It’s November 1: Samhain, All Saints Day, the beginning of NaNoWriMo.
So I have three questions:
1. Anyone participating in NaNoWriMo? Or are most of the writers reading here novel-writing in any and all months of their choosing?
2. Anyone ever read a romance that they enjoyed in which an angel served as a character, perhaps a protagonist?
I remember vaguely seeing a few of “angel romances” around the time Jude Deveraux’s An Angel For Emily was published. I read that one – and here’s Sarah’s lightning review: F for insipid, shallow, annoying heroine with the personality of a sheet of paper, and an angel hero who was way, way too good to be surrounded by the characters and plot in this novel. F for the number of times I thought, “You’re pretty hot in all the right ways; so why are you so fixated on this dimwit?” Another F for the trite and cliched makeover scene, and yet another F for a complete absence of believable circumstances establishing romantic tension. Plus, one more F for a really annoying “villain” and a gullible heroine with a tenuous grip on reality. Wait, did I already give her an F? Well, she gets another one.
Since I didn’t like that book at all, I never picked up another. Anyone read any books where there’s some excellent angel action?
3. What about pagan or Wiccan romance characters – as in, characters who would celebrate Samhain, Beltane, and the rest?
It’s also a handy excuse to give people you just don’t want to hang out with—“Oh, I can’t come to your candle party that weekend, I’ll be working on my novel.” 😆
Thanks for the encouragement, Jade. I try to tell myself what my then-six-year-old neice told me when I confessed one time I wanted to be a writer but was afraid to try because I was sure I would be very bad at it: “How do you know your story will be bad if you don’t ever write it?” I can’t decide if she was channeling an old wise woman or just being a little wisenheimer…..
:cheese:
And now I have another author I’m going to have to find. Vaughn, Vaughn…. That name rings bells. Maybe I’ve read one of hers before?
1. Yes – Newbie to NaNoWriMo. Echoing the above – it’s like Weight Watchers for writing – sure I could do it on my own (and possibly should). This adds extra guilt when I don’t do it and should help me establish good patterns.
2. All I can think of right now is Lovely Bones which is not a romance.
3. In addition to the NR books and PC Cast books mentioned above, there is also Too Deep For Tears by Kathryn Lynn Davis. I am sure there are more – a Madeline L’Engle or two, but I’m coming up with nothing right now.
Thanks, Jade and Xandra and Robin! I’m so glad you thought of my books. (And Robin, you even remembered my Garrison girls!)
Yes, the Circle Series from Shadows (reprinted as Dreamscapes) were about serious Wiccans—in fact, the 2nd (Burning Times) starts on Samhain. Something Wicked, one of my GrailKeeper Bombshells, also has a Wiccan heroine, and the other GrailKeeper heroines are goddess worshippers.
As far as other authors writing solid witch characters, Maggie Shayne is at the top of my list. Lorna Tedder has done some as well. If you don’t mind reading horror, Mercedes Lackey’s “Diana Tregarde” trilogy is excellent.
Vaughn
Are you referring to An Acceptable Time? Not one of her better-known books, it continues with the characters from A House Like A Lotus – the main character is Meg and Calvin O’Keefe (Wrinkle in Time)‘s oldest daughter Polly.
http://www.amazon.com/Acceptable-Time-Madeleine-LEngle/dp/0440208149/sr=1-7/qid=1162504608/ref=sr_1_7/104-9819230-1235100?ie=UTF8&s=books
And Robin, you even remembered my Garrison girls!
I just read these last year and loved them (especially Audra and Laurel’s stories)! I so wish you would write Evangeline’s story, because she’s such a vivid character with what must be an incredible story herself. I know she ends up with Thaddeus, but I sure would like to know how that happens. With the slow build of ebook popularity, perhaps you might consider going that route for Evangeline and Elise’s stories????
Does “An Acceptable Time” take place after “A House Like a Lotus”? I always thought it was the other way around.
Another book with references to Beltane or Samhain is Pamela Dean’s “Tam Lin”. I can’t remember if other Tam Lin re-tellings focus on it as well.
Actually, Robin—as luck would have it, my agent managed to get my rights to the Rancher’s Daughters back this year, so once I make the time to write Thad and Evangeline’s story, I could try to sell it to a print publisher. But you’re right that e-book is also a solid option, as would be a small POD publisher. I’d like to see Evangeline’s story myself 🙂
Von / Vaughn
Witch stories: Nora Roberts (already mentioned) Circle Trilogy, The Donovans (4), The Threee Sisters, and the Irish Trilogy, The Key Trilogy, The In the Garden Trilogy…Nora also has the Once Upon A series those are anthologies and a few of them have a little paranormal in them.
Maggie Shayne has many, many books on witches and about Wiccan, as she is one herself.
Robin D Owens Heart Series all evolve around the Druid/Wiccan ways.
Cheyenne McCray just started a new series with Wiccans in them. She has 2 for now.
Those are what I can think of for now.
Here’s another recommendation for the Sharon Shinn “Samaria” series. Her angels make sense. The ones I see in most romance novels make no sense to me, but I think that’s because I’m coming at it from a religious tradition that teaches angel=gender neutral messenger w/out free will.
I vaguely remember a Regency by, I think, Barbara Metzger about an angel who starts out looking all “lightskirt Cyprian” but whose appearance gradually changes to demure miss as she leads the hero towards reformation.
And my favorite demon lover series with religious overtones is Michelle Sagara’s Dark Lands books.
Finally (gosh, this is getting long!) Linnea Sinclair’s Accidental Goddess is an amusing look at what happens when you fall in love with a guy who doesn’t realize you’re the goddess he worships. Fun combination of religion and SF.
as luck would have it, my agent managed to get my rights to the Rancher’s Daughters back this year, so once I make the time to write Thad and Evangeline’s story, I could try to sell it to a print publisher. But you’re right that e-book is also a solid option, as would be a small POD publisher. I’d like to see Evangeline’s story myself
Oh, I’m so glad to hear that. I really think that ebooks solve a lot of problems that currently plague many Romance authors and publishers: they’re DOD (download on demand), don’t go out of print, immediately acquirable, and can have smaller runs because there aren’t “extra” copies to send back to the publisher. I would imagine that the publisher has to spend less to produce and sell them, as well, but maybe not. I also wish sometimes that authors could either implement a sort of personal subscription service by serializing their novels or by offering those books that don’t get purchased by a publisher directly and electronically through their personal websites.
In any case, I’ll buy Evangeline’s story in whatever form it’s published in, because even though she wasn’t a “sister,” over the series she became one of my (if not THE) favorite characters.
It’s been a long time since I read either. I think the deal is that it takes place earlier, but was published later. Or maybe I caught a reprint of it.
Yep to NaNo. This is year 2 for me. I won last year, hope to do it again this year, but I’m juggling a full, full schedule, so we’ll see.
Can’t really classify my NaNo novels, try though I will. Last year’s: urban fantasy/horror/chick lit; this year’s is literary fiction maybe? I don’t know how anybody manages to actually stick with a genre for one book, let alone romance writers who manage for whole series.
I’m a NaNoWriMo newbie too, and I am hoping it will help me write my Golden Heart novel. (Probably wasn’t the smartest move to enter the contest without having the book written.)
Too bad it’s too late to sign up for NaBloPoMo or I probably would have tried that too.
Yep. I’ve been saying I’ll do the NaNoWriMo thing for the past four years and damnit, I’m doing it this year. True to form, I waited until 9:40 p.m. to sign up at the site. But the words are flowing and my characters are acting like jerks. Maybe it’ll work. =)
I have to go with Karen Marie Moning on the paranormal thing. Though I found that the stories got a wee bit predictable with all the butch and braw heroes. Kind of fun though, and Ms. Moning sure can do a brilliant tease. *laugh*
Yes, I’m writing a romance for NaNoWriMo. It’s set in the 40ies and it’s about a spoiled, tomboyish upperclass girl and her nerdy teacher. 2 chapters so far, I’m hoping to write chapter 3 and 4 today so I’m keeping the schedule.
I haven’t read any angel books (besides Sharon Shinn) that I liked but I’m intrigued by Requiem for the Devil. Gonna check that out.
Yes to NaNo here, for the fourth year in a row (three time winner). I’m rewriting my fantasy novel this year, sadly, not a romance, but since I’ve been plotting this out since my first year, hopefully it will go well. I did try a romance my first year. A time-travel romance with a Native American hero. I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking, but it was dreadful, and I got so desperate for word count near the end that my heroine taught my hero how to sing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” So yes, I shall write fantasy from now on.
Wish I’d seen this post earlier.
For a truly beautiful story about an angel hero and a kickass heroine, you need to hunt down and buy the book Raphael by R.A. McAvoy. This is a very old title and the third part of a trilogy. However, it does fine as a stand-alone and was the first I read in the trilogy (Damiano and Damiano’s Lute are the first two books).
Short summary – the angel Raphael is tricked by his brother Lucifer, made mortal and sold as a slave into the Moorish slave markets (15th c. I think). There he hooks up with a tough, very likeable and fierce enslaved Berber woman who is at first nothing more than his caretaker.
The story is very unique, the characters wonderful – even the secondaries. I’m a bit gunshy about reading heroines marketed as kick-ass. Most I’ve read are just obnoxious and foul-mouthed. The one in this book fits the bill of kick-ass to a T. Raphael reborn as a human is innocence, vulnerability, beauty and charismatic power.
This book is labeled as fantasy, but IMO, it’s one of the best romances I’ve ever read.
Yes, I’m doing NaNo again this year—my third time. I’ll be at the Starbucks Write In tomorrow night. Working on a paranormal.
I don’t think I’ve read any angel books. I think the only way I would read one is if the agels were portrayed using the whole breadth of the angel mythology. Good, bad, and very evil.
As with almost any other paranormal thing, it just depends on how create your world. I’m sure you could come up with a really great hunky brooding Angel if you felt like writing one.