Writing Fantasy with a Romance Subplot

I used to say I hated all that mushy stuff while inhaling fantasy and horror stories with some romance in them. My stories are heavy on the relationship theme. Often, that relationship turns romantic. It's strange. Adding romance to my stories was almost unconscious.

I don't know why I was so against romance. I think it's because that genre's considered "girly" and I'm not all that girly. Well, I guess I am, a little and there's nothing wrong with it. I generally don't read or write straight romance. My stories are fantasy/horror adventure with a dash of romance.  The characters tend to have long established relationships before the story begins.

In The Marked Hosts, the main characters are engaged. In The Merging Worlds series, the couples knew each other since childhood. As the story progresses, their relationship develops into something more. The Jura series is a little different. The main characters were promised to each as children but were separated before anything real developed. They were reunited years later. Serin remembers the promise while Jade barely remembers Serin.

Create Well-Rounded Characters
I usually don't go into a story thinking this person and that one are going to fall in love. As I write and get to know the characters, they become drawn to each other. It's as if they're telling me they want to be together.

There are two side characters, Lafeyette and Tearani, in books 1, The Sciell, and 2, Chains of the Sciell of The Merging Worlds series. I had no intention of putting them in a relationship. As I was writing, it suddenly felt... right that they were attracted to each other, had been for a long time. This only happens if you create characters that come alive. They begin to talk to you.

I like the organic approach when it comes to love in my stories. The biggest problem-- I realize halfway through the story that the characters are in love or falling in love and I have to edit the beginning so this relationship won't feel like it came out of nowhere.

The Romance Should Serve a Purpose
Romance may be a subplot, it still needs to move the main plot forward. So, Tearani and Lafeyette have been attracted to each other since they were teenagers. What does that do to the plot? Lafeyette hid his relationship from his younger brother, Vayle, for no real reason. Vayle was pissed when he found out. Lafeyette tends to be secretive but Vayle thought he knew his brother the best. This on top of everything else was too much for Vayle. He ran away, which eventually caused the entire group, including Lafeyette and Tearani, to separate for several years.

Instant Connection?
You know those stories, when the love interests meet and sparks fly. I'm not a huge fan of that. I roll my eyes when the characters are falling all over each other after the first meeting. It is fun to play around with this trope, though. What if there's an instant connection and one or both of the protagonist are resistant? In Chains of the Sciell, Josephine and Divine have this instant connection, the supernatural is at fault, which they despise. Books 2 and 3 are about them coming to terms with the connection and realizing they actually like each other.

Love Triangle?
This exploded in the past couple of years and I am not a fan. Some people enjoy stories with love triangles. If I even get a hint of a triangle, I want no part of that book. You can put a ton of obstacles between the two characters and happiness. I don't think one of those barriers needs to be another person. Someone is going to lose and everyone gets hurt.

World Building
The world will tell the mechanics (that's an unromantic word) of the relationship--how they build a relationship and even what it's called.  The world can also add some conflict. In The Marked Hosts, Contessa is from a noble Class while Cezon's Class is more...rowdy. In general, the two families have no problem with their union but the Class system creates a barrier between Contessa and Cezon. Contessa's Class raised her to not show emotions meaning no kissing, cuddling, no saying "I love you." Whereas Cezon's Class is all about showing affection.

Inner Darkness
Everyone has a sore spot. With two people coming together, someone will accidentally, or on purpose, hit a nerve. In Shadows under the Light, Jade and Serin are trying to figure out what they are relationship-wise. Serin, who's been imprisoned for twenty years, mentioned that it would be easier to protect Jade if he could lock her away. He wasn't serious, just frustrated. Jade snapped because at one point she was locked away by a group of brats who wanted her to be their mommy.

Flawed Characters
This goes along with the above section but it needs to be separate. You can create beautiful looking characters. I do. I'm tired of the protagonist who everyone sees as beautiful. Same with personality. Don't create characters everyone in the story loves. They're boring. I'm remained of a character from The Black Jewels series. Everyone worshiped, feared or desired her. It would've been a nice change of pace if a character met her and went "meh."


Flawed Relationships
People fight. That's natural. There are going to be things your love interests don't like about each other. Point them out. Please don't make the relationship perfect. That's boring. Let's return to Divine and Josephine from The Merging Worlds series.

They have history, a bad one. They've been together for a long time. The supernatural connection caused them to act out against each other. They were drawn together and didn't know if it was this connection or if they genuinely liked each other. They made it there life's mission to hurt each other. Eventually, they grew out of that. They were able to form a healthy relationship.

Sex
I don't tend to put sex in my stories because my characters are so damaged they aren't mentally prepared to become that intimate. They kiss, cuddle, share a bed but they don't cross that line. Sex scenes don't really fit in my story. Some fantasy romances begin with a spark, where the characters start with sex and then fall in love. That works for those books and those characters. Let your characters tell you how they'd deal with sex.

Happily Ever After?
When romance is the main focus of the story, readers expect the character to get together at the end. I read one story a couple of years ago where the author set up this great romance only have the female die at the end. I felt cheated. If romance is the subplot, than happily ever after could take on a different meaning.

In Chains of the Sciell, Niah and Vayle have a strange relationship. (You know it's strange when the writer calls it that). The characters like each other but they have no real desire to do anything about it. They've claimed each other without making a commitment and they're happy with that. There's no sex, so kissing-- just a little petting and flirting. Things might change down the line. For now, they've talked about it and they're fine with the way things are.

I like fantasy romance because it lets me explore different types of relationships.

What are your tips for adding a romantic subplot to a story? 

Romance in Fantasy

The 7 Deadly Sins of Paranormal Romance
Writing Romantic Subplots

Romance: How to Avoid a Forced Romantic Sub-Plot

3 Tips For Writing a Love Triangle That Doesn’t Flop

Tomorrow!!! The Marked Hosts is Coming

Tomorrow my novella, The Marked Hosts, will be available on Amazon!! I always feel this huge sense of relief when I finish a story. I love them, but they're a lot of work. 

Contessa Torain's job was simple. Talk humans out of blowing up her world because of a few rogue Brevia. A moment of pure insanity leads her to save a child, Asamee Banks. The brat follows her home. He smells like her kind, only different. His existence creates a mystery it's her responsibility to solve.

She should've let his soul get eaten. The brat is an aggravation. All she wants is a quiet life.

More Brevia invade the human world, feeding off the residents. Contessa, Cezon-her childhood friend and husband-to-be, Sarisha- her half-sister and four brats escape to their homeland, Devortus, in another world.

Devortus is empty. Her family is missing. The Sencil, dragon-like guardians of the land, are dying. Contessa only wants to find her family. The Sencil care only about getting another body.

Fresh air flowed into her lungs. The area cleaned out her body. Contessa spread out on the floor. The nice cold ground.

She acted strange ever since she became friends with Cezon. Nobles never put anything except their feet on the ground.

She was the first Noble to marry outside their Class. 

Cezon’s presence covered her. His finger brushed her cheek.

“They wouldn’t leave you,” she said. 

Contessa didn’t mean for that to come out.

He pressed his lips to hers. “I know.”

He brushed his other hand down her side. 

I really want you. Cezon spoke to her mind.

Don’t use such filthy words around me.

You want me to.

He pulled back. “My family probably thought I’d be fine since I’m with you.”

“What a moronic sentiment.”

That didn’t make any sense. 

Cezon chuckled as he stood.

“Stay with her, Asamee. Don’t get too close. I’m going to check on the triplets and see if there’s anything important I need to pack.”

Cezon left.

Asamee pinched his eyebrows together as he sat on the nearby ice rock. He looked more worried than afraid. He was a strange child.

Contessa closed her eyes.

Asamee gasped.

A building sized shadow rose. Icy air blew over her.

“Conta.”

“Don’t be a child.”

Sencil Thir’s tail tapped the top of her head.

You wouldn’t know he was made of ice by appearance. His body looked more like crystals. The ice blue under his stomach and wings showed him for what he was. Chilling fog wrapped around her. His arctic power cleared her head.

He rarely appeared in his physical form. Sencil Thir didn’t fit inside the Draior cavern. He didn’t enjoy sunlight. He never roamed the surface.

A deep growling chuckle shook the ground.

“You let that child offend your family Lady Draior. Why does he still breathe after shortening your name?”

Sencil Thir was teasing her. She didn’t need to answer. Couldn’t answer. Mom and Dad would kill Asamee if they heard him wreck the name they gave her. He was no better than Sencil Thir who never called her Torain. She was Contessa Draior or Lady Draior to him, even before she and Cezon became engaged. She corrected the Sencil. He laughed it off.

She understood the name now. She and Cezon were together for so long they called each other husband and wife even though they weren’t married yet.

“Why did they leave him?” she asked.

A rush of cold air blasted across her as Sencil Thir sighed.

“A sickness ate through the land many lights ago. It was particularly effective against the Draiors. Many became ill. A few died. They abandoned their home.” Sencil Thir pointed an arm-length claw at the cracks down his chest. “I will have to find a new home too. I am too old to move. They thought of warning Cezon but since he was with you, they instead focused on warning family members across the land. I believe they left some things here for him.”

“They didn’t say where they were going?”

“I don’t believe they knew.”

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Mythical Creature: The Color of Dragons

I haven't done one of these in a while. Learning about different mythical creatures is fun. I need to get back to this.

My upcoming book, The Marked Hosts (Update: Now Available), gave me a new appreciation for dragons.

I didn't know dragons were broken down by colors. I've done some research into the meaning of colors for my Merging Worlds Series. For dragons, pretty much black is evil, green means it's a forest dragon and white is...a bit interesting. Usually white means pure and/or intelligent. Not always the case with dragons.

White dragons favor chilly or cold regions as their home. They live in icy caves or deep subterranean places. Although not as intelligent as other dragons, they are as greedy as any. They breathe frost and are often smaller than the other dragon types. They have white scales and a crest on their head. They like to collect gemstones and are particularly fond of diamonds.

You'd think the blue dragons would be the frost ones. It looks like white dragons usually have ice powers.

Blue dragons live in temperate and warm desert environments. They can also be found underground. Blue dragons are very territorial. They protect their territory from outsiders, going as far as to distrust everyone who even comes close to their borders.They are well adapted for digging into sand and soft soils. Blue dragons have frilled ears and a large single horn on their snout.

Black dragons, though, are kind of obvious.

Black dragons can be found in marshes and underground cave networks. They're cunning and evil tempered. Black dragons are sometimes known as skull dragons due to their deeply set eye sockets. They have black or very dark grey scales that are glossy when young, becoming duller as they age. Black dragon's smell of rotting vegetation and stagnant water. They usually have destructive powers like the ability to cause darkness and plagues.

I might add a Darkness causing dragon to my Merging World Series. Sounds like a badass. It won't be evil in my story though and it won't reek. 

Since I love silver, let's see look at the silver dragon.

Silver dragons live in mountainous regions as well as in underground caverns. They are cheerful creatures and can assume shapes of other animals. They use this skill to often disgust themselves as kind humans. Young Silver dragons start out with blue-grey skin tones and scales, which become silver with age. Silver dragons possess powerful healing abilities. They have a strong connection to the moon and live by the lunar cycle. They can also have ice breath.

It seems there's no hard and fast rules when it comes to dragon colors. One resources says a white dragon typically has ice powers while another says they have solar powers. Same with blue dragons. Another site said blue is a common color for water dragons.

Researching the different colors has given me ideas for new powers. After so many stories, you kind run out of ideas for powers. Dragons are fascinating.

Follow Auden's board Dragon on Pinterest.

Dragon Colors

Mythical and Fantasy Creatures: Dragons

Basic Dragon Information: Dragon Colors

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Saturday, July 18, 2015

I'll be signing Chains of the Sciell at the Harlem Book Fair!

515 Lenox Avenue @ West 135th Street Harlem, New York

Behind the Scenes: Cover Reveal!!!

I have two books coming soon! I talked about Devortus Reigns before- the book with dragons. It's now called The Marked Hosts. I finished designing the cover. Getting it right was frustrating. I didn't know what I wanted it to say. I wasn't finding images that worked. 

Firstly, I'm noticing well over half my readership are women. In the past, I tried to design gender neutral covers because my books aren't for one gender more than the other.

For The Marked Hosts, I was torn about whether I should design a cover directed towards a female audience. I talked to my publisher about it and she said I should go for it- try something different.

When designing a cover, or any book image, you need to have a clear audience in mid. 

Since The Marked Hosts has dragons in it, I started searching Shutterstock for dragon stock images. I fell in love with this one and downloaded it right away.

Big mistake. It's a nice image. I didn't know what I'd do with it. I don't create covers with a single unedited image because there's a chance someone else will have my cover.

The Marked Hosts has dragons. They don't show up until well into act 2. If I come across a book with a dragon as the cover's focus, I expect dragons to be in act 1.

I could not for the life of me figure out what to do with that image.

Meh. 

My dragons are nice, but they're fierce. They would never have such an adorable expression.

It was tough giving up on that dragon image. I love it so much. I'll find some use for it. 

Next. 

I went in another direction. I needed an image of a tough female. I was impressed with Shutterstock. They have a good selection of fully-clothed warrior women.

I learned my lesson. I test drove the images before I paid for them.

Test drive any images before you download. Shutterstock lets you right click them to save the images with a watermark. 

Image Source: Shutterstock

Image Source: Shutterstock

Image Source: Shutterstock

The first two are beautiful but the main character, Contessa Torain, is perpetually grumpy. She would never make those expressions. Besides, her hair is short. The third image is way more like her. The next hurdle. Contessa has brown skin. 

I tried finding more images like the two above- fierce brown skinned females. 

Image Source: Shutterstock

This one is cool. I don't know how to cut hair in Photoshop and I wasn't interested in learning. The image is close but it still doesn't say Contessa. I'll save it for later. The image is powerful. 

It would be better if the person on the cover was in shadow. I searched for female warriors in silhouette. I found some good images. They weren't Contessa. 

I'm reluctant to have a brown skinned person on a cover because I don't want the story to be labeled as an African American book. All my stories have characters with skin tones ranging from fair to deep brown. This is important to me. I want my casts to be diverse.  

I kept looking for images. The pink haired image was close. Too much of person's face is showing. I'm not sold on how she's holding the sword. 

Awesome sword, great expression, partially concealed face, nice shadows. Okay!!! This, I can work with. The image isn't perfect. I don't like the background or the necklace. So, I removed them.

I test drove it on Instragam.

Things were looking good. Now what? I needed to do something with this image.

I tried putting her entirely in shadow. It didn't work out. She's in enough shadow that the focus will be on her eye and the sword.

A dragon needs to be involved somehow and the eye color needs to be different, brighter.

 Now, we're getting somewhere. Dragons in The Marked Hosts are energy beings. One dragon turns part of itself into sword that Contessa carries for the rest of the book.

Tweaked the image a little more and... here's the cover!

This is different from my other covers. Designing it was a little nerve-wrecking. Because it's so different, I stepped back from this project for a couple of days. Every now and then, I looked at the cover to see if I still like it. My feelings never changed.

Here's a draft of the blurb:

She should've let him to die.

Contessa Torain's job was simple. Talk humans out of blowing up her world because of a few rogue Brevia. A moment of pure insanity leads her to save a child. The brat follows her home. He smells like her kind, only different. His existence creates a mystery she it's her responsibility to solve..

She should've let his soul get eaten. The brat is an aggravation. All she wants is a quiet life.

More Brevia invade the human world, feeding off the residents. Contessa and her band of misfits escape to their homeland, Devortus, in another world.

Devortus is empty. Her family is missing. The Sencil, dragon-like guardians of the land, are dying. Contessa only wants to find her family. The Sencil care only about getting another body.

Worse, the child makes her feel things. He clings to her like it's his right to. His existence leads her and her band into a trouble they aren't prepared for, a plot far above her level of care.

The new enemy took something from her. No one stole from Contessa Torain.

The Marked Hosts in July!
Update: The Marked Hosts is now available.