It's Valentine's Day...do you know where your hero is?

Actually, when I first wrote that line, it was Wednesday, and I was thinking "It's 8 a.m., do you know where your hero is?"

Really, do we HAVE to keep track of them constantly? No, I'm not naming the book. Suffice it to say that one I read fairly recently -- an author I'd never read before -- had so much heroic navel-gazing and going to bed and brushing his teeth (well, not really) the book came this close to hitting the wall. And I never, never do that. I mean, it's not the book's fault, right?

We've all heard it--at least those of us who write romantic fiction have all heard it--a million times. Watch your backstory (almost inevitably, navel-gazing is backstory in the key of angst). Don't write anything that doesn't move the story forward. But, you say, I NEED to show everything normal so we can all see what a jolt it is when the shit hits the fan. I know you say this, because I've been guilty of it myself (early on). I still do it too often, but I try to remember to slice up the scene when it happens. Because let's face it, normal doesn't move the story forward. At least not far. Also, it's easy to assume everything used to be normal unless the author says otherwise:

"A flash at the window. Instinct had her diving for the floor a millisecond before the glass shattered. Great. She was already on a first name basis with the locksmith; she'd hoped to avoid meeting the window guys another day or so." (not an actual quote from anything, although I might use it one day, come to think of it ... kind of has that OMG snarky tone I'm so fond of)

An opening like this, and you could be forgiven for not assuming normal was the norm. And you didn't need chirping birds and sunshine to set it up. Or a page and a half of the heroine ruminating on how much she needed to discover what really happened that dark, stormy night ...

One final little bitty note--in an hour or so I'll be doing my first "author interview" via phone to a local radio station. It's a new program, they're focusing on romance, and they contacted me yesterday to see if I'd do a phone interview. Should be fun.