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| Versailles helps to make Louis XIV a 'marquee' name. |
If you love writing historical romances but chafe at the conventions of the Romance genre (The hero and heroine must meet by the end of chapter one! The relationship is the plot! They must live happily ever after!), you may just be in the wrong genre.
As I discovered at the Historical Novel Society’s fourth U.S. conference, held June 17-19 in San Diego, Historical readers love romance just as much as Romance readers do. A quick glance at the titles advertised throughout the conference program and in the goodie bags proves it: Romance is the one word that comes up again and again in the descriptions of Clara and Mr. Tiffany, Rosedale in Love, The Gentleman Poet, In the Shadow of the Lamp, A Bride Most Begrudging, Pale Rose of England, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Captain Blackwell’s Prize and dozens of other titles.
What’s more, Diana Gabaldon, whom Romance readers think of as one of their own, was a presenter. Philippa Boyens’ name was everywhere. Sourcebooks and Avon, which RWA members know primarily as leading Romance publishers, were major conference sponsors. And many of the book covers are as sexy and provocative as anything you’ll find in the Romance section of your local bookstore.
So what sets romantic Historical novels apart from historical Romance novels?
