. But I always feel a little cheated on the romance angle, left wanting just a tad bit more of the romantic relationships, such as they are, in the story.
A male teacher in my English Department attended a conference on Jane Austen. I was eager to hear what insight he’d gotten on this amazing nineteenth century writer.
“Ack,” he said, “boring, boring, boring. If I never read another Austen novel again, it’ll be too soon.”
Case closed.
What?
I finally realized he wasn’t interested in reading or talking about relationships. He wanted to discuss “guts and glory,” men and wars and events that change the world.
Uh, don’t relationships change a whole lot of worlds?
We never saw eye to eye on Austen, but we agreed to disagree on important writers.
But I realized that romance readers often read for an entirely different purpose that other readers. We want the relationship. We talk about love and romance and sexual tension, but what we’re really aiming for is that soul connection between our hero and heroine, the indefinable something that binds them to each other.
One of the most powerful emotional scenes I’ve read is when Scarlett O’Hara falls down the stairs and Rhett Butler is emotionally brought to his knees. Wow!
What about you? What are some of your favorite emotional, love, or relationship scenes in a book or movie?
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