She’s strong, intelligent and self-reliant. Like her contemporary audience, the heroine in today’s romance novel is a changed woman who is capable of taking care of herself, thank you.
"Women readers don’t want to read about a heroine who sits back and waits for the man on a white horse to save her," said newly published author Jennifer Wagner, of a genre once referred to as "bodice-rippers." "Some people judge romance by 10 or 20 years ago. It’s just so different now.
"The stronger heroines in all categories of the genre reflect women of today. They don’t want to read about a woman who sits back and waits for the white knight to show up. Instead, it’s more likely she’ll jump on the horse herself and go do what needs to be done," said the Eatontown author, whose first romance novel, Twice Upon a Time, is currently in bookstores. "You still have strong heroes," she continued, "but the difference is they recognize strength in the women."
Backing up Wagner’s assessment is research conducted by the Romance Writers of America (RWA) that shows readers rank intelligence as the most important character trait of a novel’s heroine, followed by beauty and strength.
The same readers said a romance novel’s hero should be handsome, followed by kind and compassionate, with intellect ranking third as a desirable trait.
Wagner began her love affair with romance novels at the tender age of 9 when she was caught surreptitiously reading one of her mother’s paperbacks under the bedcovers with the aid of a flashlight.
An amateur romance writer herself, Lyn Wagner realized it would be futile to squelch her daughter’s interest and instead took her to a used-book store where she acquired a stash of earlier, more age-appropriate, romance novels. "I was voracious and the used-book store became my favorite haunt," Wagner recalled.
While in college, Wagner decided she’d turn her interest into a job and was hired to read and evaluate manuscripts by a romance fiction publisher. Boxes of manuscripts were being delivered to her door and Wagner was ecstatic. "I was being paid to read!" she exclaimed. It was at about this time that she decided to try her hand at writing short romances for magazines. While none gained the acceptance of editors, Wagner continued to hone her craft with the support of a group dedicated to the art of romance writing.
The New Jersey Romance Writers meets monthly and sponsors workshops and conferences where writers of any genre can develop their skills and get guidance in marketing their manuscripts. "Every meeting I went to I learned something else, and I would go home and tear my book apart," Wagner said.
NJRW members come from diverse backgrounds but share an appreciation for a popular genre which currently accounts for 55.9 percent of all popular fiction paperbacks sold in the U.S., according to statistics compiled by the RWA.
Romance readers, all 41.4 million of them, are, according to RWA stats: largely women (only 9 percent are men), married (57 percent), with children (40 percent).
Writers of romance fiction come from every walk of life — at a recent NJRW book-signing held at the Monmouth Mall in Eatontown, authors ranged from dental hygienists to bankers.
Eloisa James, a Shakespearean scholar who teaches at a major university, was signing copies of her latest romance, Midnight Pleasures, which she based on an obscure Renaissance play. James, whose novel was recommended by People magazine as the "page turner of the week," sets her tales in Regency England — the same period during which The Bard wrote. "I love them, and they’re really fun to write," said James, who was writing a scholarly tome for Oxford University Press concurrently. "At 4 p.m., I would quit, open up my laptop and work on my romance novel," she said. "It was so much fun; it kept me sane.".
Basic to all romance fiction are a central love story and a happy ending. Beyond these, novels vary widely but fall into seven general categories according to the RWA: historical romance set prior to the World Wars, contemporary romance set after the wars; inspirational romance with faith-based themes; paranormal romance with elements of fantasy or science fiction; Regency romance set in England in the early 1800s; romantic suspense containing elements of mystery or intrigue; and time-travel set in two different time periods.
Wagner’s tale is contemporary and suspenseful, with a heroine who is a single mother who earns a degree and has a successful career.
"She’s a single mom providing for her family when the hero’s presence brings danger into their lives," Wagner recounted, "instead of cowering and hoping men will save her, she’s very much involved in the rescue of her children when they are in danger."
Like the heroine of her book, Wagner is taking life on her own terms. When she received word that her first manuscript submitted would be published, she was on the road working as a portrait photographer after putting aside a teaching career. The novel she completed while traveling up and down the East Coast had been accepted for publication by Harlequin/Silhouette — the very publisher whose works she had immersed herself in as a young girl.
The romantic plot thickens — Wagner received the news on Valentine’s Day. "It’s surreal. It’s the first book I’ve ever written, and when I see it on display I still can’t believe it’s out there," she said. "For this to be the first book I ever wrote … it just doesn’t happen." Wagner admitted she didn’t construct the plot of her romantic suspense novel in advance. "I just sat down and where it went, it went," she said. But she did know she wanted to give the story a twist. "I wanted to write something with a coming-back-from-the-dead element," she confided.
"I started with a funeral scene. That’s one of the devices.You have to start with a hook or editors aren’t pulled into the story right away." Character development requires two main characters and an element of conflict between them, Wagner explained.
"When you write the characters, you ask yourself how they are going to conflict with each other, and you try to pick the traits you want them to have," she said.
"Anna (her heroine) went through a lot of changes. She learned a lot about herself as I wrote it. I knew I wanted a heroine who was stronger than she realized, and I wanted to put her in situations she would have to deal with, so she ends up raising twins on her own."
"The whole idea is to create characters and a conflict with a strong element of romance so that readers fall in love with it and won’t put the book down because they want to find out what happens," she explained. "Everybody knows there’s a happy ending, but they don’t know what the characters will go through to get there. How do they get from situation to situation? How do they conquer the difficulties? That’s where the story is."